TRUE CONFESSION: I USED TO STALK GAYLA TRAIL ONLINE. Long before I started A Way to Garden, You Grow Girl, founded in 2000, defined “garden blog” for me, and I was a regular lurker there. But Gayla gardens in Canada (not the U.S.), in an urban setting (not a rural one). She is a bold world traveler (I am a big baby). We are nearly two decades apart in age (and I, regretfully, have no tattoos). If we’re so different, then why are we posting simultaneous profiles this week on our sites, and giving away four sets of both our books? Because we’re pretty sure you’ll like meeting the other one—we know we hit it off when we did.
In a series of emails and Skype calls since I began A Way to Garden in 2008, Gayla and I have found so much shared turf:
- We two longtime organic gardeners can get riled up—over topics ranging from the environment, to chemical companies and the “business” of gardening in general, to dyed mulch and more (her most recent rant on offcolor mulch is way down in this post).
- We both overdo it—on plants, work, and a major inclination to cart home lots of rusty buckets and other “vintage” metal stuff from tag sales.
- We both live in the garden offseason crammed into spaces where in many rooms, the plants get a majority of the square footage. (And why not?)
- In addition to the usual tools, you’ll find us both with a camera in the garden, though Gayla is a professional photographer, and I am not.
- And once upon a time, there was the influence of a grandmother (hers, West Indian; mine, a garden-club lady from New York City’s suburbs) who with potatoes grown in pots on a balcony or standard chrysanthemums planted in the ground, respectively, touched our souls.
YOU KNOW WHAT? Let Gayla introduce herself with this interview (then click over to her site to read my corresponding Q&A). Don’t forget to comment first to enter to win both our books–four sets are up for grabs of my memoir “And I Shall Have Some Peace There” and her latest, “Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces,” and then to comment again when you get to Gayla’s. Details follow the interview, at the bottom of this page.
The Q&A With Gayla Trail
1. How long have you been gardening?
I’ve been asked this question many times and am yet to come up with a succinct, radio-friendly answer–there isn’t one! Gardening happened for me in starts and stops, but the drive to do so has been there since I was a little girl.
The first plant I ever grew was parsley in a Styrofoam cup when I was 5. I remember that experience very clearly. For some reason my parents tilled a garden in the backyard of our rental (they were not gardeners) and I planted my parsley there. We moved into a townhouse subdivision that October and there was no garden to speak of for the rest of my childhood. Well, there are other interesting gardens/gardening experiences, but they are tricky to write about here without providing pages and pages of context. I am saving those stories for the Made-for-TV Lifetime movie I am writing about my life…Okay, not really, although I have the material, and then some.
One day when I was about 17 I inexplicably went outside and dug a patch of earth behind the garage of the new rental house we had recently moved into. I had no plan and I can’t recall what compelled me to do so in the first place, except that I just had to–and immediately! Life at home soon became even more tumultuous and I left shortly thereafter. Nothing came of the patch I dug. At 18 I moved to a new city and started growing indoor plants from cuttings given to me by my high school biology teacher. I also tried growing seeds collected from grocery store produce and eventually attempted (unwisely) to grow onions, raspberries, and other edibles in the shady backyard of my apartment building. Needless to say, nothing happened. I grew my first successful vegetable garden while living in an overcrowded student house in university. Then I moved again and left that new garden behind, this time into an apartment with no yard. Oddly enough, that is where I started gardening FOR REAL. I never stopped.
2. Did you learn from someone in particular? If not, how?
Good god no! I wish I had that sort of pedigree. You know, the wise parent or grandparent that gently leads you through the lessons of the garden, and in doing so teaches you meaningful lessons about life. Yadda yadda, happy, happy, whatever. I am self-taught (and self-directed) all the way. I will say, however, that there was my maternal grandmother and her potatoes. She lived in a high rise for seniors and grew potatoes in a bucket on her tiny balcony. She grew plants but never, ever spoke of it. I have no idea how she felt about gardening or why she did it. She wasn’t the sort to have those kinds of conversations. One day I was out playing on the balcony and I noticed this plant with little blue flowers (like the ones on the plants in my rooftop cans, above left). I asked what it was and she told me potatoes. Even though nothing else was said about it, I kept that memory somewhere in the back of my mind and I think of it as the inspiration that led me to try growing on a garden on the roof of my apartment building.
