There is almost a ritualistic quality to the way people approach their gardens in the early spring. An almost universal impulse is to drive to the nearest garden center, pick up trays of vibrantly colored bedding plants, plant them in freshly turned soil, give them plenty of water, and wait. It appears to be productive. It looks neat. For decades, it has also been the dominant script. After years of watching plants die, flourish, bolt, and rot, a growing number of seasoned gardeners are beginning to doubt whether that script truly makes sense.
Anya Lautenbach is one of them. Her interest in gardening was self-taught; she grew up in Poland near the Baltic Sea among people who had a strong affinity for nature. In the end, she came to it out of need and true love. Her book The Money-Saving Gardener, which is currently a Sunday Times bestseller, and her 540,000-strong Instagram following seem to resonate with the idea that beginner advice is incomplete in a way that costs them money, effort, and results rather than being entirely incorrect.
The bedding plant habit is a good place to start. Any garden center in May will display Petunias, Busy Lizzies, and Lobelia in cascades of purple and white. The temptation is real. Lautenbach notes, however, that most buyers are unaware of how short-lived these plants are, how dependent they are on regular feeding and watering, and how little benefit they provide to wildlife. Buying them on a whim without understanding their requirements is similar to gardening, but it works more like expensive décor. The plants look fantastic for six weeks. When they don’t, they don’t.
Most traditional gardening advice ignores or downplays the importance of propagation. It is practically free to take cuttings from an existing, healthy plant in spring, when everything in the garden wants to root itself. A cutting tucked into an extra pot grows into a new plant without anyone noticing for a few weeks. If you do that ten or twenty times during the season, the economics of gardening completely change. Counseling isn’t glamorous. There is no use of glossy displays. As opposed to impulsive purchases, it works differently.
Water is also present. While it’s not incorrect to water thoroughly and frequently, the specifics matter. Summer afternoon watering is considered to be one of the least effective things a person can do because most of the water evaporates before it reaches the roots. Also, watering a plant’s leaves instead of its soil is ineffective because wet foliage promotes fungal diseases that are difficult to cure. Gardeners instinctively know these things, but beginner guides rarely mention them. According to NC State Extension’s vegetable gardening resources, vegetables require about an inch of water per week, and the objective is to always water the soil, not the plant.
A spotless lawn is perhaps the most obstinate example of conventional wisdom in the entire garden. The deeply ingrained cultural belief that a garden’s respectability depends on weed-free, evenly cut grass is still somewhat offensive. Clover lawns, wildflower patches, and purposefully unmowed corners, however, offer significant ecological and practical benefits. Ground-feeding birds and insects control slugs, aphids, and other real garden issues, as well as using less water and requiring less maintenance. The gradual decline of the immaculate grass trend suggests that the garden industry is finally catching up to what nature has been exhibiting for a long time.
Lautenbach and others may be pushing for a deeper change in mindset rather than focusing on technique. A garden is traditionally viewed as something to manage, something to keep neat, weed-free, and visually appealing. Another option is to learn to read the garden as a living system with its own rhythms. It appears messy by conventional standards to leave borders untouched during the winter, for instance. As a result, the accumulated leaf layer improves soil without anyone needing to purchase fertilizer, the dry foliage suppresses weeds, and the seed heads nourish birds.
Crop rotation is another idea that is frequently discussed but rarely implemented. When tomatoes are grown in the same bed every year or brassicas are planted where they were last season, soil pathogens and pests are progressively increased. In the NC State Extension guide, you’ll find a four-year rotation plan that differs from gardens that quietly deteriorate from those that appear to improve on their own. Those who maintain diaries, create diagrams, and mark harvest dates on calendars are typically the most successful gardeners.
This does not mean that common gardening advice is useless. You should start in full sun, improve your soil, and water regularly. There is, however, a certain element of conventional wisdom in gardening culture that is unquestionable because gardening feels intimate and intuitive. Gardening rewards patience more than zeal, observation more than habit, and curiosity more than confidence. The gardeners who figure that out-usually after a few costly mistakes-become the ones everyone discreetly consults.