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Younger Garden Bloggers, Where Are You?

I've been happily following the discussions on Cold Climate Gardening and over at Mr. Brown Thumb about younger (early 30's and younger) and older (over 70) garden bloggers, and the lack thereof. Because I am one of those "younger" bloggers, I'm now wondering where the rest of you are. I know that Kim, Katie from Gardenpunks, and Mr. Brown Thumb are all in that "younger" category with me. I was surprised to find out that Mr. Brown Thumb is as young as he is (just barely 30)...I had assumed he was older than that. So, if I totally missed Mr. Brown Thumb's age, maybe I missed others as well. If you're in the younger age range of the garden blogosphere, let us know! This is purely a curiosity thing on my part. I know there aren't many of us, but there have to be more than this small handful!

Younger Gardenbloggers (many thanks to Annie for compiling this list in the comments of Kathy's original post!)
Kim from A Study in Contrasts

Andrea from Heavy Petal

Katie at Gardenpunks

Rosemarie in Illinois

Laura from Plays in Dirt

Genie at The Inadvertent Gardener

Mr Brown Thumb

Wicked Gardener in Florida

Are there more of us, or is this totally excellent sampling all there is? Any early 30's, 20-something gardenbloggers out there? Let us know!
Posted by Colleen Vanderlinden Comments: (29) Trackbacks: (0)

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David said,

Sunday, December 9. 2007 at 20:54 (Link) (Reply)

Count me as a "younger blogger"... at least for the next fifteen months until I turn 40! (What will I be then???)
Colleen said,

Sunday, December 9. 2007 at 21:10 (Link) (Reply)

Well, then you get to be just a plain 'ol gardenblogger----not young or old ;-)

As I said in the post, I'm just curious to see if there really are as few of us as it seems. Gardenbloggers tend to be ageless--probably because when it comes down to it, there really is no generational difference between gardeners. We're all equally obsessed, no matter what age we are :-)
Katie Hobson said,

Sunday, December 9. 2007 at 21:06 (Link) (Reply)

Hi Colleen,

Thank you thank you thank you for this post! I've met lots of great people of all ages since I began garden blogging, but never really felt like I knew of all that many people who were around the same age as we are.

I'm not trying to be exclusive of anyone, but it's great to find folks around the same age as you with the same passion! I feel like it's something I'm missing in my life. I'm actually on a quest to find folks "like me" in my suburb...

I really appreciate the link and had NO idea this would be as big as it is.

Katie at GardenPunks
Colleen said,

Sunday, December 9. 2007 at 21:17 (Link) (Reply)

Hi Katie--

I know what you mean! I still haven't found any gardeners my age in my neighborhood. I did attend an event sponsored by our local garden club, just to see, and I felt the same way I felt at family holidays as a kid---like I belonged at the "kid table" so that the grownups could talk ;-)

Happily, gardenbloggers are a different breed, and I've never felt that way since I've been blogging. It's still nice to know who the other "youngsters" of the blogosphere are! I think you may be the youngest of the group, by the way :-)

Thanks for stopping by!
Pam/Digging said,

Monday, December 10. 2007 at 04:05 (Link) (Reply)

She hasn't posted much lately, but R. Sorrell of The Great Experiment in Austin is probably in her late 20s. She's also a neighbor of mine, and while I haven't actually asked her age, I'd be surprised if she's even 30.

But you're right that it seems there are few young garden bloggers. Would you agree that the 40s and 50s are the best-represented ages?
Colleen said,

Monday, December 10. 2007 at 15:03 (Link) (Reply)

Thanks, Pam! I'll give her a visit :-) I definitely agree that the 40's and 50's are well represented in the garden blogosphere.
CSA farmer girl said,

Monday, December 10. 2007 at 07:47 (Link) (Reply)

I am 33 and farming here in Ohio. Do I count as young? I guess we are out here but people don't know it!
Colleen said,

Monday, December 10. 2007 at 15:05 (Link) (Reply)

You're definitely a young gardenblogger, CSA farmer girl! And thanks for letting us know you're there...I haven't visited your blog yet. I'm on my way over to remedy that right now :-)
Jenny said,

Monday, December 10. 2007 at 10:19 (Link) (Reply)

