Building a Digital Garden with Obsidian

A digital garden is a collection of interconnected notes and thoughts that grow and evolve over time. Unlike traditional blogs with their polished, chronological posts, digital gardens embrace works-in-progress and non-linear exploration. Obsidian is the perfect tool for cultivating your digital garden.

What Makes a Digital Garden Different?

Digital gardens differ from traditional content in several ways:

1. Non-linear organization: Information is connected through links rather than chronology
2. Growth over time: Notes evolve as your understanding deepens
3. Varying levels of completion: Some notes are seedlings, others are fully developed
4. Networked thinking: Ideas gain value through connections to other ideas

Setting Up Your Garden in Obsidian

To create an effective digital garden in Obsidian:

1. Create a structure that encourages growth:

   • MOCs (Maps of Content) to navigate topic areas
   • Index notes to provide entry points
   • Templates for consistent note formats

2. Develop a linking strategy:

   • Use bidirectional links liberally
   • Create backlinks to connect existing material
   • Review the graph view periodically to identify clusters

3. Implement a maturity system:

   • 🌱 Seedling: Initial ideas and rough notes
   • 🌿 Budding: Developing concepts with some structure
   • 🌳 Evergreen: Well-developed, stable content

Publishing Your Digital Garden

When you’re ready to share your garden:

1. Use Obsidian Publish or static site generators like Gatsby or Astro
2. Consider what level of notes to share (perhaps only evergreens)
3. Maintain the networked nature of your content
4. Embrace the “digital garden” ethos by showing notes in progress

Digital gardens represent a refreshing alternative to the pressure of creating perfect, finished content. Start planting your seeds today and watch your knowledge grow!