Can’t dig in quite yet? Why not log on until spring really comes?
Computer bulletin boards offer green thumbs from across the country the opportunity to ask questions and compare notes about strategies geared to the first real day of spring: the day it’s warm enough to turn a spadeful of topsoil out in the back yard.
Gardening has arrived on computer bulletin board services, or BBS as they’re often referred to in print, enabling horticultural hobbyists to converse with each other about their favorite topic via electronic messages. Call it the high-tech equivalent of chatting over the back fence or swapping tips down at the local nursery. All this and your fingernails never even get dirt under them.
For the uninitiated, computer bulletin boards are on-line versions of the communal corkboard, not unlike those found in college dorms or supermarket entrances, where users can exchange messages. Personal computer users can link themselves to an electronic bulletin board with a simple set up that includes a PC, modem and communications software. Once on-line, users are free to communicate (in writing), and read or leave messages with other board users.
The number of electronic bulletin boards has risen drastically during the last five years, due primarily to an increase in specialty boards that focus on a particular topic. That growth has reaped a bountiful harvest of opportunities for gardeners, who can cultivate gardening information on boards devoted to their favorite topic.
Most garden BBS users log on to ask questions such as how to start a compost pile or what’s the best way to start a hummingbird garden. Post a question on the board and you’re liable to get several answers that range from somewhat scientific to old wive’s tales. Replies can be posted for all users to read or by private E-mail.
The bulletin boards for gardeners are available in two main types: as featured boards on on-line services such as Prodigy or CompuServe on public-access specialty boards.
Prodigy offers an active forum where users can exchange tips and ask questions about a variety of gardening topics both common (e.g., fertilizer, catalogs, perennials, etc.) and esoteric (e.g., miniature roses).
Additionally, Prodigy offers a weekly column from the producers of public television’s “Victory Garden” program that can either be perused while on-line or copied for later reading. Users can also pose questions to Victory Garden experts. Call 1-800-PRODIGY. Startup kit costs $49.95; monthly fee is $14.95.
CompuServe, the other major national on-line service, also offers several gardening-related features. CompuServe’s Gardening Forum averages about 200 messages a day in its various sections, which cover a wide range of interests.
CompuServe also sponsors sessions with gardening-related businesses such as Burpee and hosts weekly on-line conferences where gardeners can join discussions on a selected topic. Call 1-800-848-8199. Startup kit costs $39.95 plus shipping; monthly fee is $7.95 plus additional fees based on services used.
Regional BBS throughout the country also offer gardeners a wealth of information.
At Michigan State University in East Lansing, the Cooperative Extension Service and state agriculture department offer a free weather BBS that details current and historical weather, including tempurature tables and precipitation. For an information packet, call 1-517-355-0231.
Another free, out-of-town board is the Florida-based Osceola Horticulture Bulletin Board, a service of the Osceola Extension Service and the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
The Osceola Horticultural BBS offers about 130 downloadable files, including horticultural columns from the local Osceola Sentinel, shareware software programs for managing your garden and information files on topics such as “Armadillos and how to deal with them.” Dial 1-407-846-1723 with your modem; message service is free, though users pay for the telephone call.
HouseNet is a bulletin board run by home improvement writers Gene and Katie Hamilton, based in St. Michaels, Md. While many of the 140 topics discussed on the board tend to be slanted toward handyman and do-it-yourself home maintenance topics, HouseNet does offer a Home Gardener Conference, where users trade tips about working in the yard and garden.
Like the Osceola board, HouseNet also offers a wide variety of files that can be downloaded. Gardening-related files range from information about seeding to software programs such as The Garden Assistant, which allows a user to figure out exactly what, when and how much to plant based on what he or she wants out of the garden. The Garden Assistant also helps design the garden’s layout. Dial 1-410-745-2037 with your modem. Service is free; users pay for phone call; on-line time is limited to 45 minutes a day.
The Osceola and HouseNet BBS as well as many other non-gardening boards across the country offer an additional outlet for horticulture hobbyists through their access to the Gardens RIME Conference.
RIME is a worldwide network of electronic bulletin boards that form an electronic mail system. Messages you enter on the board you’ve called are gathered up and sent to another BBS. That board, in turn, makes your message available for viewing to its own users and sends a copy of all other messages on the board to yet another BBS. And the cycle, known as “echoing” or “relaying” continues.
The Garden RIME Conference is a general interest conference for home gardeners, highlighting vegetable gardening, flower gardening, indoor gardening, bonsai and just about any topic that’s on the mind of users.