3. How many gardens have you made so far (indoors count)?
Quite a lot, especially if I include indoors. Outdoors I have had the one in university, the roof of my old place (photo above), the space between the sidewalk and the building at my old place, two different community garden plots, a yardshare, and now my new backyard along with the front that I am only just beginning to develop into a new container garden. Indoors, in my current place, I think of different parts of the house as different gardens because the conditions are so vastly divergent. I have an unheated, south-facing covered porch that I am calling “The Greenhouse” for want of a better term, my office window where I have about 40 plants, and numerous others that are scattered throughout. Even when I lived in a cramped apartment, the plants were shifted between windows and growing spaces seasonally, so it was like starting over every four to six months. I don’t think I have had less than 100 plants growing indoors, year-round, since my mid-20s.
4. Any projects or other posts you’d like to share with my readers that sort of introduce you best?
I have three tags on the site that are used to define personal posts that I think offer up some insights into who I am:
- http://www.yougrowgirl.com/tag/personal-history/
- http://www.yougrowgirl.com/tag/scylla-trail/
- http://www.yougrowgirl.com/category/explore/deep-thoughts/
- There is also a section at the bottom of my About page that provides brief outlines of some of my gardens.
5. Do you think of yourself as having a “specialty,” something you know most about, love the most, etc.?
By necessity, my specialty is definitely small-space food gardening (which is what “Grow Great Grub,” left, is about). And I do love growing food. Recently I have found myself moving more and more into weird food: strange plants that are sort of on the cusp of edible. But in reality I consider myself an equal opportunity plant-aholic. I love all plants; I’m just restricted by space. I make do pretty well and grow a frightening number of plants considering how little space I’ve had available to me.
6. What do you think is the greatest misconception about you?
That I have a perfect garden! My gardens suit me, but would they win any awards? Not likely. The trouble with super-small garden spaces is that there is no behind-the-scenes in which to hide the messes. And there are lots of messes. I am so thrilled that I now have a ramshackle shed in which to store the pots, and the scraps of this and that, that I have picked up off of the street but do not yet have a use for. My gardens are also my testing grounds. They are where I try new varieties and push plants to see how they will perform in different conditions. This doesn’t always turn out well for the plant, but it is how I learn so that I can be a better writer. These days, my gardens are more about work than about what I want. Over the years, aesthetics have been pushed out of the way in favor of work-related needs. Last year I was doing the photos for my next book and I managed to cram more greenery onto the roof than you would think possible. It was a bit scary! There was nowhere to entertain or sit for that matter. It didn’t look particularly great because it was just about getting those plants ready for photos.
7. What would you count as your biggest gardening successes?
I’ve grown a lot of different plants in some pretty horrible conditions, but the one that comes to mind first is a simple one: radishes. For years, I simply could not grow a decent radish in a container. They were dry and wooden and just not worth eating. I was pretty proud of myself when I finally worked it out and now I grow a mean radish, if I do say so myself.
Using straw to mulch was another success that I came upon by experimentation and somewhat accidentally. Well, not using it so much as using it as extensively as I now do. I initially started mulching with it in my community garden so that I could cut back on the amount I needed to water, but over time I discovered other benefits and even experimented with burying it into the soil as a cheap, long-term amender. Then I started mulching my containers with it and discovered that it drastically cut back the frequency with which I needed to water through the hottest days of summer. I love straw! This wasn’t anything I read; just little things that I tried and saw results with. I very recently found out about Ruth Stout and discovered that she pioneered a no-work method based on using straw! Why did it take me so long to find her?
My most recent success is a tomato I grew in my office window this winter. It all happened by mistake, as the best results often do. A volunteer tomato came up in one of my houseplant pots and I was so happy to have a tomato plant around to smell through the winter months that I decided to let it go. Amazingly, it did much better than any indoor tomato I have tried to grow before, and I harvested a few really good, fresh and juicy tomatoes in April and May!
8. Any failures you care to confess to? Is there a plant that just eludes you one way or another, that is your undoing?
Failures are constant and probably too numerous to list. I am always trying new plants or pushing plants to grow in different conditions, so failure is par for the course. Failure also depends on location. I’m starting out in a new space this year so I expect a lot of failure along the way as I come into contact with a new cast of pest characters. New gardens also tend to be more susceptible to pestilence since they suffer from a lack of diversity. My new space was pretty much a monoculture. There is a distinct lack of beneficials in the space right now. I am not new to gardening with squirrels but the community here are driving me INSANE in new ways. They dig hundreds of holes everyday and are eating the centers out of my sempervivums! It is my first year here so I don’t yet fully understand the growing conditions and the microclimates. I only have so much time so my focus is on building the beds and soil this year. I figure a lot of plants will be moved next year as I get more time to devote to that end of things and as I come to a better understanding of the space.
