by Robin Nobles
At the first sign of the ground thawing in the spring, gardeners rush outside to work in their flowerbeds or vegetable gardens. Though considered "work" by many, to a gardener, there's nothing more relaxing than piddling around in the dirt and working with tender new plants.
At the National Gardening Association's Easy Seed-Starting Guide, you can "get
your garden off to a good start" with their step-by-step instructions and tips from
the pros. Learn the germination temperature, the number of days to germinate, plant
spacing, and the amount of sunlight required. Access the National Gardening Magazine to
learn about new vegetables, fruit, or roses for 1998.
http://www.wowpages.com/nga/
By far, one of the best gardening sites on the Web is GardenGuides, where you'll
discover anything and everything "green." Learn how to prepare herbs, how to
force bulbs, and how to grow gardens in a container.
http://www.gardenguides.com/
At Pathfinder's Virtual Garden, you can click on Armchair Gardener for the best
gardening articles from publications such as SOUTHERN LIVING or SUNSET magazines. If you
don't have a lot of time for gardening, maybe the Weekend Projects section would be
perfect for you, where you can access categories such as Instant Gardening, Gardening
Basics, or Backyard Builder.
http://pathfinder.com/vg/
Fine Gardening Online Magazine offers a guided web tour of their favorite seed starting
resources. Or, learn that every year, the Heirloom Daffodils signal the return of spring.
Under Design, you can learn how to have a great garden in just one year, or learn how to
have spring-to-fall color in a shady spot. Access a flower bloom chart, or learn how to
design a water garden.
http://www.taunton.com/fg/
Typical of their outstanding magazine, Better Homes & Gardens offers a Gardening
Home Page full of helpful features such as Gardening Maps, where you can check out the
most detailed plant hardiness maps on the Internet.
http://www.bhglive.com/gardening/index.html
Are you having problems with your garden? Visit the no-nonsense Problem Identification
Aids and see if you can find a solution. Categories are flowers, ground covers, shrubs,
and trees.
http://www.msue.msu.edu/msue/imp/problems.html
If you're interested in flowers, Flowerbase is the place for you. The database offers
over 7,000 pictures of flowers, plants, and garden plants.
http://www.flowerweb.nl/flowerbase/
Rose gardeners need to stop by the Rose Resource page. Find the perfect award-winning
rose for your garden, or learn rose gardening tips.
http://www.rose.org/
We'll close with a comprehensive listing of gardening sites, Internet Gardening, where
you'll find links to publications, other gardeners, reference sites, gardening discussion
groups, and a listing of impressive gardens to visit. If you travel, be sure to click on
the Calendar of Garden Events to learn of gardening happenings in areas where you might
visit.
http://learning.lib.vt.edu/garden.html
Brought to you by: World Wide Information Outlet - <http://certificate.net/wwio/>, your only source of FREEWare Content online.
Robin Nobles is a freelance writer whose articles on surfing the Web are published in six newspapers regularly. She also writes articles about the Web and Internet in publications such as Internet Newsroom, InfoAlert, WebVantage, CompuNotes, ChipNET, The Sunshine Post, Bridges Initiatives, and more. She can be reached at smslady@netdoor.com or through her website: http://www2.netdoor.com/~smslady