marlingardener
Central Texas, zone 8
Posts: 2379
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| Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 5:56 pm Post subject: The garden is for plants, too! |
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I just finished talking to a new gardener. The entire conversation on her part was "I want, I need, I like".
She wants to plant now--in over 100 degree heat and in a record-setting drought.
She wants plants like her grandmother had. Grandma lived in Ohio! Bleeding heart dies here!
She needs to have "lots of color" under a large oak tree but doesn't want to have to water flowers. Lotsa luck!
My mother was a gardener who was convinced she could force things to grow where they didn't belong and weren't happy. She was constantly angry at her dead plants.
Hey, the garden is for plants, too. They respond to being in the right place, planted at the right time, and taken care of. My mom never learned that, nor will this new gardener.
Rant over. I wasted my breath talking to that girl, so I came to preach to the choir!
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eileen
 Forum Moderator
Scotland
Posts: 18528
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| Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 6:04 pm Post subject: |
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I've met a few people just like the girl you were trying to talk sense to. They want the perfect garden, no weeding, no watering, no feeding, no pruning, no mowing lawns - just total perfection.  They seem to think that once a plant is in the ground it will not only never need attention but will stay flowering forever. I'm sooo glad I'm not that kind of person aren't you? It would take all the fun out of gardening if that's all you ever had to do.
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cherylad
Regular Plants Contributor
S. Liberty County - Texas
Posts: 5268
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| Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 12:25 am Post subject: |
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Jane... you must have been turning red in the face trying to talk to that lady!
Although I have to admit... I have planted things in the wrong spot, just hoping they'd adapt to my wants and needs. 
Guess what? It didn't work! Lesson learned.
Eileen... I'd be totally lost if I didn't have watering, weeding, mowing etc. to do. What better excuse to be outdoors than tending to the garden(s)?
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dooley
Texas
Posts: 5368
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| Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 1:09 am Post subject: |
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I've met people like that, too. My garden is a total disaster right now. It wants water and it wants the weeds pulled. Since the sun is so hot now, I've tried planting things in the shade that say full sun. It is working a bit. I'm not sure just when the weeds will go but they are green and some are not bad looking so I'll just have to look at them until the time comes that I can go and pull them or cut them off. Gardening is a challenge and a lot more work than some people want to do.
dooley
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cherylad
Regular Plants Contributor
S. Liberty County - Texas
Posts: 5268
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| Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 1:21 am Post subject: |
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Dooley... what you and alot of us are doing now is trying to get the plants to survive under drastic circumstances. That's a whole different story than just having blatant disregard of a plant's true needs ... like that new "gardener". Hopefully she'll learn... one day.
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Cayuga Morning
New England
Posts: 442
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| Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 11:16 am Post subject: |
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Hey Texas folk---we in the NE have been getting a taste of your growing conditions. 90-103 degree days & no rain. I am watching my poor plants hunker down, wondering what has hit them. I am watering the new transplants, but everything else is on its own. I think it is causing some of the flowers to bloom madly, like,"quick, lets set seed while we can!"
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Netty
Regular Plants Contributor
Southern Ontario zone 5a
Posts: 10307
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| Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 11:27 am Post subject: |
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marlingardener, sounds like this girl needs a good dose of reality. I'd like to be there to see her plant her garden and when she sees the results. Once she realizes there is hard work involved she will either get a new attitude or give up.
Or hire a gardener LOL
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Kay
Lincoln, Nebraska
Posts: 1114
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| Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 2:34 pm Post subject: |
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I had to chuckle about this.I can relate so well. You wouldn't beleive how many customers I talk to that want perfect, beautiful gardens and landscaping BUT are not willing to step outside to water, much less maintain. HooBoy! What can I say?
And my Mom is terribly stubborn about wanting to plant sun lovers like herbs in shade, and expect them to grow. I keep telling her, but she doesn't listen. She is a "plant killer"
I did not inherit my gardening sense from my mom, thats for sure.
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Kay
To love what you do, and feel that it matters - how could anything be more fun?
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Jerry Sullivan
Regular Plants Contributor
Chelmsford MA
Posts: 3049
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| Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 4:26 pm Post subject: |
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All our garden environments are 'artificial,' we provide a home as best we can for the plants we have. We nurture them and hope we have done well by them. We learn, or suppose to, from our mistakes and the advise of others. If people ignore what the plants tell them or the good advise from those with more experience then failure is the only outcome. I hope they like brown.
Jerry
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supersweetmom
South Dakota, USA
Posts: 51
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| Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 8:46 pm Post subject: |
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Gardening is a hobby we work at in hope to one day perfect, in our little space of paradise we call home. Each home is different and it takes a lot of trial and error to get everything just right. Maintenance and growing beautiful plants is fun.
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featherphobia
Central, Louisiana, 70739
Posts: 157
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| Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 9:11 pm Post subject: |
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Our heat is one of the first things we need to consider in the south. I'd love to plant some of the beautiful peonies or fuchsia here. But I hate wasting money and time. After a few failed attempts she might settle down and either give up or if she's a real gardener in soul, but uneducated she get with the program. Learning from those who frequent the stew.
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Jacquelyn
Posts: 67
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| Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 11:25 pm Post subject: |
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I have those kinda people come into my store all the time. They come and buy hundreds of dollars of plants, then a few days later come back and they want to know if we have a gantee on the plants because they are all dying. When I ask if they have watered them since they planted them they say " well no I didnt think they needed watering if I planted them in the shade."
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petals
British Clumbia
Posts: 58
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| Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2011 9:10 pm Post subject: |
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I do agree whole heartly with the comments added here,gardening is an on going thing and must be worked at.
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fatbaldguy
SW Ohio
Posts: 240
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| Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 10:44 pm Post subject: ! |
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I would have never thought my wife had made it to Texas! 
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A weed is any plant growing in an unwanted location. Good soil makes for good plants, start there.
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