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Why Pinterest is a Cool Tool for Gardeners

I'm sure you've heard about Pinterest by now.  If you're like me you may have thought "that's just another online time waster." Or if you're a guy maybe you thought "that's just for women!" Well I'll admit it, those were my first thoughts.  Then I began to see people using it and sharing things from it on Facebook or Twitter.  I became curious and signed up for an account to check it out and found that is way more than I thought and it could actually be of use to gardeners.  Of course it could easily become a significant time waster as you get sucked in to another social media phenomenon, but there are some very useful aspects to Pinterest.


What is Pinterest?

Garden Project Ideas on Pintrest
Pinterest is a bookmarking site where people use images to mark interesting articles, blogs, or websites.  When something is "pinned" the image is shared on the website and those who follow the "pinner" see the image.  All the images link back to their original source which is actually very good for bloggers who want to drive traffic to their websites.  Since January over 5,000 visitors have been directed to Growing The Home Garden from Pinterest which makes it ranked 7th among traffic sources for this blog.  You can see why a garden blogger might benefit from Pinterest.  Garden blogs are by their nature picture heavy which is perfect for Pinterest people.

How Can a Gardener Use Pinterest?

It is a huge resource for finding project ideas.  If you need an idea for a vegetable garden use the search and a whole bunch of beautiful vegetables gardens magically appear before your eyes to give you inspiration.  Follow other really cool vegetable gardeners on Pinterest (like me - hint, hint) to see what they find interesting and discover nifty ideas just by clicking on that gardener.  It's not just project ideas but how about creating a Pinterest Wishlist Board for all the plants you would like to have?  Or why not share your garden photographs to keep a catalog of the plants in your garden?  You could even share recipes from the vegetable garden that you enjoyed.


How To Stop Pinterest from Pinning Your Blog Photos


I understand why some people have issues with the picture sharing involved since it could be perceived as a copyright violation.  There is actually a way to prevent your images being shared on Pinterest.  It's very simple to do just go to your HTML editing page and look for the <head> section.

Place this code: <meta name=”pinterest” content=”nopin” />
somewhere after the <head> and before the </head>.   

When I first noticed traffic from my images on Pinterest I was a little concerned with the copyright violation possibilities but I let things roll along without intervening.  As it turns out I believe it has benefited this blog and expanded its readership quite a bit.  I do highly recommend putting some sort of marking on your photos before uploading them to your blog or website.  That's just a good practice to do anyway to prevent unauthorized use of your photos.  I use my website url so people can find the website but using a copyright marking with your name is a good idea too.  If you run a photography website where you sell your images you will probably want to block Pinterest.

The two most popular posts from Growing The Home Garden you'll find on Pinterest are Designing a Raised Bed Vegetable Garden: 11 Things to Think About and Propagating Rosemary in Water.

What do you think?  Have you used Pinterest yet?

You can follow me on Pinterest here.