Great Green Web
Top Sites For Gardeners
April 15, 2008
By Jen Gaffney
Image created by Samantha Carol Smith
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With spring nearly upon us, you may be planning to pull out your gardening toolbox and get to work on your outdoor space, whether it’s a spacious yard or a flowerbox on your windowsill.
Don’t neglect the gardening tools to be found on the Internet. Fantastic information is available for gardeners of all ages and skill levels. If you need advice about gardening in a particular climate, are interested in learning about exotic plants or are simply trying to find a local gardening club or online gardening friends, there’s a site to suit your needs.
National Gardening Association
This nonprofit group offers resources and educational materials to foster an appreciation of gardening in the home, schools and community.
In addition to free newsletters, online articles and gardening calculators, the NGA website has information about community development initiatives such as The Adopt a School Garden Program, the GROW Campaign and a number of grant and award programs. Sister site www.kidsgardening.com aims to get children interested in gardening.
Lawn & Garden Yellow Pages
LGYP is a comprehensive directory of nurseries and garden centers, searchable by plant, category or location, making it easy to find exactly what you’re looking for in your area.
“Garden Views” gives you access to discounts and coupons from local retailers and a message board full of advice from knowledgeable gardeners — you can ask questions and take part in discussions. For fun, send friends or family members a Virtual Plant Tag or an e-card of your favorite plant.
HGTV
The Home & Garden Network website has tons of instructional articles and videos and free online newsletters. Aside from tips on how to choose the best flowers for your garden (there is plenty of that), you’ll also find in-depth material that gets down and dirty: soil, mulch, fertilizer, composting — this site discusses it all. HGTV also features information on insect control, treatment of plant diseases and ways to keep pests and furry critters out of your garden.
Organic Gardening
Organic gardeners work without synthetic fertilizers or pesticides, and they try to continually replenish any resources their garden consumes. This website has detailed regional calendars with a month-by-month “to do” list to help you make the most of your organic garden all year long. The website also offers a section of tips and articles about tending to indoor plants.
GardenWeb
GardenWeb is a garden and home community linked to the women’s online community iVillage. The “Garden Voices” section of the site collects the best posts from gardening blogs all over the web. The photo gallery allows users to upload pictures of their gardens; readers can leave comments. Check out the pages and pages of beautiful garden photos here.
The GardenWeb “Ask the Experts” section gathers the most important information from its forums and presents it in an easy to navigate “Frequently Asked Questions,” or FAQ, format. Other resources include the garden calendar, which lists events submitted by garden clubs, plant societies and botanical gardens; the glossary, with a searchable database of 4,400 botany, gardening, horticulture and landscape architecture terms; and the GardenWeb directory, where you can find gardening organizations and public gardens near you.
You Grow Girl
You Grow Girl is a learning environment for women who may not have the ideal gardening situation. This forum offers practical advice for the wannabe-gardener who has limited outdoor space, lives in an urban setting or just plain doesn’t have enough time. Topics of discussion include container gardening, plant-related crafts, caring for indoor plants and how to grow cacti.
Connect with gardeners all over the world. With more than 3,000 registered users, there’s no shortage of good information here. There’s even a section of the forum dedicated to off-topic conversations with other members.
Virtual Garden
You say you don’t have a green thumb? Never fear. Grow a virtual garden — it’s impossible to kill the plants! This site is geared toward children, but you can treat yourself to a five-minute stress-relief break at your desk to plant daisies, tulips and sunflowers. You can even build your own white picket fence!
JEN GAFFNEY is a senior search engine optimization specialist at Imre Communications in Baltimore. She can be reached at j...@imrecommunications.com.
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