Gardening season may be winding down but the people in the gardening community never rest. They are always in search of the next bigger tomato or the perfect complement plant to their garden plot. It is this community where tips are shared, questions are answered, and ideas are formed for the next season. They are bonding, they are like family. Many times this bonding and family type atmosphere comes easier from the world wide web than from your own neighborhood. If this is the case, these are the top gardening communities on the web this week.
1. Dave’s Garden
http://www.davesgarden.com
Dave’s Garden has thousands of gardeners helping each other identify plants, contribute to their ever growing plant files, doing trades, and just hanging out on their forums. This is a fine place to slip in and become part of a wonderful group of people. The people on the forums are the neighborhood folk you wish you had living across your fence. They are kind and sharing and will always help you when they can.
The website itself began in August of 2000, and is the largest privately-held gardening website in the world. Dave’s Garden has around 250,085 members, plenty to help you with whatever Gardening quandry you have. You may search as a visitor its plant files, but will be restricted after a few and will need to register free to get more. This free registration takes little time and is well worth the added gain you get through the site.
Its plant files list has 133,028 plants and 117,201 images listed in the plant database, so you can search by both common name or by the scientific name to get answers.
2. Plants Database
http://www.plants.usda.gov
This governmental site has over 30,000 plant images and a database where you can sort by state, common name, scientific name, and by distribution. It is a thoroughly comprehensive guide where you can get information about the botanical aspects of every plant imaginable. It includes names, plant symbols, checklists, distributional data, species abstracts, characteristics, images, crop information, automated tools, onward Web links, and references.
I sometimes find myself lost on this website for an entire afternoon searching one plant after another. The plant photos are beautiful and there are many there that can be used free of charge in both private and professional use. Check guidelines to any photo you’d like to use. I myself used many of these in my native plant book, A Georgia Native Plant Guide.
3. Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
http://www.wildflower.org
This site has online classes, volunteer opportunities, plants, maps, and articles that will help you sort out any gardening problem. This is a great website to get kids involved in gardening and the world outdoors. Classes include both professional and children/families groups. There is a plants database for native plants, a bibliography, and an image gallery. It is wonderfully sorted out to where you can get whatever information you are looking for easily and without too much hassle. I doubt they wouldn’t be able to fulfill avid gardener’s weekdays with ideas and information.
There native plant database has over 7,200 species and if you are a native of Texas you will find information on over 600 central Texas native plant species.
4. Garden Web
http://www.gardenweb.com
I love this website for two reasons, its HortiPlex plant database and its Glossary with Over 4400 terms on botany, gardening, horticulture and landscape and architecture. They have forums on a variety of subjects, regions, terms, and on specific plants themselves. Its photo gallery section is well maintained and its “Ask an expert” section has many different subcategories so that your questions will never go unanswered. This is indeed a fine website and worthy of a second look if you haven’t been by there lately.
I appreciate you reading this first edition of the Gardening Features article and hope that you will drop by the All Info About Native Gardening website located at : http://www.allinfoaboutnativegardening.com. This is a new upcoming gardening website that will hopefully one day rival these top gardening website for your support.
