Useful Links

Virginia Master Gardener Association

This page will contain useful links for gardeners as well as Master Gardeners. There are eight links directly to VCE information at Virginia Tech. If you have any links to suggest send them to Cheri Haggerty. If she finds that they will be useful, she will include them.

Green Gardening Products Green Gardening	Their tag line is "...because Paradise was a garden." Good site to learn more about earth-friendly gardening products. Also includes a lot of information on Deer and Insect repellents.
The Butterfly House Butterfly	This is an attraction in Chesterfield, Missouri. The site offers beautiful pictures of butterflies and information on Butterfly Gardening. Also includes a Plant of the Month.
Gardening by the Moon Lunar Planting	This site is all about growing by the phases of the moon. It discusses the lunar phases and astrological signs that influence gardening.
Allergy Free Gardening Healthy Landscaping	The author of this site, Tom Ogren, is a horticulture professor that got hooked on the idea that the right garden wouldn't trigger any allergies. A must visit site just for the information alone.
Clean Air Gardening Clean Air	This is an environmentally friendly lawn and garden supplies site. You can buy push reel mowers, rain barrels, garden gnomes and all sorts of gadgets.
Gardening With Kids Starting Young	A very helpful site for helping kids build a lifelong interest in gardening.
The Natural Inquirer USDA Forest Service	The Research and Development site of Forest Service scientists. Here you will "meet" the scientist and read their journals.
Exotic Gardening Exotic Gardening	This website professes to be "The ultimate website for the truly obsessed plant-a-holic". Includes The Plant Man, Glick Pick of the Week, new product updates and a Garden Encyclopedia.
Maymont Maymont	We have all heard about Maymont but if you have never visited there, check out this site. It is a beautiful and easy to navigate site. It will make you want to visit. Wow! Hundreds of local master gardeners volunteer at their educational events
Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens LGBG	Another place we have all heard about. This site is as wonderful as visiting the gardens is. LGBG offers a lot of education events which are staffed by Master Gardeners from the surrounding areas.
Andre Viette In the Garden Radio	Over 60 radio stations carry "In the Garden Radio" with Mark and Andre Viette. Their website offers gorgeous images and all the wonderful tips given on the radio each Saturday morning . Plus much more information.
American Community Gardening Association Community Gardening	This site provides basic information on how to get a community gardening project off the ground. It offers monographs, videos, and publications on starting a community garden.
Edible Landscaping and Gardening Edible Landscaping	The author of this site says his database lists every perennial plant that is worth growing for it's produce. He definitely seems to have a complete listing of edible perennials and popular perennial herbs.
Home and Garden TV HGTV	I can't believe I haven't recommended this site. Maybe because we all know about it? The Gardening section is a really wonderful source of timely topics and has a great search tab. Beautiful images and excellent articles.
Ketzel Levine's Talking Plants NPR	If you enjoy National Public Radio, you are going to love this site! It recaps stories from Ketzel Levine's program and also has a Plant Profile section that is fun to read but yet very concise.
Gardening and Landscaping Do-It-101	This site boasts that it is a do-it-yourself index for just about anything...and they are right! This page concentrates on Lawn Care, Tools, Gardening and Landscaping. It has a lot of projects for the gardener.
The Art of Gardening Art of Gardening	This site is a comprehensive directory of all types of gardening ezines. But has a lot of advertising.
Brent and Becky's Bulbs Bulbs	Brent didn't think that gardeners would have time to be on the computer but Becky convinced him otherwise. Their site is more that an online order point for bulbs, it has basic planting information and true to life images of the plants they offer.
American Horticultural Society AHS	The site of our April 2003 board meeting, The American Horticultural Society offers links to plant societies and information on River Farm.
Green Spring Gardens Park Green Spring	Situated in Alexandria (VA), Green Spring Gardens Park offers plant information sheets and advice basic garden installation and other topics of interest to gardeners.
