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Index : Miscellaneous Gardening Topics
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- 36. Gardeners Can Find Local Information on Their Computers - Top
- Many gardeners ask me where they can find the best information on growing plants here in Tucson. A few years back I would have listed a number of great reference books. And although these reference books are still a valuable tool, the most comprehensive information on desert gardening and landscaping can be found on your computer.
Some wonderful web-sites exist, with just about everything you need to know about what plants to grow and how to grow them. Best of all, this information wasn't written for up State New York or the U.P. of Michigan, but rather for right here in Tucson.
The all-encompassing gardener's web-site is "Arid-Southwest Gardening". It is just one of many services provided to the citizens of Arizona by the University of Arizona and it's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. To log on, simply type in www.ag.arizona.edu/gardening. There you will find the complete on-line edition of the Arizona Master Gardener manual, the gardening events calender, a "gardening tips by month" section (specifically for Tucson), links to other related area and regional web sites, and much more. Best of all, if you missed some of my columns, they're all contained on this web-site, listed by subject matter. So if you're looking for information on, let's say, fertilizing citrus, go to my column listing, look under the heading "Citrus and Other Fruits", and click on my column titled "Time to Fertilize Citrus." It's Easy!
When you visit the Arid-Southwest Gardening site, you will have a number of choices.
Of particular interest are the selections for the garden manual and the garden events calender in the upper left-hand corner. The manual is comprised of 18 separate chapters covering everything from flower beds to cacti. All the information in the manual is written specifically for Arizona gardeners. The garden events calender is a listing of all the classes, programs, and plant society meetings around the state. It allows you to sort the events by the specific date, by the month, and by the location. Tucson area residents can choose the University of Arizona or Pima County for the program location and get the entire listing of gardening programs for months in advance. These programs include the listing of all extension classes offered by me and my Master Gardener volunteers.
Also in the upper left-hand corner of the web page is a heading entitled "Go Directly To." You can use this to directly access my past gardening columns and monthly gardening tips. The columns are listed by subject matter, rather than date published, making it easier to find the gardening information you're looking for. The gardening tips are listed by month. You can select, for instance, September, and find the activities that require attention now, such as; fertilizing roses, dividing iris, and planting winter herbs.
In the upper right-hand column is the heading "Home Gardening". Click on it and you'll find listings of gardening web-sites in Arizona, and in the Southwest along with direct connections to each. The Arizona sites include; County Extension Offices, news media gardening links, arboretums and botanical gardens, garden clubs and plant societies, and newsletters. There are also list serves such as the Arid Gardener. By subscribing, you will be in touch with hundreds of other Arizona gardeners and garden experts. It's a great place to go to have your individual plant questions answered and share your ideas with other enthusiasts.
In addition to the Home Gardening section, you'll also want to check out the Master and Expert Gardening section of the web page. Here you can find out about the Master Gardener program or tap into Tucson's daily weather data, current and historical, through the link to Arizona Meteorological Network.
Finally, be sure to check out the Pima County Home Horticulture web-site at: www.ag.arizona/pima/gardening On it you'll find a great arid plant data base with information on hundreds of desert landscape plants. We also have posted the schedule for our weekly gardening talks, presented by me and my Pima County Master Gardeners, and how to use our plant clinic to solve your plant problems.
"Safe Controls for Insect Pests" will be the topic for this week's garden demonstrations. They will be presented on Wednesday at 9 a.m. at the Pima County Extension Center, 4210 N. Campbell Ave; and at 1 p.m. at the Wilmot Library, 530 N. Wilmot Road; and again on Thursday at 2 p.m. at the Marana Planning Services, on the corner of Orange Grove and Thornydale next to Sam Levitz Furniture Store.
Written by John Begeman, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the University of Arizona, 520-626-5161. - Updated: September 15, 2002
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