The Garden Blogs List

More garden blogs than you have time to read

By Sheila Lennon

Most have links to other garden sites and blogs, as well.

Know a good garden blog? Please send the link, and tell us where the garden is (country, state...): Email Sheila

(Yes, please tell us about your own blog! This is an inclusive list.)

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Updated 01.04.07

Writing this in January, I see that most of the bloggers letting me know about their blogs now are in the north, showing photos of snow-covered land they swear has a garden below it. I'm going to hold off a bit to add them.

Blogger Frances at Faire Garden, Athens, Tenn., has been gardening on a steep slope for seven years. Her current post, Fun With Seeds, may be the first harbinger of spring.

Gardener in Chacala Mexico: Andee writes, "I garden in Nayarit, Mexico. On the Pacific coast between Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan." Andee also posts lot of photos that make we want to run away to Chacala.

Call Any Vegetable is in Australia, where they're picking lettuce in January, lucky ducks.

The Illustrated Garden is Val Webb's lovely blend of art and gardening in Alabama. (The blog's subhead is, "Hmmm. I wonder if I can draw with one hand and pull weeds with the other?" Apparently so!)

Shirley of Shirls Gardenwatch writes,

I have gardened since the age of ten but in the last 18 months I have become as interested in my visiting garden birds and wildlife as much as my plants. I began this blog as very simple way to show videos of garden birds to my friend in Australia who was missing Scotland. It has grown somewhat since then and I am thoroughly enjoying the journey! My aim now is to introduce the birders to plants and the gardeners to birds and wildlife. I don’t believe you have to have a truly wild garden to attract birds and wildlife and equally I don’t feel plants need to take too much time and effort to look after. I now feel a garden without birds and visiting wildlife is a garden that is empty.

In my blog you will find lots of photos of my plants, visiting birds and wildlife and video footage too. I am very keen on foliage plants. My garden is located in the centre/east of Scotland.

I'll be spending some time here, watching bird videos and poking through her links. Many photos are closeups of birds, bees, and flowers, but here's a view of the garden itself.

At Long Island Gardening Community Resource, David grows and cooks, and shares his recipes. He writes, "I am looking to bring together the gardeners of Long Island to share tips and tricks and experiences with each other that pertain to the ecologic principles of the island in particular."

And no, those weren't maggots in his compost pile. They were beneficial fly larvae.

Pokeberry Garden hails from Charlotte, N.C. Gardener Mary has a strong voice, even as we hear her sense of defeat at leaving the unsafe neighborhood where she has created an oasis. I hope to check in on her later and find the new patch she settles in to be more of a haven.

Blithewold blog: Kris Green blogs at the nearby Blithewold Mansion, Gardens & Arboretum, a 33-acre public garden on the Bristol, R.I. shore of Narragansett Bay. There you'll find monarchs, fairies, and the sarracenia (pitcher plant) at right.

Kris writes, "The blog is heavy on pictures (what’s blooming, what’s buzzing) and I write about what the staff and volunteers are working on in the gardens and anything else that seems (garden)worthy of a ramble."

Kingsbrae Gardening is the staff blog of Kingsbrae Garden, a 27-acre public garden in St Andrews by-the-Sea, New Brunswick, Canada, where fall comes early. Maureen McIlwain of Kingsbrae writes to clarify:

We are situated on a little peninsula that bumps out into Passamaquoddy Bay, just off the Bay of Fundy, and it is quite temperate here, with the moderation of the sea. We are zone 5b, for instance, where the New Brunswick Botanical Garden, about 3 hrs due north of us in Edmundston/St Jacques, is zone 3!

Utah blog Muum's Musings is evaluating her harvest, with photos, of peppers and tomatoes. (If you haven't heard of the Siberians she mention, they are early, a hedge against a cool spring and summer, but the tradeoff is sometimes an uninspired taste..) She offers a salsa recipe she cans to keep that summer flavor around.

Greenfish Artist and Gardener Laura writes, " I am posting a new painting (most are inspired by plants, flowers and fish) ...and news and pictures about my garden and life in Covington, Louisiana which is about an hour north of New Orleans." The painting at right is titled Lotus.

She's also growing basil, and lemon cucumbers, which I've never seen before. Her basil, in pots, looks more like a tree than what's in my garden.

Soekershof Walkabout, a weird but passionate world in South Africa: "Enjoy the floral display of Soekershof Walkabout; more than 2400 different succulent species under the open sky."

Far, far away, and very different: From the post titled A love affair:

We learn merely from experience.
A 'scientifically unproven' example is that of the love affair in our garden between a cactus from South America and a hallucinatic succulent (Scelitium tomentosa or "kougoed') from Bushmen Land in South Africa. They grow best in each others company.

Mike's Garden Blog is a bit more heavy-duty than most. He writes, "I live and garden in West Central Illinois USA Specifically, Winchester, Illinois on a farm about two miles out of town." He's growing buckwheat as a green manure crop, looking into wild ginseng, and has strong opinions about what he calls The Ethanol Hoax

There's a Projo Garden Blog now, a group blog that I participate in a bit. It includes Paula Constantine, the Providence Journal's Home and Garden editor, Beth Heaney, a projo.com designer, Pat Feinstein, a gardener who has uploaded hundreds of photos to Your Garden Shots, a projo photo slideshow, over the years, and a few more Rhode Island gardeners with interesting projects and challeneges. It will grow, I hope.

Water When Dry: The challenges and joys of an Arizona low desert gardener is the blog of a certified desert landscaper and Master Gardener in the Phoenix area, where "it's too hot to walk." Nevertheless, she's making plants grow despite triple digit heat and permanent drought, plants we don't see here, like the Cow’s Tongue Prickly Pear (opuntia engelmannii var. linguiformis) at right, that looks like a scaffolding for strawberries. But they're not strawberries.

(This new Englander's search for what a fresh prickly pear fruit tastes like yielded this boggling result: "...depends on the variety but include strawberries, watermelons, honeydew melons, figs, bananas, and citrus.")

Beth at Morning Glories: A Late Bloomer Discovers the Joys of Gardening blogs from southeast Pennsyslvania, where the geraniums are still going strong. She's photographed some seedling in June, and again in mid-September, applauding how they grew.

Musings of a Garden Historian is a new blog "dedicated to well-known and arcane bits of garden history, horticulture, and the world of vernacular gardening (known outside the academic world simply as 'gardening')."

Blogger KJohnson is the retired owner of a Long island, N.Y. landscape design/build/maintenance firm who holds a master's degree in the history of decorative arts and culture with a concentrating in garden history and landscape studies.

The blog is settling wonderfully. A post on beach plums, and deer's new dominance near her Fire island home, follows a post on a trip to England's Lacock Abbey, a setting for the first Harry Potter movie. The abbey's delphiniums, pictured here, are stunning.

Lois de Vries' Garden Views is the blog of a field editor for Better Homes and Gardens Garden Group, so her garden blog goes way beyond most of our crowing at what we're growing. Right now, Lois is explaining that she's a Tall Bearded Iris judge. A few days ago, she previewed a book she's shopping around, The Transformational Power of Gardening.

Soilman of Soilman's Allotment Blog -- if you hear "allotment," you know you're in the U.K. -- is a very funny writer. From Back Down to Earth,

Looking back over recent posts, I realise I've painted a rather glamorous picture of my allotment gardening.

I appear to have been swanning about in Neronian style, gambolling through acres of gorgeous flowers, pausing only to harvest some delicious morsel and carelessly scoff it in situ.

Er, I don't know quite how to break this news: There is some hard work, too. Occasionally...

Soilman even has video of failure: Crimean Blight is one sad movie about the fate of Crimean Black  And then there's the "Psychedelic feast" of Romanesco cauliflowers...

Natural Gardening showed me a new "squash vine borer-resistant zucchini-like squash" -- Trombocino squash vines. Since many gardeners watch their vines yellow and die before we get enough squash, this is one to look for next year, along with another I've heard about, Zucchini Costata Romanesca. Thanks to Lisa of this South Carolina blog for this tip.

Master Gardener Marion Yaglinski writes A Master Gardener's Journal for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Right now, she's showcasing August Perennial Gardening Tips from Joe Daniels, a Delaware County Master Gardener, that are generic enough to be useful anywhere.

Diana of Sharing Nature's Garden -- she's "an avid master gardener and freelance landscape designer" in Austin, Texas -- has found the tomato robber: Her dog, Tanner.

Robin of A Bumblebee Garden in Huntingtown, Md., writes,

I have been writing a garden blog about my country garden, which includes a Colonial theme garden. I write about gardens (of course), the food that it inspires and the creatures that happen through.

Like me, she has a two-faced garden gate: "One one side I have wisteria growing. On the other side is clematis. They are starting to touch and it will be a plant war." No war, Robin -- I have a climbing peach rose, American wisteria, and clematis The President growing on two sides of an arch and an adjacent fence, respectively. They intertwine up high and look great when any two are blooming together.

There are bluebirds leading the bee's blog now. A post titled Extending the Summer Harvest - 07.09.07 ranges from ideas for a cold frame through a recipe for Wine Jelly.

Ledge and Gardens hails from northwestern Rhode Island, rural enough to have a spread like Layanee's. (This city gardener is jealous of her space and sun.) Lots of lush photos of her own and others' gardens.

Michelle of My Grandpa's Garden is blogging a mantis named Charlotte and a recipe for Mole de Olla (Kettle Stew) made from homegrown produce. Unfortunately, she didn't tell me where her garden is -- I'll add it when I find out.

