Thursday, February 07, 2008

Blotanical and Northern Garden Bloggers

Have you checked out Blotanical (the international garden blog directory) yet? There is a tool you can use to search for blogs in different regions of the world, so I searched for TRULY northern bloggers:

1. Most northern garden blog in Europe: A Finnish blog from 66 degrees north latitude,
Puutarhaprojekti, which warms my heart with its pictures of snow, snow shovels, late springs, spindly trees, and plants that look very familiar. Alas, there is no English here.

2. Another northern Finnish blog (Quu's Garden): Actually this one is designated my sister blog, coming from 65 degrees north latitude in Oulu, Finland. This creative gardener has several gardens in a few different locations, from what I can determine. She has the most beautiful pictures of blooming spring bulbs and some impressive collections of perennials too. She always puts an English translation on her posts.

3. Myself (Northern Exposure Gardening) in La Ronge at 55 degrees, 6 minutes north latitude: I am in the top two most northern Canadian bloggers on Blotanical, with the blog in Hythe, Alberta technically being just a smidgeon north. I can see from Google Earth that Hythe is an agricultural community, with vast cultivated fields making a grid around the town. La Ronge is as "agricultural" as New York City is rural.

**Note: You garden bloggers from Russia, Yukon, NWT, and Alaska need to get onto Blotanical's directory ASAP. I know you're out there!

6 comments:

vermontflowerfarm@outlook.com said...

Morning greetings, Gardenista, from Marshfield, Vermont USA, where yesterday's 16" of snow leaves little doubt about clean up work this morning. Vermont has received it's share of snow this year and despite a two week thaw a couple weeks back, there is 5 feet of snow on the ground and the snow piled by the walkways makes vertical shoveling a challenge.

I have included your blog on my list for some time now because I want folks to have a contrast to northern gardening. You do a great job! There is a portion of Vermont on the Canadian border where zone 2 prevails but there are also small pockets that have special temperate zones.

I agree with you that Blotanical has an increasing European presence and it's enjoyable to hear from others. A recent post I did on peonies brought a note from Sweden and an email from Poland. Lots of fun!

Your previous post about primroses made me think how many people there are about the world who have a plant specialty and we might not even know it. There's a lady about 20 miles from here who I am told grows over 100 varieties of primroses. They are a great plant and many do very well in our climates.

Snowy garden thoughts as I head out to shovel,

George Africa
http://thevermontgardener.blogspot.com
http://vermontgardens.blogspot.com
http://vermontflowerfarm.com

Unknown said...

I too love the international participation in Blotanical (and have Sweden and Finland on my list of places I dearly want to visit someday). It's great fun to talk to people from around the world, and no matter what latitude, there's a commonality we all have.
I must check and see if Marion Owen is listed on Blotanical--she's in Alaska, so she's pretty far north. Don't know of any blogs from the Yukon or NWT, though, so here's hoping some come out of the woodwork--or begin!

Chookie said...

You can tell people you're one of the world's top bloggers, as in on the world's top! I suppose that makes me a bottom-dweller, though, which is not quite so attractive.

Gardenista said...

George - wow! 5 feet of snow is truly amazing. I don't think we've had that much. Our cold is pretty severe, but the plants don't mind because we get enough snow to protect them.

Jodi - yes, I know I have read posts of Alaskan bloggers. It would be nice to see them on the blotanical map though!

Chookie - hey right, I am among of the top of the world's bloggers. Thanks for pointing that out!

Muum said...

thanks for stopping by my blog again, I will gladly ship some of my snow up to you if you want more! I think I ran across the blog with the English translation, it is amazing what people have to offer on the world -wide web! Today we had a moose in our back yard. Very odd for us, are you in an area with a lot of wildlife?

Mari L said...

Hello. Nice to find that I'm the northest blogger in Europe.

Sorry, there isn't any english translation in my blog, my english is so bad :(