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Navigating the Digital Garden

Navigating the Digital Garden

By Mary Presutti, New Windsor Master Gardener Volunteer, Brooke Moore, New Windsor Senior Master Gardener Volunteer, and Cecille Jones, Monroe Master Gardener Volunteer

This article appeared in the December 2020 / January 2021 Issue of Gardening in Orange County.

Laptop open and on sitting on a rock in the middle of a gardenGarden information is in full bloom on the web.  There is so much information that many of us get caught up in the same few sites that we trust over and over.  It isn’t easy to separate the wheat from the chaff.  So we decided to get out our laptops, put on our reading glasses, make a pot of tea or hot chocolate, put our slippers on, dig deep into the internet and see what we could harvest for your enjoyment.

Click on a topic below to see our recommendations.
We hope you enjoy!

 

Gardens and Arboretums with an On-line Flair

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Educational

    • Impact. Extension based on-line resources.
    • Smithsonian. Just like their brick and mortar buildings, you can stay here all day.

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On-Line Professional Glossy Sites

    • Green Grow. Big, beautiful photos. A coffee table book on your laptop.

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Fun Blogs from Gardeners

    • Garden Rant. Smart website and essays by gardeners and scientists on everything plant.
    • The Belmont Rooster. Prolific blog. Worth it for the great stories. Like keeping in touch with an old friend.
    • Hayefield. A Plant Geek from Pennsylvania’s Garden Website

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Off the Garden Path

    • Atlas Obscura. Web Page.  Guide to the worlds Hidden Wonders includes all manner of stuff and gardens.

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Expand Your Reading Horizons

    • Internet Archive. Non-profit library of books, blogs, videos; it also houses the Wayback Machine – a repository of old on-line websites.

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 When it’s Time to Travel Again

    • Manitoga. Garrison, New York. Russell Wright House and Gardens. Another hidden gem. The grounds are just as he left them. Amazing house.
    • Birds of Vermont. Huntington, Vermont. Museum. Pollinator gardens, nature preserve trails for gardeners and birdwatchers. Vermont at its finest.

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Out of This World

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PodcastsMan with headphones sitting with his dog on a bench

Podcasts come in so many different topics that it is hard to decide what to suggest.  The lovely thing about them is that they can be a private, quiet experience or shared with others.  For best experience I suggest investing in a good quality set of earbuds or over the ear headphones with Bluetooth.  A podcast can be your company for weeding, planting, strolling or just enjoying your garden from a comfy seat.  We have traveling in the car favorites and others that we choose for dinner time company.  Once you start looking and listening you will be hooked on this great way to learn and discover.  Podcasts can be subscribed to, downloaded from Host Web Sites and searched for in any web browser.  The easiest way to find them on your phone or tablet is to go into your Podcast App and search by topic or use the ones below as a start and more will be recommended to you.  Here are a few to begin with.

    • A Way to Garden. Join Margaret Roach and guests for weekly episodes about local topics.
    • BBC Radio 4 Gardener’s Question Time. With the tag line “You will be back in the garden in 45 minutes” this delightful fan favorite has down home garden dilemmas joined with science and history.
    • Cultivating Place. Jennifer Jewell combines philosophy and great gardening know how.
    • In Defense of Plants. A botany podcast dedicated to learning to see plants for their many attributes. Host Matt Candeias brings a wealth of knowledge and a great passion for plants to each episode.

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Documentaries Worth Watching

In the dead of winter, what’s a gardener to do? Why not hunker down and let a film transport you to a visually inspiring slice of gardening heaven? There’s no shortage of gardening shows to stream on your device, but you might want to check out these three.

This captivating documentary is about the 20-acre Les Quatre-Vents, located in an estate in rural Quebec beside the St. Lawrence River. In interviews with the preservationist and philanthropist Frank Cabot, Sebastien Chabot’s film takes a “loving look at the visual, tactile, emotional and spiritual joys of gardening.” Even as winter marches on outside, you can feast your eyes on the garden’s wonderful plantings, pathways and vistas. From a Chinese moon bridge to a Japanese teahouse and more, it’s hard to argue that this is one of the most beautiful private gardens in the world. (Running time: 1 hour, 24 minutes)

No weeding? No watering? No kidding? In this documentary about Paul Gautschi’s sustainable organic gardening methods, Gautschi enthusiastically puts mulch as the star of his bountiful fruit and vegetable garden. What he does is essentially keep his soil under a layer of composted chips, shavings and sawdust – and he gets enviable harvests! That’s an oversimplification, of course, so even if you’re not a garden evangelist like him, you’ll want to watch this documentary to see how he creates his miracle garden. (Running time: 1 hour, 43 minutes)

Take a break from gardening and enjoy wildlife for a brief spell. Released in 2019, this documentary was produced to entertain, inform and delight the viewer. British narrator Stephen Fry gives a whimsical commentary on exotic birds and shows us that attracting a mate is serious business for members of the class Aves. Shot in dazzling color and set to fanciful music – from swing to jazz and classical, this film is a welcome antidote on a cold winter day. (Running time: 51 minutes)

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