Update: Michelle writes that she's in central Illinois, and asks that I mention that she is growing an Atlantic Giant Pumpkin, which many people are interested in. In the process, she shows how she digs a squash borer out of the vine.

Digital Flower Pictures.com isn't a blog about a single garden, but about flowers wherever photographer and Connecticut professional gardener Chris Gardner finds them. You might find inspiration here.

Of this double shasta daisy, he writes,

You don’t see it too often but it is becoming a bit more popular. They are cool because there are all sorts of variations of the doubles available.

Morning Glories: A Late Bloomer Discovers the Joys of Gardening. Beth, in Southeast Pennsylvania, is using flat stones on top of the soil in pots to foil the squirrels who dig hoping to find bulbs.

Through the Hedge I live in Bridgewater, Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley. This is Zone 6, bordering on 7 in an area that is still partly rural. I have overhauled a suburban lot with plantings that include lots of native plants and plants with value to wildlife.

On the blog itself, she writes,

My interest in planting for wildlife began as an attempt to create an enriched environment for the cats but has developed into a belief that plants in the landscape should earn their keep by providing food or shelter for someone, man or beast.

What follows is a lovely collection of perennials, many with berries, including coral honeysuckle, hedge roses and cranberry bush viburnums.

Bliss: "Yolanda Elizabet's blog about her ornamental kitchen garden and cottage garden in the little, over 400 yrs old, village of Dinteloord, the Netherlands (yes that's in Europe), her cats and anything else she wants to write about if and when the mood strikes her."

Wow. I love the color of these roses.

Bliss won a 2007 Mouse & Trowel Award as Best International Garden Blog, and it's easy to see why: Lush photos, healthy plants, prolific postings, a lovely spot... Just go read it.

Gardening for Health: Rose (the blogger's name) gardens somewhere in the South, so she's way ahead of us in New England, harvesting onions and garlic planted in the fall, and the first zucchini of the season. Her roses bloomed a month ago, and she watched peach trees come out in May. This year she outsmarted the cabbage worms by planting three weeks early.

Garden Desk is a lively collection of good plant photos, a deck in progress, a cat wearing hats, and organic gardening. Marc, hailing from northern Kentucky, aims to produce a ripe tomato by June 24. (Last year, his first was August 5th.) You can track his progress here, here and here.

Chitweed's subhead is, "I am perhaps the Luckiest of Gardeners. I Garden at work, I garden at home...I am always learning from both."

Gretchen has a gardener's dream job"I manage and buy for a family business that has a greenhouse & garden center." But she hates roses. She writes,

I'm recent to blogging myself, but I have gardened forever, and been an avid reader of other's garden blogs for quite some time. Thought I'd try it out myself, and see how it goes.

I know where I'm going to direct garden questions...

At Sweet Home and Garden Chicago, Carolyn keeps a running tally of seeds planted: 0. (Me too.)

She's an Alabama native, an artist and garden designer, producing an informative and literate blog -- and she answers gardening questions. Now, she's discussing ornamentals that are hardy in Zone 5. That's her wisteria from last May at right.

Another one to bookmark and return to once the growing gets going.

The Gorham Garden: "The saga of one girl gardener in Southern Maine." Chris The Gardener writes,

I've been puttering about with vegetable gardens for 10 years and started writing about my most recent garden in Gorham, Maine last year. In an age when you can get micro-regional news reports, this is my advice for people living in and around the southern Maine area.

Which, at this moment, means, April in Maine, you are such a tease.

These are the hardest days, when a warm spell makes me feel late, and the next freeze says I'm not.

Life in the Highlands is apparently warmer than life in Maine. Ann of  Invergordon, Ross-shire, Scotland, blogs,

Cut the grass which was needing to be done and finished off weeding the flower beds in the Ornamental garden so feel like i'm on top of that part of the garden. That should leave me in a good position for the long weekend next week to get things really moving in the veggie garden.

Those are her impatiens seedlings in the flats on the right.

Dig This Chick is in in Missoula, Mt. On March 19, she planted:

High Mowing Mesclun Mix
Mammoth Melting Sugar Snow Peas
Bull's Blood Beets

I'll be back to see what came up.

Kate Smudges in Earth, Paint and Life: Kate, of Regina, Saskatchewan, "started painting in watercolour so that I could paint the flowers in my garden." Until the Canadian spring begins in earnest, she thinks, paints, reads...

The Garden Corner: Jocelyn is pretty cheerful, considering she's gardening in northern Minnesota, but she reports days in the 70s, too. Feng Shui with your Houseplants! is leading now, and it's news to me.

Talj's Balcony Paradise is all about seeds so far. "I am a 26 year old housebound lady from Yorkshire, UK," writes Natalya. That's her first basil to see the light., at right.

Vegetable-Gardens.co.uk: Blogger Adam Fletcher is setting up an ambitious site that includes forums and growing guides, and he's welcoming noncommercial bloggers to jon him. Meanwhile, he has planted onion sets in his garden in the Yorkshire area of the U.K.

Our Life in Idaho is a good example. You'll see a gazebo in snow, and a photo of bougainvillea in France at that main link. But blogger Victoria writes,

Both my husband, Kim, and I have been heavily involved in gardening the past 7 years or so. Landscaping, planting and planning different small gardens throughout our yard has occupied most of our time and money. The result has been a satisfying artistic expression of us, where we love to spend our evenings drinking wine and savoring the various flowers and trees on our small plot of ground. Our efforts have included a Moongarden, Shade/Asian garden, wildflower garden, koi/goldfish pond, Mediterranean back porch, rose arbor, the back "deck", rustic bench and pond deck; all built by Kim. Check out pictures of our garden and flowers....

Here are the flower pictures. The bougainvillea above is their own, blooming for the first time after five years of tending.

The Plant Hunter - New Plants: Tim Wood of  Grand Haven, Mich., is onto something good -- reviewing new or overlooked plants and varieties.

He hasn't broken dormancy for the season yet, but his two February posts already have me wanting more. He highlights Kerria japonica, pictured at right, The Japanese Yellow Rose (Kerria deserves a Second Look), and Viburnum nudum: Close to perfection:

Possiumhaw or smooth witherod viburnum (Viburnum nudum) --  is a little known and underutilized shrub that is native from Maine and Florida and west into Texas."

If you're poring over catalogues these cold winter nights, looking for something new to grow, you might want to bookmark this blog and see what comes up.

Glenns Garden: "Getting You Growing In Your Own Special Way!" Glenn Bronner writes,

My blog Glenns Garden is about my two gardens. My urban garden is where I work each day in the City Of Chicago Illinois. My woodland garden is my weekend retreat and is a beautiful wooded lot about 120 miles west of downtown Chicago.

As a professional grounds keeper I try to document some of the things that challenge and face a grounds keeper in an urban environment and share some of my successes in my woodland garden.

Glenn has a countdown on his site that makes me smile: "22 more days until THE FIRST DAY OF SPRING IN CHICAGO!! 2007"

Photos are in his Garden Ideas Gallery

A Caribbean Garden suffers none of these deprivations. Nicole shows photos from the annual garden show, her own blooms ("The gorgeous orange rose is Diablotin...")

And, for good measure, she has a channa dal recipe --made with canned chickpeas and spices in 30 minutes, she promises.

Skippy's Vegetable Garden is east of Boston, and it's a study in snow-covered plots. Skippy is a Portuguese water dog whose owner, Kathy, hasn't broken it to him that it's not his garden alone.

To relieve all that whiteness, she's pulled up photos from last year's garden -- a kind sight for winter eyes.

She's posted her 2007 seed order, too, which might give you some ideas.

grow this is a San Diego, Calif., garden blog, literate and interesting:

I’m studying the history of gardens, which frequently leaves an unpleasant Eurocentric aftertaste of how England brought together the three sister arts thereby elevating formerly modest tilling of the soil into a sublime art. Sadly, once landscape gardening started hanging around with Landscape Painting and Poetry, the utilitarian vegetable garden was left behind like the kid that doesn’t get picked in a schoolyard game of dodge ball. Roses are beautiful. Radishes are functional.

 

Nepeta 'Walker’s Low,' Perennial of the Year

Gardening Tips, of Bonnieville, Ky., is hibernating like the rest of us, but does note that the The Perennial Plant Association has awarded its 2007 Perennial Plant of the Year title to Nepeta ‘Walker’s Low’ -- a catmint that's quite tall, actually, around 30 inches. (Low is the name of a garden, not a suggestion of stature.)

I've been an admirer of this plant since its release. Does a wonderful job of attracting bees, butterflies and other beneficials to the garden. And the normal pests in the garden, deer and rabbit, tend to dislike the astringent taste of this plant.

A Year in the Garden: Mary Butler writes,

I'm a transplanted Brit, moved here for college to study creative writing at Harvard, moved back to England where I was a writer, magazine editor and of course avid gardener. I returned to the States 4 years ago and thinking I was out of words studied art and horticulture at the Barnes Foundation and started a garden design company only to discover how much I miss writing. I've started a blog, mainly featuring my own Bryn Mawr, Pa., garden...

Her checklist of tasks is encouraging: "The time to start planting your first row of peas outside is only a few weeks away -- traditionally, weather permitting, this is done on St. Patrick’s Day." (I usually hedge my bets -- some seeds early, some later.)

ragged radishes- an Otley allotment is "the gardening blog of a novice allotment owner... I'm plot no. 27 on the Burras site in Otley, West Yorkshire," blogss Lucy Crosbie. That's it, above. (An allotment is one's very own plot in a community garden -- there are allotment links on the blog if you want to know more.)

