ReferenceLine

Home | for Consumers | for Businesses | TEXT SIZE | Login | Register / Password Reminder

...helping you make a more informed choice

So here's the best advice I can offer you for the comingyear: Avoid the people who tell you what to do, in life and in the garden.Instead, look for the people who can help you understand WHY it is you ought todo it.

I know what comfort there is in listening to the people whoare so absolutely certain: Certain that you should prune your crepe myrtle (ornot), that you should spray your yard with this magic potion or another, thatyour yard must look this way or that for you to be happy.

Go on the Internet, and there'll you find a million peoplewho will tell you in no uncertain terms what exactly you should be doing withyour yard.

The trouble is, they're no more likely to know what it isyou should be doing than you are. As nearly as I can tell, the folks who speakmost often and with the most certainty are are almost inevitably the folks whodon't have a clue what they are doing.

The reason they can't be trusted is that they don'tunderstand WHY it is they believe so much in what they are doing.

That's why I'm always second-guessing even my own assumptionsabout what should work. Like the time Iwas dutifully digging up and turning my vegetable garden, pulverizing andturning it into a fine cake flour for the 12-millionth time, just like theysaid to do in all the books, and wondered: Why in the world am I doing this?

I had been absolutely certain that the more vigorously Iturned the soil, the better it should be. So I worked at it, hard. And theharder I worked, the more insistent I became that vigorous digging was the keyto a good vegetable garden.

But the soil wasn't getting any better. In fact, it wasgetting worse fast. It had started out a rich black that first year, and thetomatoes grew all right. But by the second year of digging it was a pale gray.And by the third and fourth year, that black topsoil had miraculously turnedinto sand.

I couldn't get seeds to germinate, much less grow. Thetomatoes died from sudden wilts. When it rained the ground was a soggy slush.When it stopped raining, it was dry as a bone again.Looking at that soil as I pulverized it, lifted it up and tossed it in the air,I wondered why it wasn't like the rich black soil that I saw in the forest, thesoil that seemed like it could grow anything, the soil no one ever dug andfertilized.

I threw that tiller down like it was poison in my hands, anddecided if I was going to make good soil, I better understand how earth hadbeen making good soil -- the best soil in the world -- without tiller or chemicalfertilizers or fungicides for half a billion years.

And once I asked why I was digging in my garden, it revolutionized the way Igardened. Once I started asking myself what IS good soil, and slowlydiscovering how earth had been making soil all these years, it began toeliminate, one by one, all the worsening problems of my garden.

So my gardening advice isn't worth much. But what we canlearn from this old earth, what we can see in the seasons of where we are, whatwe can discover in the way a leaf turns toward the sun that's invaluable.There's a lot to see and learn from, a lot more than we can pack into a fewinches of newspaper space.

That's why each year, the Mobile Botanical Gardens offersspecial 7-week classes that help you become a great gardener. Oh, yes, thereare lists of plants you can make use of. There are hints and recipes you won'tfind anywhere else. There's even a book that I put together that you can takehome.

But most of all, these 7 two-hour classes are designed tohelp us all become better gardeners by reexamining everything that goes intomaking a great Gulf Coast garden.

Starting Jan. 14 or 15, you can take either the Tuesdayafternoon class at 1 p.m., or the Wednesday class at 6 p.m. Mix and match the afternoonand evening classes if you need to, but don't miss them, because each of themwill reveal something new about gardening and the Gulf Coast that you neverknew.

Class spaces are limited. Call the Mobile Botanical Gardensat 251-342-0555 for more information (members of the garden get a big discounton the classes, so it's wise to ask about membership when you call).

Bill Finch, author of Longleaf, Far as the Eye Can See, is chief horticulture and science adviserfor the Mobile Botanical Gardens. Don't miss his Gulf Coast Sunday Morningradio show from 9 until 11 on FMTALK-106.5, and his Friday noon televisionsegment with John Nodar on WKRG.