It’s been a week and I'm still overwhelmed by the enthusiastic response from last week's post — thank you! Your ideas for posts and topics of discussion will keep me inspired for years, but I don’t want to take years to get to them. So the first things to do is to introduce you to a few of my online friends …that is other garden writers who regularly explore many of the topics that you are looking for.

Decidedly, there is a mix here. Some of you are city dwellers, with limited garden resources, and others are not. I’m guessing it’s about 50/50 so I will share with you a range of my favorites so there is something for everyone.

For apartment dwellers....
Check out Life on the Balcony. Recently, Fern posted a genius full-on how to for making a vertical garden with a pallet, but she also regularly share ideas for container gardening.

Also, you might want to check out The Urban Organic Gardener where Mike (formerly of NYC but now in LA) grows his own food. If he can grow his own produce on (what appears to be) the fire escape, so can you, and he is full of useful tips on how to get it done.

For those in need of a little 'how to'...
Margaret at Away to Garden shares years of hard earned of garden wisdom. The 'for beginners' section is particularly helpful, even for non-beginners. I have, myself, been making good use of her seed viability chart as I recently cleared out my stash from past seasons.

A number of you asked for suggestions for including pets in your gardens. I will get to that in future posts, but when I read those comments, I immediately thought, be careful what you wish for....This post at You Grow Girl offers practical tips for keeping those pets that you don't want (i.e. the neighbors cats) out of your garden. Gayla (who is in Toronto, Canada) also shares growing tips and has a great forum for sharing with other gardeners on the site.

Something for everyone...
If you are looking for pure, full on, design mash up with lots of pictures, ideas and unadulterated inspiration, there are three. I like to think that if it’s garden design-y and it happened in the western world, one of us (I should mention that one of these is my own site) probably will have covered it. It helps, I think that we are each in a different country and we come at the same topic but have totally different resources.
Dana Garden Design - It really doesn’t matter that Dana (who lives on the Amalfi coast in Italy) writes only in Italian (use google translate) or just look at the images, and even if you don't speak Italian, you will still generally get the idea.
Paradis Express - Delphine lives outside of Paris and her posts are written in English and French. An artist herself, she is married to a garden designer and explores the garden design world. I never cease to be amazed at some of the exciting things that they post.
Studio 'g' is my own site. Many of you asked for before and after posts and I will be bringing them here, but if you want to peruse a lengthy collection of garden fresh makeovers, pop in on Thursdays or delve into the before and after archive.
I chose this cement crack garden makeover to share today because at least one person said last week that they didn't know what to do with their concrete backyard and this is an idea I have always loved.

How to become a better consumer of garden design
John at A Verdant Life is a garden designer who mostly posts informative and thoughtful insights into the garden design business. Why to hire a designer, how to choose a contractor, and when to say when, and draw the line between DIY and hiring help. You might also enjoy a regular series he has been doing called Learning From the Big Guys where he share tricks of the trade for homeowners to use in their own DIY projects. (like how to build the modern concrete fire pit above)

And finally, for those with children....
Little Green Fingers is a fun site that shares sweet stories of the misadventures of Dawn and her three little gardeners as well as ideas for inspiring the under 3s to love nature, growing and gardening.

So to recap my favorites:


Have fun exploring!

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