She writes,

I've recently taken on a really overgrown plot (over 5 years untouched) in Otley, West Yorkshire UK . My plan is to show people (even novices) what they can achieve and also allow me to look back in a few years and see just how much the site has come on.

There's a shed under way now.

Mediterranean Garden Spain: Colin writes,

This blog is about our Mediterranean Garden, in rural Alt Emporda district of Girona, Catalonia, Spain. Just 25 kms from France and a similar distance from the Mediterranean coast of the Costa Brava. The micro climate is fashioned by the nearby Pyrenean mountain range as well as the sea.

The Mediterranean Garden is the development of the 14,000m2 of weed infested wilderness on which our Villa stands. Gardening on a grand scale on an almost a blank canvas.

Links to the house development Spain Villa and our life experiences A Fig from Figueres are included.

He overwintered cannas outdoors when temperatures dipped to 10 degrees F. I may try that...

In the Garden Online is both a blog and a site for Michigan gardeners, and it sports a fine autumn theme these days.. I'll be back to browse her techniques and plant selections.

By George! - A Blog! is the work of George Brookbank of Tucson, Ariz.  George was an extension agent for years, has several books on Amazon and, until recently, wrote a desert gardening column for the Tucson Citizen. Now he's turned to the Web, and blogs at the Community Gardens of Tucson site.

The Providential Gardener: Susan Korté writes,

I started The Providential Gardener in late May 2006 to gather news and links to groups and people who make up Rhode Island's "Growing Community." I see that community including those concerned with all sorts of plants throughout the state: from salt marsh restoration, to farming, gardening, and forests. There's certainly a lot going on! I'd like the Providential Gardener blog to be a place where people can find out the full range of activities in our state, including volunteering and training, so they connect with others who have similar interests to their own. The site also is beginning to round up documents about Rhode Island's forests, land use plans, and other online and in print materials of interests to gardeners, foresters, farmers, and so on.

This is a departure from the largely personal sites that make up so much of this list. I'm glad she's doing this in my back yard.

Whispering Crane Institute blog is full of information from Rick Anderson, a professional landscape designer in Dennison, Ohio. Spend some time here among his drawings, photos, and how-tos.

Prim's Place in Spring Valley (Western Pennsylvania) has planted garlic and shallots to overwinter for next year. Definitely check out her lists -- she's likely to save you from starting from scratch.

Subtropical Garden in Carmel Valley "describes the gardening experience for my new garden (started from a dirt lot in 2004) in the Carmel Valley neighborhood of San Diego, California. The garden is about 5 miles from the Pacific Ocean and is under the influence of coastal climate. The garden is subtropical in nature. The garden has a number of exotic subtropical fruit trees, flowers and vegetables."

The mangoes are ripening there.

Kathy Purdy of Cold Climate Gardening celebrated four years as a garden blogger with a series of interviews with garden bloggers who've been doing it longer than that: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9. Here are links to their blogs:

Dogs have dog-years, and the internet has internet-years. Four years on the internet is a long time, and as of today, that's how long I've been blogging. I thought I would ask those gardeners who've been blogging longer than I have how they got started, and where they think this whole garden blogging business is going.

First, let me introduce my respondents. In no particular order:
Tamara Galbraith [TG], formerly of Talking Dirty, now publishing Can You Dig It?

M. Sinclair Stevens [MSS], longtime publisher of Zanthan Gardens.

Paul Owoc [PO], observant chronicler of a greenZoo.

Pam Shorey [PS], originally blogging at Outside in the Garden, and now at Rivermantic.

Erica Bess Duncan [EBD], writing at GardenSpot.

Ilona [IL] of Ilona's Garden Journal.

Doug Welch [DW], keeping A Gardener's Notebook.

Jennifer Zynischer [JZ], aka the Garden Djinn.

Kathy Purdy [KP], that's me. I'll be piping in with my responses. As a matter of fact, I'm the only one who got to see what the others said before writing my own answers, so I have an unfair advantage....

Tangled Branches: Butterflies, and a squirrel stealing whole tomatoes, are the news in the long-running (2003) blog of this Virginia gardener. I love the photo index -- thumbnails to browse.

The Balcony Garden: Sue, in Turin, Italy, corners the only patch of garden available to some apartment- and condo-dwellers. She's growing hollyhocks in a large stone pot!

Garden Gremlin: Tobi is "in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, zone 5a," where's she has just canned salsa verde made from her own green tomatoes. I'd recommend you use the links to previous pages at the bottom of the page ( Pages (15): « 1 [2] 3 4 5 » ... Last » ) to pore over the very nice photos she's taken over the summer.

On her recommendation, I plan to sow Citrus Marigold ‘Red Gem' (Tagetes tenuifolia ‘Red Gem') next year, which she describes as " the best performing annual in my garden this year."

Urban Gardens: An Organic Gardening Journal from Ashland Oregon. I love the 2006 Garden Winners and Failures of 2006 pages, and it's interesting

A Tramp in the (Organic) Garden: Seeds, Smack Talk and Assorted Gardening Madness in Highland Park, Los Angeles. Loretta Allison-Wieland's tomato photos are luscious, but the fig massacre is the work of a pesky squirrel.

Loretta writes,

...for some reason, I'm the only blogger who represents Los Angeles that I've found. Perhaps everyone is too busy trying to make payments on their BMWs! : )

Air Plant City is one specialized garden blog, devoted to growing and caring for Tillandsia. Cathy grows them in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

From that last link:

A Tillandsia is a Bromeliad...but not all Bromeliads are Tillandsias. Bromeliad is the Family name. Tillandsia is the genus. Airplants are the common name for Tillandsias (sometimes called "Air Plants"). Not all Bromeliads are Airplants. Airplants grow without soil while most types of Bromeliads do best in soil. Orchids are also "Air Plants"...

AIR PLANTS ARE NOT TOTALLY SELF SUFFICIENT: the key factors are Light, Water, and Air Circulation....

Katina's Little Gardeners is the blog of a homeschooling mom and freelance in writer in Ohio, Katina R Mooneyham.

GardenMob, Barrie Collins writes, "is dedicated to rose gardeners, is completely non-commercial, and features my own discordant ramblings as well as photographs and descriptions of a couple hundred garden roses. My goal is a site that is accessible to non-experts, as roses so often are bred, marketed, and presented in a fashion that really isn't good for the general gardening population."

Wow.

From the Pondlady's Pad: Jan Goldfield writes, " I am in zone 8b in Slidell Louisiana just north of New Orleans (Katrina country). I am a retired pond builder and am having a great time blogging."

If you've ever hankered for a pond, save these links:

• I built a pond, now what?
• How To Build a Pond FINALE
• How to build a pond part 4
• How to build a pond part 3
• How to build a pond, part 2
• How to Build a Pond

Our neighbors have a pond, and sometimes our cats come over the fence with wet feet...

La Gringa's Blogicito: La Gringa writes, "I've started a blog about gardening and living in La Ceiba, Honduras. Neither is easy for this American woman." I love this:

Things I learned in Honduras

Rain makes you sick.

Drinking ice water makes you sick.

If you get your hands wet after ironing, you will get arthritis. (So, then, how do men get arthritis?)

All other illness stems from pressure (high blood pressure) or sugar (eating it? or diabetes? I'm not quite sure about this one.).

Coca Cola will cure a backache.

All meals must be served with tortillas or bananas, but never both. (I get horrified looks every time I suggest a meal without either or with both.)

Hamburgers may be safely stored at room temperature for up to two days.

Eating soup with a fork will make your teeth fall out. (I'm still trying to figure out this one, too.)

Red beans are the only edible variety of bean.

White corn is the only edible variety of corn.

Sinks and toilets are not clean until all of the white is scrubbed away.

If a black butterfly enters your house, someone will die.

So, now you know, too. ;-)

Robert Brinkmann's Garden Blog: "I have a garden blog in Temple Terrace, Florida (near Tampa). I like writing about what is happening in my garden day to day. Gardening in Florida can be a challenge due to soil limitations and due to heat, humidity, and extreme weather, but it is also a joy."

Check out his homemade Earthboxes. After posting these photos, he wrote,

I had some questions from my photo post about how I made the earthboxes in the photos below. They were really easy. I found out how to make them through the link here. I bought the storage containers at K-Mart on sale (each box takes 2 containers) and the pvc pipe and pond buckets at Home Depot. I think it cost me (without soil) about $5-$6 to make them. I used white plastic garbage bags as the topper instead of black plastic due to our sun. I have a regular earthbox and these work just the same and just as good.

A southern gal gardens in the north...where the hungry groundhog rules. My sympathies.

Aiken Gardens: Life and Gardening in the South Carolina Sandhills. Susan Elder blogs the flora in her town.

Flowers and Weeds: Garden Llily writes, "I garden in Burnaby (Vancouver), BC, Canada. My blog is a mix of garden advice, anecdotes, garden photos, garden recipes, links to interesting web sites, and I'm also blogging on the progress of a 3' x 4' garden painting I am attempting for the loft (I've given myself a one-year timeframe, since my painting is done at night after the kids are in bed)."

You'll see photos of the flowers that end up in the painting. Nice spot.

Garden Party: Lori writes, "I have a gardening blog where I post internet gardening articles and my own musings. Currently located in the midwest (IL)."

Killer rabbits and Japanese beetles get ink here too.

Compost Bin: Gardening Tales from a New Jersey Compost Bin. Like me, Anthony lost all his strawberries, still green, to squirrels.

Janet's Garden is in Ottawa, Canada, and she's been battling white flies with a vengeance.

High-Altitude Gardening is a stylish blog from Park City, Utah. The author: "Kate is a certified master gardener who wishes she lived in zone 7 intead of zone 5."

