Get the real dirt with online gardening

Winter means I garden indoors, cozied up to my computer.

The darkened days of winter are perfect times to wander the Web's walkways, checking out gardening tools, books, new plants and seeds and other ways to escape the confines of stuffy walls.

Or relax in one of the gardening chat rooms and talk about cowslip primroses with a Michigan gardener and share classroom gardening tips with a teacher in Texas.

Want to build a bat house? There are tips and plans online.

Bugs bothering the roses? Type in the search words ``pests on roses'' and find a host of probable causes and solutions.

Dianne Taylor of Poquoson got into daylilies thanks to the American Daylily Society's web site. After going to a garden center where for the first time she saw varieties of daylilies other than the orange ditch-type lilies. She got on her computer and typed in the keyword ``daylily.'' Site after site on daylilies came up.

She joined the American Daylily Society, visits the Mecca of daylily growers and hybridizers in Florida and chats on a specialized ``e-mail robin'' with other daylily growers around the country.

Today, Dianne has 600 varieties of daylilies and 1,000 seedlings she has propagated by pollinating her own. She wants to enjoy her near-future retirement deep in her gardens of daylilies. It all started with a click on the computer.

Web watchers have tracked more than 2,000 horticulture-related sites and more are blossoming every day. Yet, for many newcomers, finding gardening sites can be tricky, especially trustworthy ones.

Even though online gardening offers shovelfuls of free information, much of it may not apply to our growing conditions. That's why you still need to rely on local gardening information.

Still, it's fun and educational to cruise.

Type in the word ``how to grow hops'' and up pops 10 top matches, including a primer on how to grow hops at home and how to brew it into beer.

Type in the word ``birds'' and you will reach endless sites on nuturing them in a backyard garden. Some of the best are about the bluebird, its feeding behaviors and preference for houses.

Other sites give glossaries to help gardeners learn the difference between deciduous and evergreen plants and what it means to deadhead a plant.

Even video clips and slides can be downloaded onto your computer, sometimes free and sometimes not so free. Just be careful and know what you are opting to do.

Remember, too, to always bookmark your favorite sites so you avoid the hunting game each time you sign on.

All this should keep you busy until spring and planting time. Then you can let the computer go into its dormant time.

KATHY'S FAVORITE SITES

www.garden.org/edu  - Kids and Classrooms section, National Gardening Association

www.bulb.com  - Netherlands Flower Bulb Information Center

www.ars.org  - American Rose Society

www.opei.com  - Outdoor Power Equipment Institute

www.turfgrasssod.org  - Turfgrass Producers International and Turf Resource Center

www.ngb.org  - National Garden Bureau

www.virginiagardens.org  - Virginia Flower and Garden Show (Jan. 22-24)

www.audubon.org  - National Audubon Society

www.nrcs.usda.gov  - Natural Resources Conservation Service

www.ppws.vt.edu/weedindex.htm  - Virginia Tech's developing weed identification and herbicide site

www.ahs.org  - American Horticultural Society

www.hort.vt.edu/VNPS  - Virginia Native Plant Society

www.lawninstitute.com  - The Lawn Institute

www.christree.org  - National Christmas Tree Association

www.communitylink.org/nbg/gardens.html   - Norfolk Botanical Garden

www.hort.vt.edu  - Virginia Tech horticulture

www.ahta.org  - American Horticultural Therapy Association

www.vagardenweek.org  - Historic Garden Week, Garden Club of Virginia

www.isomedia.com/homes/AIS/  - American Iris Society

www.baylink.org/vbs/  - Butterfly Society of Virginia

www.daylilies.org  - American Hemerocallis Society

www.gardencalendar.com/display/flowershows   - flower shows

www.helsinki.fi/kmus/botgard.html   - botanical gardens of the world

* Hampton Roads Gardening, Digital City Hampton Roads, America Online - Daily Press-provided site includes bulletin board for questions and answers, plant exchange, gardening tips and articles, and connection to more online gardening. Watch for this site to expand and move to the Web in the next few months.