9. Do you ever “hit the wall” with gardening, and want to throw in the trowel?
I will say that by mid-summer, when there is a heatwave, I can grow pretty tired of hauling buckets out to keep containers hydrated. This year, for the first time since the mid-90s, I have access to an outdoor water source! No hauling buckets!
My biggest hitting the wall this year is more about not having time to garden than it is about becoming overwhelmed by the garden itself. The trouble with being a garden writer is that it can get in the way of actually gardening. Spring is our high season. I was losing my mind for a while there, looking out at the garden everyday, but knowing that I HAD to go back to my desk and work on my book, answer people’s questions, etc. It is such a necessary part of my life now that I can feel myself suffocating when things get too far out of balance and I don’t have the time to do it. The irony is that having time to garden, experiment, and interact with plants is also essential to my job. My writing is better when I have time to re-fill the well with new experiences and discoveries.
10. Quick One Word Questions:
1. Favorite edible plant? Tomatoes. Followed closely by basil.
2. Favorite non-edible? Arisaema triphyllum.
3. Gardening: hobby, art, job, political act? All and more. It is a requirement for life, like breathing or eating. It keeps me sane and grounded. It brings me back to myself and connects me to something that is bigger than me. It is where I experience wonder, which is about as religious as I get. (Oops. That’s more than one word!)
4. Favorite season? Spring. Although this spring was lousy. So this year it will be summer.
5. Favorite plant fragrance? Tomato, although I recently went to Thailand and have to say that ylang-ylang (Cananga odorata) is pretty fantastic and even better than the essential oil!
6. Favorite gardening film or garden in a film? It’s neither about gardening or gardens; however, the landscapes in “Days of Heaven” are the best. There is also a scene in “Ratcatcher” where the main character (a kid) travels through an open field to explore a new subdivision that is just being built that reminds me of my childhood living next to brown fields behind The Towers/Food City Plaza.
How to Win 1 of 4 Sets of Books
GAYLA AND I HAVE FOUR SETS of our latest books to give away: Gayla’s “Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces,” and my memoir, “And I Shall Have Some Peace There,” about moving to my garden away from the city rat race. To enter, you have to comment here AND on Gayla’s blog, answering the question, “Do you ever hit the wall in gardening?” just as she and I answered it in our twin interviews here and on her site.
Remember: You double your chances to win by entering on both blogs–just copy and paste the same comment both places, below and at Gayla’s interview with me. And one more thing: If you’re feeling shy, and just want to say “Count me in” or “I want to win,” that’s OK; we will honor your entry anyhow. We understand. But do that in both places.
Four winners, two from each site, will be chosen at random using random [dot] org’s tool after entries close at midnight Tuesday, June 7. Each will receive our two books. Good luck to all!
Where to Find Gayla
- You Grow Girl on Facebook
- Buy “Grow Great Grub” now
(All photos courtesy Gayla Trail.)
This has been a strange Spring. I think the wall has crept up and hit me. First we had cold wet weather, the ground to soaked to walk on or work, and this continued until just 2 weeks ago. Now suddenly it is 100, high humidity and mosquitoes are thick. I have been doing what I can but, boy it’s not as fun as it could be.
My gardening wall in SW Missouri comes when it is just too dang hot and humid to go outside anymore. I have big windows in the back that look out over the yard and I just stand inside (in the air conditioning) and watch the weeds grow. Why is it that they grow the fastest, when I am least likely to pull them?
Up to this point, my gardening experience has mainly been planting herbs in old yogurt containers in my kitchen; I’ve been so fascinated and surprised by the growing process that I could actually grow anything that I never hit a wall if my herbs didn’t grow as I expected. I’m hoping I can keep up this mix of amazement and joyful appreciation about the growing process now that I’ve realized my first community garden plot will be almost entirely shaded. We’ll see what happens!
Still early in my gardening days… no walls in sight :)
I’m with Gayla – I hit the wall about mid- to late summer when the heat is on, and the watering is NEVER ending. This is my second year of gardening in my own space, and I was so super excited that I built (confession: my husband built) a second 4×8 foot raised bed for vegetables, doubled the amount of annual containers, and we are mid-way through a complete landscape remodel of our front yard. Whew!
