Web is abloom with humor for gardeners

For the outdoor gardener, it is time to celebrate, laugh and rejoice: Gardening season is on its way. With the advent of longer days, the snows will turn to rain (oops, that has been happening all winter, it seems), soils will start to warm (have they even frozen yet?) and we will be out there with our hands in the compost pile before we know it.

Well, not quite, but why not laugh a bit anyway? Just the thought of four more months of the being indoors is enough to start many of us laughing.

Just in case you have trouble with the "four more months" part, here are a few Web sites suggested by fellow members of the Garden Writers Association as a means to get hibernating gardeners to wake up in time to start looking through garden catalogs. Hopefully you will find a chuckle or two, or maybe just a smile, somewhere among them. If not, just remember: It is getting lighter every day.

For starters, spend time online with Don Engerbretson, a Minnesota garden writer with a terrific sense of humor and irony. I discovered The Renegade Gardener (www.renegadegardener.com) one day last year when Google sent his review of "Teaming With Microbes" to me. This is one funny guy with a real talent for writing. His columns have delighted me, presenting the tastiest of garden writing, good laughs and great information. I suggest bookmarking it so you can go back and read his columns as they are posted.

Next, jump over to Desperate Gardens (www.desperategardens.net). The author is one of the few garden writers I know who actually makes a full-time living from the sport and writes for almost all of the big magazines, yet she still has time to maintain a Web site. Whew! I can hardly post my column on my site (gardenerjeff.google pages.com). She loves houseplants and writes about them well, with a Southern sense of humor. Try "Sleeping With Bananas" to get a feel.

The classic garden laugh site is Shady Deals Nursery (www.shady dealsnursery.com). Some of the humor is corny, some political and some just plain silly, but it is horticultural and the site is darned clever. Many an unsuspecting gardener ... Well, just check it out. And while you're there, try to follow the links as they add a dimension to just how clever this site really is. Don't buy anything from it, however.

In researching this column, I came across David Hobson's Garden Humour (home.golden.net/~dhobson), with the motto "To boldly grow where no one has groan before." Yes, it is British humor, and sure enough, there are groaners, but there are enough funny stories, pictures and products that I'll pass it on.

Then there is Jokes, Pun, Riddles, One-Liners and Humor for Gardeners (www.gardendigest.com/humor. htm). Yes, it is American humor, and sure enough, there are puns, riddles and one-liners. I might even use some of them in my garden talks ("I think, therefore I yam"). Well, if I find the right group.

Again, rejoice. The light returns.

Jeff Lowenfels is a member of the Garden Writers Hall of Fame. You can reach him at www.gardenerjeff.com or by joining the "Garden Party" radio show from 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays on KBYR 700 AM.

Garden calendar

• CHRISTMAS TREES: Water, water, water every day.

• AMARYLLIS: Bring stored bulbs into light.

• FUCHSIAS: Stored fuchsias should get a glass of warm water per plant.