Emma Townshend boots up, logs on and communes with nature ; Gardens

If you're a gardener, you may not think there is much reason totrawl through the nerdy world of the internet blogger. Why would yousit indoors on the computer when you could be out admiring thehellebores? But in the realm of the garden blogs, it seems that whatgardeners really crave is a bit of friendly chat and advice, even ifit is in hyperspace.

Mark Diacono started off helping to run Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage message board, but now he has his ownblog, devoted to the climate-change farm where he grows plants which- pre-global warming - would not have survived the British wintertemperatures.

Diacono puts the case for men of the spade communicatingelectronically: "You think to yourself as you're posting some weirdquestion about pruning, 'I'm the only person in the world who'sinterested in this. No, really, nobody's going to care... ' Andwithin about half an hour, you've had all these replies, all thisdifferent expertise, from all over the place."

The sheer size of the internet presents gardeners with a rathernovel opportunity. Another blogger, Rebsie Fairholm, who writes as"Daughter of the Soil", explains: "Last February I went to a localnurseryman who specialises in heritage fruit trees. When I askedabout the apple tree I was buying, he shrugged and said that, eventhough the variety has been around for 100 years, it's so rare thatnobody knows anything about it, until such time as somebody grows itand volunteers some information. That was when I realised that evenordinary people like me could make a significant contribution to theavailable knowledge just by writing about our own experiences withthese unusual varieties and posting it on the internet."

Fairholm is now having a go at hybridising her own vegetablesusing the internet as a source of information, and then as a placeto record her experiments. "Amateur plant-breeding is a real lostart and nobody seems to be doing very much to revive it," she says."It was common practice for gardeners in the past, before we gotinto the habit of buying everything from the garden centre. So Ilearned what I could about hand-pollinating different plants andblogged it as I went along." She illustrates the story withsnapshots, so that you can see her purple-pea experiments in action.You can also, in one of those weird cross-overs that the internetspecialises in, read all about her alternative existence as a folk-singer, and her phobia of wells.

Perhaps due to all this globe-spanning, people want to createhuman structures on the internet - a village green, for example, oran allotment bench. But given the millions of people who could bereading these musings, there's something amazing about authorstrusting you with so much information about their lives. The levelof personal detail is extraordinary, from bloggers who post the nameof every packet of seed they've bought and how well it grew, to achicken-keeping gardener who posts images of freshly laid eggs, andnames the hen they came from. (She also provides the slightlytechnologically dubious tip that the top of your DVD player makes agreat heated propagator.)

Others of course have more straightforward goals and use theirblog as a record of what worked, and what didn't. "It's for my ownbenefit," says Mike from surelythisisntinteresting, "as I can neverremember when I've sown or dug or harvested anything and it alwaysannoys me when Monty Don mentions that he harvested his firstsweetcorn of the year 20 minutes earlier than in 1976." And for thevery competitive, it's a chance to show off their produce - avirtual village show, if you like.

For many, the pleasure of a blog is simply to be able to share afirst flower, a sprouting seed, or a cutting beginning to root, withpeople who suffer the same obsession. "You can compare notes withpeople in other parts of the UK and you can look at what peoplehalfway across the world are growing in their gardens," saysFairholm. "That instant sharing of pictures and information issomething that has never been possible before at any time inhistory."

There are, of course, nutters on the internet. You just have toremember that there are probably nutters on permanent secondment toevery allotment site in the UK. And that, sometimes, they are theones whose amazing invention, involving plastic guttering and balestring, suddenly comes to your rescue one frosty morning. One suchallotment genius once showed me how to make pots for spring-sowingentirely out of sheets of old newspaper - in delightful Blue Peter-style steps.

If you want to dip a toe into the world of gardening on the web,first stop should be the BBC gardening message boards, wherediscussion currently rages over Diarmuid Gavin suing Andy Sturgeon,and whether the BBC should reshow all of Geoff Hamilton's programmes(answer, a unaminous yes). More seriously, Diacono emphasises howvaluable this store of communal knowledge is: "You get a totallydifferent quality of advice than you would in a book. You getspecific, personal tips, explained in your own language. And you'regetting everyone's experience, instead of just one person's. It'slike having the village horticultural committee in the room withyou."

But, as all internet freaks know, there is plenty of room for thejust plain silly. As Daughter of the Soil puts it so nicely on herblog: "Let's be honest, there's only one question anybody reallywants to ask a gardener: do you wee on your compost heap?"

Mark Diacono, www.otterfarm.co.uk; Rebsie Fairholm,www.daughterofthesoil.blogspot. com;www.surelythisisntinteresting.blogspot.com; www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbgardening

If you do one thing...

Sow spring onions

The clue's in the name; spring onions are a nice way to startyour year. They don't get eaten by slugs either, and they are quickto crop, taking about 10 weeks from sowing to eating. No self-respecting green salad should be without their fresh tang. Most-often grown is 'White Lisbon', which is mild and fast-growing, butconsider trying also the much prettier 'Salad Laser', or sweetJapanese 'Shimonita'.