Thank god for the interweb. I say that almost daily, for it’s amazing what you can find there. For a beginning gardener, it’s a miracle sent from heaven. What on earth did people DO before? Lots of library books and the occasional class, I guess and if you were lucky, a friend with a green thumb. I’m sure I’ve barely scratched the surface, but I already have a few favorite sites.
As mentioned previously, Annie’s Annuals is like flower porn. Lots of rare, hard-to-find things (though, to be honest, I’m so new I probably wouldn’t know if it was rare or not). I do know they have lots of things I haven’t seen locally. My order comes in a couple weeks, so I can’t vouch yet for the quality, but the prices are excellent and their reputation is stellar.
For lots of gardening (and a ton other stuff) it’s hard to beat Sunset magazine’s site. There’s a calendar for what to do in the garden each month, plant finder, great articles and inspiration, landscape plans, all specific to our area.
We’re also lucky to have Seattle Tilth, which, according to their website is ” a nationally recognized non-profit educational organization dedicated to inspiring and educating people to garden organically and conserve natural resources.” They offer classes and fabulous plant sales, and their site is full of local resources for organic gardeners. The Lovely Miss Z and I are going Friday to the Early Edible special Friday night sale.
Given that our veggie gardening method of choice is Square Foot Gardening, I’m also a big fan of My Square Foot Garden. You can sign up for your zone, and they will send you weekly emails listing what can be planted during that particular week. There’s also a photo gallery, veggie reference guide, and a TON of other information.
Another local resource is Diggin Food, a blog by a Seattle gardener, Willi Galloway, who mixes in recipes with what’s going on in her garden. She’s a gardening whiz, being a Master Gardener and expert for NPR and eHow.com, as well as the West coast editor of Organic Gardening magazine – she knows her stuff!
And though I haven’t yet fully checked it out, The Lovely Miss Z turned me onto You Grow Girl, which looks to be chock-full of awesomeness.
A person really could fry their brain just by looking at all the information just in these sites, let alone the rest of the interweb. Let me know if you have any go-to gardening sites!
foible and folly 
5 responses to “information overload”
Now, I do NOT want to rain on your parade, but “rare, hard to find” plants could be rare here for a reason. Annies is in California, a much different climate than ours. Just be advised that it is possible some of them may not be able to take the wet winter, or may get aphid infestations of epic proportions, or some crazy-ass mildew that won’t go away.
Or, they may behave like champs, and love it in your garden and become your favorite long-established, go-to plant.
We all learn through trail-and error. I am a big proponet of “if it grows they way i take care of it, then great! and if it needs something different than what I want to do, and so dies — well, whatever” method of gardening.
I have found the best luck with stuff bought from local growers. They know what works here. I don’t even order stuff from White Flower Farms or any of the lovely catalogs that show up in my mailbox, or from websites from places other than the PNW. Every couple of years we get an exceptionally wet winter, and all the plants from other climes just drown.
That said — the tree peony I bought that was imported from China grows like a champ in my yard. Go figure.
Good point. I do know that Annie’s sister runs a trial garden for her here as well, so hopefully that bodes well. I didn’t order anything exotic either, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. AND they were quite a bit cheaper than White Flower Farm! We shall see…
Hey! Thanks for reading! 🙂
I am very excited that you are keeping a blog! I wish I was more of a writer – I just am not good at keeping at it. I think my blog has not been updated for three or four months. I am much better at replying to OTHER people’s blogs — so keep it up 🙂
I keep forgetting to mention (although I am sure you already have seen this) that Gayla from You Grow Girl just published her book on growing edibles called “Grow Great Grub”. I am trying very hard to save my money for plants but this might have to come home with me soon.
Mere hours until Tilth!
PS Love the tip off on the SFG planting emails!