And she's never had hollyhock rust. I love the old-fashioned single-flowered hollyhocks, but they always succumb for me.

My California Garden in Zone 23: I didn't know there was a zone 23, but these Western Climate Zones document microclimates. The gardener known only as LimaBean grows offers large photos of mushrooms, tree bark, tomatoes and that emerging eggplant at right. Don't miss the video of the tomato hornworm!

Two Gardens: Max writes,

The concept of my blog was to compare my experience gardening in California with my friend's in Brooklyn. It's a pretty dramatic contrast. But she has gone electronically AWOL (she is known to do this every now and then), so it's mostly a California garden blog right now, like we need more of those. Still, I think you'll find the plants interesting (because I grew up in New England, and I do).

So Two Gardens is about one garden, one to drool for, of course, since it's got all that sunshine and no snow ever. Pomegranate flowers? I've never seen one.

Flatbush Gardener: A garden grows in Brooklyn: "Adventures in Neo-Victorian, Wild, Shade, Organic and Native
Plant Gardening, Garden Design, and Garden Restoration"

And gardener Xris has some news:

This past Monday, July 17, the USDA Forest Service launched a new section on their Web site:

Celebrating Wildflowers is a season-long series of events for people of all ages who love our native plants. Activities include wildflower walks, talks, festivals, slide programs, coloring contests, planting events, and seminars that emphasize the values and conservation of native plants. - Home Page

Gabriola Garden: I love these photos, grouped so they form a bouquet -- that's a calendula at right, from the collage.

My name is Tim and my wife, Sara, and I do our gardening on one of the Gulf Islands off the coast of British Columbia, Canada. We have two kids and assorted pets and Sara tends the flowers, while I look after the vegetables. Our zucchinis sometimes win ribbons in the zucchini races at the local fair.

Here's to Tim and his speedy zucchinis.

ToyTrains1's Garden Journal is all about roses, and lilies, in Central New Jersey. That perfect bloom at right is a Queen Elizabeth.

Yard Piddling: A delightful note from gardener Gary Johnsey introduces this blog:

I enjoy your Subterranean Homepage News and really like visiting the sites you highlight. I have decided to ask you to take a look at my blog: http://yard.piddling.info

I live in Hattiesburg, Mississippi and am a professor at the Univ of So Ms. I expect to retire in 2 years and then spend lots more time in my yard and in the woods. I like to move plants back and forth and study their progress with camera in hand. I have been blogging almost a year now and am starting to hit my stride.

We have something else in common. For years now my students have called me Projo, a contraction for Professor Johnsey. I managed to register projo.ws which I use in support of my courses. (Someone else beat me to all the other projo names. I wonder who. Ha.)

At Welcome to My Garden, the grass is brown from drought in Minnesota, where it was 101 degrees Saturday. It won't always be this way, and Kathi's blog is more than that sad patch. She writes, "Gardening is my relaxation as well as my tie to my late parents. I learned gardening from my parents at a very young age and I am now passing that knowledge down to my son."

Garden Rant: Earthworm fan Amy Stewart, whose other garden blog is called Dirt, writes,

I'm blogging on a new group blog with with two very opinionated and outspoken garden bloggers, Susan Harris of Takoma Gardener and Michele Owens of Sign of the Shovel. It's called GardenRant and you can find it here: www.gardenrant.com

You'll see that in order to set the tone for the blog, we wrote a manifesto. Some of the highlights:
--We are bored with perfect magazine gardens.
--We are suspicious of the "horticultural industry."
--We are delighted by people with a passion for plants.

Yes...

Amy's current post there begins, "Has anyone noticed that the articles in Sunset magazine have started to read like press releases from the big ass nursery companies?"

Just My Garden is growing catnip right now, in Wisconsin:

After the plants have grown a few inches, pinch back the shoots to promote bushy growth. It will first bloom in mid summer. After harvest, trim back the plants again. With luck, you will get three harvests in a season.

How does she keep the cats from munching it all away? I had to put my catnip plants in a hanging basket, where the "boys" couldn't get to it. While they were in little pots on the porch they were nearly defoliated.

Arboreality - Tree Blogging. Jade Blackwater writes,

Arboreality (is) a blog about trees, forests, and other plants, currently based in the Philadelphia area of Pennsylvania. I recently relocated from the Seattle area of Washington, leaving behind my gardens to quietly go wild among the evergreens until my return.

While it is my hope to put down roots and begin gardening (and garden blogging) here in Pennsylvania, I've found myself more than busy learning and blogging about all the unique trees on the east coast, so different from the evergreens I grew up with in the Pacific Northwest.

This blog has the greenest photos I've ever seen.

In My Backyard: Beverly of Des Moines, Iowa, has roses and clematis in bloom now. Some are doing well, some not so well.

Adventures in my Urban Garden: Another East Coast gardener at last. (Yes, we're coming alive again in New England, where the weather is just perfect now.) And, from the photo above, it looks as though this garden is a plot in a community garden.

"Black Eyed Susan" leads today with a photo of a box of yellow cornmeal and the headline, "I hate cutworms!" -- then details her personal war against them.

(I can't wait to watch her war against tomato hornworms, the giant dragons of the garden world. You'll find that and other critters on this nice bugs page.)

Jardin ology is a UK blog with lovely photos, Latin plant names and even garden music. First, a nod to the first two:

For sheer 'wow factor' I think my favourite plant in the garden would have to be Cynara Cardunculus 'Cardy'.
A cousin of the globe artichoke, it works really hard year-round to earn its statuesque place in my herbaceous border...

Heard "Hang On Little Tomato"? I hadn't either, but gardener "Jardine" is playing the Pink Martini album of the same name today. The 10-member lounge group from Portland, Ore., based the song on a 1964 Hunt's ketchup ad that urged the tomato to hang on the vine till it's ripe.

You can hear the song and a few others at NPR (Shaken and Stirred by the Music of Pink Martini), which profiled the group.

The Grape Vine: Alexis in Richmond, Va. has just started this blog. Usually, I wait to see if there'll be a second post, but since Alexis posted a photo and wrote., "(we still have 10 years worth of peppers, from these two plants, frozen from last year)," I want to encourage her to tell us how she does this.

This Garden is Illegal is a hoot. Hanna in Cleveland leads it right now with, The Ants go Marching on the Peonies... Hurrah! Hurrah!:

The garden myth is that peonies need ants on them in order for the buds to open properly. This is not true. A peony bud will open just as well with or without the ants.

But before you go running for the pesticide, the ants do serve a purpose. These ants will eat the bad insects that will hurt your peonies.

Mother Nature very rarely does something without a very good reason. Peonies secrete a sweet sap when they are in bud, which attracts the ants. The ants come for desert but find a second helping of harmful insects. The peonies want the ants to come so that they have some protection.

Before that, there was a nice post on Guerilla Gardening: What the cool gardeners are doing these days -- "random acts of gardening without permission from the land's owners." Abandoned land, that is, not your neighbor's undeveloped sunny patch.

On the left sidebar are very faint links to garden-site coupons that look very useful..

The Inadvertent Gardener is a stylish blog from Iowa, each post a narrative. Gotta love this:

Getting in touch
Need garden advice? Then you probably shouldn't send me an email.

Definitely worth a look.

From Digging, vitex in bloom; click the image for a larger version and a closeup of its purple flowers.

Digging: Diary of a Central Austin Garden: Like me, Pam is in her fifth year of blogging. Her Texas garden -- and especially her photo of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center that's leading now -- look shockingly different from our rain-drenched New England spring gardens, desperate for sun.

Empress of Spring is in Ontario, where it's also soaked. "Empress" Melissa writes,

I am located in zone 5a in Ontario, Canada on the edge of small city. My garden was created from a plain, sod covered lot after years of attending garden tours and wishing I could have something as beautiful as all the gardens I was visiting. Despite the odd layout, lack of trees, and ridiculously hard clay soil, and no experience, I set out to learn how to garden. While waiting for the young plants to mature, I turned my attention to garden junk-making to add interest to the yard.

Another interest is videoblogging and I occassionally post short movies featuring scenes from my garden [see Knockin' On Heaven's Door]. This is something that I hope other garden bloggers will start doing as well. It's as easy as uploading photos and, I believe, very enjoyable to view.

Richiesoft Garden Blog, from Conwy, North Wales, has large, lovely photos. He also seems to be paralleling our seasons, showing tulips and pansies, with photos of irises and poppies in his parents' garden.from previous years.

Weeding the Garden is a breezy MSN Spaces blog by Alison, in Georgia, who writes,

It is a blend of gardening and my kids, my two favorite things.. I also do my own photography of my flowers which is my new found hobby. I grew up in Idaho and now adjusting to the Georgia climate and adjusting what I grew up knowing what did well in the garden, to what grows in the Georgia climate well..

Geranium Blog is Dawn Hill's account of growing pelargoniums -- the proper name -- in hot, sunny Las Vegas. It sounds like the perfect climate for them.

Frog Garden: Roy Bilbie of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia is heading into autumn just as we're emerging from winter. His photos -- including those of frogs caught by flashlight -- are worth browsing for inspiration. That's his tillandsia pictured at right.

May Dreams Gardens: Carol Michel gardens in Indianapolis, where she's been battling "Pestilence Plants."

Daniel Mount's Garden Journal: Daniel describes himself as " a professional and enthusiastic gardener in the Seattle area," and his photos are sharp. Tulips -- he's into tulips now.

