Appleton, M. (n.d.). A brief history & ethos of the digital garden. Retrieved August 3, 2026, from https://maggieappleton.com/garden-history
A garden is a collection of evolving ideas that aren’t strictly organised by their publication date. They’re inherently exploratory – notes are linked through contextual associations. They aren’t refined or complete - notes are published as half-finished thoughts that will grow and evolve over time. They’re less rigid, less performative, and less perfect than the personal websites we’re used to seeing.
It harkens back to the early days of the web when people had fewer notions of how websites “should be.” It’s an ethos that is both classically old and newly imagined.
Mark Bernstein’s 199828ya essay Hypertext Gardens appears to be the first recorded mention of the term. Mark was part of the early hypertext crowd – the developers figuring out how to arrange and present this new medium.
While the essay is a beautiful ode to free-wheeling internet exploration, it’s less about building personal internet spaces, and more of a manifesto on user experience flows and content organisation.