On this first official day of summer, it seemed fitting to highlight some local blogs dedicated to the great outdoors. If you are looking for advice on appropriate plants for this region, want to learn how to volunteer with a gardening organization, or simply need to find some inspiration, these DC area garden blogs and websites can help.

• DC Urban Gardeners: a network of DC area gardeners dedicated to a greener city
• A Leafy Indulgence : an Alexandria VA garderner sharing her planting successes and failures
• University of Maryland Home and Garden Information Center: features a 1-800 number you can call to ask the experts your plant and pest questions
• City Blossoms: a non-profit organization dedicated creating spaces for children to learn how to grow and maintain gardens
• The Slow Cook: the gardening adventures of a family who turned their Columbia Heights front yard into a vegetable garden
• Flat Bottom Flowers: a wonderful container garden built on the deck of an Alexandria VA townhouse
• Sustainable and Urban Gardening: a Maryland-based website dedicated to educating about eco-friendly and urban gardening
• Bumblebee: a Calvert County MD gardener who grows much of her own food and makes her own cheese, bread, pastries and wine

If we didn't list your favorite gardening site, please be sure to share it in the comments so your fellow readers can check it out.

(Images: Miriam (Flat Bottom Flowers) and Robin Ripley (Bumblebee)