Wandering the Web — April Showers Bring May Flowers: Online Reference Sites for Hobbyist Gardeners

Column Editor: Lesley Rice Montgomery, MLIS (Catalog Librarian, Tulane University Libraries’ Technical Services Department)

Reaping What You Sow: Inspirational Websites to Get You Started

Gardening is one of the oldest occupations. For centuries, humans have supplemented their food supplies with homegrown fruits and vegetables, herbs and other leafy edibles, have decorated their living spaces with beautiful flowers, and have tried to keep domiciles cool during blazing hot summer months with surrounding shade trees. Horticulturalists go by many names including farmers, arborists, floriculturists, landscape architects, plantspersons, nurserymen, lawn-care specialists, and so on. No matter how you view your participation in the honorable tasks of cultivating soil, sowing, growing and harvesting crops, sometimes the prospect of creating a new garden can be daunting for the hobbyist. Questions might arise regarding design, like whether or not you should consign flowers and vegetables to a pot, to an aluminum bin, to a raised and tiered garden, or should you just start digging in the ground and hope for the best?

To provide inspiration and hopefully encourage you to get planting, here is a lovely website that will connect you to 10 great gardening websites you must read, https://www.treehugger. com/great-gardening-websites-4858719, an article that appears in the Treehugger blog. Mr. Gonzalez’ article serves as a onestop tour of exemplary websites. It is his stated intention to cull the millions of retrieved items from a standard search, ignoring SEO-curated search results, and thereby to provide a list of high-quality gardening websites. The resulting list, which is not presented in any particular order, starts with Kitchen Gardeners International, an online community of people who advance the concept of self-reliance by maintaining sustainable food systems. Full disclosure: Their web link is broken! This is a good example of how private websites such as Treehugger often will not continue to police the URLs buried within their site, once a specific article has been published online. Other hyperlinks work, such as for Chiot’s Run, a chronicle of an organic life at https://chiotsrun.com/. This is a long-running blog, last updated as of October 2020. The unnamed blogger has done a fabulous job of archiving postings since June 2008, covering topics as varied as using kale as an ornamental, setting up an edible garden in Maine — the blogger’s home base — and helpful hints on covering an awkward yard space with a beneficial and scenic pollinator bed. The website is streamlined, minimalist, and the illustrative full-color photographs are nicely edited.

Another link in 10 great gardening websites you must read is The Royal Horticultural Society’s site at https://www.rhs.org. uk/. You can become a member, which might be useful if you live anywhere near the United Kingdom, but the site itself provides a wealth of information on horticultural matters, with an array of articles, blogs within the site, even tips for how to develop a career in the RHS. Databases for finding gardens and flower shows, how to sign up for listservs that will connect you with fellow gardening enthusiasts, a gorgeous gift shop that sells reproductions of vintage botanical plates and high-definition photographs of famous gardens… It is all here on this one site. Other hyperlinks in 10 great gardening websites you must read are viable and all are maintained by bloggers.

In fact, the Treehugger blog itself is worth browsing. Founded by self-professed eco-advocate Graham Hill in 2004, this extensive, well-organized blog is said to be “the only modern sustainability site that offers advice, clarity, and inspiration for both the eco-savvy and the green-living novice. With 2.6 million monthly users, Treehugger is the world’s largest information site dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream.” https://www.treehugger.com/about-us-5024862 The site owners promise to report gardening information with integrity, to trust science and never preach, and to carefully cite all sources of information. They report news stories on the environment, including items of interest about wildlife, as well as cover topics related to gardening. Natural cleaning, five attributes of a successful gardener, and thoroughly documented planting guides at https://www.treehugger.com/plantingguides-4846052 are all interesting articles and relevant for today’s environmentally savvy citizens.

Back to Basics

Better Homes & Gardens has been around for decades as a print magazine, the company has published DIY books, and nowadays has an online site. The link at https://www.bhg.com/ gardening/yard/garden-care/ten-steps-to-beginning-a-garden/ shows beginners how to start a garden, with the information broken down into ten easy steps. Better Homes & Gardens first helps you to decide on the type of garden you might want to plant — an herb garden, a flower garden, and whether to plant annuals or perennials. The directions proceed to discuss matters of design, how to clear the ground and prepare the soil, the timing for planting vegetables and flowers, lets you know how often you should water depending on the type of soil, if or when you should mulch, and the list finishes with tips on continuing garden maintenance. This article is attractively illustrated, is concise and very useful.

