Blogs
These blogs are written by upstate New Yorkers but are not necessarily garden blogs.
- "The Real Dirt On Gardening"
Author: Greg Draiss • Location: Athens, NY • "Down to earth straight forward gardening advice from the grandson of President Roosevelt's gardener!" - A Garden in the House
Author: Kevin Lee Jacobs • Location: Kinderhook, NY • "Kevin Lee Jacobs, a frequent contributor to African Violet Magazine and Berkshire Homestyle Magazine, writes a daily blog that details his adventures with indoor gardening. Kevin shares his own cultural tips and tricks, and shows how an indoor garden can provide beautiful, living decoration to the home, even as snow blankets the world outside." - A Way to Garden
Author: Margaret Roach • Location: Copake Falls, NY • "A longtime garden editor and writer (New York Newsday newspaper, Martha Stewart Living magazine, books) who took a career detour and is now returning in the form of a blog. I recently retired (at a very young age, thank you) to my 2.3-acre garden in a Zone 5B area of New York State, which was the subject of my book "A Way to Garden." The garden is open for tours as part of the national Open Days visiting scheme of the Garden Conservancy." - Adirondack Chapter - North American Rock Garden Society
- Art of Gardening
Author: Jim Charlier • Location: Buffalo, NY • "I'm no great gardener. I'm no great writer either. I'm not even a good photographer. But I like gardens, I like design, I like to travel and like to share. So here's some gardens I've visited, and when I can, I'll show how I've incorporated what I've seen in my garden. A picture is worth a thousand words, so, if you don't mind, I'll have more photos and fewer words. If you're looking for Latin names, plant lists and hardiness zones, this is not the site for you. If you're looking for inspiration, ideas, and to see gardens you may never have seen, or would like to visit, this site is for you. To see what I do when I'm not doing what I do, visit JimCharlier.com." - Art of Gardening (older version)
Author: Jim Charlier • Location: Buffalo, NY • "I like gardens, I like design, I like to travel and like to share. So here's some gardens I've visited, and when I can, I'll show how I've incorporate what I've seen in my garden. A picture is worth a thousand words, so, if you don't mind, I'll have more photos and fewer words. If you're looking for Latin names, plant lists and hardiness zones, this is not the site for you. If you're looking for inspiration, ideas, and to see gardens you may never have seen, or would like to visit, this site is for you." - Baneberry Garden Blog
Author: Drew • Location: Queensbury, NY • "A blog by a Native plants designer, consultant and educator abouts plants, garden design, gardens and the wildlife that inhabit them with a little bit of ethnobotany thrown into the mix." - Baneberry Garden Blog
Author: Drew Monthie name • Location: Upstate NY, Adirondacks region • - Bloomin' Blogger
Author: Bloomin' Blogger • Location: Fulton County, NY • "We reside in Fulton County in the southern part of the Adirondack Park. I tend to limit myself to zone 4 plants, but have a few things that are zone 5 that do well. We were limited to shade plants until 1998 when we had a big wind storm and lost a lot of our trees. It was sad, but the upside was the new things I could grow. " - Cold Climate Gardening
Author: Kathy Purdy • Location: NY's Southern Tier • You are here. In addition to the blog and this directory, I provide pages of links to helpful sites and a selection of little-known essays for you to read. If you want to know more about this site, choose About this Site in the Category box. If you want to know more about the growing conditions of our contributors, click Contributors in the sidebar. - Colors Of The Garden
Author: Kerri • Location: upstate NY • "Our farm is in Upstate NY and we milked cows until 2000. Now My husband and I both work off the farm, and it's different! I spend as much time as possible outside gardening in the summer because I grew up in Australia where summers were long and hot and I want to soak up all the warmth I can! Our summers here in NY are way too short! I inherited the gardening bug from my mum. Thanks Mum!" - dlyn
Author: Dlyn • Location: northern Tioga County, NY • Personal blog concerning gardening, photography, recipes, humor - Down My Garden Path
Author: Claire Siconolfi • Location: Clifton Park, NY • "Many things are new to me at the moment, so I am discovering a whole new world. My most recent discovery is the pleasures of Gardening. Join me as I help you explore my successes and failures in full technicolor." - Ellis Hollow
Author: Craig Cramer Location: Ithaca, NY "I live in a unique setting. On one side is a busy road and a quick hop into a very cosmopolitan (if somewhat small) city. On the other side is a large wetland and a ridge that's just spectacular in fall when the colors change. Every morning when I walk out the back door, I feel like I'm on vacation. On a good day, I say that I'm a naturalistic gardener inspired by the genius of Piet Oudolf. Most of the time, though, I describe myself as a sloppy gardener who just loves to grow stuff. I often employ the "pot and shovel" design method: I wonder around with a pot in one hand and a shovel in the other hoping I can find a spot for the plant in the pot. My blog is mostly about gardening with some music, art and politics mixed in." - Five Wells
Author: Mary Ann • Location: Freeville, NY • "My hippie self-sufficiency urges, which were pushed to a back burner when my kids were teenagers, have been reawakening. I'm raising some chickens, re-establishing beehives, planning part of the garden more for food than flowers." - Frugal Upstate
