Looking for Gardening Blog Recommendations for Gardens in Zone 5-6
February 20, 2014 10:47 AM   Subscribe

All the gardening blogs I like to follow seem to be set on the west coast or zones where people are starting to plant things in their garden now which is very depressing as I still have a foot of snow in my garden. I am looking for gardening blogs where the writer's garden is in Zone 5 or 6. Northern Indiana or Chicago would earn you extra bonus points, but zone 5 or 6 is a good starting place.

Things I am most interested in are
Vegetable Gardening
Cottage style gardens.
Pottager Gardens.
Organic gardening but don't mind if the blog does not follow organic processes, but I keep an organic garden so it is a preference.
Square foot gardening.
Seed Saving.

Additional areas of interest from gardeners would include.
Canning and food preservation.

I have more liberal views so a sites that reflect those would be nice. I have found a lot of gardening/homesteading sites based in the area I'm in seem to have a "prepper" leaning and I can work with that if the site focuses on gardening I would like to avoid sites that are extreme end of the world doom and gloom types.

Any suggestions appreciated, even if they are just links to your own site if it matches my interests.
posted by wwax to Home & Garden (6 answers total) 25 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Well, the ones on my list are You Grow Girl in Ontario, Canada and A Way to Garden in New York. I also like Gayla Trail's books (the You Grow Girl girl.)

I also follow Garden Rant. Some of the people who write there are in your zone. Often it's more about gardening and food...issues, I guess, rather than about practical aspects of gardening, but I like the writing.
posted by sevenless at 11:38 AM on February 20, 2014


Best answer: Three cheers for You Grow Girl. She's amazing! Great resource on preserving, seed starting and saving, and urban vegetable gardening (especially tomatoes).

Tim's Square Foot Garden and accompanying blog is a great resource for Indianapolis/zone 5 gardening. Skippy's Vegetable Garden, near Boston in zone 6. Garden in a City is about a cottage garden in Chicago proper. My Northern Garden covers a lot of your bases, the author is based in Minnesota, and they write about gardening in zones 2 to 5. May Dreams Gardens is based in Indiana.

Cold Climate Gardening is great on its own, based in upstate New York. They also have a blog directory with listings in Indiana and Illinois.

Folia's zone 5 and zone 6 pages will show you what nearby gardeners are seeding and forcing right now. It's always nice to see what more hopeful and intrepid folks are planting as winter marches on.
posted by divined by radio at 11:54 AM on February 20, 2014 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Each Little World is in Madison Wisconsin. She has been posting a lot of art/decor stuff in the winter but is hard core gardening during the season.

Another that I think is in Zone 7 but has great photos and a lot of things that grow in 5&6 is Ramblin through Dave's Garden.
posted by sulaine at 12:05 PM on February 20, 2014


Best answer: I'm in Southern Indiana, and I really enjoy Old World Garden Farms. They're a couple in Central Ohio who are down-to-earth and enthusiastic about their garden, being neither hickish, snooty, gloom-and-doom, nor New Age-y about it at all. They talk a lot about the practicalities of growing different crops, as well as seed starting/saving, canning, and recipes.

Here are their stated goals, and they really come through on their website:
1. Build a completely sustainable farm with zero debt.
2. Be responsible for the majority of the food we eat through growing, canning and preserving.
3. To re-use salvaged and recycled materials wherever and whenever in our buildings and projects on the farm.
4. To make it beautiful, and have fun doing it.
posted by Rykey at 12:49 PM on February 20, 2014


Best answer: Our Little Acre is in NW Ohio.

I find Mark's Veg Plot fascinating, even though I'm a Texan and he's in the UK.

Sometimes I enjoy Little Homestead in Boise, though I'm not sure how applicable to you it would be.

I like e-i-e-i-omg, but she is in upstate NY and that might be a zone or 2 colder than you.

Annie's Kitchen Garden is in eastern Washington state, I think she's in zone 6.

Another in zone 6, Seeding the Good Life.

Daphne of Daphne's Dandelions is in Cambridge, Mass. Zone 6 ish. Still snow on the ground in her pics from Monday. Daphne heads up Harvest Monday, I believe.

Skippy is near Boston, in zone 6.

You will need to dig into some older posts, but 66 Square Feet is in NY and does/did impressively square foot garden on her balcony.

I should probably stop, now. I tend to gravitate more towards the homesteading blogs, but those linked are pretty good and I'm sure you can find others that are more relatable to you if you browse through their subscribers.
posted by kpetrich at 1:27 PM on February 20, 2014 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Missouri Botanical Garden has a blog!

A Corner Garden is usually pretty good.

And Blotanical is a directory of garden blogs.
posted by Ostara at 8:14 PM on February 20, 2014


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