Fw: "common gardeners" and thinking

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At the risk of sounding harsh, I find that most of the common gardeners I run into simply DON'T think, at least not about climate or the appropriateness of what they plant.  They just see something they think is pretty in a neighbor's yard or at the nursery and they buy it (usually twice as much as they need), stick it somewhere in their yard and hope for the best.  I have a neighbor who has been finishing off their sizable front yard lot (their property sweeps around the end of a circular block) almost completely in grass.  In the middle of half of this they have planted 2 redwoods, 1 of which has already succumbed.  In a foot wide bed along their side fence they have planted white oleanders, which in my experience grow the largest, at 6 or 8 inch intervals!!!  Our area has a wonderful gardening section of the paper every Saturday, but I don't think enough people read it, and there is definitely a dearth of competent nursery staff to help people avoid these types of gardening mistakes.  It almost makes me want to take a job at Home Depot (our busiest nursery) just to help out the masses!  Almost.

 

Karrie Reid

Folsom Foothill Gardener

Sunset Zone 9