Digital Gardening Tools and Resources

This collection of apps, tools and articles is here to help you learn more about digital gardening. Ideally, it's here to help you start your own garden.

What is "digital gardening"?

A garden is something inbetween a personal blog and a wiki. It's a collection of evolving notes, essays, and ideas that aren't strictly organised by their publication date. They're inherently exploratory – posts are linked through contextual associations. They aren't refined or complete - posts can be published as half-finished thoughts that will grow and evolve over time. They're less rigid, less performative, and less perfect than the personal "blogs" we're used to encountering on the web.

See the Theory, Philosophy, and Navel-gazing section for more on the 'what' of gardens.

Gardening Tools

Building a Public Garden

• Roam Research - A personal notes system for interconnected thought
  • See the following resources for converting your private garden in Roam to a public garden:
    • Roam Garden a service that does all the setup for you based on JSON export
    • Gatsby Theme Garden Gatsby theme that supports using Roam as a source
    • Roam-to-Garden Jekyll based converter for your Roam Data
• Obsidian - a Roam-like knowledge base that works on top of a local folder of plain text Markdown files. Also allows you to publish selections of your graph to the open web.
• TiddlyWiki - A no-code personal wiki system
  • Stroll a TiddlyWiki plugin with bi-directional links and other Roam-like features
  • TiddlyMap - a mind-map plugin that shows visualizations for TiddlyWiki.
• Gitbook
• React-Notion - allows you to publish a React-based website sources from your Notion notes - "Notion as a CMS"
• Gatsby Brain Theme - Roam-like bidirectional links in Gatsby.js
• Gatsby Andy Theme
• Gatsby Theme Garden - A set of tools to build a digital garden with Gatsby.js. Pull data from Roam Research or markdown.
• Simply Jekyll - A Jekyll theme with bidirectional links, sidenotes, and transclusion
• Digital Garden Jekyll Template - A simple, clean jekyll template with bi-directional links
• Jekyll-Bonsai - A modern jekyll theme for semantically inclined digital gardeners.
• Eleventy Garden - A minimal template with backlinks, built in Eleventy
• Foam - Roam-like personal note management and publishing system built inside VSCode
• Foamy NextJS - Basic Foam + NextJS with MDX starter for building a digital garden
• Dendron - A structured note taking tool that merges the freedom of Roam-like linking with the order hierarchical organization
• Hyperdraft - Turns plain markdown notes into a website as you write. Easy to setup and doesn't require builds or deploys.
• Neuron - Managing and publishing system for plain-text Zettelkasten-style notes.
• Innos Notes – Features include parallel pages, content blocks, and knowledge graph visualisations.

Building a Private Garden

• Org Roam - non-hierarchical note-taking with org-mode in emacs
• TheBrain - A tool for taking interconnected notes with an interactive graph.
• Bangle.io - A simple, markdown-based notetaking app that runs locally on your machine.

Extra Gardening Tools

• Webmentions - About the Webmentions system
  • Webmention.io - A service to add Webmentions to your Garden
• Hypothesis - A layer of social meta commentary
• mkdocs-newsletter - An add-on to the MKdocs platform that generates a newsletter logging which pages have changed

How-To's and Tutorials

• How to build a digital garden with TiddlyWiki by Anne-Laure Le Cunff
• Install org-roam: an introductory technical guide with Doom Emacs by Ian Jones
• Building a Digital Garden by Tom Critchlow
• Webmentions - Joining the IndieWeb with Svelte by Shawn Wang
• How to plant a Garden a video walkthrough for converting your RoamResearch DB into a public garden by Vlad Sitalo
• Digital Gardening for Non-Technical Folks by Maggie Appleton
• 5 No Code Digital Gardening Tools by Ian Jones

Theory, Philosophy, and Navel-Gazing

• The Garden and the Stream: A Techno pastoral by Mike Caulfield – the original source of the concept of Digital Gardening
• Of Digital Streams, Campfires and Gardens by Tom Critchlow
• How the Blog Broke the Web by Amy Hoy
• My blog is a digital garden, not a blog by Joel Hooks
• You and your mind garden by Anne-Laure Le Cunff
• Digital Garden Terms of Service by Shawn Wang
• What is a digital garden? by Chris Biscardi
• The Garden and the Stream: An IndieWeb Pop-up Session
• The Swale: Weaving between Garden and Stream by Will Stedden
• A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden by Maggie Appleton

Common Ground: Zettelkasten, Knowledge Graphs, Wikis, and Related Concepts

• The Knowledge Graph Radar
• Zettelkasten: knowledge and info management
• The Zettelkasten Method by Abram Demski
• A web of wikis by Neil Mather
• Bliki tooling by Neil Mather
• Hack Your Life With A Private Wiki Notebook, Getting Things Done, And Other Systems by Bill Seitz
• As We May Think by Vannevar Bush (The Atlantic, 1945)

