I came across the concept of a Digital Garden a few months back and I absolutely loved it. I had just started building my digital lab and workshop, gotten my domain Lilyslab which I now want to change to Lilysgarden.
I was so intrigued by digital gardening that I started researching on it, reading essays and blogs, going down rabbit holes, learning, updating, unlearning and relearning. I have consumed so much information on this concept that I sought to write about it for my future self who might have forgotten all about it.
A Digital Garden is a personal online space used by anyone (mind/knowledge gardeners) to cultivate, keep track of and manage all their knowledge, ideas, thoughts, learnings and writings in public. It is a concept that allows you to cultivate your own ideas, nurture them by rewriting and revisiting them.
Unlike traditional blogs where finished works are forgotten as soon as they're published, a digital garden stays evergreen because all work is continually tended to whether or not it is published.
Just like the idea you have of a real garden1, a digital garden is also a place where things are planted, tended to and growth is encouraged. A digital garden is ever evolving. The seeds you plant grow, and this all happens because you tend to them. A garden is only as good as the seeds planted.
- You plant a seed (an idea, a thought) -> Seedling
- You revisit and update that idea with new findings, opinions, quotes etc -> Budding
- When that idea matures into a full plant which is most times a finished essay that you publish -> Evergreen
Being evergreen doesn't mean that the idea will no longer be updated. You keep updating as you find new quotes, facts or claims to back up your essay.
The beauty of keeping a digital garden is that:
- It helps you to learn in public which fosters collaboration, open feedback and transparency.
- Your work continues to grow and stays up to date because of the continuous tending. It evolves from seedlings to budding notes and then evergreen content.
- You are able to connect the dots with ideas and thoughts that you have in your garden. Connecting the dots leads to bi-directional linking which builds rabbit holes of experience for yourself and your visitors.
- You have full ownership of what is in your garden. With a digital garden, it is encouraged to self-host, so that you have independent ownership and your work stays alive and stands the test of time.
A digital garden helps to reduce the friction that comes with writing and publishing because you do not have to focus so much on publishing but rather on writing. Your notes evolve with you so there's no pressure to have the most polished work out there. You should build your own digital garden too.
You can choose to build your digital garden from scratch or build it using tools such as Obsidian, Notion, Tiddywiki, Wordpress, Bearblog, Hugo, Fomadocs, Jekyll etc. Research on these tools what they have to offer and pick the one that aligns with your goals.
References
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en56OKg5hyc
- Digital Garden Setup
- What is a Digital Garden
- Digital Garden