by Susan Ives, Alamo PC

 If, like me, you're a transplant, you had better learn about growing things in Texas. Start at PlantAnswers, the horticulture section of the Texas A&M web site. Poke around the site a bit. The "Answers" section is an archive of hundreds, if not thousands, of questions and answers, organized by category such a "nuts" and "groundcovers.". I thought "Publications" would be an opportunity to send away for pamphlets, but they are really online features - a rose growing guide for South Central Texas, drought information, a section on turfgrass- a bouquet of good stuff. There is also a section of recipes, from agarita jelly to Texas onion caviar. 

The extension staff has been inundated with e-mail, so to weed out common problems they ask you to dig around in a horticulture search engine before bugging the agents. You have a choice of searching the Aggie or the Ohio State database. A search for "tomato" at A&M yielded 210 matches, while the Ohio database had a bumper crop of 1,618 entries. Only Texas residents can ask e-mail questions. Last fall I sent in a query about planting olive trees and with a day received a two-page e-mail for a world-class expert. 

The Texas Master Gardeners have their own little patch on the Internet. I was excited to find an excellent weed guide listed there, even if it was the New Jersey Weed Gallery. If the Texas Master Gardeners ever want to make a Bexar County weed gallery, I humbly offer up my back yard for the photo shoot. 

">Jerry Parsons, who manages the A&M PlantAnswers site, also has a plot of his own. You can ask Jerry questions directly, but have to register with the main site first. It's free - just click on the TXN.Com logo at the top of the screen and then click on "sign up here" in the personalization area. His most valuable tool is the search box. I typed in the word "tomato" and was told that there were 245 questions and answers that matched my query. 

 I've subscribed to Texas Gardener magazine since we moved to San Antonio, and was delighted to find them online. A newletter I didn't know about is Judy Barrett's HomeGrown, a bi-monthly organic gardening newsletter. 

 Howard Garrett, the Dirt Doctor, put his entire basic organic program online. Make sure you get the recipe for Garrett Juice - easily make at home - to use as a fertilizer, bug zapper and fire ant killer. You can also listen to his weekly Dallas radio show live on the Internet. Texas organic gardeners should also visit the Texas Pesticide Information Network, formed in 1998 to promote better public understanding of how pesticides are used in Texas and of how pesticide use affects human health and the environment. 

 Neil Sperry, publisher of Neil Sperry's Gardens magazine, also has a web site. Each month he posts several useful articles, but this is mainly a sales site for his publications. Sperry's weekly column is syndicated in the Express-News; back issues are archived online. 

 Seeds of Texas is a non-profit seed-trading organization. All their seeds are grown and exchanged by and among members of the Exchange. This is an important resource for those concerned with maintaining the genetic diversity of our seed crops. They put their monthly newsletter on line, as well extensive excerpts from their vegetable seed savers handbook. 

A newly planted site is the San Antonio Botanical Gardens. In addition to providing great photos of the gardens, it has a section of native and butterfly plants and a monthly planning calendar. There's also a list of other San Antonio public gardens. A day spent walking the botanical gardens and seeing plants in their native setting will save you twenty years of landscape headaches. 

 Several commercial garden centers have web sites. The most interesting is a San Antonio seed mail order company, Cyberseeds. They claim to stock more than 37,000 seed varieties and maintain a searchable database. They also have some intriguing categories - seeds of the Bible, oriental medicine seeds, moon garden seeds and fragrant flower seeds. 

Wolfe Nursery is also online. If you fill out an online form, they'll give you a 10% off coupon. You can ask e-mail questions of Orlando Martinez, their master gardener, who also has a radio call-in show on WOAI. They have a small but thorough section of tips. 

 Although their focus is the Gulf Coast, Higher Ground contains bushels of information pertinent to San Antonio gardeners. I got a kick out of their section called "Crepe Murder," a passionate plea to stop looping off the tops of crepe myrtles in the mistaken attempt that it will make them bloom better. 

Gardening is one the fastest growing areas of the Internet. If you hunger for more, check out the About.Com Gardening Guide, which lists more than 700 sites, or the Yahoo gardening section. 

 Susan Ives strings those free AOL CD-ROMs above her tomato patch to scare away the crows.