Article by Trevor Dalley

In My Latest Book Published Recently,

“HOW TO MAKE MONEY FROM YOUR GARDEN”.The first chapter is entitled How to do it all for free. There I endeavour to instil in the minds of the uninitiated that gardening, so far at least as it is concerned with the cultivation of plants, is not so difficult as many articles and books would have us believe, and a strict observance of elaborate detail has gained quite an over exaggerated theme.

I wrote this article with some misgiving, but considering how directly it’s teaching is opposed to the trends of gardening as usually interpreted, it has met with far less criticism than expected. It is true that in some instances I was taken to task for daring to argue my points against the principles that have been under discussion for many years. But on the whole I was agreeably surprised to find that many reviews were very good.

I feel that if it were necessary to protest against the downright and nature in a book that endeavours only to point out some of the ideas in gardening and the way to their attainments, it requires me to offer words of encouragement to amateurs in such a book as HOW TO MAKE MONEY FROM YOUR GARDEN.

In dealing at length with such an inexhaustible subject as gardening and in giving practical details of cultivation, one naturally endeavours to point the way to perfection.

Thus it is an easy matter to make things appear more difficult than they really are. In fact, gardening work is actually far simpler than it appears to be in many gardening magazines, for in trying to make himself thoroughly understood the writer is apt to insist on this and that, whereby if they were carrying out the work there self they would without doubt achieve the objective by a far more simple and direct method than that which is recommended.

A frequent stumbling block to the amateur is found in the preparation of growing mediums, or composts, as they are termed. Yet it is surprising how large a number of plants may be grown in flower pots with three ingredients, namely, peat, perlite or sand and a slow release fertilizer.

If proof were wanted of the needlessness of such elaborate as is often advised, it might be seen in any garden centre or nursery. There the plants are grown for sale, and naturally they must be well grown or they would never sell. How rough and ready are the methods employed! Yet how satisfactory are the results.

One might readily show further how wasteful and unnecessary is the procedure often used, for frequently one gardener uses a different soil mixture from his neighbour, and in growing the same plants both achieve most excellent results! And so I expand to say that an amateur gardener following still another and less complicated way is also likely to achieve excellent results.

This principle holds good throughout garden practice. Therefore where in the following blogs I seem to advise an impossible method-impossible, that is, in the special circumstances existing for obtaining ideal results, let the reader try methods that are possible in his case, and most probably he will not be disappointed.

Then the conditions do vary greatly in different gardens, and condition of soil, climate, aspect, ect, these exert an important influence on plant cultivation. One grower finds that a plant thrives best on a north facing border, another grows it best on one facing south, and so on. Both may be perfectly correct in their treatment of the plant, but each would be wrong in advising that there special method was the best and the only right way of cultivation.

A case in point occurred in the growing of that great favourite, the Garden Pink. I have over the years grown many of these lovely plants, some were grown on a border facing west, others on land facing east, and they all seemed quite satisfactory.

Only the other day I received an email/article from a gardener who grow most excellent Pinks, to judge from the photo received, but, strangely enough, he insisted that the only place where they would thrive to perfection was in the open garden, exposed to all the elements.

Garden Pink growing at once becomes a puzzle, and the aspiring amateur may well give it up, especially if the only border he has is one that faces north. But, believe me, he might grow very good Show Garden Pinks even there!

So I would say to those who do not know yet are trying to find out the truth, if your gardening text book says that the only place in which to grow your favourite flowers is a north facing border and you do not posses one, put them on the south facing border and see what happens.

Nothing very dreadful most probably, for you can be fairly certain that if you search long enough some writer would be found expressing an exactly opposite opinion to that which first came to your notice. In truth, plant growing is such a vast subject, on which all sorts of local conditions exert an influence, that it is foolish to lay down direct rules for the cultivation of any plant out of doors and even, in a lesser degrees, under glass, since cases proving exactly the opposite to one’s fixed opinions might undoubtedly be found.

All of which would seem to prove that gardening books are worse than useless. This is hardly the case, but it is true that they can never hope to do more than guide the thoughts of the gardener. They will assist, with hints, they might describe the methods which are most likely to succeed, they can tell the grower when to do things and this is of the first importance but they cannot logically lay down rules for the governance of plant growing.

No one can make the most of their garden until the capabilities and limitations have been discovered.

If you wish to read more please Click here to visit For Free.

Find More Gardening Books Articles