Best gardening blogs, Instagram accounts, and/or YouTube channels?

January 23, 2020 12:54 PM

Seeking blogs, IG accounts, and YouTube channels about gardens and gardening to fill the cold, grey, dark void while I wait for spring. I'm especially interested in Zone 6 and/or New England-based bloggers, with bonus points for folks in the Boston area.

Beyond the regional aspect, I'm also interested in:
- native plants and pollinator-friendly gardening
- radical/activist/community-based gardening
- heirlooms and rare edible plants
- regular people posting about their mundane garden goings-on

I found similar AskMe posts from years past, but in reviewing those answers I found a lot of dead links. What's the latest and greatest? Or, which old favorites are still chugging along?

posted by apricity to Home & Garden (5 answers total)

I’ve probably posted my blog reader links in a previous thread, so I won’t duplicate them here. My Instagram feed is mostly garden stuff, and I love it. Here’s what I follow currently:

• northernnaturalgardens for Minnesota urban yard native plant gardening inspiration (seriously, I’ve redone my entire yard based on their advice)
• prairiemoonnursery for native plant inspiration (Midwest-specific, great info on growing stuff from seed)
• monarchgardensbenjaminvogt for native plant inspiration/activism (Great Plains-specific, suburban)
• broken_forest for fascinating, weird, Canada-centric native plant inspiration/activism
• jenniferrensenbrink for urban Minneapolis native plant and vegetable gardening photos (her blog is great, too)
• #rhonestreetgardens for cool Portland, Oregon urban native plant garden photos
• xercessociety for native plant/pollinator/wildlife info
• vegetableacademy for urban, northern (zone 3) vegetable garden advice
• Charles_Dowding for inspirational British vegetable garden photos
• themontydon for aspirational British garden photos
• evening_gardener for fun British front yard meadow photos
• #choosenativeplants, #lesslawnmoregarden, and #newperennialmovement for new, random content
posted by Maarika at 4:08 PM on January 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

I adore Growing with Plants. Matt Mattus, the author, lives in Western Mass, and I've learned a lot from his blog. (I grew up in a much different zone!)
posted by marfa, texas at 6:40 PM on January 23, 2020

More US zone 6ish general but I follow \ read:

lowtech institute Wisconsin, zone 5a "We bring nonindustrial subsistence technology to (over)developed societies", activism, blog, library and a physical landscape site.

The Land Institute, Salina, KS, z 5b\6a "Transforming Agriculture, Perennially", inspiring on so many levels, have a video and audio library too. Focus is on real agricultural change from genetics to agribusiness and society. Conventional breeding of perennial wheat is one of their latest achievements.

and just for info Stonecrop Gardens, Cold Spring NY, zone 6a, especially good for their planting calendar, some vids too but not very bloggy.

I don't know how it happened (and not remotely gardening) but getting the above links I found this amazing Robin Finck NIN interview. What an amazing guy.
posted by unearthed at 7:10 PM on January 23, 2020

Each Little World- Wisconsin home gardener.

Ramblin through Dave's Garden- Virginia garden journal
posted by sulaine at 8:18 PM on January 23, 2020

Local meteorologist Dave Epstein blogs at Growing Wisdom. He maintains a Twitter account under the same name, but I think that's more weather focused.
posted by backseatpilot at 6:07 AM on January 28, 2020