More garden visits

Each Thursday, Diggin’ It pokes around the corners of the Web to see what other gardeners are doing and writing about. This week we visit Canada, Poland, Iowa, and California.

In Naramata, British Columbia, the Kitchen Garden Gourmet specializes in heirloom vegetables – Moonglow, Striped Carava, and Silver Fir Tree tomatoes, Rampicante zucchini, Guatemalan Blue Banana squash, and Buran peppers, among many, many others. The list and descriptions of the tomatoes alone will make you want to plant nothing but heirloom tomatoes this year so you can try one of two plants of each.

Ewa gardens in Poland (in what would be Zone 6 in the US) and you can read about it in English or Polish, if you prefer. It’s fun to see how the experiences of a gardener in central Europe mirrors the gardening life elsewhere – baby birds, visiting botanical gardens, moving loud-croaking frogs to a new home, getting rid of dandelions (complete with a recipe for dandelion syrup).

Even in summer, gardening isn’t all about the outdoors. (You’re sitting in front of your computer inside, right?) Mr. Subjunctive in Iowa City, Iowa, writes about his 377 – and counting –houseplants in Plants are the Strangest People. He also maintains Pick a Plant, a site to help people choose the right indoor plants for their homes. Because his daytime job is in a garden center, he often talks about what’s new on the market. I drool over the orchid photos.

Urban Sprouts will make you feel good. If you’re interested in gardening with kids – and introducing the next generation to growing plants – you’ll learn plenty, too.

Now we return home to our own gardens until next Thursday. If you aren’t quite ready to head back out into the yard, check out our earlier garden visits here and here .