I just came in from the chest high patch of weeds growing in clay at our new rental which “could be” a garden. Each time I look at it, I am torn. We chose to move for a new job, away from the house we designed and poured heart and soul into, the carefully-planned yard, and most sadly, our big terraced garden. To start all over again, at a rental, seems silly. I’ve hit the wall.
But there’s a part of me that knows, no matter how silly, that my soul needs a garden.
I would love to read your books. Thanks for the inspiration and kindred spirits.
This is my first season having a garden…I’m a houseplant person. It’s been a blast, totally engrossing, but I am amazed at how much more work it is than I anticipated. The plots I inherited were wildly overgrown, and rehabilitation has taken several weekends. But as it begins to come together and look kinda garden-ish, I can see a new addiction forming. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of it!
I hit the wall when I am digging and hit an enormous rock!
Hitting the wall usually happens in August here in Kansas. But the last few days have had nearly 100 degree temps and the typical prairie wind. The wall seems close but my new veggie garden has inspired me. I will get some straw since so many recommend it.
I have to say, my wall is the learning curve associated with tomatoes in pots. This is my third year growing them–first year they got tall, but not bushy. Second year, they got bushy but no fruit. This year, I’ve invested in organic veggie food… however, I remain doubtful.
I haven’t yet hit a wall. I am a new gardener (four or five years) and know I still have so much learn!
I hit the gardening wall when the weather turns hot and humid and my Ginger hair makes it difficult to stand being in the sun for much time.
count me in : ) really enjoyed this article and finding your blog through gayla’s!
Completely! All it takes it going away for one long weekend in July to make your tomatoes grow so whiley the commit suicide and for the spinach to bolt. And then I’m done, we’ll not really but I threaten it.
I ran into a wall last week when I was weeding and skipped the sunscreen. Ouch!
Oooh my little plants are just starting to pop out. I just started gardening last year but I am so in love. I’ve read grow great grub from the library but would love to own it…I’m alway up for a couple more books!
This is my first year gardening! I’m sure I’ll “hit the wall” but I SERIOUSLY hope I have several successful years before doing so!
i get super psyched to garden every year, but constantly traveling between living at home and my bf’s an hr and a half away makes commiting to caring for a garden a struggle :( i feel as though i neglect the plants i desire to nurse at each place and no one has an interest in gardening the way i do to help. it’s like having pets at 2 houses with no one to remember to feed them! so i’m working around it by leaning towards hardier plants and more succulents this season so i don’t need to ask for as much “garden-sitting”. i have occasionally resorted to traveling between two homes with my seedlings in the backseat so i could constantly care for them! i also plan to give away seedlings to friends to adopt so i have less to care for and start learning more about indoor gardening such as terrariums and hydroponics. advice for the traveling gardener would be great :)
Haven’t hit the wall yet; maybe the books will help that.
I hit a wall every year with brassicas. I don’t know why, but they will not grow for me.
This year, in particular, I decided to start all my plants from seed (indoor, because I have a very short growing season). I had so many beautiful plants, and then I hardened them off too quickly and lost almost all of them. ::sigh:: lesson learned, but it was a big wall to hit.
It’s been really hard for me to get my garden in this year, and I realized that when other people in my life (kids, spouse, friends, elderly relatives) require so much support and caretaking from me, I just don’t have anything left to give to my garden. It’s so frustrating because usually I get so much spiritual and emotional nourishment from my garden, but I can’t muster the energy to get it started this year. I haven’t given up yet, though!
Every year I hit the wall. Every year my seedlings damp off, no matter how much I buy new supplies that should be sterile, bleach and sterilize the old tools, and make sure they are not overwatered or in the dark. So after hours and weeks of picking out the perfect seeds to start for my garden I have to go out and buy generic yucky seedlings from wherever still has some left. As an heirloom tomato lover it kills me to only plant the most widely accepted varieties instead of the amazing ones I started with. I’m sure I’ll hit it again when I am lugging out the water since my husband’s DIY hose solution died (pump from river to garden hose).
I certainly hit the wall this year. I usually have at least a broad plan for the year in place, but this year big-time-life happened in the way of my dad getting suddenly ill with a life-threatening disease and his care is likely pallative. During this time my mind was a fog and I didn’t have my heart or mind in the garden. But was anxious enough about the garden that I couldn’t stop. This has resulted in a garden space that makes no sense what so ever this year. Random things are coming up random places. I haven’t left room for many of my summer crops.
