Fun and Educational Quarantine Resources

Lots of Online Resources For When You’re Stuck at Home

Like many of you, I’m staying much closer to home than normal. I work as a personal trainer part-time and my gym has been closed for now, so I’m currently unemployed.

Besides that, I just feel like I should stay close to home. I’m (relatively) young and healthy and typically don’t get sick, so don’t want to take a chance of transmitting the virus to someone without knowing I even have it.

If you live in a part of the country where it’s warm, I hope you’re getting some fresh air and sunshine and starting your gardening chores.

I don’t know what doctor’s recommendations are for people with the virus, so definitely check with your doctor, but fresh air and sunshine, in my experience, can help with almost anything! Even if you don’t feel up to gardening chores, sitting out and soaking up some Vitamin D might do you some good.

It’s still too cold here to start gardening, so what’s a gardener to do when she’s at home 24/7 for the foreseeable future?

I’ve been surfing the web to find some fun resources for my readers who might be going stir crazy, and I’ve found quite a few that I’d like to share with you. Let’s get started.

Virtual Garden Tours

Hawaii Botanical Garden

Here’s a 20 minute YouTube video tour of the Hawaii Botanical Garden. Man, do I wish I were there right now! So beautiful!

Brooklyn Botanic Garden

At the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s website, you’ll find gorgeous pictures, but you’ll also find tons of educational resources. If you click on “Gardening Resources” and then “Gardening How-to Articles”, you’ll find lots of educational information.

At the bottom of “Gardening How-to Articles” page, you’ll also find the BBG’s blog, which includes articles and videos as well.

The website is definitely good for an hour or more of fun and education!

Claude Monet’s Garden

If you’re as fascinated by Claude Monet as I am, you may enjoy this website highlighting his gardens at Giverny. And don’t worry, much of the website is in English for those of us who aren’t fluent in French!

There are some beautiful pictures of the gardens, along with information on what you’re looking at. Additionally, if you scroll down the page, you’ll discover a list of plants and flowers in his garden, along with when they bloom, and information about Claude Monet himself.

If you do happen to read or speak French, there’s a daily blog and some informational talks to listen to. I tried reading the daily blog (I took French in high school) and could get the gist of it in French, but then tried the Google translation. It was quite good, so you have that option too.

Kew Royal Botanic Gardens

This page on their website offers so much reading material, there’s a good chance you could get lost here for days!

From the wildlife of Kew Gardens (the photos in this brief article are spectacular. The dormice….*squeee*!) to biodiversity in New Guinea, you’ll find lots of interesting articles to keep you busy.

Really, the photography on this entire website is absolutely breathtaking, and even if you don’t want to take the time to read the articles, it’s worth a look just to see the pictures. If you have children too young to read, they may also enjoy the beautiful and colorful pictures.

Short Botanical Garden You Tube Tours

Cleveland Botanical Garden

Missouri Botanical Garden

Chicago Botanical Garden

US Botanical Garden (Washington DC)- My Fave Tour!

On the US Botanical Garden page, you can find a virtual tour of the garden, plus photos and a video tour of the 2020 Orchid Show.

The virtual tour at this site was the best one I found because it was like I was actually walking through the garden and looking at everything.

Just click the path in the little green box at the lower left of the picture and “walk” through.

So much fun, and you don’t have to leave your house!

BBC Gardening and Learning

If you’d rather go a more educational route, this website by the BBC has lots of educational gardening resources.

The page itself is no longer updated, but it’s still worth a look for all the resources that are there.

SNAP-Ed Library

If you have kids, the SNAP-Ed Library page is a must. There are also resources for adults, but you’ll find so much for kids, no matter their age!

NOTE: Some of their resources aren’t free, so be sure to pay attention to that when you’re looking around.

Open Culture Free Online Courses

So, I saved the best for last, just for you. Open Culture has 1500 online college courses from across the country, ALL FOR FREE!

I’ve gotta warn you, you WILL go down a rabbit hole on this site and you may just browse for hours.

Although there are plant science, ecology and nutritional classes and videos available, there’s also a dizzying array of courses in just about any discipline you can imagine, from archaeology to zoology, and everything in between.

Since I obviously couldn’t check out every course, I can’t attest to them all being great, but I did decide to try out the Biochemistry Basics course. Yes, I’m nuts!

Just to give you an idea what it’s like, this particular one has 36 50-minute lectures. They’re actual lectures the professor videotaped from his class at the University of Oregon. This class also includes a free 800+ page downloadable textbook, although I imagine that’s unusual.

This particular class was available through iTunes U, which is only available on iPhone and iPad. I’m not sure if that’s the case for the others or not.

You will notice that some classes cost money if you’re looking to get a certificate or credit for them, but they all appear to have a free option as well. I can’t wait to try out sooooo many of these!

I hope I’ve given you some fun options for your time at home, and that you’ll give lots of them a try! If you’ve enjoyed this article, I’d really appreciate shares on social media. You’ll also find a couple of pinnable images below that you can save to your Gardening or Education boards for future reference.

As always, thanks for reading, smile, have a crazy organic day, and stay healthy and happy!

Lots of Online Resources For When You’re Stuck at Home