Disclaimer: The Internet and its collection of websites are in constant motion. GodPlantedAGarden is not responsible for the content of and upkeep of the sites residing at the addresses which appear below. We share links to sites we found to be useful at one point, sites that may offer helpful garden advice and ideas. You use these links at your own risk and assume personal responsibility for content you find there, OK?
Birds
It is our joy at Paths of Hope to host a pair of nest boxes for Eastern Bluebirds, and we watch proudly as the parents tend the babies and the youngsters leave the nest. One of my favorite Father’s Day moments was working with my grown daughters to make boxes for their homes. Want to know more about bluebirds? Check out:
The North Carolina Bluebird Society
Bugs
Wondering what bug is crawling up your ice tea glass? Try to find out on the Bug Guide page. Their mission is “We collect photographs of bugs from the United States and Canada for identification and research. We summarize our findings in guide pages for each order, family, genus, and species.
The Xerces Society’s page holds a wealth of information. Their stated mission:
The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation is an international nonprofit organization that protects the natural world through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitats.
Butterflies
I love this article on butterfly protection from DIY Gardening with its ad-free presentation (at least at the time I visited). The graphics are eye-friendly and a great way to help our children understand the plight of butterflies.
The Ultimate Butterfly Protection Guide
The North Carolina Wildlife Federation’s page describing the Butterfly highway. Paths of Hope
This informative article from CNN begins, “Agrochemical companies contributed to the demise Monarch butterflies. Now they are joining forces to save them.” Get the details at this link:
Why Monsanto and its rivals are trying to save butterflies.
Composting
This great video from North Carolina State’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences cover the basics of composting and zooms in on types of bins. We use two of Earth Machine bins at Paths of Hope and cook compost year round. I heartily recommend that design. Pro tip – when it comes time to aerate the pile lift the bin off, move it to an adjacent location and re-fork the contents into place. Reduces stress on knuckles and backs.
Garden Ideas
I love this site from the UK brought to my attention by Rachel Brown. Gardeners will find a wheelbarrow load of ideas and useful info. The site also includes ads for equipment and tools as well as reviews. Check it out for yourself: DIY Garden
Hostas
I’m crazy about hostas and have a plethora of varieties in the shade gardens at Paths of Hope. This helpful site can be beneficial in identifying your collection. Note the site seems to be dated and has not been upgraded to meet Google’s security guidelines (URL does not begin with https and has a red slash through the lock image) so be careful.
General Garden Information
Dave’s Garden page advertises itself as:
“…one of the largest sites for gardeners in the world. With tens of thousands of encyclopedic files on plants, bugs, and birds, as well as helpful articles by our gardening experts, you’ll find everything you need help your garden grow. Founded in 2000, Dave’s Garden caters to the interests and needs of gardeners and horticultural professionals worldwide. Beyond informational articles, our community supports an open and safe place for advice, shared experiences, and an active seed and plant trade.”
The National Gardening Association website is the portal to a great deal of gardening knowledge. The site touts itself as having “over a million members” making it “the largest social media website dedicated exclusively to gardening.” The Learning Library on this site is the portal to:
“…thousands of articles, news items, tutorials, essays and other kinds of content. Access our treasury and look around; you’re sure to find them educational, interesting, inspiring and sometimes humorous.”
National Gardening Association
National Gardening Association Learning Library
The North Carolina State Extension Office hosts a number of useful sites. Poke around their site and see what you can find. I found the complete North Carolina Extension Gardener Handbook.
North Carolina State Extension Office
North Carolina State Extension Gardener Handbook
Organic Gardening
The University of Florida (UF), together with Florida A&M University (FAMU), administers the Florida Cooperative Extension Service which supplies this page for those wanting to learn more about organic practices.
Organic Gardening At IFAS Extension
Organic Farming Research Foundation works to foster the improvement and widespread adoption of organic farming systems. OFRF cultivates organic research, education, and federal policies that bring more farmers and acreage into organic production.
Organic Farming Research Foundation
From Texas A&M comes the Agrilife Organic Vegetable Gardening site:
“The Future Is Organic!” Rodale Institute is growing the regenerative organic movement through research, farmer training, and consumer education.
Plants
The Tropicos database links over 1.37M scientific names with over 5.05M specimens and over 1.16M digital images. The data include over 161K references from over 54.4K publications offered as a free service to the world’s scientific community.
Kew Science’s World Checklist of Selected Plant Families is “an international collaborative programme that provides the latest peer reviewed and published opinions on the accepted scientific names and synonyms of selected plant families. It allows you to search for all the scientific names of a particular plant, or the areas of the world in which it grows.”
World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
The US Department of Agriculture offers a plants database with myriad options for searching. I have not thoroughly explored this one but, hey, it’s the government and they’re here to help.
Pollinators
“Pollinator Partnership’s mission is to promote the health of pollinators, critical to food and ecosystems, through conservation, education, and research.” Expand the map deeply enough and find the dot in NW Raleigh that represents Paths of Hope. Exciting stuff.
Weeds
From WeedAlert (“the source professionals trust for expert weed identification and control”) comes this helpful guide to weeds. Visitors can search by US region, appearance, or name.
“Weed Images is a joint project of The University of Georgia – Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences – Department of Entomology, Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health, Weed Science Society of America and the USDA Identification Technology Program.” Don’t worry. That impressive attribution list will not appear on the test.
NC State’s Extension site’s “Turfiles” offers a helpful pictorial guide to common weeds that plague lawns and gardens in my area.
Wildflowers
Gerry Williamson’s database of wildflowers is of benefit to those gardeners who love native plants. The site can be searched by scientific or common name. The author states, “You can’t possibly enjoy this site as much as I’ve enjoyed building it, and photographing and studying the wildflowers presented here, but I do hope you find USWildflowers.com enjoyable and informative.” Thanks, Gerry, for sharing your passion with us.