So, I am at the wall right now.
My more typical wall happens late summer. I plan and dream of a year round garden…but come September I suddenly get very lazy and complacent….and things die. =(
I seem to hit a wall in the fall. I am tired of gardening, finishing my harvesting and preserving, and weary of it all. The cooler weather makes me wish for a killing frost so I won’t have to do any more work.
I chide myself because I like warm weather, I like gardening and being outside, I like harvesting, preserving, and using what I reap, and a million other things, but I get to the point where I’m also ready for it to be over, also.
This attitude is especially difficult for a northerner, where early fall is our time to harvest!
the only wall I hit with gardening is the size of my ‘plot’!! I garden from a 3×6′ balcony and couldn’t be happier!
I hit a wall in our current house after 3 years of planting a garden and watching the deer chomp it to bits. I finally got a 12 foot fence built in my yard and it’s been great fun the last two years. And, the deer don’t touch it!
Like Gayla, I hit the metaphorical wall mid-Summer. By then my melons (which I love too much not to grow) take over the entire floor of my back deck, my cucumbers and tomatoes are all on the verge of outgrowing their stakes, and I just can’t escape my hose.
It’s my second summer with a garden and it’s been a challenging one for me. My seedlings never really took off for some reason (I think it was the light) and then something was chomping them down when I set them out in the garden. But even with all that the wall hasn’t hit me yet. I still love going outside to see how they’re doing and if my latest protective concoction is working. Even if it’s not going well, it’s a bit of peace at the end of the day.
This is my first real attempt at a garden so I’m hitting all kinds of walls. I’m so excited to have a garden this year that I have to stop myself from buying more plants to grow. If I buy more plants then I need more dirt, more containers and more space (And more work for me). Then there’s the realization that I can’t just grow anything in my garden. I purchased a couple melon plants and had to remove them after a month because it just doesn’t get hot enough where I live to grow them. Oh and there’s Earwigs, I’m trying out the vegetable oil traps.
I wish I would have helped my mom with her garden when I was a kid. I would know so much more now but I’m learning.
GIVEAWAY ENTRIES ARE NOW CLOSED, meaning we welcome more comments but they won’t count toward the book drawing this time!
This has been an amazing conversation. I have to say that I am happy to meet so many first-time commenters, so many F.O.G.’s (Friends of Gayla’s), and also so many other gardeners who are willing to admit they get overwhelmed.
Especially hearing that right now, when I am overwhelmed, has made a huge difference for me. (Now can you all get over here and water, edge, mulch, weed, mow…)? : )
We’re drawing the winners and they will be alerted via email. Check the mailbox whose address you gave here to see if you’re one, and thanks again.
I just got your email letting me know I’d won the books, and I want to say THANKS one more time. I’m enjoying your blog and appreciate the opportunity to know more about your garden. Thanks also for introducing us all to Gayla’s garden!
And now, since the weather on the West Coast is cooler than normal, I’m off to the garden to weed and re-ponder how best to deal with my mulched “lawn”.
-lisa
My wall would have to be when plants bolt- specifically cilantro! I still can’t figure out the balance of not too hot to quick… I would love to find a magical way to keep my cilantro edible for longer!
I sometimes “hit the wall” when I find cigarette butts (from a non-gardening neighbor) or dog poop (from the dog of a dog-loving-but-not-poop-picker-upping neighbor) in my postage-stamp-sized front garden in Portland, Maine.
But then I go out early on a beautiful spring morning, see the birds at the feeder and the columbines and lupines blooming, see all the purple flowers coming up at once, and the wall melts away.
I really got into gardening about 17 years ago in San Francisco, when my daughter was a newborn and I had a stressful, full-time job. I tore up a long, rubbish-strewn patch at the side of my apartment building, hauled in soil amendments, and never looked back. I will always have a garden, even if it’s on a balcony or fire escape.
(And I love both of your blogs, by the way. Thank you.)
The biggest “wall” I hit is also not having enough time. And having recently (three years ago) moved to a completely different climate, I struggle with the limitations of my new climate. I haven’t gotten to the point where I can appreciate the good things about the pacific northwest climate yet.
Hi, Laura S, and thank you — and I agree: life without a garden? Unimaginable.
