Web makes valuable resource

Tue., Jan. 8, 2008

The Spokesman-Review

It is pretty amazing where you can go in the gardening world with only a few clicks of a mouse. While magazines and books are still a mainstay for gardeners to collect information and ideas, the Internet has transformed how we use that information and exchange it with others. So, with all the Web sites out there, what makes a good one?

Where to look

A good Web site should provide balanced information that is based on the research and experiences of many and not the opinion of just a few people. University (.edu) and government (.gov) sites will have formal, research-based information and are good places to start researching a topic. The Master Gardener programs will be found on an .edu site. Independent, nonprofit advocacy or special-interest organizations will have good information focused on their particular interest and bias. Their Web sites often end in .org.

Favorite Web sites

www.davesgarden.com promotes itself as the community meeting place for online gardeners with close to 300,000 members. It offers more than 200 forums that focus on almost any garden interest you can think of. There is a plant identification database with over 36,000 species of plants and 140,000 images and a bug “encyclopedia” listing more than 4,500 insects. In its garden vendor database, you can check out the ratings of people’s experiences with over 6,100 mail order garden suppliers.

www.safelawns.org is a brand new collaboration between a broad based group of nonprofit and for-profit organizations committed to educating the public about the benefits of organic lawn care and gardening. Their site has a number of how-to videos on managing a lawn organically; lists of resources and products that can help you reduce your use of chemicals and fertilizers. The group is challenging homeowners and professionals to go organic by setting up demonstration projects around the country. One of their first projects is converting part of lawn on the Mall in Washington D.C. to organic management.

www.coldclimategardening.com is a fun Web site run by a real gardener in Upstate New York who doesn’t want people gardening in Zone 5 or colder to reinvent the wheel every time the weather throws them a curve. Kathy Purdy’s site is a collection of links to other sites that have specific information on gardening across the northern part of North America. In the blog section, she provides links to some of her favorite blogs and even explains how to set up an really simple syndication feed that will let you know when there are new postings.

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