From authors to professional gardeners and "the odd guy down the street with all the pitcher plants," every segment of garden enthusiasts is now represented with a host of blogs.
There are special-topic blogs: A Gardening Year lists heirloom roses grown by the blogger. Several garden bloggers have pooled their efforts into one well-known site: gardenrant.com. The bloggers include Amy Stewart, author of Flower Confidential, who also has her own blog. For Stewart, a blog is a way to keep readers informed, a low-cost public-relations effort to let people know where she'll be signing—and selling—copies of her books.
How do you find the good blogs? You wander, you ask, you write your own. Often, one good blog leads to another. At Cold Climate Gardening, Kathy Purdy has put together a list of her own favorite blogs.
Photos accompany many blogs, but just as no one is editing the writing, no one is there to assist the blogger in choosing photos. Fortunately, there are fabulous photo blogs, too, such as professional photographer David Perry's blog.
A compendium of blogs can be found at digindirt.com. Gardening Blog Directory lets you choose geographically, by clicking on a world map to find a blog to read.
Could a blog be a good addition to your garden center's own website? Maybe take a cue from Stewart, commenting on the events at your store (with photos!), the latest buzz you're hearing from customers or store specials that people should know about. As long as you can get the word out that you're maintaining a blog, it can be a great marketing tool at little cost to you. For more tips, keep an eye out for the January 2008 issue of Lawn & Garden Retailer and the first in a three-part series on using the web for your businesss.