American Horticulture Therapy Association Hort Therapy	This is another Hort therapy site. They offer their publications for a fee but have links to other Hort therapy sites.
Extension Publications Virginia Tech	Educational Programs and Resources. This will link you to printer friendly copies of publications from Virginia Tech. You can also link to the Pest Management Guide from here.
Master Gardener Top 100 Questions Virginia Tech	This site lists the most commonly asked questions based a survey of VCE offices and Master Gardeners from around the state.
Hort Therapy Virginia Tech	Information on Human issues in horticulture. I had a little trouble reaching this site but hopefully the problem will be fixed soon. Can be reached through Dr. Relf's faculty page at hort.vt.edu
Youth Gardening Virginia Tech	Integrating Horticulture into Sols at the elementary school level.
State Partners of the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service State Partners	Directory of land grant universities as well as well as websites of the schools of forestry, state extension services and state experimental stations.
Children's Gardening Resources Virginia Tech	Books, programming materials, publications and articles on Children's gardening.
Insect ID at VA Tech Virginia Tech	Includes identification of Insects and Mites with easy to use keys and picture guides, fact sheets and reports and updates on host pest lists.
Weed Index Virginia Tech Virginia Tech	Pictures and publications to aid in the identification of common weeds and weed seedlings found in Virginia and d the Southeastern U.S.
Landscape Plant Selector Grow It	Although a site for greenhouse growers, it contains a fantastic knowledge database.
Digital Diagnostics Image Database Oklahoma State	Another easy to use site with information on insects and plant diseases. Quite an extensive database.
Plants Toxic to Animals University of Illinois - Urbanna Campus	This is the home page of Veterinarian Medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbanna. Information is helpful to all of those who garden and have pets.
RISE - Pest Facts Information Center Pests	Many interesting and timely articles on pesticides. Includes information on mosquito controls and the West Nile virus. (RISE -Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment.)
Garden Forever Garden Forever	Another great site for Hort therapy, senior and children's gardening. "Gardening for people of all ages, abilities and lifestyles."
Hort Therapy Chicago Botanical Garden	For the MG who is interested in creating an enabling garden, this is a great place to start.
Gardening with the Elderly Canadian Office of Urban Agriculture	Contains so much information on gardening with disabilities. Has a tremendous number of reference materials.
UCONN Greenhouse IPM UCONN IPM	This is a terrific site for those who have greenhouses. It includes diseases, insects and general IPM. A very educational site.
Horticultural Resources Horticulture Resources	A huge repository of horticulture information. All types of media � books, news groups and categorized links. A virtual potpourri of information.
GardenBed Gardenbed	Another site that demonstrates that the language of gardening is International. This Australian site has a high quality plant database and lots of downloadable pictures and clipart. Their forum appeared to have lively and timely topics.
Plants for a Future UK Plants	This UK site bills itself as a resource and information centre for edible and otherwise useful plants. They are a registered charity in the UK but have compiled a plant database of over 7000 species of plants. Their main aim is research and to provide information about "ecologically sustainable horticulture".
AmericanForests Forests	American Forests is the nation's oldest nonprofit citizens conservation organization, founded in1875. Their mission statement sums up their site. "We help people improve the environment with trees and forests. We plant trees."
Carefree Gardens Care Free	CareFree garden is a division of CropKing, a leader in controlled environment agriculture and hydroponics. Although a commercial site, it offers good information on Aquaponics and Greenhouses.
BackYard Gardener Backyard	This is advertised as a one stop informational site. It is loaded with information for about any type of garden or garden problem.
Kid's Valley Garden Canadian Gardening	This Canadian site for children's gardening is GREAT! Children will find this easy to navigate. All the pages are written clearly and easy to understand. Even has a glossary.
HOSTA LIBRARY Hostas	If you are a HOSTA aficionado, I'll be surprised if you don't know about this site. I didn't go into every page but what I saw was quite educating. Easy to navigate and lots of easy to understand choices.
