Whether you live in a house or an apartment, here are some of the greatest gardening websites, ebooks, and applications to help you grow your own green patch.
When you have some spare time at home, take advantage of the chance to add some greenery.
If you have a garden, you may grow veggies and herbs in it or decorate it with flowers. It has been demonstrated that growing plants in apartments improves mood and mental stability.
These gardening websites and apps contain something for both novice and experienced gardeners to reap the benefits of their efforts.
A Way to Garden (Web): One of the Best Gardening Blogs for All Stages
Margaret Roach, the former Martha Stewart empire editorial director, started a blog and wrote a book to share her gardening secrets. A Way to Garden is one of the internet's most highly regarded must-read gardening resources.
The Garden Planting Calculator is a web-wide favorite. It advises you when to plant various vegetables, herbs and flowers. You'll also get a calculation whether you need to spend few weeks indoors with them at first.
A Way to Garden's "chores by month" is also a popular guide to essential activities based on the season. Roach's tips apply for the north-eastern USA, so consult the provided regional calendar and adjust accordingly. You'll also want to take a look at the garden FAQs, where she answers beginner queries on various topics.
Apart from these three resources, A Way to Garden is a treasure trove of knowledge for both beginners and experienced gardeners. You may even listen to a podcast while you're tending to your little patch.
GardenBeast (Ebooks): 7 Gardening Ebooks for Free
Beginners can download seven ebooks for free from GardenBeast in PDF format. You may choose to download one or all of them. And you can print them, save them to your Kindle, or read them offline whenever you want. All you have to do is sign up for the newsletter, which you can do with a throwaway email address.
The seven books are as follows:
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Ultimate Organic Gardening for Beginners
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51 Tips for Green House Gardening
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100 Hints and Tips to Level up Your Gardening
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Herbs 101: Ultimate Guide to Herbs for Beginners
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Vegetable Gardening for Beginners
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How to Attract Butterflies into Your Garden
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Greener Living for a Greener World
As you can see, the ebooks range from 16 to 52 pages and cover a variety of different topics. The 100 Hints and Tips are extremely valuable for everyone, so get it anyway. GardenBeast is also a full-fledged online magazine with gardening news, resources and guides.
Candide (Android, iOS): The Only Gardening App You'll Ever Need
Candide is a gardening app that can help you discover inspiration and knowledge. In the app, you'll find places to visit, information on what to plant in your garden, and pictures from the community sharing what's going on in their gardens.
The app is like a social network for gardening enthusiasts.
Share, ask a question, identify a plant, follow, trending, weather, and discover are the primary options. The big winners here are Ask and Identify. Take a picture of a plant in your garden, and the app will respond. Similarly, if you ask a question, the community will chip in with their thoughts.
While scrolling through the feed, you'll find ideas for various gardening projects, as well as tips and tricks. Check out Candide's content for various articles and guides and make some new friends with a green thumb along the way.
Candide is available in the USA, UK, Ireland, and South Africa. You could download the APK and use it anywhere in the world too, but the information is localized to the above four regions.
Apartment Gardening (Ebook): Practical Guide to Gardening in Small Spaces
YoungWifesGuide.com's Jami Leigh wrote the go-to ebook for beginners who want to garden in an apartment or any little space. The ebook, "Apartment Gardening: A Practical Guide to Growing Vegetables in Small Spaces," is extensively quoted and recommended online.
Since the book is for individuals who are just starting out, it focuses on what is important: remaining on budget, making things simple and practical for newbies, and being mindful of space. You will learn how to choose the best place, soil, and seed for your apartment as well as planting and harvesting patterns and plant maintenance.
The guide is all about growing vegetables that you can eat. Once you've mastered that, look around the internet for other plants to grow in your apartment.
The 94-page book is available as a free PDF download on her website, which you may get via the link below. You can also pay a small fee to get the book and additional worksheets.
Download: Apartment Gardening from YoundWifesGuide (PDF)
Charles Dowding (Web, YouTube): Discover the 'No Dig' Gardening Method
Since1980s, Charles Dowding has been writing about gardening. He pioneered the "No Dig" approach, which focuses on causing as minimal disruption to the soil as possible. Dowding's philosophy is that allowing organisms in the soil to do what they do best would allow for natural aeration and drainage. You may use more sustainable and ecological gardening practices by disturbing the soil less and feeding the organisms.
Dowding's YouTube channel is chock-full of awesome videos about the concept and other gardening tidbits.
Check out the short video above to get a 3-minute explanation of the technique from the man himself. If the No Dig method sounds interesting and you have questions, he probably answered it in the FAQs
Start with Dowding's beginner's guide to the no dig method. While he is based in the U.K., he provides advice on how to adapt the practices to any situation. Dowding's YouTube tutorials have a soothing tone that makes gardening seem more accessible.
