Web gardens around the world

Best gardening blogs

This is the day of the week that we hop aboard the magic carpet of the Web and whiz off to visit gardens in other corners of the world without any worries about our carbon footprint.

First stop, Canada, where a mother (Mary) and grown daughter (Cathy) in Ontario alternate talking about what’s happening in their garden, ideas they want to share (use a sugar mixture to smooth those garden-roughened hands), and projects they’re tackling (a container gardens of succulents is appealing and looks simple). You'll find that 2GreenThumbsUp is as enjoyable as a chat across the back fence with a favorite neighbor who likes to garden.

What’s a potager garden? What Americans often refer to as a kitchen garden. My Tiny Plot chronicles the growing of vegetables, fruits, and flowers on a small plot in Bath, England. The posts are usually very short so your visits may be short. But they’re well-organized into categories so you can look up everything this Englishwoman has written on a topic – cutting garden, seed saving, herbs – and then you find yourself lingering on and on.

Ilona’s Garden is located in Ohio, and a peaceful place it is. Serenity is the theme. You want to lie down in a hammock and be very still, just letting the scene soak in. This is a good place to pick up landscape design tips.

Gardening Gone Wild is the site of four professionals – Saxon Holt, a landscape photographer in California; Nancy Ondra, a gardening author in Pennsylvania; Steve Silk a photographer in Farmington, Conn.; and garden communicator Fran Sorin, who lives in the Philadelphia suburbs.

They write about their own gardening experiences and those of others, illustrating the posts with outstanding photography. The stone in the garden discussion has been especially interesting.

It's a fun place to visit, and I often find I don't want to leave. But my own garden beckons.