By National Garden Bureau

Author  Bio Even  if you aren't new to searching on the Web you will find it can be a guessing game.

Gardening on the Internet
Not that many years ago, futurists talked about how modern day workers would counterbalance their "high-tech, low-touch" lives at work with "high-touch, low-tech" activities such as gardening. The opportunity to be involved in an activity such as gardening, where people are personally involved in touching, feeling, planning, smelling and creating a whole, would be a natural balance to the impersonal use of computers and being involved in only a small part of a project.

The futurists were right, Gardening continues to be one of America's favorite activities.

But it is no surprise that the "high-tech" world of the computer Internet has met up with the "high-touch" world of gardening. There are a growing number of gardening information sites on the Internet that can provide answers to gardening questions, display color illustrations of plants, help with garden planning, and sell you a wide variety of garden supplies and tools.

Finding Gardening Information

Unless you have visited (that means called up) a site before, chances are you don't know how to reach a certain place or company, and chances are you don't even know what's out there. You are not alone, and that is why there are marvelous things called "search engines." These sites are starting points for finding places to go when you don't know a lot about what you are looking for.

Two popular search engines are Yahoo (www.yahoo.com), and WebCrawler (www.webcrawler.com).

Once you contact these sites, you can type in the word "garden" or "gardening" in the Search box provided, and a whole list of gardening sites will pop up.

If you have a particular company that you want to contact, type in the company's name and as much other address information you have, such as city and state. Depending on how many other companies have a similar name, and depending on whether or not any of them have a web site, the name you are looking for may come up quickly.

Even if you aren't new to searching on the Web you will find it can be a guessing game. Sometimes you have to try a number of words or combinations of words to narrow your search. On Yahoo, for instance, a search on the word "garden" produced 115 category matches and 8,497 site matches. Narrowing the search to "gardening" produced 9 categories and 1728 site matches.
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Sites to Visit

Obviously, with thousands of possible sites to visit, you could spend many hours in front of a computer testing them all. Many of these sites include many more features than can be listed here. Some are loaded with photos and graphics that can take a little while to appear on your computer screen, while others are straightforward and simple, but by no means less useful.

The following companies offer gardening advice, seed and other products for sale via their web sites. Many offer an on-line request for catalogs.

W. Atlee Burpee Co. (garden.burpee.com)Order a catalog, order seeds, plants and supplies, and hook up with other sites.

The Cook's Garden (www.cooksgarden.com) Order a catalog, seeds and supplies for the American kitchen garden.

Advance Seed Co./Ferry Morse www.trine.com/gardennet/ferrymorse/) Order a catalog, join a garden club, read articles, find seed suppliers.

Flowers of Tomorrow (www.flowerseed.com) Specializes in wildflower and "heirloom" flower and vegetable seeds. Get advice. Link to other sites.

Harris Seeds (www.harrisseeds.com) Get information on Harris, order a catalog.

Johnny's Selected Seeds (www.johnnyseeds.com) Order a catalog, order flower, herb and vegetable seeds, get growing advice, see photos of some varieties.

Nichols Garden Nursery (www.pacificharbor.com/Nichols/) Features herbs and rare seeds. Order a catalog, seeds and supplies, plus get recipes and a garden tip of the week.

Park Seed Co. (www.parkseed.com) Order seeds and supplies, e-mail customer service, growing advice, and links to other sites.

Territorial Seed Co. (www.territorial-seed.com) Order a catalog, order flower, vegetable and herb seeds, and garden supplies.

Vesey's Seed Co. (www.veseys.com) Order a catalog, order flower and vegetable seeds, read gardening tips, link to other sites.

Commercial Sites:
The following sites have been established mainly for serving professional growers. However, some contain new variety information, photos, links to other informative sites, and more. Check them out to see what's of interest to you.

Promo Seeds Inc. (www.promoseeds.com) Information on customized seed packets for promotions and retailers.

Seed Print Inc. (www.nova.co.at) Sales of horticultural photos.

Other Sites Worth the Trip

Garden Escape (www.garden.com) An on-line magazine. Orders seeds, plants and supplies, read gardening articles, get advice, and design your garden.

GardenWeb (www.gardenweb.com) Read articles, link to other sites, exchange questions and answers on a bulletin board.

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