Yes I completely agree. Even with all the misinformation there is on the internet, not to mention the disagreements that happen on the forums, the internet is still very valuable for gardening.

The learning curve is accelerated so much, it makes everyone an expert to a degree, quickly, and we learn from each other etc.

I think art makes some good points. Be careful who you listen to. Some "gardeners" like to hear themselves talk...but never listen or learn more than what they already know. There are some very knowledgeable/helpful people online. You eventually learn who they are.

thanks for the good advice

Definitely, I have learned a lot from internet. I wonder how people did learn before internet ? From some neighbor, grandfather ? Or just from ones own experience ?

Of course there are various methods and conflicting views but by reading all different views and sifting through them and trying out, we can gain a lot of knowledge fast in a matter of few short year what it would take a life time in the past. It is not just the forums and YouTube but there are a lot of university ag. extension and research that provide valuable information. To me it is like a university.

I only started gardening in the internet age. The google is my friend. Just be sure to check multiple sources and see if they make sense and all say around the same thing ;)

I have to agree, the information that has been shared with me by experienced gardeners on the internet, has been invaluable.

Before the internet? Well, I did have a friend who had an organic garden and helped me get started. And then of course, I dragged home lots of books from the library. And trial and error.

Like prairie moon said:
"Before the internet? I dragged home lots of books from the library."

I learned a lot from my Dad, mostly good and a little bad. He was a life long farmer and gardener. He grew up on a farm also and learned from his Dad who was also a life long farmer.

I bought books, I subscribed to magazines like Organic Gardening and Mother Earth News.

I have learned a lot since the internet came around, both good and bad.

One bad thing about the internet is that, like now, I'm on the internet instead of out in the garden working! ;)

One bad thing about the internet is that, like now, I'm on the internet instead of out in the garden working! ;)
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LOL.
I got to get going . Too much information already. Need to put it to work.

I had a subscription to Organic Gardening for many years, Wertach.

LOL -- applying all that information is the trick, for sure!

I have become the local extension agent at work. I have learned a lot and can answer most of their questions.

If I don't know it, I will tell them to give me a minute and I'll get the answer.

The majority of gardeners at work either don't have internet access or the don't know how to find things on the internet. One of my MFA questioners hates computers.

We had to start entering work order info, ETC. on the PC at work about a year ago.

It takes him about 30 minutes to do what I can do in two minutes. He follows me to the computer room almost every morning and asks me to enter his stuff.

I don't mind doing it a bit! He is retiring at the end of this year and I am sure going to miss him!

I'm glad there's the internet around since most of what my dad did didn't seem to make a lot of sense and turned out were dead wrong.

He used to tell me I picked my eggplant too soon and they weren't ripe yet. I loved the man, but he was wrong about so many things.

The same with my Dad on eggplant, corn, okra, and other stuff Cara. The eggplant would be past it's prime, okra too big, and the corn would be hard before he said it was ready.

I lived next door and he would plant enough to feed all five boys and the grands. My brothers would ask me to call them when it was ready and call them when Dad wasn't home, so that they could raid the garden!

Of course I would get scolded by Dad for doing it, but I got praised by my brothers!

What an interesting question, and I have lots to say, but not right now since bad storms are coming again and I'm out of here.

For now I'll just say that I was raised on a farm where we had many acres of tomatoes and my dad would say take off the ones with the black bottoms. We didn't know BER back then, we didn't know a lot, and I'm speaking of the 40's and 50's.

All I'll say right now is that experience is the best teacher IMO,no substitute for it.

And yes, I have LOTS to say about the internet and message sites such as this one.

Carolyn, who, at age 75 spans the time before the internet and message sites to the present so can do a retrospective, if you will. ( smile)

Can't say that the internet changed the way I garden since like CaraRose, I started gardening while the internet was around. :)

When I first started gardening I was reading as much as I could from books and the internet (mostly GardenWeb). So I guess you could say that the net helped turn me into the gardener I am. There are still things that don't quite grow like they should for me and there are things that I'm a complete failure at (like potatoes!) but for the most part I'm usually successful in my attempts.

I agree with Carolyn that first hand experience is invaluable. You can learn a lot from just planting things. And the most important learning experiences are the failures. Or at least I think so.

Rodney

The internet can be great if you use critical thinking skills and can be selective in what advice might work in your location, and most of that comes from experience. So many forget that what works great in the south, might not work in the north or in high altitude gardening. I enjoy reading about folks various solutions to gardening problems, even ones I would never use.

The greatest effect the internet has had on my gardening is to expand my knowledge of and access to so many different seed varieties and plant sources hat you will never find locally.

Yes, big time. Currently am studying worms, soil food webs and permaculture on line. Also am taking Philôs Nauta Smiling gardener academy. Great stuff and mucho learning!

Posted by ddsack z3MN (My Page) on
Tue, Jul 15, 14 at 9:59

The internet can be great if you use critical thinking skills and can be selective in what advice might work in your location, and most of that comes from experience. So many forget that what works great in the south, might not work in the north or in high altitude gardening
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Well said.
You cannot take any article, You Tube video, blog etc at its face value. They can be a source of confusion sometimes.
I started learning the fundamentals about soil chemistry ( pH, nutrients) , Soil physics ( water drainage, retention), micro herds/soil web, . Then start learning about plants in more specifics. What one can learn is never ending. I learn something almost everyday.