has such good luck with
plants".
Plants grown by people with a green thumb seem to grow as if by magic
or luck, however the one and only 'magical' or lucky ingredient these
people possess is knowledge and understanding of the conditions that
those plants require. These people also have the interest and
capability to provide those conditions, for those plants.
Look around you at the plants that are being grown by yourself and in
your neighbourhood. These plants come from all round the world. The
natural environment from which these come is almost as varied as the
plants themselves, from alpine heath through tropical rainforest to
open desert.
Then we come along and remove them from their natural environment and
expect them to survive in the dry atmosphere of our homes (to them)
or the alien environment of our gardens. We expect them to cope with
an environment with sometimes extremely sporadic watering and quite
often no food, and yet we expect them to survive. The light may be
extremely far too bright or almost nonexistent, or only coming from
one side, right at the times when these plants are trying to grow. Or
the atmosphere may be far too hot and/or dry for them, as inside a
house.
Yet despite all this, many plants struggle on, clinging weakly to
life, quite often not very happily and usually with a diseases and
pests. Those gardeners who succeed either choose plants that can
stand the types of conditions for which they are obtained, or alter
those conditions to suit the plants.
So what can you do to become a green thumb? Get out there and read.
Read a gardening book, hop onto the Internet, watch a gardening
program on the TV or listen to a gardening segment on the radio. Or
alternatively talk to someone who has a good working knowledge of
plants, such as a worker at the local nursery. Find out about that
plant you are about to purchase. Find out what sort of environment it
came from originally. Find out what are the conditions it needs to
grow happily and go about providing it. This includes:
- Give it the correct amount of sunlight it requires.
- Look at making sure it has the correct amount and type of
fertilizer, for optimum growth.
- Keep an eye out for the pests and diseases that may get to it.
- Give it the correct amount of water that it craves.
- Look at the humidity of the air around the plant, (homes are
usually far too dry for most plants), look at raising the humidity
around the plant/s.
- Group them together, or put a saucer of water under the plant. But
be careful of things that may grow in that saucer, (eg. Mosquito
larvae).
- Protect it during the period of estsblishment into your garden.
- If the plant has a period of the year when it rests, let it do so.
Mostly it is in winter, but many mediterranean plants rest during
the 'dry' summer period.
Get all those steps correct and then people will start saying that
you have a green thumb. You can just stand there and nod your head in
the realisation that being a green thumb is no easy task, it actually
requires a lot of time, work, enthusiasum, energy and knowledge.
About The Author: Ron Williams is a Freelance writer as well as being a
Horticulturalist and Rehabilitation Therapy Aid at a Psychiatric
Hospital In Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
He writes regular email newsletters for
www.wz.com
Container Gardening
http://wz.com/homegarden/ContainerGardening.html
Enabled Gardens
http://wz.com/homegarden/EnabledGardens.html
Australian Gardening
http://wz.com/homegarden/AustralianGardening.html
Travel in Australia
http://wz.com/travel/TravelWithinAustralia.html
He also owns a Discussion Group about Australian Gardening at
www.Yahoo.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/austgardens
