Travel is a great way to top off an education, especially for gardeners, who can pick up landscape and planting ideas by seeing others' gardens.
But they don't have to leave home to do it. Virtual garden tours on the computer show actual gardens through video or still images, music, narration and text. About the only thing missing is the scent of the flowers as they scroll by.
Some cyber tours are informational, posted mainly to answer gardening questions. Others are designed to entertain, the digital equivalent of coffee-table books or travelogues. Still others are therapeutic and chatty, providing welcome bursts of color and commentary during the dark winter months.
Some are so enticing that viewers may be motivated to rise from their chairs and actually plan a visit. Directions are included on most Web sites.
For the tours' sponsors and creators, there are many benefits. Educational institutions or public gardens use virtual tours to boost donations, enlist public support or build enrollment.
Virtual garden tours
For children: Cultivate this Michigan State University virtual garden, at http://4hgarden.msu.edu/kidstour/tour.html. Or tour this kids' garden developed by Smith College: www.smith.edu/gardens/kidscorner/index.htm.
Private gardens: A woman whose children call her "Moosey" has created an easy-to-follow Web site that helps move you through her New Zealand country garden. It also contains helpful sections about flower shows, containers and flower bulbs: www.mooseyscountrygarden.com/
Public gardens: The U.S. Botanic Garden, www.usbg.gov/virtual-tour/index.cfm.
"We know a lot of people can't get here, but this might give them a sense of what they'd see if they could," said Christine Flanagan, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington. "We plan to add a plant collection database with visuals in the near future." A similar site is the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, England, www.rbgkew.org.uk/places/kew/index.html.
Medicinal and theme gardens: Take a virtual stroll through the University of Washington Medicinal Herb Garden and gather information about the more than 1,000 species in its 2.5 acres of greenhouses and grounds, http://nnlm.gov/pnr/uwmhg/.
Tourist sites centered around prominent gardens: The French Impressionist painter Claude Monet's gardens at Giverny, in Upper Normandy, for example, where he drew much of his inspiration. This is another place that can be visited virtually from your home, at http://giverny.org/gardens/.
Or discover Hampton Court Palace in Southeast England, a property once owned by King Henry VIII.
For a virtual tour of its 60 acres of riverside gardens, including the celebrated hedge maze, see www.hamptoncourt.org.uk/gardens/tour.asp.
A blog about self-guided and virtual garden tours is at http://empressofdirt.blogspot.com/2006/07/
virtual-garden-tour-round-up.html.
Institutional/Educational: University of Florida Indian River Research and Education Center at Fort Pierce, http://irrecenvhort.ifas.ufl.edu/virtualgarden/.
"Virtual tours and virtual labs are something that is becoming more and more necessary at the University of Florida as we are delivering many courses via distance education," said Sandra Wilson of the university's Department of Environmental Horticulture. "I teach courses to students located throughout the state.
"The virtual garden tour brings the gardens to them, as it is impossible for most students to travel here."
See also the Missouri Botanical Garden: www.mobot.org/visit/virtualtour.asp. That brings you a six-minute virtual tour plus garden overview and garden detail tours.
Or enjoy a virtual walk through the botanic garden at Oxford University: www.chem.ox.ac.uk/OxfordTour/botanicgardens/default.html.
The Augusta Chronicle ©2010 Morris Communications, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Biggest suggestion I can give for CSRA gardeners (especially new gardeners) is to get the Southern Living Garden Book. No other book I've found that's so tailored to this area (especially the specific micro-climate of this area). The advice isn't a tome for each plant, but it has a wealth of info for all plants that can grow and survive our region's hot and muggy climate (plus the illustrations and photos help in finding that "just right" plant). The difference was like night and day with a garden before it and afterwards. Too often folks get advice about general gardening for a different region, and although the advice will grow it in indoor pots, once it's outside it'll suffer a poor miserable wilting DEATH (this is sooo true with English lavender) :( The book has everything from trees to garden vegies, so it'll cover a southern gardener's front and back yards, plus the indoor plants. Armed with that book, your TOUR can be a reality, not just a dream as not every plant will grow HERE.