By Linda Wiggen Kraft
Healthy Planet Green & Growing Editor
Inspiration and information are two things gardeners can find online through blogs. Inspiration and information are both magical and practical. The best blogs are a combination of the two.
Blogs from different kinds of gardeners, florists, and crafts people come to my email inbox to fill my head and heart with new garden dreams and a need for things to make my gardening chores easier. I subscribe to the ones below (except one). I get an email notice and link when a new blog post is online.
I have subscribed to some garden blogs for years. Others are new and await the time test to see how long they keep my interest. I am drawn to blogs that are mainly photos and few words. As much as words inspire, I am primarily a visual person. Photos are also time savers in getting the message of the blog across. As the saying goes, those pictures are worth many words.
The blog that has me swooning over its photography and stories is from a Brooklyn NY floral design shop called Saipua (saipua.blogspot.com). The floral designs and photos remind me of old Dutch paintings of fantastical exuberant bouquets. The on-going story of buying a farm to grow even more flowers than what are available at the NYC flower market lets me in on the dream all flower lovers have, of owning a flower farm. I’m not sure how to subscribe to this blog, so I have to go to their site often to see what they are up to.
On the practical side along with inspiration is A Way to Garden, Organic Gardening and Landscaping (awaytogarden.com).
Margaret Roach was an editor and garden writer at Martha Stewart Living for years. She moved to the country to grow her large garden. There is lots of info about gardening here, both inspiring and helpful. It was through her blog that I found out about Water Right garden hoses. I am replacing all my heavy, hard-to-handle, toxic to drink out of, regular hoses with these. I never would have known about these garden helpers otherwise.
A daily inspiration of garden photos that I can quickly browse through comes from Gardenista (www.gardenista.com). The gardens are from the US, Britain and Australia primarily. Again lots to swoon at.
Years ago I came across You Grow Girl (yougrowgirl.com) a Toronto urban garden blog mainly about edible gardening along with some crafts. I am going to try making walnut ink for art projects from the instructions here. I have always loved a t-shirt they sell with the words “garden hoe” on the front. I haven’t quite gotten up the nerve to wear one though.
Another “let me live the dream through other people” blog is Farmgirl Fare (www.farmgirlfare.com) by a woman who 20 years ago, left her life in California to move to the 200+ acre farm in “the middle of nowhere” Missouri. Her blog is full of her adventures, her animals, her garden and lots of recipes.
Eastern Kentucky is the home of the Mother of a Hubbard blog (www.motherofahubbard.com). This gardener grows most of the vegetables her family eats. Her garden is also a year round garden in a zone 6 garden region. There are lots of tips to extend the edible gardening season here.
There are other gardening blogs I want to check out. If there are garden blogs that I should know about, please let me know. For now, try these out for garden inspiration and information.
Linda Wiggen Kraft designs sustainable holistic flower and edible gardens. She is also a mandala artist and workshop leader. She will be leading a 5 day creativity and nature connection retreat in North Carolina in August 2015. Please visit her website, contact her and you can subscribe to her blog at CreativityForTheSoul.com.