Sticky Fingers: JadeGarden writes,

Initially, I never thought of my blog as a gardening blog but just a blog about my plants. I grow cacti and succulents mainly but there are a few others thrown in that manage to thrive on neglect and what nature provides. But, I do grow everything outdoors, and as my collection expands it really is getting to be a garden activity. I started (my blog) to record and post information about different plants in my collection as they grow and develop.

My garden is in Kingston, Jamaica but I've been an absentee gardener for the last seven months or so - I will get back to normal in July when I return home.

Dirt Divas Gardening: Brooke Heppinstall and Sally Koppenberg of Palmer, Alaska write,

Sally and I have been writing a regular garden column called Dirt Divas for our local paper and are finally getting around to sharing our articles with the rest of the world. The web site is next on our list. But, we both have perennial nurseries and it's time to get down and dirty, so, we're lucky just to have time to blog and write our column!

Gardening in Alaska has to be a challenge, but the weeds seem to thrive. These folks eat their weeds. Just in time for all of us, here's what to do with dandelions, if you pull them. (I love the swath of yellow flowers in the lawn, so I don't.)

Warm Dandelion Greens
Fry 2 0z. Diced lean or Canadian bacon in a large skillet for 2-3 minutes, until edges curl. Drain on paper towels. Pour off fat and add 2 tsp. olive oil. Add 1 clove garlic, minced, and saute until light brown. Add 12 cups young dandelion greens, rinsed well and briefly shaken dry, stir to coat with the oil, cover pan and steam about 3 minutes, or just until limp. Add 2 tbsp. Balsamic vinegar, the bacon, toss lightly and serve at once with dandelion flowers and leaves for garnish. Serves 6.

They also stir-fry young fireweed and cucumber berry stalks, fiddleheads, stinging nettles, plantains and dandelions. Chocolate and Zucchini, the cooking blog that puts us all to shame, has a timely recipe for nettle soup (Soupe auz Orties)

The Garden is by Tim Petty of Caswell County, N.C. Computer problems have him issuing short "telegrams" as blog posts, but by the time you read this he may have recovered. Cute baby chicks!

Uncle Tom's Garden is written by Jeanne Medina, from the San Francisco Bay area (probably not in the city, she keeps chickens!) Great photos, inspiring me to ...plant now!

I have a jolly buddha in my garden bed, too.

Gardening with Rare Plants: Matt Mattus of Worcester, Mass., writes,

As a certified plant geek, I decided to start a blog for those plant enthusiasts who have started to become plain-old bored. Bored with Hosta, bored with Daylilies and maybe bored with all the banality at the local garden centers and Home Centers. Gardening has been discovered by the Mass. retailers, and suddenly, everyone has exactly same material. It's Gap meets Supertunias!

Also, I avoid the trendy garden pants. So no Galanthus, or Hellebores, I want to provide information that reaches another tier, the next generation of enthusiast. These are the plants that I grow in my greenhouses and large garden.

Clearly, this site isn't for anyone, inspire gardeners who have some some plant knowledge, and greater, to explore a whole new world of plants. I call it Exploraculture.

My wish would be that gardeners who seek excellence, can again feel the excitement that they once had when they first started discovering plants.

I know exactly what he means. Everybody has exactly the same few varieties, and these are exactly what most people are asking for. I have been on some streets where everyone had the same color azalea bush from one end to the other.

Go see what Matt's raising.

In My Kitchen Garden: Susan from Missouri writes,

I would love to have my new gardening blog added to your list. It is called In My Kitchen Garden (inmykitchengarden.com ) and is an offshoot of my food and farm blog, FarmgirlFare.com. I recently started it as a personal gardening journal so that I could have a record of what goes on in my large raised bed, organic heirloom garden, but it is already blossoming into much more than just that.

I am a 37 year old Northern California native who escaped to the country life in 1994. I now naturally raise everything from llamas and lettuce to sheep and Swiss chard on my 240-acre remote Missouri, USA farm.

If you'r trapped in a cubicle, Susan is probably living your fantasy. Nice blog, as is her food and farm blog.

Nancy's Garden Spot: Nancy in Houston has tomatoes on a plant planted in July that overwintered and "just won't quit." Here in New England, I can't imagine that.

Even more interesting, Nancy is a teacher recovering from spinal surgery:

I could work in my garden a little. If I sat in a small stool, I could gingerly lean over and weed a little, and dig a hole with a long handled scoop before I plopped in a bedding plant. I couldn't do many at a time, but I was happy when I could do it.

This is from a post last month in which she shares some of her story. It's worth a read. Nancy, I hope you have the school begging you to come back and tell them about your marvelous gardens and how you grew them.

In the garden with Humblesnail: Great blog name. Rhondi in Olympia, Wash., has a Tuscan garden gate.

Reading Dirt: Karen Bledsoe writes, "This is a blog for literary gardeners, reviews of garden books and garden-related literature, as well as news from my garden and the gardening world in general. And a rant or two, just for good measure." Karen gardens, writes and teaches in Oregon.

Sigruns German Garden: Liz Donovan, a blogger at the Miami Herald, sends word of this blog, saying, "It came to me thru
a comment on my photo blog. Sort of neat..." It seems to be Sigrun's photos of others' gardens, largely in England, but they're very nice and good inspiration if you need to get yourself going on this year's garden.

Kathy Purdy of Cold Climate Gardening writes that her Garden Links URL has changed, and adds,

You should mention to all your readers on the garden blog page that Garden Voices is where the action is really happening. It's a service provided by GardenWeb (now owned by iVillage*) that collects gardening blog posts from all over (the only criteria is that they're English language) and presents them as excerpts, sometimes with brief commentary from moderator OldRoses. (She's on your list with her own blog, btw.) If you're reading them, it's a great way to get your garden blog fix. If you're writing one, what are you waiting for? Get your blog added to the list. There's no faster way to increase your readership. (I also wrote about it on my blog here.)

*iVillage itself is being bought by NBC Universal.

Albert's Greenhouse blog is one to watch. An engineer has built an 8-by-12-foot greenhouse, and details its life. Albert Huntington of Sunnyvale, Calif., writes,

Albert's Greenhouse blog is about my hobby greenhouse, backyard garden, visits to botanical gardens and conservatories, tropical plants and general horticulture. You don't see a lot of tropical plant/greenhouse blogs out there, so I thought I'd start one.

I haven't started anything yet, but he's inspiring me.

a small garden in maine: Sandra Lawrence writes, "I am just getting started, but do plan to add lots. I am in southern Maine."

At Calendula & Concrete, Christa Carignan blogs her plot at an organic community garden in Washington, D.C.

She pulled these carrots from the garden today (March 3!), the last of the fall crop.

This week, she writes, "Yesterday, I saw the season's first daffodils. Snowdrops and crocus are bringing life and color to people's yards."

Her Zone 7 garden is south of us, of course. We grew snow overnight.

Backyard Gardening is an informative Michigan garden blog, with photos, experiences and advice on favorite plants. Right now, Chris Beasley is propagating iceplants:

Iceplant is by far my favorite ground cover. It is hardy, quick growing, has attractive foliage, is drought tolerant, and pest and disease free. It also looks like a carpet of blossoms for most of the summer.

Chris writes, "I plan to cover mostly gardening, but some landscape design. My passions are flowers and perennials, particularly daylilies."

Sign of the Shovel: Michele writes,

I have two gardens--a town garden in Saratoga Springs, NY and a country garden in Salem, NY--which puts me firmly in the category of insane gardener.

I've been gardening long enough that advice bores me. What I want to read is a good garden story, the history of a particular place meeting a particular personality, with the occasional nod to the larger realms of sex, politics, and religion. So that is what I've decided to write in my blog.

Michele's blog posts are wonderful essays in a smart, funny voice.

JohnAndrewsThoughts is the name of a Knoxville, Tenn. garden blog. I'm jealous -- in January he was putting in strawberry plants.

John writes,

This 1/2 acre property is about 20 years old and had little landscaping in the huge back yard. This blog is about the work I am doing to plant and fix up this garden.

In the beginning, age 20, in the back yard there were some trees, lots of bermuda grass, 5 leland cyress trees, of which 2 were newly planted, two hedges of eunomymous Manhatten some covered with scale and dying, a shed with some parts missing and a new fence with an 8 ft wide gate on one side and a nice new arbor over the gate on the other side.

The front yard was desperately in need of care with overgrown ivy at the curb and poorly selected shrubs planted too close together. Newer plantings included two magnolia trees, some privits, one of which was giving up the ghost an overgrown holly by the garage and more. The front yard is thankfully small because the lot is at the end of a cul-de-sac.

The side yard provides parking for our RV, one of the main reasons for buying the house. The other reason was because there was no pool and no stairs.

Oh, well, that is where we begin. Now there is a 5 year plan under way to improve the garden, or better, build it from scratch.

Comments are absent to date, but welcome. My kids say do more pictures.

Real Food & Scandalous Gardening Secrets is Harvest McCampbell's garden and humor blog from Hoopa, Calif. (No, not Hoopla.) Hit the archives link on the bottom right for earlier posts.

Bifurcated Carrots: Heirloom gardening and the lives of Pat ‘n' Steph is in Amsterdam. Not a tulip in sight there, though.

That's a bifurcated parsnip at right.

Idaho Gardener "is meant to be a clearinghouse for informational on all things gardening in the intermountain west: people, plants, events," writes Mary Ann from the Treasure Valley.

The Joy of Gardening in Southern Ontario: David the Plant-o-Holic has a brand new blog. He's got a greenhouse growing up there -- a functional plastic-tent rectangle, by the looks of it, and is defying -13-degree nights.

A Midwestern Tropical Garden: Dave must like challenges -- he's growing tropical plants from seed in Iowa.

