We have entered into a fairly normal rainy season, apparently, and we are expecting extraordinary rainfalls, beginning in a few weeks. Avid gardeners will need ways to enjoy their horticultural pursuits without getting wet.
One form of indoor gardening involves surfing the Internet for interesting and informative websites about plants, landscaping and related topics.
There are many websites that meet this broad standard. A web search for “garden” yields 1,570,000,000 URLs to consider. In this universe, it would be tempting to list 50 or 100 websites for gardeners, I have just three to suggest as worth visiting.
DIRTIER….The Every-So-Often Garden Memoir
This individual effort reflects the Dianne Benson’s enthusiasm and hands-on knowledge of style in gardening, drawing on the principles of fashion: form, pattern, shape, color, textures and layers. The author’s commercial website includes this blog, which presents her observations and comments in a well-designed, one-window scroll, illustrated with personal snapshots. The result is a low-key wander through Dianne B.’s most recent gardening adventures in East Hampton, which is on the south shore of New York’s Long Island. Gardening practices must relate to the garden’s location, but the appreciation of gardens and gardening is universal.
Dianne B., from www.diannebbest.com
I remember the peonies in my mother’s garden, and the ants that crawled over the flower buds in search of nectar. Peony blossoms are among the most appealing of all flowers, and this website presents them very nicely. The website is beautiful, very well designed and clear in its helpful advice on peony varieties and cultivation. Browse through the site’s major sections—Peony Care, Plan a Garden, and Bloom Sequence—and you’ll soon be well-informed and ready to add peonies to your landscape.
My garden includes a couple tree peonies and a couple intersectionals, which are created by crossing a herbaceous peony and a tree peony. Herbaceous peonies, which are also gorgeous, need more winter chill that the Monterey Bay area provides.
Tree Peonies, from www.peonysenvy.com
Pinterest is a photo-sharing website described as a “catalog of ideas,” rather than as a social network, that inspires users to “go out and do that thing.” The site is a vast trove of snapshots provided by a large number of participants with ideas to share.
The site includes photos on many, many topics, including images about gardening and landscaping. The casual user should enter this site with a strategy in mind to avoid getting entangled in its temptations, which could consume your otherwise productive time before you realize you’ve been caught. When you have a specific topic to explore, enter it in the search window at the top of the Pinterest home page and see what pops up. Try a particular category of plant, e.g., rose, dahlia, orchid, succulent, or a topic, e.g., pruning, garden irrigation, propagation.
We should still have cold and sunny days between spells of rain, but when the rains come, the Internet has much to offer to keep your gardening spirit in vigorous growth.