What Makes Your Garden Grown - Laura Drewry

Gardening. Love it. Hate it. Regardless, it must be done.

Some gardens are completely random, with vibrant colours and mismatched annuals/perennials/what-have-you. Some have been painstakingly mapped out, petal by petal, until every inch of dirt is symmetrical and balanced. Our garden used to be like that. When we bought this house, the previous owner gave us a scaled drawing of all the gardens and what each plant was. We've tweaked it a little since then, and while I'd like to say I've been as organized as she, and kept the drawing up to date. . .well. . .that's what I'd like to say.

My point here is that gardening is a lot like writing. Some 'gardens' are meticulously mapped out, scene by scene, whereas others (like mine) tend to be more random.

Regardless of the gardener's method, there will always be weeds that need to be pulled;

there will always be slugs that need to be relocated (or treated to a saucer full of beer)

and there will always be those little buds that look like beautiful spring plants, but upon closer inspection, we discover they are feelers from the willow tree growing six yards down the block.

So while it doesn't matter how you garden, what matters is that you do garden. Pull those weeds, get rid of those slugs (whether by beer, salt, or other relocation practices), and remember - above all - to fertilize. The trick to a good 'garden', of course, is being able to determine when you've got a good amount of fertilizer and when your garden has become nothing more than a pile of . . .well. . .fertilizer.