GardenDesignOnline: Jane Berger in Washington, D.C. writes to tell me about her Washington, D.C. blog :

... news, info, resources, book reviews and more on garden design, horticulture, and related subjects. I'm a professional landscape designer and a journalist (I was a news correspondent for 20 yrs for the Voice of America, including assignments as White House, Pentagon, London, NYC, and Supreme Court correspondent -- before leaving in '96 to pursue landscape design.

She's not blogging about gardening in the snow, but she did kick me into spring thinking by pointing to the All-America Rose Selections winners for 2006 on display at the Rose Bowl Parade.

(I can't tell you how many people here have fantasized about having the dual careers Jane has.) I can't wait to see what she does as the weather warms.

Prefers Full Sun: Sarah Waller in Lawrenceburg, Ind. is focusing right now on indoor gardening -- starting coleus from seed and rescuing 50-cent Christmas cactuses.. She's built a "green room":

Dec. 10: The green room in the basement is coming along! It consists of an old work desk with grow lights hanging over that, a wood bookcase for my supplies, and tomorrow Im going to rig up a watering/draining device. Ive been taking down all my violets, plants that are dormant, or sick or propogating plants. Right now Ive got plenty of room, but judging by how my plant collection grows Ill have to keep a close check on what I bring in. I might have to play with how close the plants are to the light, but so far so good.

The Garden Blog: Nelumbo in Piedmont, S.C., writes this one, and I really like the attitude here:

If you are the type of gardener who takes yourself seriously, go compost yourself. Human flesh is a great source of Nitrogen. Your prize peonies will bloom eternally. Go sacrifice yourself! Now!This blog is for the rest of us.

The Optimistic Gardener. Linn in Molkom, Sweden:

The people I help with gardening advise usually want a nice garden to surround the house they live in. When we bought our home I bought a garden and luckily there was a house in it too. Both ways of looking at the garden are perfectly all right. They just are very different.

I live with my garden, follow it and am constantly being fascinated by it. For me, gardening is a process. When I weed and find a plant I do not recognize I have to let it grow just to see what it is.

Fine winter reading.

Worms of Endearment author Amy Stewart writes to say that her blog's url has changed, and she's started two more blogs

Humboldt Hens has traced the lives of my chickens from their earliest days just out of the egg to now. I also write about other backyard chicken-related issues. http://humboldthens.blogspot.com/

And last but not least... a general gardening blog about what's going on in my garden and what's on my mind, garden-wise is here: Dirt by Amy Stewart. (I can't get this to load right now, but I believe it's real) Recently there was a debate among some of us garden bloggers about plants we love and plants we hate; I posted my top choices in both categories last week.

All coming from Eureka, California...

At Heavy Petal, Andrea Bellamy writes about "adventures (garden day trips and tours), great plant picks, neat
garden tools from an urban, organic perspective. I'm a freelance garden writer based in Vancouver, BC, Canada (Zone 9)."

Andrea is touting an indoor composter now, since her housemate nixed worms indoors.

Novice Gardens: From Western Australia, Stuart Robinson writes, " My wife and I live in Busselton, a coastal town 250kms south of Perth and have been landscaping our house for the past 2 years. My blog is a window into what we have done, are doing and plan to do with our garden in the future."

Around Alora: From Sherill Green, "I write from rural Andalucia in Southern Spain, where we found ourselves when we upped sticks from the UK in 2003. We set about renovating a disused chicken barn with an acre of land and a Lemon Orchard, in Alora, Andalucia. See how we are doing....."

The photo above: "A mature Jacaranda in full bloom just down by the train station in Alora, showing Alora castle in the background."

Gardening Secrets: Kenny Point in Harrisburg, Pa., writes today about growing shallots:

Cultivation is simple. Plant them six to eight inches apart with the root scar facing downward and the pointed end facing up. They should be placed at a depth so that the tops are just barely below the soil. Fall is the best time for planting in most areas and shallots have no trouble surviving winter conditions.

Perfect. I'm going to try it.

In the Garden: Hortense G. writes,

Thank you for the great list of garden blogs! Great winter reading.

I would like to introduce you to yet another garden blog--mine. In the Garden: life, death, and domesticity in a small organic garden in NW Maine.

I shall be dividing my year between a small urban garden in RI, beginning Nov., and my wild mountain garden in Maine. Both will be featured In the Garden.

She writes thoughtfully about her wildlife, welcome and not, these days.

Wiggly Wigglers is the wonderful name of Heather Gorringe's Hereford, England blog. She's laying turf for a wildflower meadow.

Angela's Garden Blog is all over Sacramento, Calif.,

Chloe's Garden: "Musings of a Gardener in Victoria, Australia, as she attempts to reclaim her paradise from the weeds." It's peak daffodil time there, where winter solstice was in June and an Algerian Iris was in bloom.

Linda and Chloe emailed, "Do have to tell you I am out there - and love your list." We'll be visiting you for inspiration during our winter solstice. If you have irises in winter, what is summer like?

Takoma Gardener (new link!) calls herself a "gardening activist." She describes her blog, "Mainly about gardening, with reports from a happy garden club, and occasional detours into nature, books, movies, culture, politics. Takoma's a very progressive, environmentally aware community and my blog reflects that." That's Takoma Park, Maryland.

Right now, she's photographed the sad stalk of a dead rhododendron, confessing, "I'm telling you right up front that I killed this plant, and it could have been avoided. If only I'd listened to the advice I give people all the time."

Right. We all think we can get away with it just this once, though, don't we?

TG has flickr photos, too.

Knitagarden: Judith of knitagarden writes,

My garden is my daily inspiration, no matter the time of year or season. I garden in the woods in Massachusetts and garden on an island (in Narragansett Bay). I twine yarn and crochet along with my garden blogging as well as beekeeping, my smooth collies and Maine Coon Cats. I enjoy visiting gardens--public gardens & friends' gardens and like giving blog reports on what I see in my travels.

I'm a bit late blogging this addition, but timing is everything: Her latest post is about a field trip to Edith Wharton's estate and gardens in Lenox, Mass., with photos.

Bonus: Judith links to What's That Bug?, a question I ask every day in the wildlife sanctuary of my backyard.

Kerry's Garden: The trials and tribulations of one Kentucky gardener…

Kerry writes, "I live in Northern Kentucky, that is zone 6a. I include lots of pictures from the current goings on, recipes using the goodies I grow and how I deal with the various friends and foes that make their way through my little spot of paradise."

She's been battling squash vine borer and harvesting lettuce she planted five weeks ago under lights in a cool basement. I learned here that street lights can cause lettuce to bolt quickly, creating an artificially long day for them.

Dreams and Bones is a stylish blog from West Tisbury, Mass. -- Martha's Vineyard. Gardener Leslie Gray writes, "I'm on the Vineyard and as this is my first year of retirement, this is my first full gardening season. I used to walk away from my garden every August and leave the bounty for the renters. Now it's my turn."

She also has time to deal with squash bugs and blister beetles, and to offer zucchini recipes for everyone whose crop more than came in.

The photos are knockouts, as you can see at right. I had never seen a hummingbird moth before.

Cincinnati Cape Cod: Sabine of Sabine's Garden, below, wrote to tell me of a garden blog by Kasmira in Cincinnati, Ohio should be on that list. The unusual name of the blog does not reflect a merger of midwest and Massachusetts. In her very first post, Kasmira notes that they've bought a Cape Cod-style house in Cincinnati. Another fine photographer with a green thumb!

Sabine's Garden, in British Columbia, is a treat -- large photos and an authentic voice. Her hollyhocks have rust -- a nasty and all-too common disease among these old-fashioned cottage-garden favorites -- but she's made some hollyhock dolls anyway.

As I was chopping down the hollyhocks I noticed that the honeysuckle next to it has developed yellow leaves and black spots again. Now I remember why I usually give up on gardening around this time of year!

...Early this spring I was searching for information about powdery mildew. It attacks my veronica and bee balm every year. I discovered an unusual organic treatment - diluted milk. Some gardeners claim that this solution is effective for preventing black spot on roses, too. I think it's worth a try on my honeysuckle.

In Texas, a pastor's wife blogs The Desert Garden. This sounds tough:

We lost our earliest tomatoes and that is what spurred me on toward building my first raised bed. Here is what we did...

First we bought some lumber 6ft. by 12 inches in size. We picked up four of them. Then we build a frame. See below...

...We are going to start with a Mexican garden. We will plant tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and yellow squash and some herbs such as cilantro and hot peppers for seasoning....

...It is so very hot this time of year with temperatures in the 100s now for more than 25 days. We must keep water going but have to make sure we are following drought regulations as we do so. Much of my watering is with buckets of water or a watering can. The grass is the only things that gets a sprinkler every other day or so. Desert gardening is a challenge but one I am up to. I will beat this climate and have a wonderful garden if it KILLS me!

I couldn't live there, never mind dig there. Hats off to you, lady.

My Garden: Mia Goff of The Nature Nut turns us onto this one. Here's what Mia wrote,

you have absolutely got to check out this new garden blog I discovered today - My Garden by Sandy on Vancouver Island in Canada...

It is full of absolutely gorgeous photos from a garden to-die-for. Wait till you see the plant combinations, textures, manicured lawns. I'm sure your readers will love the scrumptious feast for the eyes.

Sandy is a woman of few words and many photos with an astonishing piece of land.

Down My Garden Path: Claire Siconolfi of Clifton Park, New York. I learn something from every garden blogger. Here's Claire:

Snapdragons were always a favourite of my mums back in England and I remember, whilst growing up, her showing me how if you squeezed them just right on the sides they would open and close like a mouth. This fascinates me even today and was the first thing I did with my new blooms!

