Online gardening guides: Playing in digital dirt

May 2, 1998
Web posted at: 9:07 a.m. EDT (1307 GMT)

By CNN Interactive Writer Elizabeth Knefel

Some people can boast of having a green thumb and have a beautiful garden to prove it. If you're a gardening novice with nothing to show for your efforts but dirty hands, don't give up! Dig into your Web browser and uncover some Internet gardening sites. There you will find seeds of wisdom on a variety of green subjects that will give you the confidence to grow with the best of gardening experts.

Garden Planet

First, blast off to Insight Consulting's Garden Planet. It's full of links for "friendly" gardeners. You can click your way to almost any important gardening site from this one location. Visit the American Horticultural Society or Sunset Magazine. If you are looking for seed information, the Gardens & Seeds area features Web sites and catalogs from the mundane to the rare and exotic. Find out about the latest gardening software that provides solutions to gardening questions and problems from publishers like Sierra and Microsoft.

A growing resource

Garden Guides is a comprehensive tour of herb, vegetable and flower gardening. Discover some of the secrets of herbal remedies, learn about rock gardens, container gardening, composting, starting seeds and even how to cut flowers properly. If you have a bountiful harvest from your vegetable garden, pick up some tips about storage and freezing. Garden Guides is growing an impressive gardening community. You can sign up for the free newsletter, share gardening tips or get involved in the Garden Forum. The site's search feature is very impressive. My search for basil listed a description and photo, cultivation information, medicinal and culinary uses and various uses in recipes like pesto sauce.

A Web site by any other name... The Rose Page

No gardening visit would be complete without stopping off at a site dedicated to the rose. Whether you are interested in old, modern or English roses, this is the place to go. Learn how much sun and water roses need, how to avoid mildew and pests, how to prune roses and much more. Growing those petaled pretties is no easy task and the Rose Page's FAQ section helps to lighten the feat. The site also provides a glossary section and information about mail order rose suppliers.

Compost central

To have a productive garden, you need to get "down and dirty," and there's no way to make dirtier dirt than by composting. Visit www.mastercomposter.com to learn composting basics. This environment-friendly site has a list of definitions, FAQs, talks about the benefits of organic gardening and teaches you how to build a compost pile. This site features information about local programs on composting.

Growing children

Children naturally like to play in the dirt. Gardening is an excellent way to get their attention and help them see a project from beginning to end. Kid's Garden at Suite 101 gives moms and dads tips to get the kids involved in the family garden plot. There are a variety of suggested themes for children's gardens. Here the kids can make clay figures of bears, tigers, etc. for their animal garden and learn about plants with animal names like Tiger Lilies and Elephant Ears. Create a stuffed topiary with your child of the family pet or paint rocks to look like bugs or birds and display them in the garden. Kid's Garden has a variety of articles and online discussion groups about children and gardening. You can also sign up for a free newsletter.

But enough of all this "virtual" gardening. Surfing the Web is a good way to get started in a new gardening hobby or enrich your growing knowledge. But the best way to learn is to go outside and get your hands dirty. If you have questions, go back and review these Web sites, or better yet, visit your local nursery or join a gardening club.

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