Denny dispels garden myths at Kiwanis
The Starkville Kiwanis club got some lessons in horticulture at its meeting Tuesday, when Mississippi State University assistant extension professor Geoff Denny spoke at the group’s meeting Tuesday.
Denny, the director of the MSU Trial Gardens, gave a lecture discrediting much old garden wisdom and scientifically explaining the falsehoods. Myths covered included gravel helping potted plants drain, painting over damage in trees, mixing sand with clay soil to loosen it, superiority of organic and natural products, many uses for Epsom salts, companion plants and compost tea as a pesticide.
“Some of this stuff was stuff I learned from the beginning,” Denny said. “At one point or another, these were taught to us, and we’ve come to find out that we were lied to.”
Denny said if it is done incorrectly, a home gardener could end up with concrete-like soil by adding sand into clay in the wrong proportions.
“For a soil to behave like a sand, it has to have at least 50 percent sand in it,” Denny said. “If you have a clay soil, you’re going to have to remove 50 percent of it. You’re going to have to bring in that much sand, and you’re going to have to mix it.”
Denny also encouraged gardeners to keep it simple and avoid overthinking the process, saying 85 percent of gardening was “planting green end up and watering when it gets dry.”
He said adding gravel to the bottom of the pot would not help drainage at all, but would essentially shrink the pot, and no studies relating to compost tea showed much impact.
“Not only is it not helping the plant, it can make you sick,” Denny said. “It’s organic, so the idea is you’re spraying this on your food crops and things, so you’re liable to end up with e. coli and salmonella. That’s not really a good thing.”
Denny also discussed the garden’s upcoming Halloween in the Garden Event to be held Oct. 31 from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Various community and MSU organizations will have booths set up for children to trick-or-treat between.
The Kiwanis club also donated to four community organizations at the meeting including the Friends of the Starkville Library, the SEED garden program at Sudduth Elementary School, Backpack Buddies and the Starkville Boys and Girls Club.
“We plan to use it for our children and youth books and programs,” said Sharon Nobles of the Friends of the Library. “If you’ve ever come to the library in the summer, we’re extremely busy. We host tiny tots, preschool, older children and youth groups. During this time, they are there several times a week.
Next Tuesday’s Kiwanis meeting will feature Greater Starkville Development Partnership President and CEO Scot Maynard as speaker.