Is it gatekeeping or good advice when a master gardener tells you to slow down?

Last spring at the Denver botanic garden sale, this older guy watched me grab six different tomato starts and said, 'You're buying a problem, not a harvest.' He explained the soil in my yard would fight half of those varieties, and honestly he was right, three plants croaked by August. But doesn't picking what excites you matter more than playing it safe with proven winners?

2 comments

2 Comments

ryan7932d ago

What's the worst that happens, you lose a few plants and learn something? People act like gardening is brain surgery, but it's just dirt and water.

stellat462d ago

Lost a whole tomato crop my first year to blight and honestly, the learning stuck better than any article I read. Now I plant sturdier varieties and check leaves way more often, so that failure saved me a lot of heartache later.