Late 20s here. Katie, I know what you mean about finding people the same age with the same interests...it's hard to do when you're outside the mainstream. Thank goodness for the Internet. :-)
Colleen said,

Monday, December 10. 2007 at 15:06 (Link) (Reply)

Jenny,

You know, I had a sneaking suspicion that you were a younger gardenblogger, but I wasn't positive. Thanks for proving my hunch right :-)
Sarah said,

Monday, December 10. 2007 at 16:30 (Link) (Reply)

In 17 days I'll be a 20-something. :-) This has been a very interesting topic. In a rather long post I wrote about young bloggers I came to the conclusion that most young people my age are too busy with college and careers to garden, much less blog about it. I'm glad to know I'm not the only person my age blogging about gardens!
~Sarah
Colleen said,

Monday, December 10. 2007 at 16:44 (Link) (Reply)

Hi Sarah!

I think that's the most likely reason there aren't as many young gardenbloggers. Although, I'm thrilled to discover so many bloggers, including fellow "young" bloggers, that I didn't know about!

Off to visit your blog now ;-)
Anthony said,

Monday, December 10. 2007 at 17:20 (Link) (Reply)

Add me to the list of plain 'ol gardenbloggers. Even though I have blogs about Webkinz and Pokemon, I'm an ancient 39 years old.

Glad to hear that some of you young folk will carry the torch when us old timers fade away. :-)
Colleen said,

Monday, December 10. 2007 at 18:40 (Link) (Reply)

Hi Anthony :-)

I know...there's such a major difference between being 30 and 40 ;-)

I only have about 4 1/2 more years of calling myself a "young" gardenblogger, then I get to be a plain 'ol gardenblogger, too!

I know you were joking, but I was actually wondering if there would be anyone interested in taking the gardenblogging torch from us. It looks like the garden blogosphere will be okay :-)
Annie in Austin said,

Monday, December 10. 2007 at 20:47 (Link) (Reply)

There are probably lots of other young bloggers that I missed, Colleen, including:

Nickie, Girl Gone Gardening in Indiana
http://girlgonegardening.blogspot.com/

Rachel, In Bloom - Austin
http://www.waterlilies.org/inbloom/

Ben in Nebraska, The Deep Middle
http://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/

and possibly Vanillalotus, New Sprout in Texas
http://newsprout.blogspot.com/

As one of the first Boomers I'm sure not young, but I would feel claustrophobic if anyone made me feel my posts should only be in the 'gardening' category... my garden may be my main topic, but that doesn't stop me from writing about movies, current events in Austin, genealogy and whatever stuff we put on YouTube.

Could this distaste for being boxed into a category be another reason for younger people to start garden blogs rather than general blog or social networking sites? Just wondering.

Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Colleen said,

Monday, December 10. 2007 at 21:09 (Link) (Reply)

Hi Annie!

Thanks for the additions to the list! I think you raise a really good point about not wanting to be boxed in. I certainly hope that younger gardeners aren't writing off garden blogs because they think they would only have to write about gardening! As you say, the bulk of my blog (and most garden blogs) is garden-related, but just off the top of my head, I know I've gone off on tangents about politics, books, my kids, my pets, and cooking. I think these tangents serve an important purpose: we get to see a little more of each other as people. We all know we're obsessed gardeners, but when someone shares a detail like their age, or the birth of a child, or how many cats they have, it all becomes a bit more personal. Some people may not be looking for that, but it's one of the things I enjoy about gardenblogging.

Thanks for stopping by!
Benjamin Vogt said,

Tuesday, December 11. 2007 at 12:20 (Link) (Reply)

Annie has plugged my blog on TWO sites now--I think I owe her a tip or something.

I'm 31, gardening on 1/4 acre in eastern Nebraska. I don't stay boxed in since I'm also a writer and college English teacher: gardening, poetry, creative nonfiction, environmental news I hear about, praising my Minnesota Vikings or my younger soccer sister,documenting trips, talking a tiny tiny bit about teaching cuz my students don't need to find my blog and learn I dislike, errr, love them all.
Kris at Blithewold said,

Tuesday, December 11. 2007 at 13:32 (Link) (Reply)

There's a lot of fear in the industry that gardening is going to die out with the oldsters and I'm optimistic seeing the long list of young gardeners. Only uncool thing (for me) is that at pushing-40 37 I guess I don't get to sit at the kid's table anymore (boo. I don't wanna be a grown-up.)
MrBrownThumb said,

Tuesday, December 11. 2007 at 14:49 (Link) (Reply)

Great to see so many "younger" gardeners coming out of the woodwork now that Katie brought up the subject. I've never mentioned my age on my blog until last month where Kim (Study In Contrast) also mentioned thinking I was older.

