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Re: Yardeners

At 06:18 PM 5/8/04, you wrote:
It seems that an increasing number of products are being marketed for these people, who Jeff thinks of as Yardeners, and I think of as people who have more money than brains. Just this week I saw heavy bags of "pond plant soil" priced about fifty percent above "premium" potting soil. Pond plant soil? You can buy special fertilizers for roses or bedding plants or tomatoes at anywhere between five and twenty times the cost of a bag of 5-10-5. A two dollar pot of mint is nine dollars when it's sold as a pond plant. Call anything "organic" and double the price.

As a garden writer, i consider it part of my job to point people toward quality products. But I also think it's part of my job to steer them away from overpriced, branded hype.

I have to agree with Duane's last paragraph - part of the job descripton of garden writer in my opinion.

Having said that, there is a difference between "pond soil" and "potting soil". My experience in my own retail nursery and gardens (my last house had 5 ponds of all sizes from the tiny-tucked-under-some-hosta to the boat-friendly) says that if you use potting soil that is too light - the water plants will float away (heavy clay or small pebbles are the ultimate potting pond soils for containers). If you use a potting soil that contains perlite - it will float away and give you what some people might consider a somewhat attractive white reflecting scum on the surface. If you use a potting soil that contains semi-composted manure (and many do) in a small pond, the water will be tinted a delightful shade of brown. If you use a potting soil that contains peat (and most do) the peat will often float up to the pond surface and in small ponds, excessive peat in the potting soil will allow the water plant both to float freely out of the pot and tint the water brown. I could go on with advice from my own ponding as well as the bunches of very old water gardening books I've collected over the years.

The point is that claims or products that are outside of our own experience may not make sense to us and we do have a responsibility to investigate claims rather than make blanket statements of what is right or wrong in gardening marketing. In this case, from my experience I'd be tempted to give the heavier soil the green light for container growing pond plants. And in this I humbly disagree with Duane.

And let me beat Lon to the electron when I say that any discussion of the nature of pond potting soil "should be taken to the gardening section of gwl". <insert big grin>

Let me take great pains to point out that this next line is *not* aimed at any individual and if you feel a little burned by it, then this is your interpretation and not mine. <grin> Let me end the writerly portion of this note to say that *if* I had to worry about garden information or marketing, I'd worry more about garden writers who write garden columns from the point of view of fully cynical and burned out. I'd also worry about those with one year's gardening experience who write about it for the next 25. Or, those who research gardening from the balcony of their 30th story apartment without feeling the soil's soul under their fingernails. Or those who do not take writing courses or expand their gardening information with the latest of information.

Imho, those garden writers are far more of a problem than a few marketers selling the latest and best garden gizmo. But what do I know, I'm in the unenviable position of having to learn enough again this summer to write another 52 garden columns next year. <ending rant with a grin> You see, gardening gizmo's and excessive fertilizer choices etc have been with us since St. Fiacre wielded a hoe. Reading the old magazines, we laugh as much about those historical garden tool failures as we do the outdated advice dispensed by our garden writer ancestors. I have quotes in my GWA award-winning book "Gardening Wisdom" from writers in the 1800's complaining about the same things as Duane does - poor tools, excessive fertilizer choices. Same old ... same old.... what goes around etc etc. <grin>


Doug
ps. spring is upon the land and I'm going out to fill my containers this afternoon with potting soil - both the land based and small water containers I grow. Next week is planting week!
Doug Green
Award winning writer - making things happen
Telling Your Story - Your Way
www.simplegiftsfarm.com/clips/clipmaster.html



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