By Matt Gibson
If you are a gardener and you need to learn how to do something in the garden that you are not familiar with doing, one simple solution to help you learn exactly how it’s done is to sign on to YouTube. Just do a search about the task in question and you will be given a couple of different options or a couple of pages worth of options to click on to learn from some of the experienced gardeners online.
There are a bunch of experienced gardeners who have a YouTube channel and have made countless videos to help folks tackle different gardening tasks. Some of these gardening channels are better than others, as some of the gardeners are better at teaching and explaining step-by-step instructions clearly and precisely. If you’ve been turning to YouTube for gardening help for a while now, you are probably familiar with some of these sites.
It’s especially nice to be able to find a gardener who lives in your area, as different climates call for different techniques and different areas of expertise. Someone in Maine is not going to know how to help someone in Texas solve an issue that is exclusive to southern gardeners. So, it’s a good idea to look for someone in your area that can help you with location specific issues to turn to when needed. It’s also important to find someone who is easy for you to understand and can clearly explain ideas in a helpful manner.
Instead of just clicking on the first few videos that come up when you do a search and hoping for the best, look for these YouTube channels when your search results pop up. Take a look at a video or two from each of the following channels and see if there are any that you particularly like and look for your favorites when you need a helping hand. Subscribe to the pages of the ones you like the most so they will be just a click away when you need a little advice. The following YouTube channels should be on every gardeners short list of places to turn to for gardening help.
One Yard Revolution
One Yard Revolution’s full channel name is OYR – Frugal and Sustainable Organic Gardening. It is run by Patrick Dolan, an organic farmer and folk musician who has been sharing his gardening knowledge with folks on YouTube since 2013. OYR has helpful videos for any gardener trying to learn practical and sustainable gardening methods, but his channel is especially helpful to gardeners in the United States in or near zone 5, which is where Patrick lives. With nearly 30 million views to his channel, it’s obvious Patrick is doing something right.
Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/OneYardRevolution/videos
Videos: 365
Subscribers: 234K
New England Gardening
If you live in the New England area, which encompasses several different zones, from 5a to 7a, and you are interested in vegetable and fruit gardening, New England Gardening should be one of your go to channels for gardening help on YouTube. Since 2011, this channel has been uploading helpful videos about gardening in the greater Massachusetts area. Aside from fruit and vegetable gardening, this channel specializes in beekeeping, chickadees, DIY greenhouses, orchids, and taking care of freshwater aquariums. New England Gardening videos seem to focus on fruit trees more than other topics, specifically growing citrus trees in containers, and growing fig trees. This is a smaller channel than most of the channels on this list, but they have posted a ton of videos since they began in 2011, and each one is highly informative and incredibly helpful.
Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/NewEnglandgardening/videos
Videos: 1,297
Subscribers: 31.5K
The Gardening Channel With James Prigioni
James Prigioni is a highly intelligent, hyperactive, garden geek with an infectious energy for sharing his love for organic gardening and growing your own food. His main areas of focus include food forests, worm composting, and organic farming. He uses no pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, growth hormones, antibiotics, or fertilizers in his garden and encourages you to do the same. With over 52 million views since he started uploading videos in 2012, James has amassed quite a large following on YouTube. Though his location is not listed on his channel, his videos seem to be directed at those who live in mild climate areas.
Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/jamesprigioni/videos
Videos: 443
Subscribers: 604K
Next Level Gardening – California Garden TV
Next Level Gardening is run by a guy who is obsessed with gardening. He admits that gardening is practically all he thinks about, that it keeps him up at night, and is often the last thing he thinks about before he falls asleep and the first thing he thinks about when he wakes up each morning. Though he doesn’t share his name, the founder of California Garden TV does list his background and discuss his gardening experience. He’s been gardening for over 30 years, and studied under a Master Gardener from the University of California for 10 years. Uploading videos since 2013, Next Level Gardening has amassed over 12 million views. He tends to upload about two videos each week, and is very active on the comment board as well.
Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/CaliforniaGardenTV/videos
Videos: 188
Subscribers: 342K
MIGardener
MIGardener is one of the biggest gardening YouTube channels you can find, and it grows bigger every week, as Levi, MIGardener’s content creator, works hard to release two to three videos per week on gardening topics ranging from organic gardening and self-sustainability, to healthy recipes to try out in the kitchen using all the fresh stuff you grew yourself. MIGardening has videos about DIY gardening projects, beekeeping, worm composting, indoor hydroponics, garden fresh recipes, gardening tips, and much, much more. Levi’s videos have brought in over 100 million views and close to 1 million subscribers.
Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/MIgardener/videos
Videos: 1,495
Subscribers: 821K
The Rusted Garden (Gary Pilarchick)
Gary Pilarchick is a down to earth gardener with a highly informative YouTube channel focused primarily on vegetable gardening with an emphasis on tomatoes. His videos cover a wide range of topics including seed starting, tending your vegetable garden, harvesting crops, preparing and cooking meals with garden fresh vegetables, fighting pests and diseases, and much more. Gary also sells seeds on his website www.therustedgarden.com and keeps up a gardening blog when he’s not making and uploading YouTube videos. If you’ve got a question about vegetable gardening or tomato gardening, chances are, Gary has already made a video about it and provided a number of answers that are just waiting for your attention.
Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/GaryPilarchikTheRustedGarden/videos
Videos: 1,066
Subscribers: 452K
Container Gardening
Container Gardening is another massive YouTube gardening channel that has earned over one million subscribers since joining YouTube only a few years ago in 2016. Somehow, they have earned over a million subscribers while only uploading 139 videos. This channel is based out of Delhi, a large city in India, and its focus is on teaching people who live in large cities how to create decent-sized vegetable and herb gardens with limited space. So if you live in a metro area, and would like to learn some tips and tricks about how to get the most bang for your buck with the limited space you have for gardening, check out this channel and take a few notes as you go.
Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/ContainerGardening/videos
Videos: 139
Subscribers: 1.12M
Jeb Gardener
Jeb Gardener’s YouTube channel is a bit more unorthodox than the other channels on this list. Jeb posts mostly about gardening, but also uploads some videos that seemingly come out of left field from time to time, such as his new forays into World of Warcraft, or raising especially restless chickens. However, his gardening videos are some of the best in the business, and his knowledge in the field is top tier. Jeb’s videos cover indoor hydroponic growing, cloning, grow lights, and pest and disease issues. His videos cover all the basics, as he teaches you all about gardening while making a host of crazy facial expressions along the way. There is never a dull moment on Jeb’s channel.
Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/JebGardener/videos
Videos: 105
Subscribers: 277K
Garden Ninja Ltd.
Garden Ninja Ltd. is a YouTube channel that was founded by Lee Burkhill in 2016. Lee is a mohawk-rocking garden designer from Manchester UK, and he’s kind of a big deal. He started the YouTube channel as a vlog to accompany his Garden Ninja blog. He’s won the 2016 RHS and BBC Feel Good Gardening Competition, was a previous winner at the Chelsea flower show, and has competed at what is largely considered the biggest flower show in the world at Hampton Courts. He is also an expert panelist on BBC Radio’s Sunday gardening show. Lee recently decided to eliminate the use of single-use plastic in his garden to encourage more people to go plastic-free in an attempt to lower his own carbon footprint and to encourage others to do the same. On the Garden Ninja YouTube Channel, you can watch videos about improving and enhancing garden designs and about ways to reduce or eliminate the use of plastic in the garden.
Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/GardenninjaUk/videos
Videos: 123
Subscribers: 21.6K
Epic Gardening
One of the biggest YouTube gardening channels is Epic Gardening, with just under 300 videos and a massive following of just under one million subscribers. Watch a few of their highly informative videos, and it is no surprise why they have gained so much notoriety. Kevin Espiritu has a super friendly face and a confident, but charming demeanor. He publishes three videos per week like clockwork on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, in an attempt to help millions of people reconnect with nature and grow their own food. That’s a lofty goal, but with the kind of success that Kevin has already seen with Epic Gardening, it’s one he’s sure to meet in the near future. Epic Gardening has quite a few videos about folks who have quit their jobs to start seed farms or to garden full time, not to encourage folks to quit their jobs and follow their lead, but to show that self-sustainability through gardening is absolutely possible. Epic Gardening posts videos about growing your own food, incorporating hydroponics and aquaponics with indoor gardening, step-by-step DIY projects, caring for gardening tools, tips and tricks for increasing harvests, organic ways to deter pests, and much, much more.
Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/EpicGardening/videos
Videos: 287
Subscribers: 948K
Simplify Gardening
Simplify Gardening is a YouTube channel centered around organic gardening, but it also features videos about beekeeping, and raising your own poultry. Tony, the vlogger responsible for Simplify Gardening, focuses many of his videos on answering questions submitted by his followers. He is so good at marketing his videos that some of them look like clickbait, but once you click them and begin watching his videos, you will realize very quickly that they are much more informative and helpful than they might appear. Simplify Gardening videos are direct and to the point, as Tony has a knack for packing lots of solid information into short, helpful videos that help his viewers develop their gardening chops.
Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/simplifygardening/videos
Videos: 417
Subscribers: 199K
Kelly’s Kitchen Gardening
Kelly’s Kitchen Gardening is one of the smaller YouTube channels that not as many people are familiar with, that provides tons of useful information to those in the know. Kelly is passionate about edible gardening, and her videos show how she turns her garden space into a produce supply center, saving herself lots of money at the grocery store by using her hobby to keep her cupboards stocked. She shows you how to become a pro in the vegetable garden, and how to put all your hard work to use in the kitchen to make fresh and healthy meals out of the food you grow. Kelly lives and grows her own food in Scotland, but her videos will teach you how to grow food in any moderate climate.
Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/KellysKitchenGarden/videos
Videos: 143
Subscribers: 5.7K
In the description of the MI Gardener channel you mentioned Levi. Who is Levi? The host of MI Gardener is Luke. And the host on the Gardening Channel, James, has said where he is: in New Jersey. You forgot to mention one of the attractions of his channel: his super cute and veggie eating dog, Tuck. Brian is the host of Next Level Gardening. That is the new name, he has followers all over the world, hence the name change.
Why so male dominated? Tons of great female led gardening channels.
Didn’t see He’s Howard with Roots and Refuge farm. Know it is hard to just list 12.
I can’t believe that Garden Answer was not mentioned. Laura LeBoutillier has over 1.2 million subscribers, has a wealth of information and been doing it for several years.
I agree! The LeBoutillier’s are the best! Along with Roots and Refuge and, also, Flower Hill Farm NY [but she is just for flowers mostly].
I totally agree! My highlight every morning with my coffee
I was shocked too that Garden Answer was overlooked. Higher subscription and videos than all of this list.
Any recommendations for southern gardener’s? We live in Birmingham, AL!
Check out Roots and Refuge farm! They are in AK but moving soon to SC.
Roots and Refuge is actually in Arkansas (AR). I am also surprised they didn’t mention Garden Answer. The Impatient Gardener is also a very good channel.
Laura, garden answer, roots and refuge farm, and Erin the impatient gardener are my go twos! Love them
Good List. I used the The Rusted Garden, and MIgarde
I enjoy Seasonal Designs by Dawn out of Wisconsin zone 5 I believe. Large prairie, greenhouse, etc. very fun channel with good tips.
Looking for gardening videos where the gardener does their own work…tired of the Linda Vater type who hire people to do most is not all of their work.
I love watching Northlawn Flower Farm, Flowerhill Farm and Impatient Gardener that should of been added to this list. I love Epic Gardening as well because he’s very knowledgeable. I love these “real” channels about gardening, they do all the work themselves. When I feel like watching the rich gardeners that have an endless amount of wealth for constant garden upgrades, buying more property, free plants, bulbs, trees, sponsorships then I watch Garden Answer.
I came to YouTube gardening channels because of my interest in roses and gardening (flowers) in general. I follow The Impatient Gardener; Jason from Fraser Valley Rose Farm, who has worked in the gardening industry for many years and covers many gardening topics, including plant propagation; Jim Putnam from HortTube in N. Carolina; Regenerative Gardening, a flower farm in Colorado; in the UK, The Middle-sized Garden, more about design than gardening techniques; Rosie Hardy Gardening, a nurser owner of Hardy Cottage Garden Plants, who has won many prizes at at the Chelsea flower show and does excellent shorts on a whole variety of garden plants. One learns from everyone! Irene, The Netherlands