I guess I come across as an old fart in writing. ;0)
Andrea at Heavy PEtal said,

Tuesday, December 11. 2007 at 17:24 (Link) (Reply)

Thanks for continuing the discussion, Colleen. I just wrote a post on the topic, and I had a hard time defining a specific age in which one ceases to be a "younger gardener"... especially since, at 30, I don't really consider myself all that young (unless I'm in gardening circles, and then I'm the youngest by a decade or two).
Kim said,

Thursday, December 13. 2007 at 22:13 (Link) (Reply)

This is way cool... I have new blogs to discover! YAY!!! :-)
Dave said,

Friday, December 14. 2007 at 11:01 (Link) (Reply)

I've been wondering if there were many other "younger" gardeners out there. I'm in the lower 30's (31 to be exact) writing about the gardening we've been doing around our first house. I gardened in pots on our back porch for years. People I knew thought I was crazy but we had some really good tomatoes and other veggies. It's good to see others in my age bracket around!
minhus said,

Friday, December 14. 2007 at 15:03 (Link) (Reply)

While I don't just blog about gardening (home projects and decorating get equal time), I'm a younger blogger. Still in my 20s, for a few more months anyway. :-)
Emma said,

Sunday, December 16. 2007 at 08:51 (Link) (Reply)

I'm one of the young ones! To be honest, I assume everyone is the same age as me unless they let slip otherwise :-)
Carolyn said,

Monday, December 17. 2007 at 09:03 (Link) (Reply)

Hi Colleen - I'm 31, and having only been keeping a professional blog for a few months, I guess I'm an aspiring garden blogger. I'll ditto Sarah that many of us are too busy -- I'm lucky enough to have blogging be a small part of my job, but my personal blog (mostly about motherhood & running) gets a lot less frequent updates!

Also, there's the issue of ownership -- at least in the Boston area, it takes a lot for someone under 40 to own a home, much less one with any soil. For 7 years, we've grown veggies in patio pots and relied on a CSA for the bulk of our food. Next year, we're looking for a comm. garden plot. When we can afford to dig up the pavement that is our front yard, it will still need a few years of phytoremediation before we can grow food in our urban soils.

Thanks for the conversation, and thanks to Annie for the links. I enjoy reading about those who are lucky enough to be homesteading in our 20s & 30s!
Sarah said,

Friday, December 21. 2007 at 16:43 (Link) (Reply)

I'm 32, and a blogger, and I garden, albeit badly - though I really don't blog about the garden...perhaps I should, it would probably improve my actual gardening.
Colleen Vanderlinden said,

Saturday, December 22. 2007 at 08:12 (Link) (Reply)

Hi Sarah!

You know, I think blogging has improved my gardening. It's definitely worth a shot, anyway :-)

Thanks for stopping by!
2greenthumbsup said,

Tuesday, December 25. 2007 at 13:15 (Link) (Reply)

You're only as old as you think you are! That's what I keep telling myself anyway. I think I'm 23. That first week in the garden every spring after I've limbered up (a lot), I do begin to feel 23 again. Gardening keeps me young - something to do with being outside in the fresh air and soaking up the sun's rays. Blogging about gardening allows us to meet many others who share common interests and it's a place where age is irrelevant. I truly believe that we wouldn't develop and enjoy these gardening-associated relationships in quite the same way if they were based on personal encounters. The ole' age barrier thing would likely rear its ugly head. Instead, when cultivating online gardening friendships, those we communicate with learn about us through our words in posts and comments. We actually take the time to get to know eachother without being influenced by appearances. No one 'looks' too young or too old. There's no pre-judging. Isn't technology wonderful?!

Cathy
Sean at Bamboo Geek said,

Saturday, January 26. 2008 at 02:38 (Link) (Reply)

Young blogger (30-something), check out http://bamboogeek.blogspot.com/

Cheers!

Sean

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