Plants Map Helps Angie The Freckled Rose Stay Organized

For the average person, it appears impossible to grow a love for gardening, a network of equally passionate gardeners, and a successful website within 5 years. For New England gardener Angie Rose, owner and creator of AngieTheFreckledRose.com, it was more than possible with the help of Plants Map, her boyfriend’s mom, and Twitter’s #gardenchat.

Around five years ago, Angie decided she wanted to grow things she could eat. Growing up, she’d seen her mom plant annuals each year, but beyond that her involvement in gardening was slim to none. She planted a few vegetables not knowing if she could pull it off. She quickly found that not only could she grow a healthy vegetable garden, but it was fun and easy. For her, vegetable gardening opened up a whole new world.

“My boyfriend’s mom also had something to do with it,” Angie said. “She has a suburban farm that really opened my eyes to everything you can do with gardening.”

Angie’s style quickly blossomed into what she describes as a “Cottage Garden Style.” She wanted a garden full of things that looked pretty and smelled good alongside things she could eat; she accomplished just that.

“It’s nice to eat something fresh and know where it’s from,” Angie said.

If you were to wander through Angie’s garden, she would encourage you to scan the Plants Map QR codes placed on each rose, vine, and vegetable to read the story of that plant. She loves that her friends and guests can look online and immediately see the story and progress of each plant.

Angie became involved with Plants Map through Twitter’s #gardenchat community. Right away she was pleased that the site was connected with Twitter. She liked that Plants Map allows those using it to put links to their pages in Tweet form. From those links, fellow gardeners can then look at each others’ current projects and see what grows well where.

Angie quickly came to find that she also loved the mobility of the site.

“I really like that I can use it on my cell phone,” Angie said. “It helps me visualize my garden when I’m not home. When I’m shopping for new plants, I can look on my profile and see my color schemes and what would fit where.”

The Collections option, recently added to Plants Map, is also becoming one of her favorite features. Angie claims that visually, it makes it so much easier to keep her garden in order. Plants Map already helps her stay organized and remember what she’s planted, but now with Collections she can see each section of her garden individually.

“I found it really helps with tracking shrubs and roses.” Angie said. “I can look at how the plant started out, when I got it, and how I got it. Plants Map gives me a way to make sure I am doing all the right things.  It makes me pay attention to the plant. When I look back to when I planted something I’m amazed at how it’s grown so far.”

“I love Plants Map,” Angie said. “I love how organized it makes me. They’ve taught me a lot about plants just by allowing me to organize. I lose everything so the mobile site is super helpful!”

As a talented photographer, Angie also loves the idea of being able to take and post photos of her plants to Plants Map. This feature was especially helpful the day she was contacted by HGTV. They wanted to use some of her gardening photos for a story. She obliged, pleased that she had been keeping a log of them through her site as well as Plants Map.

More than anything else, Angie loves the connections she has made with other gardeners through Twitter and Plants Map.

“I will definitely keep up with ‘More Than Oregano’ and ‘Bren Haas’ through Plants Map,” Angie said. “I really like that you can like other people’s plants on the site.”

As Angie continues to build her personal site with the help of Plants Map, she looks forward to making new connections with other gardeners while allowing her plants’ stories to come alive.

“I feel like I’ve been gardening my whole life,” Angie said. “It’s been a slow progress from five years of gardening and just one year of Twitter, but I feel like I’ve learned a lot.”

Sign Up to Follow or Connect with Angie The Freckled Rose on Plants Map.