Beginner Gardening: Good Growing Practices - an Overview for Beginners, 1 by tapla

tapla wrote:
I don't think anyone should ever feel embarrassed about where they are on their journey to proficiency, or about the questions they ask seeming too basic. I have much more respect for the growers who are trying to improve their abilities and increase the satisfaction they get from growing through their acquisition of knowledge, than for any who might pooh pooh science in favor of trial and error. The problem with being content with learning by trial and error is the 'content' part. Usually, if you're content with learning by trial and error, you're also content with committing the same errors over and over. Even if you don't make a change in your soils or nutritional supplementation based on what you absorb from my offerings, you will, at the very least, be able to RECOGNIZE the source of problems in the future. Because the trial and error crowd can't SEE what is going on in the root zone, and often have no way of discerning nutritional problems other than through the application of some basic science, they're at a decided disadvantage.

Don't worry about being up to speed on the language. If you come across a word or phrase that confuses you - look it up, or ask for clarification. I think you'll be amazed at what you'll learn while chasing down answers. One of the reasons I enjoy answering the more technical questions is that I'll often check to be sure my offering is technically correct. I learn a LOT when I look things up because I always read enough to make sure I understand the context.

Thank you for the kind words. I did have a very nice Thanksgiving. The kids and grand kids were here, a few friends ..... even my wife's ex and his mother were here (his brother couldn't make it). ;-) We had the traditional turkey & all the fixin's. I'm also the cook around here. I've been married for 32 years and I think the number of meals my wife has had to prepare in that time could be counted on 1 hand. Our deal is I cook & she cleans up the cooking mess - but I do help by cleaning up all the prep mess as I go. I hope you and everyone else had a good holiday, and that you all found plenty to give thanks for. Musing: as I grow older, I welcome the time I often take to dwell on the things I have to be thankful for - on the 'Thanks' part of Thanksgiving. Strangely, and I focus on this often, one of the things I'm most appreciative of is the ability to be ever grateful for the countless blessings in my life. One of the things I count as a significant blessing is, the realization that happiness revolves around our ability to feel blessed by what we have, in contrast to being forever in want of what we don't have, came to me early in life. Hardly a day passes now without my reflecting on the number of things in life that bring me joy.

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