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Gardening in the Internet Age

The Problem with Gardening


Recently I was thinking about how the internet changed the way we find information and how it dramatically reduces the time it takes to learn almost anything. However, when it comes to gardening I'm often surprised at how difficult it is to find answers to my questions. For example if I was trying to find out something simple like what to plant in a shady part of my yard I might search something like 'shade shrubs calgary'.



Now if I'm looking for information in other domains I'll typically see a wikipedia article near the top and I'll get fact-based and unbiased information. When I search gardening topics however I get company websites who are trying to sell me stuff, a page from the City of Calgary trying to encourage me to pick plants that don't need a lot of watering, a pinterest page that actually links back to one of those company pages and finally an article in the local paper. Obviously the Calgary Herald article looks promising but when you click on it you get an article geared at very novice gardeners with only 3 suggestions and basic information about them. So if I'm looking for high quality information that covers everything I don't find it on the first page...and based on almost every other domain I research this is a complete outlier!

Why Is It Like This?

I really don't know why the internet is less useful when it comes to gardening but I have a hunch. I think search engines are really good at figuring out who the best experts in the world are and bringing them to the top of the search engine (because they have lots of views, links to their sites, etc.) and most information is just as true in Bangalore as it is in Boston. I don't think that works with gardening though because there are so many different geographies and parts of the world and gardening is very sensitive to those factors. The search engines also don't know which areas are which and can't properly segregate information from all these disparate areas. Which means that when I search for answers on lilacs I get articles from San Francisco...


Oh and just in case you're curious the San Francisco Gate articles (homeguides.sfgate.com...) seem to do really well with Google so I often get these totally useless articles that let me know how much a lilac should be expected to grow in San Francisco. I'm sure it'll be about the same in Calgary...

So What Do You Do?

Well as the gardening world seems to exist in an age before search engines with incredible algorithms that get you to the right place every time were made we have to pretend it's 1998 and our options are asking people with more experience, joining a club to meet more people to talk to and buying books! As crazy as this seems for people my age the best resources I've ever found on gardening in Alberta are Lois Hole's books (which of course she started writing in 1993). There have been updates since and different subcategories to these books but my favourite, 'Lois Hole's Favorite Trees and Shrubs' , was written in 1997 and is simply the best place to learn about trees and shrubs that you can grow in Canada and Alberta (Lois was from the Edmonton area!).

As far as talking to people goes it literally comes down to knowing people who garden and talking to them to find out new things. One example from my life was when I was talking to some family members who farm and I realized that professional farmers were planting peas in April. At first this didn't make sense to me because I thought you couldn't plant vegetables until after the frost date (a common misconception I think!) which is usually considered to be May Long weekend in Alberta. That led me to start learning more about peas and I found out there are a bunch of vegetables that are called 'cold season crops' and can actually be planted way before the end of May! Also, many of them are my favourites like potatoes, carrots and peas! So here's a gratuitous picture of my potatoes as of May 30th...



Lastly, another way to increase your circle of gardeners in your area is your local horticultural societies. I'm just too cheap to bite the bullet and pay $45 to join the Calgary club so I don't know exactly what's available in the member only sections but it seems like you would get lots of tips and tricks specifically valid in your area if you joined one of these. 

More than Flowers!

The last thing I'll say about gardening is that most of these resources tend to be geared towards flowers. There is tons of information about perennials and annuals and that seems to be the focus for many experienced gardeners. I actually have very little interest in those areas. I am a lot more interested in shrubs and trees because they tend to serve a more architectural purpose (creating hedges, providing shade, or just enhancing the curb appeal of your house) and I've also come to like vegetables as it at least feels like there's some economic gain for me in getting free food (also they just do taste better when you grow them yourself). So anyway if you're interested in gardening and found the learning curve tough it's not just you and if you have any suggestions for me I'd love to hear them because I'm sure there's lots more I can learn from others! Oh and here's another gratuitous pic of the peas we harvested last year...



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