If you enjoy gardening, the Internet is the perfect spot to begin your gardening research. You'll discover what can be grown at specific times of year, what plants do well in the shade, what plants are hardy in very dry areas, and much more.

An excellent place to start a gardening excursion is Dig Magazine: Home and Garden Diversions. Would you enjoy participating in online forums in topics such as Techniques, Maintenance, or Design? Maybe you would be interested in learning what you can do for pest control, or what to plant in your garden at this time of year.

Next, let's visit a no nonsense site that packs a mean punch of information, the WWW Virtual Library for Gardening. Are you interested in regional gardening information, or forums where you can ask questions of gardening experts? Or, would you like to participate in forums for specific topics, such as Daylilies or Irises? You'll find a link to the USDA's plant database, or you can enter a plant name and search for information on the plants of your choice.

Ohio State University provides an impressive source of information on plants at their Factsheet Database. Over 20,000 pages of information are available from over 46 different universities and institutions in the U.S. and Canada, so that you receive the most concentrated source of plant-related information on the Web.

Be sure to visit the Plant Dictionary, also at Ohio State University.

Horticulture Magazine provides an outstanding website for gardeners, garden.com. You can view a slide show of the great gardens of the world, or visit the Plant Finder to learn what plants are perfect for your garden. Select the various options that are pertinent to your garden or that are important to you, such as soil composition, flowering plants, season of bloom, planting time, and so forth, and then let the Plant Finder tell you what would work best for your garden.

Flower growers will want to stop by the Flowerbase, where they can search the database of over 10,000 flowers, plants, and garden plants to preview pictures or learn more about the various plants.

A gardening article wouldn't be complete without a trip to Better Homes and Gardens Online Garden Home Page. Learn what to plant in hard-to-grow places, or how to build window boxes. Look over their problem-solving garden plans, or read gardening articles by expert gardeners.

At GardenWeb, you can access forums that comprise the largest community of gardeners on the Net! You can also search through their garden directory for plant societies, clubs, botanical gardens and other garden-related nonprofit organizations. Enter the Mystery Plant Contest, or discover tips for new gardeners.

Visit PLANTS magazine, for plant enthusiasts and plant professionals from around the world.

Paul's Garden offers tips on growing vegetables and herbs as well as gardening information on various garden-related subjects.

Robin Nobles is a freelance writer who can be reached at robinnobles@robinsnest.com.

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