Noble Plants Michael Dirr	This site is a Michael Dirr plant information page. We are familiar with Dirr's books and this site is loaded with Dirr information along with articles and a PlantFile on woody and herbaceous plants.
Growing Degree Days Chesterfield Extension Services	If you are ever confused about the concept of Growing Degree Days, check this page out. Mike Likins explains the concept and offers an easy method of calculation.
BUGSMART Bugs	This is a somewhat commercial site but it has good information on BUGS!
Eco-Gardening Cornell University	What a place to visit!! This place has an e-mail service for timely tips. It has Gardening Guides, Fact Sheets on Eco-Gardening, MG links and a link for year round plant activities for people with special needs. A clear, concise, easy to use and has great pictures. Just start at Gardening Resources and click away! Home of the North Eastern MG Conference.
HIGH COUNTRY GARDENS Western Gardens	This site deals with "Plants for the Western Garden". Quite appropriate for all sections of the country suffering with drought. It has a great section on Xeriscaping. It also has an online ordering section for plant material and other gardening aids. It also features an E-Zine for Xeriscaping. You can read their articles online or receive them via e-mail. Based in California.
LANDSCAPING WITH ABOUT.COM Landscaping	Another site with Xeriscaping links. This site also has a link to Landscaping 101 and Landscaping How-To�s. It has an extensive database of articles on many gardening topics such as deer resistant plants, pruning, etc.
XERISCAPING Xeriscape	This site gives a brief history of Xeriscaping Based in Florida; it also includes links and ideas for Water Conservation.
Water Smart Watersmart	Another site for Xeriscape designs for landscaping and water conservation. Based in Georgia, this site has handy printable tips and landscape designs. (Must have Adobe Acrobat)
My Container Garden Container Gardening	This site caters to the container gardener. It has information on proper soil, what to grow and proper containers. Topics they cover include Harnessing Nature, Attracting Wildlife, and Five Senses Gardening. Also has online ordering
Windowbox Windowbox	A wholesale/retail site that has "Dr.Botnic" to answer your gardening questions. Also has feature articles on various topics. Has information and supplies to grow flowers, herbs or vegetables on your porch, patio or windowsill.
City Gardening City Gardeners	The name of this site is a definite misnomer! This site covers topics for everybody� everywhere�not just city folk. Click on the Main Index to find information on such varied topics as Water Wise Landscape (Virginia), Horse Manure Composting (Minnesota), Naturalistic Landscaping (Kansas), Vermicomposting (New Mexico) or Trickle Irrigation (Alaska).
PlantCare Houseplants	A site for the indoor plant person. Has an excellent database of over 2000 species and Genera of indoor plants. Most of the database is free but charges a $7.50 annual fee for full access. Still, it is a good site for houseplant aficionados.
Ohio State University Ohio State	This is the Ohio site for Horticulture and Crop Science. PlantFacts is their database and it is unique in that this database has over 20,000 extension fact sheets. From a drop down box you select the region you are interested in and only fact sheets from that area come up. The WebGarden apparently is under construction because the links for the PlantDictionary do not work.
USDA Noxious Weeds USDA Weeds	This site is set up to prevent the introduction of non- indigenous invasive plants within the US. It has a fairly comprehensive list of Fact sheets and weed alerts. You can learn more about "weeds" on this site and it�s links than you probably want to know. Includes information about integrated management of weeds, including biological controls.
Encyclopedia of Plants Botany	An easy to use directory of plants makes this site "friendly". It also has very good drawings and pictures of plants including a directory of leaf shapes. Would be very useful if you needed simple but accurate illustrations for teaching purposes.
Google Google	This is a search engine that can�t be beat for the wealth of information it offers. It has a very large section in it�s Images section that offers beautiful color photographs of about any plant or flower you can come up with. The whole site is exciting! Shelby Snider (Roanoke MG) recommended this.
OrganicGardening Organic Gardening	This a Rodale site that deals in timely topics such as how irradiating the mail will affect mail order seed and more ideas for easy compost. Also includes gardener to gardener chats and organic gardening basics.
