User:BaudouinVH/digital-garden

Digital garden

A digital garden is a form of personal online space where content is developed in a non-linear, evolving way, often drawing inspiration from gardening metaphors. Unlike blogs, which typically present finished posts in reverse-chronological order, digital gardens emphasize growth over time, with ideas being cultivated, revisited, and interconnected.

Overview

Digital gardens are websites where notes, essays, and ideas are continuously refined rather than published as final products. They typically feature internal linking, wiki-like navigation, and content at varying stages of completion. This model promotes knowledge sharing as an ongoing process rather than a one-time publication.

The concept appeals to creators interested in exploring and visualizing their thinking over time, often blending personal knowledge management (PKM), learning in public, and exploratory writing.

History

The term digital garden gained traction in the early 2020s, particularly through the writings of Maggie Appleton and Tom Critchlow. However, the underlying ideas have precedents in older practices like personal wikis, the zettelkasten method, and early hypertext systems.

While some trace the origins to tools like Obsidian, TiddlyWiki or the ethos of the "indie web", the modern resurgence has been closely tied to the rise of note-taking tools like Roam Research, Obsidian, and the popularity of "second brain" systems.

Key Features

• Non-linear structure: Instead of time-based navigation, content is interconnected via backlinks and topic clusters.
• Progressive refinement: Notes are published early and updated gradually as the author's thinking evolves.
• Openness: Many digital gardeners share their gardens publicly to allow others to learn from or contribute to their thought process.
• Tool agnostic: While some use purpose-built tools, others build custom static sites or adapt blog platforms to suit this model.

Comparison with blogs

Aspect	Digital Garden	Blog
Structure	Non-linear, graph-based	Linear, time-based
Publishing style	Drafts, evolving notes	Finalized posts
Content evolution	Constant updates	Rarely edited after publication
Discovery	Hyperlinked browsing	Chronological scroll or search
Purpose	Thinking in public, knowledge curation	Broadcast, storytelling

Tools and platforms

Popular tools and technologies used to create digital gardens include:

• Obsidian
• Roam Research
• TiddlyWiki
• Zettlr
• Foam
• Quartz
• Gatsby, Hugo, or Jekyll

Reception

Digital gardens have been embraced by developers, writers, academics, and digital thinkers as a more natural and transparent way of sharing evolving knowledge. Critics note that the lack of chronological structure can make navigation harder for unfamiliar readers, and the maintenance required to keep gardens “alive” may be burdensome.

Despite these concerns, the digital garden model is seen as a counter-movement to the algorithmic, ephemeral nature of social media content—encouraging depth over speed, and connection over virality.

See also

• Personal knowledge management
• Zettelkasten
• Personal wiki
• Second brain
• Note-taking
• Hypertext

References

1. Appleton, Maggie. "A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden", 2020.
2. Critchlow, Tom. "Building a Digital Garden", 2019.
3. Matuschak, Andy. "Evergreen Notes", ongoing.
4. Banas, Joel. "Digital Gardens: The Internet's New Thinking Spaces." Medium, 2021.
5. Schmidt, Sarah. "Why the Digital Garden is Flourishing in 2020." FreeCodeCamp, 2020.
6. Hooks, Joel "My blog is a digital garden, not a blog"