10 Gardening Blogs We Love!

A quick look around will reveal the many garden blogs available online these days. The ones we enjoy the most are informational, beautiful, and contain personal insights that leave you feeling like you just visited the garden of a new found friend. Here are a few of our current favorites!

Linda Ly

Garden Betty, “Diary of a Dirty Girl” (www.gardenbetty.com), is a garden and lifestyle blog written by Linda Ly, author of the popular CSA Cookbook. Devoted to edible gardening, urban homesteading, farm-to-table cooking, backyard chicken keeping, and outdoor adventure, this blog always has something new or intriguing to grab your attention.

Annie Hayes

Annie’s Annuals and Perennials is a nursery that specializes in “hard-to-find plants and flowers including native wildflowers and heirlooms” that posts a blog (blog.anniesannuals.com) at key times throughout a gardener’s year. Last month we put out a blog about plants that flower in autumn and came across Annie’s blog about the San Francisco bay area’s springtime—fall.

Fran Sorin

Gardening Gone Wild (www.gardeninggonewild.com) is a beautiful blog full of enriching ideas infused with garden passion. Though Saxon Holt and Debra Lee Baldwin contribute to this site, it’s driving force is Fran Sorin, author of “Digging Deep: Unearthing Your Creative Roots Thru Gardening”, a profound and inspiring book that contains ideas on how to find joy and happiness in your garden. In addition, Fran maintains a site dedicated to spiritual enrichment through the practice of intentional living that can be found at fransorin.com.

Shawna Coronado

The Casual Gardener (www.thecasualgardener.blogspot.com) is a fun blog that promotes all things gardening. It is written by Shawna Coronado who also maintains Making a Difference Every Day (www.shawnacoronado.com), a site filled with her ideas for sustainable gardening, garden decorating, her motivational TEDX Talk: “One Person Can Make a Difference”, her co-hosted podcast “The Good Green Home Show” (www.goodgreenhomeshow.com), healthful recipes, and tips on overcoming personal limitations. There is definitely something here for everyone.

Genevieve Schmidt

North Coast Gardening (www.northcoastgardening.com) is a well written blog pertaining to gardening in the Pacific Northwest. Written by Arcata California’s Genevieve Schmidt, a writer for Garden World and landscaper located in the redwoods. Her writings contain gardening basics, garden design, organic gardening, pruning, and gardening for flavor. Coincidentally, her site currently features a guest blog by Saxon Holt, contributor to Fran Sorin’s site.

Michele Owens

Amy Stewart

Garden Rant (www.gardenrant.com), is the brainchild of co-founders Amy Stewart and Michele Owens. Stewart is the author of several gardening books, including the New York Times bestsellers, The Drunken Botanist, Wicked Bugs, Wicked Plants, and Flower Confidential. Owens has written garden articles for several magazines, including “O” (Oprah Magazine) and Organic Gardening, and is author of “Grow the Good Life”. For some, the blog’s thrust may be a bit more toward the fringe, but the content is always interesting and informative.

The Irrepressible Amanda Thomsen

Kiss My Aster is a quirky garden blog written by Chicagoan Amanda Thomsen, former blogger for Horticulture and Fine Gardening magazines and author of “Kiss My Aster: A Graphic Guide to Creating a Fantastic yard Totally Tailored to You”, a hilarious interactive guide to designing the outdoor space of your dreams. If you like your garden information seasoned with humor, you owe it to yourself to visit Amanda’s blog at www.kissmyaster.co.

Kenny Point

Veggie Gardening Tips (www.veggiegardeningtips.com) is a straight-ahead garden blog written by Kenny Point (a CPA who managed to escape a job with the Federal Reserve Board) that features organic techniques for growing incredible vegetables, fruits, and herb gardens.  If you’re looking for no-nonsense advice from a gardener who learned by experience, this is the blog for you.

Debby Hatch

Lopez Island Kitchen Gardens is Scott and Debby Hatch’s blog (www.lopezislandkitchengardens.wordpress.com) about gardening in the rain shadow of the Pacific Northwest’s San Juan Islands (only 26” per year). The Hatch’s comprehensive kitchen garden has grown over the past decade to encompass vegetables, fruit trees, and berry bushes that thrive year-round in the marine environment where they live. If you live in the Pacific Northwest, or are considering moving there, this blog is required reading.

Eric & Pattie Boudier

Peaceful Valley Farm and Garden Supply’s blog (www.groworganic.com) covers the spectrum of organic gardening subjects with the goal of growing the organic gardening movement. Peaceful Valley was founded in Nevada City, California in 1976 and current owners Eric and Pattie Boudier have been at the helm since 1996. If you’re looking for a source for organic seeds or you’re just curious about the whole organic food movement, this is a great place to start.