Emergency!
Get Smart With Facebook Groups
There's a certain plant doing a certain thing and you want some help with it so you make a post in a Facebook garden group. You don't realize that 20 people have had the same question about the same plant doing the same thing because this is the first time you've experienced it. You're afraid if you don't get information right away your plant is going to die because you didn't treat it right!
So here's what you do first.
Go into the group, press the search bar at the top and enter JUST two or three words describing the condition. An example might be "tomato turning black" or "bunny eating lettuce" or "deer eating hosta" and then press the enter key and see what comes up. This will show every time that that particular term has been used in that FB group and you can usually get questions answered quickly that way. If you still don't see what you were looking for try a different search term or then decide to post your question. Make sure that you have your notifications set to "on" so you can get the replies.
Include pictures. Show the group a photo of the problem you're having as well as where the plant is growing and around the garden too. It's easier to help when there's visuals.
Big groups. Larger groups increase your chance of getting good information. When you join a group make sure there's at least a thousand people in the group. If you join smaller groups you have to wait longer for your question to be answered and there's not enough life experience for everyone to benefit from. Asking for tomato advice from 50 people versus 1,000 gets very different results.
Regional groups. Make sure the groups are in your area so you can get the best answers for your garden. If you're posting to a nationwide board be sure to tell them what state you are in living in and what zone you are for gardening. For example where I live in Michigan I am in zone 6a/b. If I asked questions about tomatoes and don't tell them where I am from and they're down in Texas, the information they give me may not be good for me.
Connect with your "people". Find groups that are doing exactly what you're interested in by using the main FB search bar when you first log in. Try the term "garden" first and see what groups show up. Try typing in "gardening in [your state, your county, your city]. Try typing in your favorite flower or activity "growing orchids" "dahlias" "growing hops" "kitchen garden" “cactuses” container garens”. Find those people who understand your language. Read each group's rules and join!
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