Gardening Topics with Mr.GreenThumb Mr. Green Thumb	This a fun little site out of Ft.Wayne, Indiana. It treats it�s topics in a light manner that makes for a fun visit.
Golden Harvest Organics Golden Harvest	A good site for Pesticide and Environmental update. The archived articles are plentiful and quite interesting. As with most sites, they do have a retail side.
Garden Web-Virtual Library Gardenweb	Another search engine just for gardeners. Again, some gorgeous photography.
The Gardening Launch Pad Gardening Launch Pad	This site name really reflects what you can do here. It launches you in many directions. Although it is based in Austin, Texas, this site has links to gardens all over the world. Here you can find TV/Radio times, Clipart and a Humor section and many short, easy to read articles on a myriad of topics. However, when I clicked on a link about Bees, I ended up at Popular Mechanics! Never found the Bee article�I got sidetracked by other articles and tips at Popular Mechanics.
Gardens Alive Gardens Alive	The sub title for this site is "Environmentally Responsible Products That Work". At first I thought this was a comprehensive site to sell organic gardening aids. Once I went deeper into the site, I was impressed. The Comprehensive Pest and Disease Library has very clear pictures and offers totally organic controls.
HYDROPONICS Hobby Hydroponics	This not a commercial site. It is the site of a fellow who loves to "tinker with plants" and does it the Hydroponics way. This is an excellent site for the beginning hydroponics advocate. Very simple and easy to navigate.
HOME & GARDEN INFORMATION CENTER University of Maryland	This is the University of Maryland Cooperative Extension site. It�s a very clean uncluttered site. It has a links to their Master Gardener program, Bay Issues, invasive Species Alert and their Diagnostics area is a �WOW�! Definitely worth a click.
MasterGardeners MG LINKS	This is a huge repository of official MG links, both national and international. The links are grouped by State. VMGA.net is the first Virginia link (wise webmaster there!). There is a powerful link to �Plant a Row for the Hungary�. It gives a lot of background on this program. It also has a calendar of events worth checking out. A Prince William County MG recommended this site.
Bayer Advanced Master Gardener Tool Shed Bayer	This is a user-friendly site and caters to us�Master Gardeners. They offer links to MG and Cooperative Extension sites all over the US. A newsletter is available and there is an extensive calendar of events grouped by regions. The drawback to this site is that the answers in the Diagnostic site recommend Bayer products. No organic controls here! A VMGA friend recommended this site.
VIRGINIA NATURALLY Virginia Naturally	This site has more information than you can take in at one sitting. From environmental education classes to volunteer opportunities to recreational activities, this is where to look for Virginia�naturally. This site has a wealth of information about community festivals, fairs, interpretive programs and grant sponsors.
US DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE USDA	Something for everybody here. From the patio gardener to the nation�s farmer. Easy to navigate.
UNIVERSITY of CONNECTICUT UCONN	Another exciting database. Simple to navigate. The Virtual walks aren�t too cool but the links to other plant sites are great.
PURDUE UNIVERSITY Purdue	Billed as a Plant and Pest diagnostic tool but a site strong on education also.
INVASIVE PLANTS in VIRGINIA Invasive Plants	A link from the Virginia Natural Heritage Program (Department of Conservation and Recreation).
PLANT IDEAS Plant Ideas	A commercial site but the content and graphics are excellent. A good source of ideas.
GARDEN GUIDES Garden Guides	Advertises itself as �a growing resource��. It is full of timely and easy to read information. Good newsletter also.
NATIONAL GARDENING ASSOCIATION Garden	Covers anything a home gardener, especially a novice, might be looking for. Several children�s links. Also very timely.
THE NATURE CONSERVANCY TNC	The Conservancy�s motto is �saving the Earth�s Last Great Places for future generations�. A nice site to learn what is being done in conservation.
REBECCA'S GARDEN Rebecca's	This site has a large number of tips and techniques. Also a decent children�s area. From the TV show of the same name.

This page was prepared by Cheri Haggerty, and is provided by the Communications Committee of VMGA, Inc. Send your suggestions for pages to review and include to Cheri Haggerty

GARDEN GUIDES

NATIONAL GARDENING ASSOCIATION

THE NATURE CONSERVANCY

REBECCA'S GARDEN