Why Gardeners should be on Twitter

While I’ve been gardening for about 7 years, this is the first year I’ve really enjoyed an online gardening community. Back in February I branched off from my old blog to start LoveSown, and set up a Twitter account intended just for discussing gardening. It took me awhile to build up followers and find some of the people I really enjoy interacting with, but now I am enjoying taking part in a lively, witty, helpful and experienced bunch of gardening tweeps. If you garden and haven’t yet joined the online discussion, you ought to consider it.

Relationships with Like-minded People
I have a group of amazing friends here in Raleigh, NC, but many of them don’t garden, and certainly they don’t get as giddy as I do over purple potatoes and Italian Climbing Squash. It is so rewarding to post pictures of garden beauties on Twitter and have someone celebrate with me. Also, A lot of funny stuff happens in life and in the garden, and often great anecdotes get shared via Twitter. Some of the best interaction comes on Monday nights during “Gardenchat” and during the daily gardenwalk.

Problem Solving
While you may ask, “What is better than Goggle Search?”, Twitter provides personal interaction and feedback from a wide audience with years of personal experience. Now that I have built up a list of followers, I can post a question, tag it with #gardening or #gardenchat, and almost always get a response. Most of the time, gardeners are eager to help each other get to the root of problems and find a solution, or at the very least commiserate. It is through Twitter that I learned that Duct Tape is a much cleaner and easier method of removing squash bugs and their eggs off squash leaves.

The Exchange of Ideas
The gardening Twitter community is always tossing out links to blogs and sites about planting and growing, novel products, upcycling projects, and both new and tried and true methods of gardening. Because many of us are limited on space to garden, this becomes extremely helpful in making the most of our land or balconies and saving money. Fern Richardson’s “Pallet Garden” ideas have spread like wildfire on the internet including on Twitter and Pinterest.

Learning about new Cultivars
If you only ever purchase plants at your nearby home improvement store, you are missing out on a world of exciting flavors, colors and textures in your garden. One of my favorite benefits of being part of an online community is getting introduced to new cultivars. Not only do you get a picture and description (same as on a seed packet), but you have the chance to ask other growers about their personal experience growing the plant. Yesterday, Lindy Ly from The Garden Betty posted her fall seeds, which sent me off to the store this morning to try some new things.

Networking
Twitter and Facebook are the two main avenues through which I have building up a loyal following on this blog, LoveSown. If you are a blogger, Twitter is a great way to share your posts. One key to this is that you have to give to get. Followers don’t appreciate being constantly blasted with links to your blog if you never interact with them. Go visit other gardener’s blogs, share their links, and leave comments!

Before you know it, not only will you be successfully networking, learning tons of new things about gardening, but you will have also made some fun relationships.