"Frugal Ramblings on Life, the Universe, and Everything in the Upstate NY (Binghamton, Norwich) area. To me being frugal is not about being “cheapâ€. It is about not spending any more than you have to on things that really aren’t important to you, so that you DO have money for the things you really want." - Garden Rant
Authors: Susan Harris, Michele Owens, Amy Stewart • Locations: (roughly) Washington, D.C., upstate NY, California • "We think that gardeners everywhere deserve better than the drivel they are handed by the mainstream media, and maybe we should stop complaining about those awful gardening magazines and TV shows and offer an alternative. Gardening: a serious subject for serious writers. Also, an amusing subject for amusing writers. Hear that, you bores at Fine Gardening?" - Garden Scrapbooking
Author: Bruce • Location: Adirondack Mountains, NY • "This blog will be about gardening, scrapbooking and the progress I make creating my garden scrapbook." - Garden, by Chance
Author: Amy Greenan • Location: Niagara Falls, NY • "When I was four, my parents bought an old abandoned farmhouse with some acreage in a small town in western New York. I have many memories of helping out in the large gardens that they built (wait, do you build a garden?), though not always happy. While I loved being able to crunch on a string bean or some sweet peas right off the vine, I really didn't care much for the dirty, hands on hard work that was required to keep the gardens thriving. It was just never my cup of tea. Looking back now, though, I know how lucky I was to have that gardening experience. [...] Fast forward to two years ago this August, when my boyfriend and I bought our first house. While we don't have much property, what is there came installed with some garden materials. The house came with some lovely rose bushes, rose of Sharon abound, a gorgeous weeping cherry tree, a lilac, a flowering quince, and a healthy patch of spearmint. There were also a few small bushes including holly, azalea, and rhododendron, not to mention several clumps of hostas and centaurea. The following spring we also discovered that previous owners had planted hundreds of bulbs including several varieties each of daffodils, tulips, crocus, and hyacinth. I found myself getting really excited about having our own land to work and take care of. Sure enough, I finally got bit by the gardening bug. I finally fit in with the rest of my mom's side of the family, who are all gardening nuts." (Read the rest here.) - Gardening in Syracuse
Author: Paul Harris • Location: Syracuse, NY • "The ultimate goal of this blog is to provide some sort of online reference point/discussion space/information source for any and all who garden within the sometimes harsh, but always beautiful landscape of Syracuse/Central New York. There are many fascinating ecological and botanical attributes to this part of the country, and there is so much that a gardener here can work with despite the perceived relentless winter. Winter is just another season...for gardening!" - Gardening While Intoxicated
Buffalo, NY Garden blog by EAL - Gardening While Intoxicated
Author: Elizabeth Licata Location: Buffalo, NY - Gardening with Soule
Author: Author name • Location: blog location • "When the first robin arrives on the scene and the geese are heard flying north overhead, my heart leaps at the possibilities waiting out in my small corner of the Earth. So, as the gardening continues I hope to enlighten you at times and hope to be enlightened by you. Everyone gains their own experience at gardening and I am a whole hearted believer that there is so much to learn from every person that puts spade to dirt in hopes that they will truly reap what they sow. I try to give a lighthearted look at my garden and gardening in general while I also show you some of Garden Shoes Online's products that I have tried myself to let you know what I think first hand. A lot of photos and fun." - Get in the Garden
Author: Lisa Gustavson • Location: blog location • "Come along as I share my love of all things gardening always with a look ahead to the next planting season. It all started 14 years ago with heirloom seeds and grew from there! I’ll share updates and articles as well as favorite books, recipes and projects for garden and home. You’ll also get a good look at my day-today adventures of being a wife, mom to four kids and zookeeper to three pets. It gets a little crazy here sometimes, but I wouldn’t have it any other way!" - Green Thumb Geeks
Author: Naseer and Emily • Location: Poughkeepsie, NY • "We are Emily and Naseer, and we’re both engineers in the computer industry. Since getting married and buying our first home in Poughkeepsie, NY, we've developed a deep interested in gardening. Both our parents have decades of experience growing flowers, fruits, vegetables, and raising animals. Combining their advice with our own research–mostly books, the Internet, and friends–this blog chronicles our exploits in the garden. In our first year of gardening (before this blog), we grew some of the vegetables and herbs that we most like to eat, like tomatoes, squash, peppers, eggplant, basil, parsley, chives, and dill. As of this writing (2010), we're expanding our garden in size and variety and venturing into fruit trees and berries. Emily is also interested in growing flowers and shrubs, particularly ones that attract hummingbirds, so we'll be planting more of those as well. Hudson Valley gardening is great because the climate is suitable for a very wide selection of plants, and we intend to explore as much of that as possible in the upcoming years. We use mostly organic methods, but we don't lose sleep over it. And when a technological solution presents itself, we're willing to try it out if we have time–we are geeks, after all. We hope you enjoy reading and learning from this site, and maybe even teaching us a thing or two." - In Lee's garden now