Almanac at https://www.almanac.com/ is a modern take on The Old Farmer’s Almanac. The website is comprehensive. On the home page, they have internal links to plant growing guides. These guides are fully indexed, with links to vegetables, fruits, herbs, flowers, foliage plants, trees, shrub and vines, and houseplants. Once you click on the broader topic, each subtopic lists page after page of full-color links. If you click on the herbs link, the illustrated index allows you to poke on the internal links for various herbs — basil, chives, cilantro (coriander), dill, and so on. For example, the basil web link provides the botanical name, plant type, sun exposure, soil pH needed to grow the herb, the blooming time, planting timing, how to harvest and store the herb, what pests or diseases might impact your crop, and anecdotal wit and wisdom including an old Italian saying, “Where salt is good, so is basil.” This is a fun site to browse through.

Forbes at https://www.forbes.com/home-improvement/ lawn-care/how-to-start-a-garden/ might seem like an unlikely source for gardening advice. Forbes’ article, however, is excellent. The Ultimate Guide for how to Start a Garden from Scratch discusses the many benefits to gardening while listing fundamental processes based on your local microclimate, soil type, the time of year; tells you how to grow plants vertically, how to hire landscaping contractors, how to create a Zen garden; and provides so many more helpful tips to help your garden flourish.

Know Your Garden Growing Season

Harvest to Table — https://harvesttotable.com/know-yourgarden-growing-season/ — Longer days are here, it’s still early springtime for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, and now is the time to plant cool-season vegetables. The site Harvest to Table at https://harvesttotable.com/ is another full-color site that is packed with beautiful photographs, gardening hints, and a lengthy cross-referenced index of the entire site. A-Z topics include an indexed page on growing vegetables, listed alphabetically by the name of each vegetable, with live links leading you from how to plant and grow artichokes to how to grow zucchini. Less common vegetables are discussed, including cardoon, which evidently is like a delicate celery that you eat after blanching; various cresses; mizuna, which is an Asian leafy green that’s good to eat in salads or to cook … sort of like mild mustard greens with a light cabbage flavor; and salsify, which is a carrot-like, off-white colored root that tastes a little like an oyster! Other items on Harvest to Table’s drop-down menu include page after page discussing ornamental plants, gardening basics, courses like the Vegetable Garden Grower’s Masterclass that is on sale for $99, lowered from $299, podcasts, and another thoroughly indexed list of kitchen tips and recipes. You can join the gardening family to get the latest tips; otherwise, you can simply spend hours perusing this exceptional site.

Maintaining Your Garden

Now that you have successfully designed, planted and grown your garden, how do you keep it going so you can continue to enjoy the fruits of your labor? There are numerous online articles on garden maintenance. They all essentially follow the same pattern, emphasizing proper watering, how to destroy weeds, prevent diseases, and protect your garden from pests, whether bugs or critters or invading plant species. MasterClass’s article demonstrates how to increase the quality and longevity of your garden. This quick read at https://www.masterclass.com/ articles/how-to-keep-plants-alive is an excellent mini course on keeping your garden safe from weeds, flooding and other menaces. Happy gardening!

References

Albert, S. (2024). Vegetable garden growing season. Harvest to Table. https://harvesttotable.com/know-your-garden-growingseason/

Beck, A. (2024, March 5). How to start a garden: 10 easy steps for beginners. Better Homes & Gardens. https://www.bhg.com/ gardening/yard/garden-care/ten-steps-to-beginning-a-garden/ Chiotsrun.com. (2020, October 1). Chiot’s run, a chronicle of an organic life. https://chiotsrun.com/

Finley, R. (2021, June 7). 10 ways to care for your garden: How to keep plants alive. MasterClass. https://www.masterclass.com/ articles/how-to-keep-plants-alive

Fisher, T. (2024). About us . Treehugger. https://www. treehugger.com/about-us-5024862

Gonzalez, R. (2018, October 11). 10 great gardening websites you must read. Treehugger. https://www.treehugger.com/greatgardening-websites-4858719

Harvest to Table. (2024). Harvest to Table. https:// harvesttotable.com/

RHS. (2024). The Royal Horticultural Society. https://www. rhs.org.uk/

Treehugger. (2024). Planting guides. Treehugger. https:// www.treehugger.com/planting-guides-4846052

Waterworth, K., & Pelchen, L. (2023, April 25). The ultimate guide for how to start a garden from scratch. Forbes. https:// www.forbes.com/home-improvement/lawn-care/how-to-starta-garden/

Yankee. (2024). Almanac. Yankee. https://www.almanac. com/