My favorite gardening sites

I have found some really wonderful gardening sites that I want to share.

I just came across this great blog, Cheap Vegetable Gardener and particularly found this post helpful about cheap organic fertilizer. But I really enjoy the whole site. I'm definitely gardening on a budget and this offers some really helpful ideas.

This sounds so obvious, but even though I subscribe to the magazine, I never thought to look at their website - the Better Homes and Garden plant dictionary is excellent. I'm constantly trying to identify plants.

This is a really fun site. I could spend all day here, just soaking up info: Dave's Garden.

Another site similar to Dave's is Doug Green's Simple Gifts Farm. It's amazing how generous gardeners are with information.

I've sort of been anti-annuals and pro-perennials, I guess because I want the most bang for my buck. But this article made me realize that annuals just give a different kind of bang - maybe not in longevity, but in beauty and color all summer. I went out the next day and bought some fun annuals.

We just became members at Bristol, RI's Blithewold Mansion, Garden and Arboretum. The head gardener there writes a fascinating blog that is worth checking out, no matter where you live.

And this is a really intriguing idea - The Plant Exchange - where people swap plants. I did a local plant swap this spring and got some great stuff. But this expands it way beyond your hometown.

That's it for now. I'll add more interesting links as I come across them. Please feel free to share your own internet finds.

Gardening is Great!

The title of this blog has taken on a whole new meaning, as I've become intensely passionate about gardening this spring.

It makes me feel connected to my grandfather, as he was quite a gardener. I did this painting as part of a project for my 2D Design class last semester. My strongest memories of Grampy's garden are tomatoes and snapdragons.

I love that there is so much to learn - it's like a whole new world has been opened up to me, which is very exciting. I love going to local nurseries and perusing their wonderful selections of interesting plants.

I love going online and finding interesting and useful websites full of info for people like me who don't know a thing about plants.

I love that my good friend Eileen is also a new gardener and we can talk endlessly about our endeavor.

And I love that it's something I'll be working on for years to come - that I can plan, make notes, daydream about it. That's really the best part, even if all my plans don't come to fruition (no pun intended).