Author: Lee Reich • Location: blog location • "Lee Reich, PhD worked in agricultural research for Cornell University and the U. S. Department of Agriculture before moving on to writing and consulting. He grows a wide variety of fruits and vegetables on his farmden (more than a garden, less that a farm), including many uncommon fruits such as pawpaw, hardy kiwifruit, shipova, and medlar." - Musings at Windyridge
- My Sister's Garden
Author: Apple and Country Girl • Location: near Pulaski, NY • Apple:The purpose of this blog is to have a place to journal the details of my garden. When I started seeds, bloom dates, the purchase of new plants etc. Country Girl:I didn't start gardening until we moved here. The couple that lived here for the 50 years before us loved to garden and left us some wonderful surprises! - Plants and Stones
Author: Becky • Location: Rockdale, NY • "I always wanted to keep a garden journal. This blog is as close as I will ever get. I do my blog for fun with dial up so I keep it short and simple." Gorgeous stone walls out in the country. - Rural Life 2.0
Author: David Hollis
Location: Hubbardsville, NY - Rustling Leaves
Author: Craig Levy • Location: Upstate NY • "My goal is to initiate a conversation and leave everyone with a broader understanding of the world surrounding us. Most of the postings will be about gardening and plants, living a rural life, and our place in relation to the land, plants, and animals that encompass us. But as with most people, I have many and varied interests that will be popping up from time to time." - Rustling Leaves -old Wordpress version
Author: Craig Levy Location: Upstate NY "My goal is to initiate a conversation and leave everyone with a broader understanding of the world surrounding us. Most of the postings will be about gardening and plants, living a rural life, and our place in relation to the land, plants, and animals that encompass us. But as with most people, I have many and varied interests that will be popping up from time to time." - Sin City to Slaterville
Author: Lynn • Location: Slaterville Springs (Ithaca), NY • "I'm a recent transplant from the Southwest experiencing Finger Lakes four seasons with joy and apprehension, learning a whole new plant vocabulary and trying new things I've never been able to grow. Aside from community plots in Austin, TX, this is my first garden of any real size, so I'm also having fun with design possibilities heretofore out of reach. There's an ample infusion of music links and Beagle pictures here, too." - The Bountiful Harvest
Author: Paige Orloff • Location: Upper Hudson River Valley • Having just moved to the upper Hudson Valley, I find myself in the cradle of great eating, a little Alice Waters, a little diner, a whole lot of organic produce and neighborhood pork, poultry, beef and dairy. - The Other Side of New York
"When people think of New York, they think…. New York City. This is a blog about the Upstate areas of New York and some well kept secrets. Things to do, places to go, some current issues, history and wildlife, all from the perspective of a family who lives here, raises two boys, and runs a small hobby farm." - The Rustic Garden
Author: CJ • Location: near Lake Ontario, NY • "I live a simple life in a log cabin built by my very handy hubby and our family in Upstate NY. We are raising our three kids, three dogs, three fish and one cat in a home filled with love and chaos. This is my Log Cabin and my Rustic Garden... I hope you enjoy it as much as I do." - York Staters
"Upstate New York has its own rich history, culture, and communities worth considering, worth investigating, and maybe even worth celebrating. The term “York Staters†reflects these facts and contributes to something that in this age of rapidly homogenizing culture can too often be lost: a regional identity. One made up of smaller local identities, to be sure: the York Staters from Buffalo to inside the Blue Line have as many differences as they do similarities. And York Staters is a place to share them. The idea of York Staters is that the site will function as a forum and a sounding board for musings on life in upstate New York. The goal is to foster the regional and upstate identity you might not even know you have. The site is a recognition that the regions and communities in which we live or have lived profoundly shape our experiences. It is a gathering place for sharing those experiences."
Related posts
The pleasure of gardening is often measured by the amount of weeding you don't have to do.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
this is awesome—i want to move to upstate ny from oregon because you can get so damn much more property there than here. tell me more, tell me more….what’s it like to live where it’s humid in the summer and snows–lots and lots– in the winter? we—hubby, three kids and me—are front yard suburban gardeners here—-17 fruit trees in a 9,000 sq. ft. lot along with lots of raised beds and odd fruit /berry bushes. we’re not well loved in our neighborhood by many of the grass loving types and long to stretch our bodies and minds on some property! run, run, everybody run, come run with me and we’ll have fun! it’s been so much fun reading everyone’s musings and ideas. keep it up. barb