Welcome to Blog Profiles! Each week, PR Newswire media relations manager Christine Cube selects an industry or subject and a handful of sites that do a good job with promoting and blogging about the space. Do you have a blog that deserves recognition? Tell Christine why on PR Newswire for Bloggers.
OK, folks. This post is dedicated to my garden friends and family – green thumbs everywhere who log countless hours weeding, pinching, deadheading, mulching, composting, planting, and transplanting – things that will make their gardens a better place.
And for those less green-thumb-like, please bear with me. I’ve literally been itching to write this one.
I am a plant addict. My name is Christine.
The garden blogs I uncovered this week – with the assistance of some trusted garden gurus – are a brilliant, quirky, and information-packed group.
Kiss My Aster is “like sassy, but for gardening.”
It’s written and managed by Chicago gardener Amanda Thomsen, who describes herself as “big, loud and fun – I landscape by day and blog at night.”
I completely agree with Thomsen in her post Dig Me Out, Dig Me In that free plants from friends are “THE BEST.”
When I began gardening a couple of years ago, I found on Craigslist a slew of local gardeners willing to share plants and cuttings from their earthy sanctuaries to help me start my own garden. I’ll be paying this forward in the fall now that my garden has reached a health and vitality that requires division.
A couple of Kiss My Aster posts I enjoyed include I Have Crinum. Yes I Do. and this short and sweet (just a pic) of Vintage Garden Ideas: Mid-Century Modern Privacy.
Follow @kissmyaster on Twitter.
Danger Garden warns readers to be “careful, you could poke an eye out.”
Portland garden blogger Megan, partner and communications director at Plant Lust, is the brains and voice behind Danger Garden.
Megan recently tweeted this [frighteningly accurate] bit: “Real gardeners are bound to get caught by the neighbors gardening in pajamas sooner or later.”
Thanks to her solid writing and photography, I now want this plant, sedum ochroleucum ‘Crested Centaurus’ is my favorite plant in the garden (this week). I also found myself in awe of the galvanized garden goodness found in #12. (Brilliance. And now, I’d like to reconsider every bed that I’ve carved into the yard to see how I might manage a zillion compact, metallic tubs.)
Follow @plantlust on Twitter.
A Way to Garden is the “latest horticultural incarnation” of Margaret Roach, who has been writing about gardening for 25-plus years. She was the first garden editor of Martha Stewart’s “Living.”
Roach launched her site in March 2008. You also can catch her on her public-radio podcast each week.
I like A Way to Garden because it covers a ton of information: Plants, recipes, how-tos, when to start seed, chores by month, FAQs, and freezing and canning.
Her Tomato-Growing FAQs covered many questions I’ve had about this awesome fruit. Last year, I did quite well with a couple varieties of cherry tomatoes. But heirloom? I’ve never even thought to include them in my veg patch.
I also enjoyed the wrap up of hot topics of conversation from my May 10 open garden day. And the pictures? Good heavens. (Incidentally, if I happen to be in Copake Falls, NY on June 7, I will certainly drop in to Roach’s garden tour plus wildflower talk with author Carol Gracie.)
Follow @margaretroach on Twitter.
You Grow Girl presents “gardening for the people.”
The site was launched by writer and photographer Gayla Trail in Feb. 2000.
It has grown into a “thriving project that speaks to a new kind of gardener, seeking to redefine the modern world relationship to plants. This contemporary, laid-back approach to organic gardening places equal importance on environmentalism, style, affordability, art, and humour.”
This gorgeous recipe made me equally hungry and curious: soft eggs on a bed of spring garden vegetables. I also read with fascination about the tiniest clematis you ever did see and how to test the germination rate of your old seeds. (Truth be told, I’m terrible with seeds. I overthink them. I need to stop that.)
Follow @yougrowgirl on Twitter.
GardenRant is the work of a handful of “highly opinionated gardeners.”
It’s been online since June 2006 and “quickly developed a following among garden bloggers, garden writers and editors, and landscape nursery business professionals.” The site also features a good selection of guest rants from outside contributors.
GardenRant’s feature categories are pretty amusing: Shut up and dig, Science says, Crrritic!, Tune in, Ministry of controversy, and Feed me.
I found pretty interesting Megan Cain’s guest rant stop tilling your vegetable garden. I also love that the blog keeps readers up to date on important news items like the U.S. Botanic Garden looking for a new executive director in DC.
Follow @GardenRant on Twitter.
Finally, Gossip in the Garden features “harmony in the garden’s chattier side.”
It’s the blog of garden designer Rebecca Sweet, who owns Harmony In The Garden in Northern California.
I applaud Sweet’s gutsy and beautifully laid out series on Goodbye Lawn, Hello Garden Parts 1, 2, and 3. (The finished product really is spectacular.)
I also enjoyed spring’s one-hit wonders: flowering quince, forsythia & spirea.
Follow @sweetrebecca on Twitter.
Christine Cube is a media relations manager with PR Newswire and freelance writer. She Instagrams her garden and its inhabitants and recently posted her Princess Victoria Louise poppy (papaver orientale). Follow @cpcube or give her a shout at PR Newswire’s Google+.
Filed under: Blogs We Love 
