Garden Blogs of the Month: August 2011

If you are a northern hemisphere gardener who is returning to the garden blogosphere as your garden activity slows down, or if you are a southern hemisphere gardener looking for a gardening fix as you await the arrival of spring, you may be interested in checking out some new garden blogs. If so, I am happy to recommend that you take a look at these three. (As usual, I’ve made my choices from the blogs added to the Blotanical listings during the past month.)

At Behind the Fence, Dee Langston shares her experiences of and reflections on gardening in North Carolina. Posts in this blog are a delightful mix of gardening experiences (both good and bad), gardening ideas and information, and reflections on gardening and life, all served up with a dollop of humor. What really got me hooked on Behind the Fence is the quality of writing; Dee Langston’s background in journalism and her work as a free-lance copy-editor really show here. One of my favorite posts was Gardening with the Grandkid a Sweet Do-over, her reflections on gardening with children and grandchildren. This excerpt will give you a sense of the blog’s style and writing:

Foraging for food is a real adventure for a child, as much fun as an Easter egg hunt. They can grow their vocabularies in a garden too, by learning the names of vegetables — sort of. Hailey is still confused about carrots; she calls them pullits, because that’s how you get them. The excitement of finding a big one is the same, though, not matter what she calls it.

Chad B of Me So Thorny blogs and gardens a continent away from Dee Langston in Sacramento California. As the title suggests, this is another blog that makes good use of humor, and its posts also range fairly widely. Topics covered include garden tips, reports on garden projects, pets in the garden, children in the garden, plants (including weeds), the weather, and even reviews of television gardening programs. The posts are well-developed and well-written; and some are very specific, while others provide more general reflections on gardens and gardening. I loved them all; and although Chad and I garden in very different climates and conditions, I felt as though I had met a kindred spirit. (And not just because we are both mourning the loss of the same favorite television garden program.) I am very much looking forward to reading more and getting to know Chad and his garden through this blog.

John of John and Maria’s Garden Pages gardens and blogs in the southwest of England. His blog posts focus primarily on garden projects and on specific plants, and they are lavishly illustrated with photographs. I was struck by how many of the plants that John features in his blog were new to me. Although very few of these plants are suitable candidates for my own very different climate, I loved learning about them as I scrolled through the blog. What really hooked me in, though, was John’s description of himself on his sidebar:

Years ago I trained as an ecologist – the hard science, statistical type, not the fluffy tree hugging type – and then worked as a teacher and part time writer. For the last twenty years I’ve worked as an IT Trainer. All of which means that my scientific BS detector is set to stun, I don’t make a comment without checking my facts first – and that I can be ever so slightly preachy.

I appreciate this careful attention to accuracy and expect this blog to be a source of both pleasure and continuing education.