Diane's Baja Desert Garden Blog. Diane Varney writes,

Thanks for having your list of garden blogs. I'm sure that it is partially responsible for my inspiration to create my own garden blog. I live in Cabo Pulmo, Baja California Sur (this is the state), Mexico. We are 1,000 miles south of San Diego. My garden focuses on cacti, succulents, and native plants. I am originally from Northern California.

Diane blogs beautiful, exotic (to a New Englander!) photos of cactus flowers, some of which last only a day; a spiny-tail iguana; house finch eggs.

Many cactus flowers only last one day. That means that you have to really take time to appreciate them. This inspired the "Flower of the Day". That means that I try to look at it repeatedly and to show the flower to anyone and everyone I can on its special day.

Most fascinating: She's making cactus paint " from prickly pear cactus slime, lime (not the kind from trees, but calcium hydroxide) and salt. I found a recipe on the web a couple of days ago, marched out to the garden with my pruning saw and hacked up some paddles to soak."

See the results

Perennial Passion is a quilting blog during the winter, but Zoey from Michigan has a lovely spread where the poppies are flaming right now.

There's a lot to photograph (and weed), and she does it well -- and still has to time to blog it.

BelleWood Gardens Gatehouse: It's not quite a blog, writes Judy Glattstein of Frenchtown, N.J., the Gardener at BelleWood, but it's so much more. Judy is working on her seventh book, writes a monthly gardening column for Conn. newspapers, teaches at The New York Botanical Garden and Rutgers University, and knows a lot about gardening.

We're happy to welcome her work to this list.

A Gardening Year: This one's a treasure. OldRoses of Middlesex, N.J. blogs "The adventures and misadventures of an heirloom gardener," including her favorite sources of heirloom seeds and bulbs, and lots of photos of her own garden as spring progresses.

As a bonus (to me), she lists a pair of favorite garden blogs that aren't on this list. They are now -- the two below.

Garden Freak: "crazygramma" gardens in British Columbia. One of her posts cracked me up: " Name this bush
Here is a picture of the flowering bush I cannot remember the name of...."

Her readers took her literally. Among the answers: Molly, Jacqueline, Willard.

Snappy's Garden Blog (aka "gardens blog"): David Hamilton of Yorkshire, U.K. writes a stream-of-consciousness garden blog. Sample: "Gardening is like making your own firework display, you just love the build up, but the ecstacy is in the explosion of colours!For me the flowers lovingly picked, tended, and watched for signs of growth."

Wooded Paths: Gardening on a partially wooded house site, with "public" (access to pedestrians and bicycles) and private paths into the woods. Zone 6A Massachusetts. "dwpitelli" of Natick has lily beetles, and plans to fumigate them with either cigarette smoke or carbon dioxide. I want to know how that turns out. He also has a vast list of links -- I'll be spending time there checking them out.

Hybrids: Some garden blogs share space in the author's life with another hobby. The next two are prime examples.

The Daily Knitter Blog leads right now with The First Harvest: Spinach thrived in the recent rains in Chicagoland. The preceding post is about Knitting Lace.

Karen's Home on the Blog spans an even wider variety: "...gardening, fiber craft, Viking Era research and just plain ol' life as it
happens" in Southwestern Ontario (Zone 5a). Right now, she's leading with terrific photos of what's blooming. Karen found this list via The Nature Nut, below.

She writes, " I've been visiting Rhode Island for the past 2 years (and likely this year as well!) to take part in a Viking Festival of sorts at the Haffenreffer Museum in Bristol. I love Rhode Island, and hope to have more time this year to become a tourist as well as a Viking Era re-enactor."

The Nature Nut, by Mia Goff of Ottawa, Canada. Her zone 4 garden, she writes, "contains 400+ perennials and shrubs hardy in this zone. I am a hosta nut, but also adore pulmonarias, heucheras, astilbes, sedums… I'll stop here (I love all plants).

"My blog is written to be shared with anyone who has an appreciation for plants and nature, and I plan to stay on topic with daily posts on plant information, photographs and garden activities."

Mia plans "daily posts on plant information, photographs and garden activities." Definitely one to watch. And whatever she plants, we should be able to plant here.

Watermark: In contrast to Mia's dedicated blog above, SB writes, "My blog isn't a garden blog, exactly -- it's a personal blog by a poet and gardener, with lots of garden photos."

"I found you through Burningbird -- what a great resource!"

Andrew Stenning, a gardener, garden designer and garden photographer from Brighton, U.K., uses his blog for poems and flower photos.

North Country Maturing Gardener is a Connecticut transplant now living in northern New Hampshire, and a certified Master Gardener in both states. Her blog item listing monthly chores for most of New England is the sort of news to use I crave. Yes, plant your peas in April.

Dirty Thoughts is getting under way along with a new garden in Puerto Rico, where gardener Nina is planting bananas in "hard, red, clay soil." The most recent blog item lists what she's planting now, and promises photos.

TreeDazzled: "I love trees, especially big trees--and I like to start from seed. This site is an attempt to share my interest in trees with others," writes "Shoot," about TreeDazzled, from San Francisco. The latest blog entry begins, "I transplanted four giant sequoia seedlings from cell-packs into 8" pots today. Last year I did the same thing and they all died..."

Cybertoad's Garden is "in Houston, Texas, a nice hot & humid Zone 9A," writes Elaine of the toad clan. Very sharp photos, and lots of them, and a nice feel of wanting to inform make this a good read. Elaine is historian of her garden club, and it's clear why they elected her. She documents well.

Old Country Gardens: Melanie gardens in Long Island, N.Y. ("1.3 acres, a paradise for a girl who grew up in Queens on a tiny postage stamp sized lot"). She has just begun this blog and promises photos after she climbs the learning curve. She's writing about voles now -- it's March as I add this -- and she writes well.

Native Growers "is a blog collecting native plant news, particularly California natives since I'm in San Diego, and links to native plant sites, growers, suppliers, etc. "

And her garden, in early March, already sports these freesias.

Her native plant links include The Invasive Plant Atlas of New England, which you may browse in several ways, including by photo, and the Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group. These and related mailing lists are linked at UConn's New England Invasives page. The New England Wild Flower Society, North American Native Plant Society, PlantExplorers.com and the The Tree of Life Web Project all seem worth delving into further, no matter where you garden.

The Taming of the Band-Aid: Nancy Brian Womble (Updated: I mistook the messenger for the blogger. Sorry, Brian!) from rural Collier County in southwest Florida -- Naples and Marco Island are the county's cities-- describes the blog as,

...my attempt at documenting the rather daunting task of returning our 75' X 660' lot to some sort of natural equilibrium. My goal is for our house and our family to exist in a harmonious way with the plants and animals that have been forced to move elsewhere due to poor stewardship on the previous occupants' parts.

Scroll down to the bottom and read up to see what they started with, and what they've done so far.

An Iowa Garden: "Gardening in a woods in eastern Iowa; a visual narrative." Blogger Don writes,

(The blog) should have lots of pictures from my new, upgraded digital camera, as soon as the ground finally thaws. I garden in a woods in eastern Iowa, and the blog is about the flowers and critters that share the woodland.

do meu jardin blogs Susana's garden in Oporto, Portugal, in Portuguese. I can't read a word of it, but there's no snow in her photos, either.

Wrenaissance Blog is a "gardening/backyard habitat/native plant blog" in Northern Virginia, near Washington, DC. Its homepage is full of good links and information about biodiversity, bird-feeding, the National Wildlife Federation's Backyard Wildlife Habitat program and a listng of others hosting habitats for their local wildlife.

Man v Tree: Richard Harries, a tree-care pro in Llandyrnog, Denbigh, Denbighshire, United Kingdom (i.e. Wales), uses his blog to link to stories and sites I would never find, such as The Laboratory of Tree Ring Research at the University of Arizona, and to useful stories -- Building can be deadly for trees on a wooded lot.

Can You Dig it? Adventures in Organic Gardening is the latest blog from Tamara Galbraith, who had been blogging at Talking Dirty: A Gardening Journal (which we described as "A chatty, entertaining gardening journal from Dallas, Texas.") Tamara also writes an Organic Gardening Column at Suite101.com. We'd consider adopting her if her experience weren't so alien to New England gardeners: "It's unnerving, really. I feel so...unappreciative of the fact that I live and garden in zone 7B (or 8a, depending on which map you use). I mean, after all, I've already started tomato seeds. Our last freeze date is only six weeks away. What the heck am I griping about?"

Laurie's Garden is in Portland, Oregon. Laurie has what many think is a dream job -- she's been a nursery professional for seven years, and blogs about how that goes, as well as about plants.

Native Plants Blog: A pair of plant biologists in Athens, Ga., know what they're talking about. I might learn something here. They also speak on behalf of praying mantises.

Growing Notes: Life, dirt and gardening, in Seattle. "Weeding as meditation"? Yes. That's Megan's late borage at right.

Urban Wilderness - A garden diary: Creating an edible landscape in Vancouver, B.C. Leading with a temperature chart right now, but other posts are far different.

The Accidental Smallholder: Rosemary and Dan Champion offer "encouragement and advice to people who, like us, are seeking to become more self-sufficient, enjoy growing vegetables, fruit and gardening, and are maybe thinking of keeping animals for food production." They're "on the banks of the River Forth, in beautiful Clackmannanshire, in the centre of Scotland." The how-to on garlic-growing has me wondering why I haven't done it already.

