After you activate, 

you will be able to login and enjoy all the benefits of membership.

Your first login:

When you login, you will be asked a few questions to determine your interests. We want to know what interests you so we can help you enjoy the site more. Once you are logged in, a new menu will appear at the top of the page which lists My Account, which is a drop down menu (browse around – edit your profile, review your friends, select your email notification preferences).

Participation:

To get started, join an existing group or create your own.  

To join a group, go to ‘Community’> ‘Groups‘.  You’ll see a list of existing groups. There is an option in red on the right, to ‘Join Group’ or conversely, ‘Leave Group’. If the group you want doesn’t exist, You’ll also see an option to ‘Create a Group’ – also in red. Once you have created a Group, you can then post Topics in it.  Have fun! Groups have Forums listed as an option of their menus. Once you are in a group, you can reply to a topic or create your own.

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   ACTIVITY lets you see the latest posts, groups etc.

 PROFILE is where you add your personal info, edit it, or add your photo (avatar).

 MESSAGES is the email option to send, receive etc to other members

 FRIENDS shows whom you have befriended and requests from others to be friends. To send a friendship request, go to the Member Directory and select ‘add friend’ to the right of the member’s name.

 GROUPS allow folks who are passionate about a particular gardening topic, such as roses, bonsai, etc to get together to discuss that particular subject. The Groups link in My Account shows what groups you belong to and any invitations you may have. To CREATE A GROUP, go to the GROUPS tab on the upper right. To the right of the Groups Directory is a box –  ’create a group’.

 FORUMS are for starting a topic and posting questions, comments and replies. To CREATE A FORUM, go to the FORUMS tab on the upper right.

 SETTINGS  is where you change how often you would like to get email, change your password, or your email account. NOTIFICATIONS lets you decide when and how much email from the site you would like to get. In each forum, you can also select whether or not to get mail about a specific topic.

MEMBERS on the upper right lets you see a directory of all current members.

The NOTIFICATIONS tab on the upper left lets you know when you’ve got mail. Got favorite gardening sites? Go to the GARDENING LINKS directory in the menu and share them with others.     TO POST ON THE CALENDAR you must be logged in. When you are logged in, you will see a little message at the top of the calendar – ‘Post Your Event’.

If you need more help, go to the Support Group - see bottom of site.