I don’t hit the gardening wall – it hits me! Here in Edmonton, that gardening wall is a rock hard, cold-blooded, rude winter situation. The long winters mean that I dream about gardening for 8 months and then only have a few to actually get things going. I feel sad that it’s so cold and that only the hardiest of plants grow here…so some of my dream garden members can’t reside in my beds. Garden wall…stay away…just for a few more months??
Here in TN, the wall is the oppressive heat of the summer months, where it might be a few days until I actually get out and garden because it is so hot. We power through and are usually rewarded with plenty of tomatoes and other summer vegetables and fruits. I’ve garden through the pregnancy of two August babies. You just carry on and garden in the early, early morning!
From the wind whipped balcony of my first apartment to the dry shade conditions of a giant maple, I have pulled my hair out many times. I have hit walls. But the wonderful thing about growing things is you can have as many second chances as you have growing seasons. I don’t hit walls anymore. I am so accustomed to things not going according to plan, they are no longer walls! They are part and parcel of what mother nature dishes. So what if there’s early blight on my fruiting tomato plants that I nurtured organically from seed on my windowsill. That’s life. I will learn something new. I will try something different next time. So I missed my window for planting strawberries, it’ll give me something new to try for next year. Okay, those peas needed more trellis to climb and are now falling over. Let’s see what happens. Just mark it in the journal. I will never let gardening become a chore. The garden is where I dream, admire my accomplishments, relax, and recharge. I take a longer view now, and recognize gardening is only enjoyable if I’m not too hard on myself.
I was SO impressed with Margarets visit on the Martha Stewart Show yesterday that I got on the internet looking at “A Way to Garden.com” I have been unemployed for the last year and became wrapped up in the website ALL the rest of the day. The next time I make Baked Beans, it is going to be the recipe you shared on the show. It sounded so scrumptious! I absolutely love to grow things and get such satisfaction out of their beauty. My issue is, I live in a townhome and have VERY little room and MANY containers. I would like to grow some container vegetables, but have not had much luck with them. I am going to go through both websites (Margarets along with Gayla’s and see what successes I will have. I know with your help, I will do better. I hope I really get the opportunity to win the books. I absolutely do not have the funds to purchase the books, but if I don’t win them on this go around, when I get back to work, I am going to be sure and make that one of my first purchases. You both be so proud of how you have reached out and went for what you really wanted in your lives. I am at a time in my life that I am trying to get the courage to do something I have always wanted to do, but at 61, I am struggling whether to take that chance so late in life. Thank you so much for making my day yesterday.
Welcome, Anne. I am not so far behind you in age, and I am taking some chances, I suppose. Still growing over here, you might say. I am glad you found me and Gayla — she is lovely, isn’t she? See you soon!
Sometimes, I do. As in this spring when I could only do things on the weekends, and I kept putting in 5 and 8 hour days in my little container-only garden. I kept thinking, why am I doing this? This is so much work! And then I get it done and feel pride, and success at my small striving to make my little corner of the world a better place.
Great giveaway. Each year I hit a wall of Texas heat and my plants struggle to survive. So unlike my native England.
I’d had a very big wall that kept me from doing much gardening for several years. Over the years I’ve lived with several people who were gardening “experts.” One or maybe two even had Master Gardener certificates. When they were living in our community, they pretty much did the gardening, and if I helped out, I was following their methods. And I can’t tell you how many different sets of rules for composting there were.
Even when the garden became my own, I hesitated to do much, thinking I had to do it “right.”
So the wall is now knocked down, and I’m enjoying experimenting with my neat container garden. Perhaps my garden good produce more food, maybe look neater and stuff like that. But for the last 3 years, I’ve looked forward to getting up in the morning to see what’s going on in my garden, enjoying having a variety of unusual containers, mostly that I’ve found on trash day. So yes, it is useful to have a certain amount of information, and more important to me, to enjoy my garden.
Hi, Susan. Love your tale. I have to say, I think that I am semi-paralyzed from knowing some truly great gardeners, and knowing I am not able to “see” quite like they do — and judging myself too harshly. So I get just what you are saying, and am grateful that you brought it up. Very helpful to me to think on that a bit and stop editing myself!
The wall i bump into is caring for my seedlings. I get the seed to sprout and start the first leaves. I have a issue with making it grow past that. I am not sure what I am doing wrong. Its pretty disappointing after all the care I give them while they are sprouting :(
Hi, Martha. Are you using growlights or just a windowsill or ???