Gardening and Such... is a group with 37 members, but they don't all talk at once. They share garden solutions and links. It's part of StumbleUpon, which describes itself as "a community-based, word-of-mouth approach to websurfing – pages you 'stumble upon' come from like-minded people who share your interests."

Someone there linked this Garden Blogs page, then emailed to ask for a spot on it. I'm just above The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure. (No way!)

Metamorphine is in Germany, so I don't understand a word of it, but the photos are grand. And if the pansies are just out, we're probably in a similar climate. (The photo is named "veilchen," which the dictionary says are violets; pansies are "die Stiefmütterchen" -- but perhaps they're interchangeable.)

Horticultural: By Jane Perrone, assistant news editor at Guardian Unlimited. Here, we'll call her another English gardener.

Dehiscent "Postcards from the electronic garden: Gardenalia, plants, people. Comments and links to horticultural and garden-related news stories" by Michael Elliott in Brisbane, Australia.
[Dictionary on dehiscent: adj.- (of e.g. fruits and anthers) opening spontaneously at maturity to release seeds; indehiscent - (of e.g. fruits) not opening spontaneously at maturity to release seeds]

Path to Freedom: Urban Homestead Diary. A rich site from Pasadena, Calif.: "Our focus is on: organic gardening, permaculture, solar cooking, composting and other back-to-basic, sustainable technologies and practices relating to the home environment."

Halfrey Cottage Critter and Garden Journal: "Native plants, bugs, gnomes, and such . . ." in an Atlanta garden, now in high spring. (It's one post per page, so click on the Archives link to see the topics.)

Ilona's Garden Journal: An Ohio gardener, "Recording events of my garden season and its inspirations."

Coast Journal: "A collection of book reviews, mostly about plants, nature, gardening and history."

Our Swiss Garden: Yes, it's in Europe.

Hands In The Dirt: Plants and politics entwine in this Indianapolis blog.

Scenic Nursery: The blog of a Modesto, Calif., commercial nursery.

judi, judi, quite contrary gardens in Niagara Falls, N.Y.

Garden Blog: Zone 8, WHAT UP!!! hails from from Austin, Texas. Check out the Categories section on the right.

The Garden's Gift: "An informational website dedicated to the zen of gardening." Here's a new blog from Florida's west coast with subsections of plant resources, tips, garden accessories and information resources.

UBC Botanical Garden Weblog: Lots of good information here, plus coverage of breaking plant news.

Updated 2.02.04

Nature of New England - Nature Journal: Notes about birds, mammals, wildflowers, insects, and more.

greenZoo: Walks in the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. Other greenZoos.

Garden of Dead Bugs: A carnivorous plant blog by Californian Chuck Rossi.

Butterfly Gardening and Conservation: Butterflygirl is in St. Louis.

About Landscaping: David Beaulieu is all over the lot.

The Bookish Gardener: Chan Stroman describes her blog as "a bit of a cross between a gardening blog and a reading blog."

Orchids: A blog from Caracas, Venezuela with lovely photos of its chosen flowers.

Toward a Green Thumb: Blogger Pat Anderson writes, "I'm gardening close to downtown Toronto in a small urban yard, and I'm also taking courses through University of Guelph (here in Ontario) on the way to becoming a Master Gardener. " (added 1.26.04)

Worms of Endearment: A worm blog. Gardeners will love this. Amy Stewart spent three years writing a book about worms (The Earth Moved), she's about to tour with it, and now she's blogging. (added 12.11.03)

Useful tool: USDA Plants Database you can download a national or state plant checklist, look up individual plants, get lots of info on plants & environment. (added 7.23.03)

Garden Diaries at Muddle Puddle Home Education (U.K.) (added 7.23.03): "Members of the MudPud list have been (I think the right word might be co-erced!) into keeping weblogs of their garden adventures this summer.... below are links to their blogs..." There are 15 such blogs.

prairie point (added 6.24.03) is Bill Hopkins' blog about gardening in north Texas. I envy his complaint that his tomatoes are still green. Here in New England, where it's rained forever, tomatoes haven't grown up yet. It may be behind us, though. The sun came out yesterday and is still out today, punctuated by rain last night, of course.

Viviculture and Pure Land Mountain come from Mark Woods (wood s lot) of Perth, Ontario.
Updated 05.02.03: Woods sends another link, to the wonderfully titled The Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl.

Cold Climate Gardening: Kathy Purdy, in New York state, has a whole page of garden blog links, complete with authors and location, where they're discernible. Here's the short version she sent:

Updated 8.27.03: Every so often I do get a visit from your site, so I thought I'd reward you with some more garden blogs. They vary in quality and frequency of posting, and some just teeter on the edge of actually being a blog. But anyone who enjoys reading about what's going on in other peoples' gardens will enjoy reading them all. -- Kathy of Cold Climate Gardening (www.coldclimategardening.com)

A Gardener's Notebook with Douglas E. Welch From the San Fernando Valley in Southern California.

bashasgarden in Bucks County, Pennsylvania:

Clearwater Landscape Design Lots of useful information from the company's website including planting tips, lanscape design and how to build a pond. Location not known.

Family Robinson "Gardening organically from home" - and from the sounds of it, home is in England! Unfortunately, this blog has not been updated since June 2003.

Garden Bits (Click on the link "chronological order" for a blog-like journal)

Garden Djinn: Hogglebog is a zone 5 garden located in southeast Michigan

Garden Kids Garden #2 grows in Brooklyn, despite ferocious snails!

Tectorum.com: Gardening in Zionville, N.C.

Pollenatrix: Ontario gardener, writing a lot abuut orchids lately.

13 Labs Garden "A chronicle of the microcosm that is our backyard" from Chicago

Contra-Diction "Mary Contrary's Kitchen Garden Blog" from England - unfortunately not updated since Aug 2001.

Debby's Garden Links - Links to UK gardening related websites, garden forum and lots of gardening tips

Garden Spot (note that I updated the link) Gardening in Houston, Texas

GreenZoo Walks in a botanical garden. From the UK.

Home and Garden at Times to Come A New England Garden Blog

marmalade - such a dirty girl! Gardening from Toronto, Canada

Mimosa Gardening Maryland meanderings among my gardens and attempts to bring native habitats to the area.

Minnesota Gardener "Wanderings in the web garden" Much more than a garden blog from where else but Minnesota.

Moosey's Country Garden - An eccentric Rambling Country Garden from Christchurch, New Zealand.

Notes From Zone 4 Gardening journal from rural New Hampshire, USDA Zone 4

Outside in the garden Seasonal notes and musings from eastern Connecticut

PlantBuzz Home The starting point of Mark McDonough's eclectic horticultural musings and illustrated plant studies .

Renegade Gardener - "Garden and gardening advice about flowers and ornamental shrubs and trees in the the northern United States such as Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, New England"

Soul of the Garden Beautiful online gardening journal from Central Texas. Wonderful photos, and home of The Daily Muse

Travelling eGarden Journal Memories from a travelling blogger who plants and nurtures gardens and then moves on.... Location - too numerous to name.

True Dirt "Two gardeners talk"... from Oakland, CA

Viviculture Weblog "What is viviculture? 1. the practice of caring for, improving or promoting the development of life 2. an appreciation, respect and reverence for life" A daily weblog dedicted to viviculture - from somewhere quite cold...

Waiting for Spring: Gardening in Zone 3a From Canada - while waiting for spring, this blogger also knits!

Wild West Yorkshire nature diary "Richard Bell's nature diary-2004" from the UK


You Grow Girl | Everything's Gone Green "Garden journals from around the globe" - Sheila note that their "new gardening blog" link is not live.

Zanthan Gardens | Weblog "Weblog of a Central Austin Garden" ... another Texas blog!

Garden Geek Girl: She's in Sacramento, and has a large garden site with photos and comments about plants and techniques, a glossary, journal, a couple of years of garden plans and more. Thanks to David Grenier ("Writer. Bowler. Revolutionary.") for the link.

Karen's Garden: Karen Kolling, who describes herself as a "former and soon to be current Rhode Islander," has a page of links of "articles from my former garden column in the Palo Alto Daily News." Headlines include Organic care for lawns, Troublefree Roses, Homegrown Tomatoes and intersting combinations such as "Rose colors, Whiteflies and aphids" and "Ants, Potatoes, Old trees."

More:
You Grow Girl: Home of the Worldwide Gardening Blog -- nine garden bloggers from Toronto, Texas, Chicago, Cambridgeshire, Vancouver, Central Florida, Michigan and Oregon.

The Garden of Till Hamwhich (of Buckleberry Fern) Yet another Texas blog.

Clearwater Landscape Designs

Finally, a colleague points to Rhode Islander Mort White's The Magic Garden. Not a blog, but perhaps useful, and local.

Not blogs: Tom Matrullo sent a link to "Wild Flowers of Castle Country -- an online reproduction of the book by Max and Vera Finley" for the sheer pleasure of it. It's page after page of stunning, large photos of Utah flora. He also points to Ketzel Levine's Talking Plants; Levine offers gardening tips on NPR.

Enough for now. I'm going to pull this out as a separate page and add it to the blogroll next week, so it'll be handy. For those of you who have registered at projo.com, its Garden site has a list of links of its own.

Garden zones: Here's a link to a draft of the the 2003 edition of the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map (pdf) at the American Horticultural Society. It puts Providence in Zone 7 now. (Zones are based on expected low temperatures; plant hardiness is determined by the lowest temperatures a species can withstand.)

Data from 1986 and from last year was compared to produce the changes -- but this year, winter was brutal here, and many plants that usually come back just didn't this spring. I wouldn't spend big bucks on tender perennials based solely on this data.