Top Garden Blogs Home Improvement Brands Should Be Following
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We are onto the second post of blog suggestions for Home Improvement professionals. If you’re just catching up with the series, see my previous post on Kitchen blogs to follow. Remember that we’re highlighting these blogs because it’s important to be where your consumers are. Consumers want to interact with your brand about more than just the products you offer, and chatting about blogs that you both love, that are also in your field, is a great meeting ground for consumers and brands.
This week’s focus is on gardening blogs. Gardening is a major trend among DIY Consumers this year. Growing your own vegetables and flowers is becoming more and more common, and these blogs offer great help, inspiration and getting-started tips.
Let consumers know that your brand is more than just a machine sending out tweets and product plugs. Show them pictures of your garden, whether it flourished or flopped. Consumers enjoy interacting with brands and seeing the human side of your company.
Tweeting out articles from their favorite blogs or showing how you attempted a project found in a blog can go a long way towards building brand loyalty. As an added bonus, if you end up producing a fruitful (pardon the pun) garden, consumers may start coming to your twitter feed for garden tips.
1. Garden Gone Wild
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The collaborative effort by three gardening professionals - Fran Sorin, Saxon Holt, and Debra Lee Baldwin - gives this blog an interesting insight into the world of gardening. Their sections include sustainable gardening, garden photography, garden design and more.
More skilled gardeners will appreciate the insight from professionals, but newbies may feel overwhelmed. Some of their most interesting posts are about gardening shows and events that they attend. The unique pictures and insights will get the attention of consumers regardless of their interest in gardens.
2. Garden Design
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This fully-stocked blog has a lot to offer. They dive deep into their topics of entertaining outdoors, garden design and even destination gardens. Each section is packed with articles that cover specific topics, specific garden types and specific flowers.
Their writers and resources are certainly credible, and consumers looking to take the next step in their gardening will appreciate the details and expansive information library. However, there are no “Getting started gardening” posts that I could find. Like the Garden Gone Wild blog, experienced gardeners will appreciate the expertise offered here. The resources seriously seem endless.
This blog is perfect for staying on top of gardening trends as well as insider-information into the world of gardening. If your brand is looking to position itself as a gardening expert, this blog will take you a long way towards reaching that goal.
3. Gardenista
The Gardenista blog makes gardening feel friendly and trendy. The blog focuses on current trends and easy decor tips that bring fresh flowers into the home. This blog feels fresh and up-to-date. Use their posts as a reference to keep consumers in the loop on gardening tips and style.
If your followers are more in the beginning stages of gardening then this blog will give you the resources you need to bring them into the gardening world with confidence.
4. Studio G
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The Studio G blog is another great blog for gardening beginners who are still researching the ins and outs of the gardening world. Some of their recent posts include looking into types of fertilizers and how to grow strawberries.
The blog has an authentic feel because the writer is a real gardener with real gardening successes and failures. Consumers will like the insider's view into a gardener’s world. Because the articles are offering tips and opinions, this would be a great opportunity for brands to include their thoughts about the posts. Tweet or share the article links on Facebook and be sure to include your thoughts or a question for your followers to answer after reading the article. We’ve said it a hundred times, but consumers love to engage with brands, especially about shared interests.
5. Tree Hugger - Lawn & Garden
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The sustainability movement is a trend across almost all consumer sets, especially the DIY Consumers. The Tree Hugger blog is bringing sustainability to the individual gardener’s level. They offer beginning gardening posts, tips on where to buy the best seeds for your sustainable gardening and even a new digital gardening site.
The environment and sustainability is important to the DIY Consumer. Use this blog as a common ground for their interest in the environment and gardening.
6. Urban Organic Gardener
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Urban gardening is a huge trend for 2014. City-dwelling DIYers are doing lots of research on starting their own roof-top gardens, and the Urban Organic Blog is giving them a lot of the information they are looking for.
We would recommend following this blog to see how the urban garden movement evolves. This is a trend with staying power, so staying informed on these city gardens will help to position you as an expert in the area.
Bonus Blog List
In case the blogs we’ve listed here aren’t enough for your news feed, here are a few others that are worth looking into.
- The Martha Stewart Garden Blog
- The Little Green Fingers
- You Grow Girl
- HGTV Gardens
- Urban Gardens Web
- Veggie Gardening Tips
Again, we know this list isn't the full-tilt of gardening blogs. What garden blogs are part of your blog world every week? Which blog is the best for beginnings? We'd love to hear from you in the comments below.
