Re: [gardeners] Great Garden Mistakes
Liz Albrook (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Sun, 28 Dec 1997 11:31:56 +0000
Wow, am I glad this subject came up here because no way I could post
this on that other list.
I've only made one serious gardening mistake in my life. The reason
is that I compulsively read and investigate everything before I do
it, including everything about plants, soil, etc. I've made several
minor mistakes but no biggies except this one.
What was the one mistake -- I listened to that gardening guru
Margaret Lauterbach. That's right, beware of Margaret for she can
wreck a perfectly innocent garden and destroy the life of innocent
gardeners. I will tell you how she does it.
She recommends varieties of plants, veggies in particular, that taste
good and grow well. So you learn to trust her. Then one day she
talks about this variety of zucchini that you've never grown but have
seen in a couple of catalogues -- zucchini costata romanesco. She
tells you how wonderful the flavor is. She suggests you plant it
because it is much better than other varieties of zucchinis. You
plant it. By mid-summer your entire backyard is covered in green
thighs and you find the bodies of your missing nephews who were stung
to death by the writhing vines. You assume that you did something
wrong like show the plants a bag of fertilizer or, heavens, actually
tossed some in the general direction of the plants.
Then you find out that Margaret didn't actually try this variety
herself. But thanks for the information because now she knows better
than to plant it in her garden.
Beware!
Liz :-p