My son Michael phoned one day this spring. "You need to get online", he said breathlessly. "What do you want your domain to be called?"

He had caught me completely unaware. "What’s a domain?" I asked.

"Well, until I’m all hooked up with a modem or whatever, my e-mail goes to Michael who in turn faxes it to the bus barn", I repeated which brought on fresh chuckles. Finely tuned to the information highway, I was not. It was more remniscent of the pony express days.

As spring warmed into summer and more people hooked up their computers to share information, the ‘snail’ mail picked up. I began receiving catalogs from business that wanted me to order the latest order forms and business cards. Then I began receiving slick color catalogues from wholesale nursery suppliers that wanted to sell me a minimum of $500 worth of pots and so on.

And then I started hearing from the gardeners. Slowly we all got our act together, sharing plants with friends who would then use their talents to connect us with the world of gardening. Showing us that by connecting with the outside world, we could help each other by answering questions on the ‘net’.

Still not able to participate, I was only able to read the snail mail that came my way like Traditional Gardening published by GardenWorks, Ltd. (www.traditionalgardening.com). It is a journal of practical information on creating and restoring classic gardens that is published quarterly with wonderful articles for anyone who lives in an old home or just wants to duplicate colonial brick patters, 19^th century walks and drives, knot gardens and your own topiary, and more. Articles about the great American lawn, historic climbers, apples and creating Victorian Annual Gardens explain the whys and how-tos.

The article on Foundation Plantings and the Victorian House written by the editor also lists suitable shrubs and vines to use as well as their placement.

"He cautions that having settled a continent of dense forests, the last thing the inhabitants of newly cleared countryside wanted was a house surrounded by gloomy vegetation". It was wonderful reading. I would have never known about it had they not come across my web site.

Ever so slowly, it seems, the links that will hook up my computer at home to others around the world are set in place and I can send and receive e-mail on my own at any time of the day or night, whenever the spirit moves, or someone has a gardening question.

Everyone asked why this super information highway was needed at its inception, much the same way we all questioned why anyone would need 24 hours of news when we first heard of CNN. I suppose the answer is about choices, and the more information we have, the good, the bad and the ugly, the easier we can make an informed decision.

But, for whatever the reason, sharing information among people of like interest is entertaining and easy over the Internet.

(This article was written in the early summer of 1997. All the necessary links and new equipment were in place by the fall. Since then Michael and I have had great fun adding to the web site, learning as we go along. In the year that has passed, even with the frustrations of learning to operate a new ‘machine’, the joy of being able to correspond with hundreds of people made it all worthwhile.)