Garden Blogs for Winter Reading
The holidays are upon us. The weather has been glorious in WNC but it won’t last. We’re heading in to the cold, quiet time of gardening. This is the time when many of us look out over the frozen landscape and imagine the possibilities. We dream, draw, read seed catalogs and curl up with stories about gardens. To feed your dreams there is a growing bounty of garden related blogs out there. Here are four, pulled somewhat randomly, from the top of Blog Rank’s list.
A Way to Garden is the work of Margaret Roach, a writer and photographer based in Hudson Valley, New York. She was garden editor at Newsweek and Martha Stewart before retiring to her 2.3 acres near the Berkshires.
She describes her approach:
“I speak serious botanical Latin, but long ago lost count of how many genera, species and varieties grow here. I am also an old-fashioned, organic-style gardener and a vegetarian (for 30-plus years). I put up a sizeable chunk of the food I eat each year. I would have made a good hippie; maybe that is who I am at heart. Gardening is not my hobby, it is my spiritual practice and life partner. I hope it will become yours.”
She does not have ads on her blog and only lists places she has actually shopped on her blogroll. she makes a point of stating that “I receive no free stuff, including no samples, nor do I get paid to mention people. It’s easier and more ethical that way.”
Recent posts include recipes, beautiful photos, a book giveaway. Some of her top posts have been:
Growing and storing a year of parsley
Waiting waiting for a ripe tomato
Garden Rant has a decidedly political bent, as you can guess from the name. The top post right now is called Supercommittees Won’t Feed the Planet.
“Okay, I am now officially sick of the cowardice and lack of imagination demonstrated by many academic agriculture experts. They purport to address the question of the day: How are we going to feed 7 billion and counting people without destroying the planet? But they offer no answers, or only weak and partial answers…”
They have a sort of manifesto in their sidebar, declaring: “We are convinced that gardening matters; bored with perfect magazine gardens; in love with real, rambling, chaotic ,bug-ridden gardens; suspicious of the “horticultural industry”; delighted by people with a passion for plants; appalled by chemical warfare in the garden” ….and more. I found it informative. They also have regular give-aways and contests.
One reader said “Garden Rant is the Huffington Post of garden news!”
Recent posts include:
Golf course chooses toxic pesticide over the environment, neighbors, etc.
Under “The Drunken Botanist cocktails” category: Apple Season
Under I don’t have a garden but I watch one on TV: One Worm, Free to a Good Home
Ken Point’s blog Veggie Gardening Tips features “garden tips, organic techniques and ornamental plants for growing incredible vegetable, fruit and herb gardens”. He has a friendly, I’m-not-an-expert-but-I’ve-been-doing-this-for-a-long-time kind of tone. His ideas are sensible and holistic, with a quirky interest in unusual varieties and pushing climate zone boundaries. He is based in central Pennsylvania. A CPA by occupation, his site is neatly organized, easy to navigate and full of helpful advice, but there are a lot of ads.
Kenny says “One thing that has never changed is the connection and awareness of God’s presence and grandeur when I observe the forces at work in even the simplest vegetable plot. And a well tended garden never ceases to be inspiring.”
Recent posts:
Non-GMO Month and the March Toward Labeling Laws
Natural Beekeeping for the Home Gardener
Citrus Fruits for the Northern Gardener
Gardening Gone Wild is made by a group of renowned gardening professionals, and offers a global perspective on gardening. Their mission is “to inform, inspire, and facilitate you in gardening with a sense of freedom, exploration, awareness, knowledge, and fun.”, with an emphasis on “the gestalt of gardening, garden design and photography, and our personal gardening adventures.”
There is a focus on gardening as a creative act, likely stemming from the blog’s producer
Fran Sorin, who wrote Digging Deep: Unearthing Your Creative Roots Through Gardening. There is a monthly photo contest with beautiful work submitted.
Recent posts include:
How To Know When Not To Buy A Plant You Love
Texting the Garden
Trees and Peace: A Creative Work In Progress
Next week I’m going to do another post about garden bloggers, with a local twist. BTW, The 5th annual Garden Bloggers Fling is going to be held in WNC next May, so you might be able to meet some of these passionate, poetic folks in person.