As always in the Prohibition offices we have been doing some blogger research recently. We have been looking at some of the best written blogs in the world of gardening, so I thought I would share the UK’s top 20 gardening blogs. I hope you find them useful – one thing is for sure I could do with the gardening tips as I am pretty useless in that department. If I have missed a great blog off this list, please feel free to add in the comments as always.
Thanks
1. Shirl’s Garden Watch – Packed full of pictures, videos and information, Shril’s Garden Watch is a great website that is constantly updated. With the photos she’s taken you can follow her trips through garden’s that she has visited complete with plant identifications.
2. The Galloping Gardener – Constantly travelling, the Galloping Gardener provides many great pictures and insights of many of the gardens that they have visited in the UK and abroad. They also provide tips for the best gardens to visit at different times of the year or for certain types of plants as well as recommendations for garden hotels.
3. Joanne’s Cottage Garden – Joanne shows you around her garden at different stages of the year with high quality pictures as well as around gardens and shows that she has visited.
4. The Smallest Smallholding – Follows a vegetarian who has rescued four ex-battery hens and developed a vegetable plot to become more self-sustaining.
5. The Compost Bin – A diary following the life of a gardener who produces organic fruit and vegetables as well as wine and cider as well as looking after a number of animals. She is also an Environmental Educator who teaches both adults and children about organic gardening and crafts.
6. Horticultural – A gardener and journalist, Jane takes us through the transformation of her garden. She gives tips regarding a number of different plants and how they can be used around the home and garden as well as recommendations for reading for foragers.
7. Emma Cooper – Keeping us up-to-date with her gardening, Emma provides information for growing vegetables as well as planting. She uses the articles to answer the questions of readers and from other blogs as part of her ‘Blog Challenge.’
8. Crocus – Discusses a number of plants and the time to start growing them as well as growing fruit and vegetables. Sally Nex also provides her top ten favourite vegetable gardens.
9. Guerrilla Gardening – A project set up in 2004 to develop unused plots across London for growing plants and fruit and vegetables. Like-minded projects have spread to a much wider level now, including activities in Rome, Warsaw and New York.
10. My Tiny Plot – About a former senior editor at a magazine who now looks after a plot in Bath with her family. She writes about seasonal cooking and vegetable gardening and has also written a gardening book for children.
11. Veg Plotting – This blog is all about the maintenance of a woman’s (The lovely Michelle) allotment as well as providing recipes, book recommendations and wildlife. This one is well worth a read.
12. Down on the Allotment – A plot owner and dog behaviourist who documents her plants and vegetables through photos as well as a number of shows that she visits.
13. The Enduring Gardener – Written by Stephanie Donaldson, contributing gardens editor of Country Living, The Enduring Gardener covers a wide range of topics including compost, recipes and distinctive plants.
14. Fennel and Fern – Written by a gardening collective, topics range from conditions for growing plants to lesser known types of fruit and vegetables. They also welcome submissions for articles as well as pictures.
15. An Artist’s Garden – A diary of a textile artist’s garden with regular posts to show the development of the garden. There are also visits to other gardens and high quality photographs of individual plants.
16. Ryan’s Garden – Owner of chickens, a small suburban garden and an allotment, Ryan started writing after a car accident left him unable to carry out any gardening. He gives instructions on how to create a number of well presented flower decorations and gifts as well as ornaments for around the garden.
17. The Inelegant Gardener – Full of photos from trips to flower shows and some unusual vegetables, the Inelegant Gardener provides a mix for flora and poetry. There is also a collection of home-grown vegetables and flowers.
18. Gardeners’ World – Written by the experts from Gardeners’ World magazine the articles cover a number of different topics such as wildlife, plants and allotments. Each gives advice to amateur gardeners to help them develop their skills.
19. London Vegetable Garden – Having had to wait for an allotment, Callum attempted to grow vegetables on his London balcony with varying degrees of success. This diary follows his success and failures in gardening with pictures to illustrate how he has coped, at times, with the lack of space.
20. Helen’s Blog – Describing herself as a late-comer to the gardening world, Helen taught a basic gardening course for adults and continuously developed her skills. Since then she has presented two gardening shows on the BBC as well as writing a book and for various publications.
Chris Norton is the founder of Prohibition and an award winning communications consultant with more than twenty years’ experience. He was a lecturer at Leeds Beckett University and has had a varied PR career having worked both in-house and in a number of large consultancies. He is an Integrated PR and social media blogger and writes on a wide variety of blogs across a huge amount of topics from digital marketing, social media marketing right through to technology and crisis management.
