Re: gardenwriters Digest, Vol 90, Issue 6

**D* W* <d*@earthlink.net>**

I teach basic gardening along with garden design (which everyone

thinks they can do- like making money in the stock market) to middle-

aged adults. They only know what they have had hammered into their

brains - that dandelions are bad and should be eliminated, that trees

need constant feeding, that they grow from the bottom like elevators

and MUST be staked, that perennials are the best value for the money

because they last forever, that lawns or mulch is necessary, that

shrubs should be pruned endlessly and that they really should double

dig. Excavating the tenacious bad info, sadly repeated in some

gardening books, makes way for the good info...at least I hope so.

There is a lot of bad information or irrelevant information. There

are new echinaceas every year because people are having such a bad

time with them. As soon as they learn that New York ironweed likes

moist habitat, we have a highly heralded new entry of showy dwarf

ironweed into the marketplace that is a species that grows in gravel

- without the accompanying info. No wonder they think this is too

difficult to catch on to. When they don't have success with their

early efforts, many give up.

I think we focus on the difficulty of Latin and forget that people

don't know real basic gardening. It makes them susceptible to the

hucksters in this profession (they exist everywhere). Any entry point

is valuable. I knew a nursery owner once who told me he didn't have

time for the newbies, only the sophisticated and experienced

gardeners. Those days are over.

Ramblings at the end of a holiday weekend.

Donna Williamson

The Virginia Gardener's Companion: An Insider's Guide to Low-

Maintenance Gardening in Virginia

dwfinegardening.com
540-877-2002

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