To the world of plants, I’m a known felon. I’ve killed so many houseplants, that if there was a bud and bloom post office, my picture would be on the wall as public enemy number one. I’m great with things that can scream when they’re hungry, like pets and children. Violets that sit there quietly, politely waiting for a spot of water and some plant food? They’re out of luck.
But like a virtual form of “Scared Straight—Extreme Botany Edition,” many Web sites exist to help reform serial gardeners like myself, or more likely, preach to the choir of dirt angels who cultivate for the side of good.
HGTV’s site (http://www.hgtv.com) does a nice job of extending the cable network’s position as an authority in the home and garden space. A click on the gardening tab takes visitors to a colorful page with links to topics such as “The Lowdown on Pots,” “Early Spring Chores” and “Beautiful Begonias.”
The last article offered a lavishly illustrated guide on the different types of begonias that was easy to follow even for me, and that says a lot. A link at the bottom takes visitors to the home page of Seattle’s Swanson’s Nursery; a direct route to a page selling some of the varieties of flowers profiled would have been even better.
A quick trip to the HGTV shopping page found garden tools and accessories, but no actual plants. Maybe this is a perishable area the network didn’t want to dig up.
But surely Martha Stewart (http://www.marthastewart.com) wouldn’t be so timid, right? After getting momentarily distracted by the home page’s special section on chocolate (Hey, I like things I can eat but can’t kill), I scroll down to the Gardening 101 section, which to this novice seems fairly well organized and comprehensible.
As for shopping, http://www.marthasflowers.com (operated by Proflowers) offers a plant section geared towards house plants, rather than the garden variety. For synergy, click on over to the Martha Stewart Signature section and choose a paint to match your poesy. Personally, I’m waiting for them to perfect the MarthaBot3000 so I can order one and have her come over and do it for me.
For those who don’t need a cyborg ex-convict in the yard, iVillage’s http://www.gardenweb.com might be a better destination. At least on the surface, this is a site for the serious flora junkie. The site offers gardening blog excerpts, forums, the Hortiplex Database of gardening terms, and a directory of gardening clubs and plant societies, among other features.
As for commerce, the site has a nifty Garden Bazaar section, which offers a guide to mail order garden resources. Sadly, a search didn’t glean any results for a MarthaBot (or Martha Bot, Martha-Bot or Marthabot, for that matter).
Oh well, time to try my own luck at sprucing the yard. Plants and grass, consider this your head start. Run now.
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