Think like a plant for success in the garden
We get a lot of gardening questions. Most of them are specific references to a plant, a bug or a design challenge. Just the other day, a guy asked us what those leafy perennial plants are. “You know the ones?” he said.
We looked at each other, “You mean hosta?” Bingo! We were right. It is an intuitive thing.
And then there’s the question behind all questions: “How can I succeed in the garden?”
The answer begins with questions — Do you know someone who fishes and always comes back with a catch? What do they have that the rest of us don’t?
The answer is simple: They have learned to think like a fish. Want to become a successful gardener? Learn to think like a plant and speak its language. We both remember select groups of gifted kids in school who successfully learned to communicate in French. Turns out neither of us were one of them.
People who are multilingual tell us that there is a lot of work in it, until you hit the “sweet spot” — a point where the grammar, syntax, rhythm and sound make sense. It is a big night when you have your first dream in another language.
Mark dreams in plants. One night he dreamt that it was mid-winter and, as he headed out the door for work, his wife suggested he’d been working hard and should take the day off to garden. He turned on his heels, changed into jeans and opened the door to find his garden in full leaf and bloom, like a spring morning.
Ben is young, but someday he may dream in plants, too.
We like all plants, but not all plants like us. And while most vegetable plants co-operate in our one-acre veggie garden, peas don’t like us. Even when we grow peas together, we can’t grow them.
Years ago, we discovered the answer to poorly producing veggie crops: chickens. Throw your wayward lettuce and pea plants to some chickens and they will thank you for it by producing the finest brown eggs.
The answer for overproduction is the same. Kale won’t stop producing an abundance of leafy goodness for almost four months: July through October. They say that kale has all kinds of redemptive health qualities that put it up there with the wonder foods. Yet neither of us can stand the stuff.
But, by feeding our chickens armloads every day we get our kale — reconstituted through the gut of a chicken, poached on a plate every morning. How do you learn to think like a plant? Easy. By failing. Who has a beautiful and productive garden without a rigorous process of failure?
It happens so often in the garden that we forget what it really is.
We plant a few hundred annuals and veggies each year.
The perennials we divided are planted this time of year, and shrubs and trees are moved around the yard the way an interior decorator moves furniture.
And often a plant dies. It is just part of the process, the same way film is expected to fall on the cutting room floor. Before digital, of course.
Following the advice of a landscape architect some 10 years ago, five red oaks were planted within a couple of metres of our house “to cool down the wall in the bright sunshine.” They slowly expired as their young roots reached down to find the alka- line, clay-based soil. Dead as door nails.
Other trees that were planted at about the same time have now matured so that they shade the south and west walls of our house.
Mission accomplished, failure overcome. How do you know you have arrived? An experienced gardener can spot a thirsty hanging basket at 45 metres.
Experience will tell you when the Japanese beetle has invaded a linden tree from 275 metres. How? You will just know.
A trained eye is better than a book. Or higher education, when it comes to that.
When you have looked at enough healthy linden trees you will know when one isn’t right.
You will have learned to think like a linden.
Through experience and your natural powers of observation, you will have arrived. Mark Cullen is an expert gardener, author, broadcaster, tree advocate and holds the Order of Canada. His son Ben is a fourth-generation urban gardener and graduate of University of Guelph and Dalhousie University in Halifax. Follow them at markcullen.com, @markcullen gardening, on Facebook and bi-weekly on Global TV’s Morning Show.