January 13, 2008
Cyndi's Catalog of Garden Catalogs
Cyndi's Catalog of Garden Catalogs
Cyndi Johnson gardens in California and has developed an online resource for home gardeners, Cyndi's Catalog of Garden Catalogs. She has a listing of more than 2000 mail-order gardening catalogs in the United States and Canada. The companies are rated for quality, service and price.
Posted by Ron Wolford at 4:28 PM
December 11, 2007
Food Safety Music Videos
Nancy Kreith, University of Illinois Extension Horticulture Coordinator emailed me this web site a couple of weeks ago. The focus of the site is to promote food safety. The site uses musical animations to get their message across to the viewer. The animations were produced at New Mexico State University as part of USDA CSREES National Integrated Food Safety Initiative Project Number CD-D-FST-7057-CG.
The project title is "Improving Food Safety Education Through Use of Music-Based Curricula" and the Project Director is Carl Winter at the University of California, Davis. Other cooperating educational institutions on the project are the University of Idaho, Clemson University, the University of Delaware, and North Carolina State University.
My favorite video is "Don't be a Gambler" which shows you how to properly prepare burgers. Another great video especially for kids is "You Better Wash Your Hands" sung to the Beatles song, "I Want Hold Your Hand" Other videos include "We Are the Microbes", "Don't Get Sticky Wit It", "Stomachache Tonight" and "Veggie Believer".
Posted by Ron Wolford at 4:48 PM
December 9, 2007
Christmas Trees and More
Years ago before the internet was around we would put together a brochure of local Chicagoland Christmas tree farms and run it off on a mimeograph machine. For you youngsters, a mimeograph machine was used to make multiple copies of brochures, articles etc.
When the World Wide Web came on the scene we decided to put the Christmas tree farms listing online, plus other Christmas tree related information. As a result the web site Christmas Trees and More was born.
The main feature of the web site is a listing of Christmas tree farms in Northeast Illinois and the rest of the state, plus the adjacent states of Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin. Farms can be sorted by city and county. The Christmas tree types section provides information on needle retention and aroma with pictures of the trees. There are also sections on Christmas tree facts, tree fun and tree education.
Posted by Ron Wolford at 3:30 PM
November 17, 2007
Great Plant Escape
The Great Plant Escape was the first site developed by the our University of Illinois Extension Regional Web Development team and to this day is probably the most successful web site we have developed. The Great Plant Escape invites you to join Bud and Sprout on their journey into the world of plants to solve six plant mysteries. Students will learn about soils, composting, germination, seeds, plant parts, plant propagation and bulbs. Get the plant facts for each case and do a fun activity after you solve the mystery. A teacher's guide integrates the lessons and online quizzes with other classroom ideas. Good for elementary and middle-level science classes.
Posted by Ron Wolford at 11:09 AM
November 10, 2007
Missouri Botanic Gardens
This website is packed with great plant information. There is a FAQ section has a searchable database of 1,700 gardening questions answered. The Plant Finder service contains information in a searchable database of over 4,000 herbaceous perennials, shrubs, vines and trees which are currently growing or have been grown at the Missouri Botanical Garden's Kemper Center for Home Gardening. The 300 HortLine fact sheets were written by Garden staff to reflect growing conditions in the lower Midwest. The site also has diagnostic and control measures for 170 of the most common insect, disease and environmental problems including animal pests.
Another added bonus is that you can use ten (10) low resolution images in any single work from the MBG PlantFinder royalty-free provided:
- In printed works, the credit "Courtesy Missouri Botanical PlantFinder" appears with each image (preferred) or in a prominently displayed credits section.
- In online or electronic works, credit appears with the image (preferred) or in a prominently displayed and easily reached credit page.
- You email Glenn Kopp at: glenn.kopp@mobot.org with a list of what images you are using and where they currently appear or will appear (for documentation and usage assessment purposes.)
Note: You can save these low resolution images directly off the Internet
Posted by Ron Wolford at 2:53 PM
November 7, 2007
California School Garden Network
California School Garden Network
I wish every state would make a $15,000,000 commitment to school gardening like California. The California School Garden Network was started to encourage and support a garden in every school, thereby creating opportunities for children to discover fresh food, make healthier food choices, and become better nourished. The website has a free download of the CSGN's new guidebook: Gardens for Learning: Creating and Sustaining Your School Garden, an online newsletter with nutrition information, lesson plans, recipes and garden activities and a web-based guide, Plant a Seed, Watch it Grow which is another guidebook on how to start and maintain a school garden, plus tips and suggestions on how to integrate the garden into the curriculum. There is a curriculum section with over one hundred garden-based lessons and a download section with an excellent PowerPoint presentation called the Power of School Gardens.
Posted by Ron Wolford at 11:33 PM
November 4, 2007
Extension One Search
One Search is a new search engine powered by Google that searches 773 Cooperative Extension websites. This search engine allows you to limit your searches to Cooperative Extension Service resources providing research-based information.
Posted by Ron Wolford at 5:20 PM
November 2, 2007
Insect Images
If you're looking for insect images for educational purposes this website provides over 25, 000 insect images. Insect images is a joint project of the University of Georgia and the USDA Forest Service. The overall objective of Insect Images is: to provide an accessible and easily used archive of high quality images related to insects and entomology, with particular emphasis on educational applications. The photographs are in this system to be used!
To qualify as educational use, the end product must be distributed free of charge. Also, the product must be used to educate the public and may not be used to advertise a company, services, or products. Educational use also includes using images to accompany one-time articles in a daily/weekly periodical (newspaper/magazine) since the article is not used to increase circulation, but is used to better illustrate a subject while providing information to the public
Anytime an image from the Bugwood Network image archive is used, IT MUST BE CITED. The citation format is:
Photographer's Name and Organization, Bugwood.org
Posted by Ron Wolford at 4:33 PM
November 2, 2007
BBC Gardening
Nobody does gardening like the British. This site offers gardening advice, garden basics, a plant finder with information on thousands of plants, a children's gardening section and a virtual garden which allows you to create your own garden online and move plants and features around to customize your design. You might have to pick through some of the information because of differences in climate.
Posted by Ron Wolford at 12:57 AM
November 1, 2007
Kidsgardening.org
If you have an interest in gardening with kids, this is the website for you. The site has a school garden registry with a listing of school gardens across the United States with contact information. There is also the opportunity to set up email pen pals between students. There are sections with classroom projects and thematic explorations with classroom stories, curriculum connections, "how-to" articles and related Web sites. There is information on a number of grants for school gardeners and an online guide to school greenhouses. For any teachers or parents interested in gardening with kids, this site will provide an on-going wealth of information.
Posted by Ron Wolford at 6:55 PM
