{"id":211,"date":"2014-02-13T23:17:07","date_gmt":"2014-02-14T04:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hort.net\/blog\/?p=211"},"modified":"2014-12-05T16:04:13","modified_gmt":"2014-12-05T21:04:13","slug":"on-green-thumbs-luck-and-magic-in-the-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hort.net\/blog\/2014\/02\/13\/on-green-thumbs-luck-and-magic-in-the-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"On green thumbs, luck, and magic in the garden"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Woman<\/a>

This young gardener scries to figure out why her plant died.<\/p><\/div>\n

We all know somebody with a green thumb.<\/p>\n

It’s a grandmother, an aunt, a grandfather, father, or sometimes it’s some young Johnny Appleseed who just has to look at a tree to make it grow. \u00a0We wish we had that green thumb, but we joke that ours is black, we’re cursed, or what have you. \u00a0It turns out that many of us actually believe it.<\/p>\n

A recent survey by Today’s Garden Center<\/a>\u00a0shows that most gardeners “under 49 years old often think success in gardening is a result of luck.” \u00a0Many of the respondents viewed gardening as a risk\u00a0\u2014 they had to weigh the potential gains against the potential financial loss when buying a plant.<\/p>\n

I’m going to share a secret: \u00a0There is rarely luck; it’s mostly science<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It’s sometimes hard to figure out what plants need because plants can’t talk back and tell us when they need something, but the information is out there. \u00a0Mostly, it comes down to experience. \u00a0That’s probably why people aged fifty and over didn’t list luck as a major factor in gardening any more.<\/p>\n

So how do people get that knowledge? \u00a0You could muddle your way through and learn by trial and error, but it’s an expensive route in terms of both time and money. \u00a0There are two easier ways to get there:<\/p>\n