Digital Garden Directory

⭐️ = Featured; unique and exceptional examples

Gardener & Link	🛠 Build Tools	🌿Note Themes
⭐️ Andy Matuschak	The Mystery Andy System	Note-taking, education, tools for thought
⭐️ Gwern	JS, CSS, Hakyll, Haskell	Quantified self, spaced repetition, bitcoin
⭐️ Azlen Elza	Notion + Python	Design, Conversational interfaces, Tools for thought
⭐️ Buster Benson		Behaviour change, dialogue, systems thinking
⭐️ Tom Critchlow	Jekyll	Indie consulting
⭐️ Chris Aldrich	TiddlyWiki + TiddlyBlink + TiddlyMap	Art of Memory, IndieWeb, humanities, commonplace books, thought spaces
⭐️ Gordon Brander	Lettersmith	Design patterns, storytelling, systems
⭐️ Bill Seitz	Flask/Python with WikiFlux	Product management, startups, wiki theory, engineering
⭐️ Alex Komoroske	Cards Web – a custom OS platform	Complexity theory, design, systems thinking
⭐️ Nikita Voloboev	GitBook	Tool obsessed. Code, web dev, art.
Anne-Laure Le Cunff	TiddlyWiki	Networked thinking, metacognition, evidence-based learning and self-education
Shawn Wang	Sapper	Web development, writing, speaking
Kevin Cummingham	Gatsby	Web development, React, AWS, GraphQL
Maggie Appleton	Next.js	Anthropology, metaphors, visual explanations, and web development
Chris Biscardi	Sector / Toast?	Web development, MDX, GraphQL, Gatsby
Neil Mather	Org-mode	Programming, politics, climate change
Wess Daniels	Tiddlywiki (Pre-Release 5.1.23)	Culture and systems change, liberation theology, tech and pedagogy
Aengus McMillin	Gatsby	Programming, Stoicism
Joel Hooks	Gatsby + MDX	Bootstrapping / indie-hacking, community building, web development
Ian Jones	Gatsby	Web development, Gatsby, Emacs
Wayan Jimmy	Gatsby (Hasura Gitbook Starter)	Coding, Learning notes
Markus	Eleventy	Design, linux, privacy
Max Stoiber	The Mystery Andy System	React, web development
Daniel Chapman	Gatsby	Books, Writing, Poetry
Will Stedden	Custom coding a side project	Machine learning, automated language generation, quantum physics art, online transparency
Salman Ansari	Gatsby	Start-ups, engineering
Fabien Benetou	PmWiki (with plenty of extensions PHP/JS/NodeJS/WebXR/CSS/Processing/etc)	Everytyhing but particularly programming, tools, tools for thoughts
Waylon Walker	Gatsby	python, data-engineering, coding, learning notes
Cristian Rojas	Hugo Zettels theme	🇪🇸 Drawing, coding, biology, introspection
Chinarut Ruangchotvit	TheBrain	autobiography, personal transformation
Steve Dondley	Jekyll, vimwiki	Tech, software, automation, some politics and issues
Scott Spence	Toast + MDX	Web development, MDX, GraphQL, Gatsby, styled-components
Devine Lu Linvega	C	Sailing, Design, Livecoding, Plan9
Milkii Brewster	MediaWiki	Various life and tech topics, mostly Linux and audio FOSS
Maxime Vaillancourt	Jekyll (open-source template)	personal growth, ruby, web, linux
Andy Byers	Jekyll	notes on coding, note taking, personal knowledge management and other random thoughts.
Abstractxan	C++ (Mizi)	Tech, Art, Curating resources
Luciano Strika	Jekyll	Personal Wiki, Digital Garden. StrikingLoo's Haphazard Repository of Knowledge, Opinions and Trivia
Piotr Gaczkowski	Jekyll + Roam Research as backend	Book notes, Codex Vitae, cocktails, experiments
Tymon Zaniewski	Jekyll (open-source template)	personal wiki, DIY electronics, making music
Aquiles Carattino	Aqui Brain Dump	Science. Notes on books and papers. Technology Transfer. Working in Public
Yenly Ma	Foamy NextJS and NextJS with MDX	Digital garden of gardens. Learning and making in public.
Rosano	Hyperdraft + Garden	Music / Design / Technology
Chase McCoy	Gatsby + MDX	Web development, CSS, design systems
Charlie Trochlil	Maxime's jekyll template	Learning, art, online spaces, baking
Hiran Venugopalan	Obsidian + Jekyll	Design, Branding, Business, Typography, Product
Vlad Sitalo	Roam Garden	How to define code readability objectively? Applying SRS to all the things, Building Roam Garden
Joel Chan	Roam Garden	Knowledge synthesis, Scientific Creativity
Blue Book	MkDocs	Python, DevOps, life automation, health, art, ...
Oshyan Greene	Discourse	Productivity, Digital Gardening, Ideas, Reviews, and Recommendations
Clinton Boys	org-roam + Hugo	Writing, data science, math, life
David Ralph Lewis	TiddlyWiki	Writing, poetry, wellbeing, psychology
Soren Bjornstad	TiddlyWiki + homegrown scripts	Almost everything; emphasis on tech, reading, and how to live
Paul Batchelor	WeeWiki	Computer Music, Audio Programming, Literate Programming, Food
Memento	MkDocs, MkDocs Newsletter	Python, GNU/Linux, DevOps, Flutter, traveling, cooking, ...