Back to the garden
Brian Stewart - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 4/18/08 Section: Metro
Genie Gratto hasn't always been as green-thumbed as she is today - and thankfully so, as her trials and tribulations in the garden become entertaining and educational posts on her blog, "The Inadvertent Gardener."
The Washington, D.C., native relocated to Iowa City in late 2005 with a not much of a background in backyard horticulture.
"I had, at one point, planted some herb seeds in a pot, and they didn't really come up," she said and laughed.
Moving to Iowa City for a now ex-boyfriend - "still a good move nonetheless," she said - Gratto decided to give gardening another shot.
So she bought a few seedlings and tried to learn, hands-on, as much as she could.
"It seemed like, if I was coming to Iowa anyway, I ought to at least make the attempt to grow some of the ingredients myself," she said.
Cue: the world of online blogging.
The former reporter had been considering creating a blog but just didn't have good material.
"The blogs I did not like were what-I-ate-for-breakfast blogs," Gratto said.
She launched her blog in May 2006, just a few weeks after she planted her first seedlings.
She noted readership of the blog doubled in the first year, and she expects 40 percent growth this year.
Aside from the continuous blogging, Gratto has contributed many articles to local food magazine Edible Iowa River Valley, said Editor Kurt Michael Friese.
"She's got a passion for food - the same sort of passion she brings to her blog," he said, adding that he hopes she continues to contribute to the publication. "She's going to have to fight me if she wants to leave."
Before Gratto uprooted her life in D.C. - where she sang and played the keyboard in a rock band Stranger Things - she suffered from self-described "black-thumb heritage."
"Back in eighth grade, my dad had a garden plot as part of a community garden program, and he took me out to help one summer day," she said, chuckling about the scenario. "I whined so incessantly that I lasted about 15 minutes before he got so pissed that he put me in the car and drove me home."
The Washington, D.C., native relocated to Iowa City in late 2005 with a not much of a background in backyard horticulture.
"I had, at one point, planted some herb seeds in a pot, and they didn't really come up," she said and laughed.
Moving to Iowa City for a now ex-boyfriend - "still a good move nonetheless," she said - Gratto decided to give gardening another shot.
So she bought a few seedlings and tried to learn, hands-on, as much as she could.
"It seemed like, if I was coming to Iowa anyway, I ought to at least make the attempt to grow some of the ingredients myself," she said.
Cue: the world of online blogging.
The former reporter had been considering creating a blog but just didn't have good material.
"The blogs I did not like were what-I-ate-for-breakfast blogs," Gratto said.
She launched her blog in May 2006, just a few weeks after she planted her first seedlings.
She noted readership of the blog doubled in the first year, and she expects 40 percent growth this year.
Aside from the continuous blogging, Gratto has contributed many articles to local food magazine Edible Iowa River Valley, said Editor Kurt Michael Friese.
"She's got a passion for food - the same sort of passion she brings to her blog," he said, adding that he hopes she continues to contribute to the publication. "She's going to have to fight me if she wants to leave."
Before Gratto uprooted her life in D.C. - where she sang and played the keyboard in a rock band Stranger Things - she suffered from self-described "black-thumb heritage."
"Back in eighth grade, my dad had a garden plot as part of a community garden program, and he took me out to help one summer day," she said, chuckling about the scenario. "I whined so incessantly that I lasted about 15 minutes before he got so pissed that he put me in the car and drove me home."
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