Gardening blogs can help you plan planting, grow vegetables and make better use of your outdoor space. At Midland Sheds and Summerhouses, we have put together ten useful places to find inspiration, whether your shed stores gardening equipment or your summerhouse gives you somewhere to enjoy the results.
Our selection covers practical growing advice, garden design and personal gardening experiences. Several sites also offer videos, books or paid services, while others have archives worth exploring. You do not need to follow them all: choose the resources that match your garden and the projects you want to tackle.
1. The Frustrated Gardener
Best for: plant inspiration and personal gardening experiences.
Dan Cooper’s The Frustrated Gardener brings together writing about his garden, allotment, dahlias and gardening books. It is a good choice for readers who enjoy seeing how another gardener approaches planting and seasonal jobs.
Among these gardening blogs, its personal perspective is particularly appealing. Browse the garden and plant sections when choosing what to grow around a summerhouse, or explore the allotment writing for ideas to try yourself.
The site also links to Dan Cooper Garden, his retail business. Treat the blog as a source of ideas rather than assuming every recommendation is independent of commercial interests.
2. Vertical Veg
Best for: growing food in containers and small spaces.
Vertical Veg, by Mark Ridsdill Smith, focuses on growing vegetables, herbs, salads and fruit in containers. Its guidance is relevant to balconies, patios and small gardens where a large vegetable patch is not an option.
Choose gardening blogs like this when you want to make productive use of the space around your shed. Start with the growing-skills and container-crop sections, then choose a manageable first project.
A shed can provide somewhere to organise pots, labels and tools, while the plants grow outside in suitable conditions. Keep access clear rather than packing containers against the doorway.
3. The Middle-Sized Garden
Best for: practical design and planting in everyday gardens.
The Middle-Sized Garden covers garden design, borders, wildlife and practical gardening. Its focus on gardens larger than a courtyard but smaller than an acre makes it relevant to many household plots.
Unlike gardening blogs devoted mainly to individual crops, this resource helps you think about the garden as a whole. Recent topics include adapting to weather extremes and making narrow borders look fuller.
For summerhouse owners, use the design articles to consider paths, surrounding planting and the view from the doors. Aim for a building that feels connected to the garden, with enough room for access and maintenance.
4. Charles Dowding’s Homeacres Blog
Best for: no-dig vegetable gardening and seasonal growing.
Charles Dowding’s Homeacres Blog is a useful starting point for exploring his approach to no-dig gardening. The wider website includes a free beginners’ guide alongside books, courses and other resources.
Gardeners comparing gardening blogs for food growing will find a clear specialist focus here. Explore the free material before deciding whether you need anything more.
Use what you learn to plan your growing area and the equipment you need nearby. A practical shed setup might include storage for seed trays and tools, plus a clear work surface for preparing your next batch of plants.
5. Successful Garden Design
Best for: layout ideas and combining attractive planting with useful space.
Rachel Mathews’ Successful Garden Design blog features garden-design articles and videos, including ideas for edible gardens, low-maintenance layouts and choosing plants.
Design-focused gardening blogs can be especially useful before you decide where a shed or summerhouse should go. Sketch the main routes through your garden and consider how the building relates to seating, planting and the house.
Start with a design article or video relevant to your garden size. Allow room for doors to open, equipment to move and future maintenance, rather than treating the building as an isolated object.
6. The Tea Break Gardener
Best for: plant projects, greenhouse topics and relaxed garden reading.
The Tea Break Gardener has sections covering garden plants, greenhouse and indoor plants, fruit and vegetables, garden visits and flowers. Its archive includes practical subjects such as taking dahlia cuttings and growing tomatoes outdoors.
Personal gardening blogs are useful for finding a project that feels achievable rather than overwhelming. Pick one subject that interests you and build your plans around it.
For shed owners, the appeal is having somewhere to organise the materials for those projects. Plant-growing requirements still matter: a standard timber shed does not automatically provide greenhouse conditions simply because it has a window.
7. Growing Family
Best for: accessible gardening advice and family activities.
Growing Family combines container gardening, growing guides, monthly jobs and nature-based craft and play. Subjects include flowers to grow from seed, beginner vegetables and choosing plants for pots.
Readers looking for gardening blogs with approachable starting points should find plenty to explore. Its monthly sections can also help turn a vague intention to spend more time gardening into a small list of jobs.
Try using your shed to keep children’s gardening materials together, or set aside space in a summerhouse for drawing and plant journals. Store sharp tools and garden chemicals securely, away from children’s activity supplies.
8. Sow Much More
Best for: ecological gardening and understanding growing methods.
Becky Searle’s Sow Much More focuses on growing food and ecological gardening. Available articles include hardening off plants, managing an allotment alongside a full-time job and encouraging biodiversity in a new garden.
Choose gardening blogs with this kind of focus when you want to understand the thinking behind a gardening task. The topics can help you decide which projects fit your available time and space.
Around a shed or summerhouse, use that inspiration to plan planting thoughtfully. Keep access and maintenance space in mind while considering how the rest of the garden can support wildlife and productive growing.
9. Liz’s Allotment Life from the RHS
Best for: seasonal allotment experiences and growing food.
Liz’s Allotment Life is a series of updates and advice from RHS horticulturist Liz Mooney. It follows her approach to growing fruit and vegetables on a Surrey allotment, with entries addressing seasonal decisions and available space.
Although this is an RHS journal rather than a standalone personal website, it earns its place alongside these gardening blogs for its practical growing perspective.
Read it when planning your own seasonal jobs. A notebook kept with your gardening equipment can help you record what you sowed, when you planted it and what you would change next time.
10. The Room Outside by Lisa Cox
Best for: an archive of garden-design projects and ideas.
Lisa Cox’s The Room Outside includes design tips, planting ideas and a “From the drawing board” section showing garden projects. Its homepage features older posts, so approach it as an archive rather than a source of frequent new updates.
Archived gardening blogs can still be useful when the subject is layout and visual inspiration. Start with the design-project section to see how paths, seating and planting can relate to buildings.
For a summerhouse, consider what you want to see from inside as well as how it looks from the house. A clear path and well-placed border can make the whole space more inviting.
Make the inspiration work in your garden
The most useful gardening blogs are the ones that help you take a practical next step. Choose one project, check its requirements and decide where you will keep the equipment before buying more plants or accessories.
A well-organised garden shed can provide a base for those activities, while a summerhouse gives you somewhere to enjoy the garden you create. Contact our team to discuss a building that suits your space and plans.