There are sooooooooo many blogs out in cyber-growing-land!
There are a lot in America, most infact, and the majority i have seen are either ‘flower growing’ gardening blogs or ‘general’ garden blogs with a little fruit and veg thrown in.
I suppose this makes sense, America is a big country, which in turn means lots of gardens.
But i want to read fruit and veg growing blogs.
I know blotanical is useful for finding blogs, but i really do have no desire to grow anything that will not ‘produce’ for me, (just a personal preference) and the website doesn’t allow a specific search for this.
So the purpose of this post is to highlight decent fruit and veg growing blogs in the U.K. Simple as that. (There are lots of fabulous non-U.K. based blogs in my sidebar…but that’s a post for another day!)
Fork In Hell - An neat little allotment blog based near us, in Gloucester.
Fresh as a daisy - They describe their site as a ‘Veggie Garden Experience,’ which is alright by me.
Growing our own - Another Gloucester allotment, focused on fruit and veg growing.
Manor Stables Veg Plot - A much larger project…and still mostly focused on veg!
Nomegrown - A large plot and a back garden in St Albans.
The smallest smallholding - I’d love this much space and chickens!
Souper Allotment - Adventures getting started with an allotment.
I’m sure there are more that are equally as super, but these are the ones i read regularly. I’d love to hear of any others that i might like, but it’s where to find them! The best place i think is other people’s blogrolls… perhaps we need an award system similar to Mouse & Trowel for veg blogs! Any takers?
Tags: allotment, blogging, veg growing
April 16th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
No offense to M&T, but I would like to see other blogs than just a handful recognized for their contribution to the blogosphere - I just don’t think it gives enough of a sample of what’s out there. My $.02.
Perhaps because those blogs are VERY specific in what they write about they are consistently nominated as “top blogs”, whereas most blogs that I enjoy have a little bit of everything wrapped up in them.
I think your idea has merit. Go for it!
April 17th, 2008 at 7:04 am
Vegmonkey, have you tried Kenny over at veggiegardeningtips.com or Reggie at tomatocasual.com. Plus Steve has also been collating relevant veg growing feeds over at veggiegardeninfo.com.
Sure most of these are US based advice but do growing veggies really change that much? Provided the climate and soil conditions are similar the advice should be fairly much the same.
April 17th, 2008 at 10:09 am
I love to visit http://www.farmingfriends.com/ in the UK, and Sara has some links to sites like Top Veg and others, I really like http://blissyo-elgarden.blogspot.com/ from Europe who blogs about her potager. Then there is http://www.smallestsmallholding.com/
Hope you enjoy them.
April 17th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
I know what you mean, I often go on blog trawls looking for new regularly updated veg growing blogs and I’ve yet to discover a fool proof way of finding them. I tend to use people’s blog rolls and kind of link my way around the internet seeing what I can find.
It does seem blogs often exist in their own little circle though, with say ten links to blogs which all link to roughtly the same set of sites making it harder to break out and find good new stuff. It’s great when you do though as you often find they’re linked to another load of new blogs you’ve not seen before…
Thanks for the mention by the way!
April 17th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
This is nice to see. I knew about NomeGrown but not the others–I’ll have to check them out.
I’m also much more interested in vegetable gardening than flower gardening, and would love to have a way to look for blogs (US or non) on that topic. I check out http://veggiegardeninfo.com/ and see who’s contributed sometimes. I wonder if Blotanical (or its search engine) could be organized into veg/flower categories?
April 17th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Thanks for the mention!! I wondered why my numbers had shot up! :o)
I really enjoy looking at what other people are doing and when, and also, any tips that I can transfer into my own garden. I also try and mention how rubbish I’ve been and whats gone wrong….adds to other peoples pleasure! Theres more enjoyment in commenting on veg - more can go wrong….and occasionally right.
another good site - Soilman http://www.soilman.typepad.com
Oh, ideas for awards names - the ‘Rat & Hoe’…or the ‘Slow worms & the Rake’…..why do americans do it better…?
Happy bloggin’ people - it keeps the world turning and the veg growing…..
April 17th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Lol - looks like i stirred up something! Excuse the bulk commenting..i wish i had more time!
Katie - Great point. It is a little bit like that!
Paul - Exactly…that’s pretty much it. I found myself looking at a website all about petunias the other day, from a trail of blog links and had to stop myself!
