Gardening
(last updated 2/25/97)
Planting Guide (including estimated dates)
Gardening in the South
Planting Zone information
See my Garden Notes
Mail-order sources I've used
Mail-Order sources (catalogs)
Growing specific types of plants
Composting
Pests & Diseases
Weather information
Gardening discussion groups
finding Internet discussion groups
Gardening magazines
Searchable gardening databases/encyclopedias
Gardening exchanges/swaps
Tour the Garden Web Ring
Gardening in the South
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Gardening Discussion Groups
Mailing lists:
Online (WWW) discussions:
USENET newsgroups:
Here are some links for finding Internet
discussion groups (in general).
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Garden Magazines
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Searchable gardening databases/encyclopedias
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Gardening Exchanges/Swaps
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Growing specific types of plants
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Composting
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Pests & Diseases
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Planting Zone Information
Here in my USDA Zone 7b garden (just north of Dallas, TX), my last frost
date is Mar 15 to Apr 1, and the first frost of the year is usually around Nov 10 to Nov 25.
If you'd like to find out the same information for your own location, you
might want to use one of these tools from Time-Life: Zone
Maps or Zone
Finder
Since we're talking about planting dates, you might be interested in some
calendars to plan your own schedules.
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Watching the Weather?
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Planting dates
I actually started my garden planning in 1995 by researching
each plant type that I wanted to grow and calculating the estimated
planting dates for my area. Here's a 1997 calendar for you to peek at while you're calculating
some of these dates.
Also, every gardener should have a look at The
Old Farmer's Almanac
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Mail-Order Sources/Catalogs
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Garden Notes
I am a beginning gardener, working in a small city lot using raised
beds for my vegetables and bermed beds around my lawn for perennials and
ornamentals. I also have several semi-dwarf and dwarf fruit trees on the
property. Nineteen-ninety-six will be my second full year of gardening.
I hope that by publishing this journal, you will follow along with me
in my blunders and discoveries as I plan, maintain, and observe my garden.
During the year I will be recording many things here in my journal, including:
- data about the seeds and plants I'm using (e.g., variety)
- catalog sources
- dates when I'm sowing, transplanting, and harvesting
- what's blooming
- pruning information
- my observations/conclusions
I also anticipate that, due to time limitations and my impatience in
some cases, perhaps this journal may not be as detailed as I would like.
Hopefully this will be one of those things that I gradually develop and
fine-tune as time progresses.
Since this is largely a learning experience to begin with, I would welcome
any comments, questions, or suggestions you may have about my gardening
efforts or my Web pages. Please feel free to drop me a line by e-mail.
'96 Garden Journal
'97 Garden Journal
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Mail-order Sources
Here are the companies I used:
- Bluestone Perennials - high-quality
perennials, good customer service, good prices
- Weiss Brothers Nursery - excellent-quality perennials, outstanding customer service,
good pricing
- Mellinger's - small-sized perennials (based on my limited order), but hardy and thriving
- Park Seed Co. - somewhat high-priced, but very
good quality plants
- Territorial Seed Company - fast service, good
variety selections for vegetables (also carry miscellaneous other items)
- Henry Field's Seed & Nursery - basic varieties of vegetables and flowers, outstanding
seed germination, but plant products are small and don't always thrive
- R.H. Shumway - good selection of vegetable and seed varieties, beautiful catalog
illustrated with old-fashioned line drawings
- Totally Tomatoes - slow service, excellent selection of tomato and pepper varieties, fair
customer service
- Gardener's
Supply Company - rather high-priced, but good-quality products, good customer service
- Liberty Seed Company - good service, good selection of many vegetable and flower varieties
and gardening supplies
- Harris Seeds - good selection of vegetable and flower seeds, good service, good shipping
rates
- Stokes Seeds - good selection of vegetable and flower seeds, but seeds were broken up on
arrival and had poor germination; average customer service
- Ronniger's Seed Potatoes - good selection of potato varieties, good customer service
- Ison's Nursery & Vineyards - based on my limited order, small-sized berry plants which
did not survive, good prices
- Gardens Alive! - average service, fair customer service
- Burpee - difficulty getting catalogs first 2 years,
out-of-stock of many items, good selection of vegetable and flower varieties, fair germination rates,
rather high prices
