Blog Profiles: Gardening Blogs, Volume 1

Welcome to Blog Profiles! Each week, we select 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 us why @BeyondBylines.

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.

Gardening is clearly one of our favorite blog topics. View Volume 2, Volume 3, and Volume 4 for even more green-thumb-friendly content.

1. Danger Garden

warns readers to be “careful, you could poke an eye out.”

Portland garden blogger Loree, partner and communications director at Plant Lust, is the brains and voice behind Danger Garden.

Danger Garden recently tweeted this [frighteningly accurate] bit: “Real gardeners are bound to get caught by the neighbors gardening in pajamas sooner or later.”

Thanks to Loree’s 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.

2. A Way to Garden

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.

3. You Grow Girl

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.

4. GardenRant

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’s search for a new executive director in DC.

Follow @GardenRant on Twitter.

Christine Cube is the former media relations manager with PR Newswire and a 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+.