Gardening: Dig in to your sources before trusting online gardening advice

Ever wondered how to find good, accurate gardening information on the web? There are literally thousands of garden advice websites out there but how do you find the good ones?

Good garden information will be backed by research done by organizations like universities, state and federal agriculture agencies and reputable horticultural organizations. Good research involves creating experiments that result in repeatable results. If the plant, chemical, fertilizer or method passes all the tests, then it can accurately said to have the desired effect.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of garden advice out there that hasn’t stood up to the test of research. Often classed as “folk remedies,” these bits of advice are all over the web. Often, they are portrayed as cheap, easy alternatives to buying chemicals or shortcuts to a desired result. Research has been done on many of them, but it has either disproved the remedy or produced inconclusive results.

So where can you find good solid gardening information in the ocean of online websites, blogs, podcasts, webinars and books? Universities, websites with an .edu web address are my first choice followed closely by government websites with a .gov address. Locally this means universities like Washington State University, University of Idaho and Oregon State University. I also look to other universities along the northern tier of the U.S. that have similar growing conditions for advice.

WSU and UI host Master Gardener programs that give the public access to research-based gardening information at the county level. Community volunteers are trained in a wide range of gardening topics like disease and insect identification, pesticide use and safety, plant identification and soil management that they then share back to the community. This knowledge base is tempered with their years of gardening experience in the local environment.

Government agencies like state departments of agriculture or the U.S. Department of Agriculture are also good sources of information. The USDA maintains the Plant Hardiness Map and the USDA Plant Database for correct/current scientific names and determining where a plant is native to.

Beyond universities and government agencies there are dozens of horticulture organizations with a .org web address that represent plant societies, botanic gardens and industry groups who provide solid information. Two of my favorites are the American Horticultural Society and the National Gardening Bureau. The AHS maintains a list of resources that can help you identify other reputable organizations in the horticultural field. Check it out at ahsgardening.org/gardening-resources. The National Gardening Bureau is a horticulture industry organization that can connect you to plants and offers a resource section with curated information on books, podcasts, webinars and blogs. Their website is ngb.org.

In general, if a website, blog or podcast promotes cheap alternatives to standard garden practices, take the information with a grain of salt. If a site porports to have the answer to a garden challenge, check it out first. Be wary of sites that seem to scream at you and/or are full of ad links, they are just interested in getting your attention for other purposes.