Stuart - I do find that what the different parts of America grow does differ quite a lot with what we can grow in the uk. I’m finding space is at much more of a premium here in the uk too, with American plots being whole back gardens! Seed availability is also an issue.
Crafty Gardener - Thanks for the links, not really as veg focussed as i’d like! The Smallest Smallholding is already on my post!
Jenny - Veggie Garden Info is definately somewhere i pop into now and again too. Happy reading!
Cat - No worries! I think it’s important to blog about what’s gone wrong too…otherwise we wouldn’t have got to where we are! I was thinking possibly a fruit and veg combo name such as ‘ The Parsnip and Raspberry Awards’ or ‘The Carrot and Apple Awards!’?????
April 17th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Here is the link to http://topveg.com/, might be a bit more veggie info there.
April 18th, 2008 at 8:06 am
I like ‘Parsnip & Raspberry Awards’….got a ring to it…! (need to go and do some work now, not blog at work! oops)
April 19th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Hey, thanks for the link! I don’t have THAT much space though compared to a ‘real’ smahollding…hence the blog title
It could have just as easily been called the Suburban(ish) Smallholding. I am crap with maths, so I couldn’t tell you the size exactly. Tenth of an acre? Sixth? Ah, I suppose it adds a bit of mystery. It’s bigger in my mind, at least.
I also enjoy reading Shoestring Garden: http://shoestringgarden.blogspot.com/
Soilman’s Allotment blog is great.
April 20th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Hey Vegmonkey thanks for the mention. I LOVE blogs, they are such a cool way to be in touch with like minded people and to learn stuff in the process. My fav blogs are Yours (of course), Paul and Melanie at Growing our own and a new one, Simon’s allotment http://simonsallotment.blogspot.com/ which also has a link to his old blog/website that I followed.
April 21st, 2008 at 12:39 pm
I’m with you Vegmonkey. There are lots of gardeners out there with many different ideas about gardening. I don’t like it when my mostly food growing blog is lumped together with everyone else’s either.
I also think rather than M&T we need an award system that emphasizes the good things in everyone’s blogs, rather than creating a handful of winners and lots of losers.
Also, while there’s little doubt the British blogs lost out in a very unfair way in M&T this year, don’t forget there are a lot of great blogs in smaller countries that could lose out anytime national boundaries are emphasized in any competition. There are also a large number of expat blogs, who could fall through the cracks if national borders are emphasized. Are all the blogs in France run by British expats British or French? Didn’t they also lose out on M&T this year?
I think it’s better to emphasize differences in blogging themes rather than focus on national identities.
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:14 am
Vegmonkey, hi
I think this is an excellent idea. The M&Ts do seem to keep coming up with the same names (great though they are), and as other people have said here, one of the pleasures of awards ‘do’s is hearing about blogs and sites you didn’t know about. How about the Pod & Clod awards?
April 22nd, 2008 at 5:06 pm
[…] for all the comments on Diluting the growing blogs, i’m glad it isn’t just me! I’m really thinking about doing something to run in […]
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Awards, or at least mentions of others is a great idea. I try to keep my Other places list up-to-date, nothing more frustrating than finding what looks like an interesting new blog only to realise it hasn’t been updated for 2 years!
Another one for the recently found list: http://www.earthwoman.co.uk/
Keep up the interesting blogging (and growing) everyone
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:55 pm
It’s a good idea VegMonkey, awards for more down-to-earth gardening blogs.
For a name I suggest “Infinite Monkeys” to recognize quality typing from the infinity of monkeys that is the gardening blogosphere.
Simon
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:50 am
Wow veg monkey - looks like you’ve…..
A] Opened a can of worms on the awards - all good!
B] Nominated yourself as the organiser!! :o)
Whop-eeeeeee!
April 23rd, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Ooh, I love the “Infinite Monkeys” name!
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Lol - a can of worms and a basket of slugs! I like the infinite monkeys although i want to make it generic, and involve fruit and veg so that others can maybe rotate the award responsibility…?!
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Thanks for sharing some great links! It was my search for real life vegetable gardens, gardeners, ideas and resources that introduced me to garden blogs in the first place. But, yes, there are many other types of gardens out there too. I’m in a climate in the US much more like the UK, than most of the US. Not a problem when visiting & sharing by internet!