Gardening – Green Thumb or Black Thumb?

Gardening successes or failures are often attributed to, respectively, having a green thumb or a black thumb. Ability, however, has little to do with gardening successes, I have learned over time. Attitude (“I can do it!”), trial and error and persistence are much more important.

In my garden, I give a plant I like at least a second chance – maybe even a third. That has been the case with Cleome Lindy Armstrong (first year, it did not do well, second year it looked very spindly – no third chance!) and with Liatris, which, now in its third year, looks spectacular (the first year, the lawn maintenance guys took the tops off, thinking it was a weed that needed wacking, and the second year it sort of held its own). Daylilies were unknown to me until three years ago, and I now have half a dozen varieties in my garden. Of the dozen or so Hydrangea “sticks” I tried four years ago, only one matured into an actual plant; I might have given up, but I have since then added two others and all are doing well, even the “red” one I bought in 2006 and is blooming for the first time this year – pink!

Herbs are omnipresent in my garden as well. I started out with Basil (a “must have” year after year), a Rosemary (two our of three died, but that third one – oh, my; it’s huge!) and a clump of Chives (since divided and now growing nicely in two different places). Little by little, I added Cilantro, which reseeds itself every year, Marjoram, which I am trying for the first time this year, and Thyme (two years of failures and now I’ve got Thyme everywhere in the garden and in pots on the patio). Lamb’s Ear is ubiquitous and Parsley is a “must’ year after year, not in the least because it feeds the caterpillars that become the Eastern Swallowtail butterfly. And, if anyone tells you that Mint and Beebalm are invasives, believe them! Both are great as providers of indoor bouquets and thus, with some restrictions, I have so far let them go wherever they wish. In spring, when a new crop announces itself, the small plants added to container gardens make a nice gift.

Two of this year’s gardening pleasures have come in the form of seedlings from a local Farmers Market – a purple bean vine and a “Kiss me over the Garden Gate”. The vine, bought three weeks ago, has already made itself at home in my garden, climbing up a rain pipe, and the newer plant has almost doubled in size in barely ten days. I know I have to collect seeds from the purple bean vine in the fall, for seeding next year, and that the Kiss me over the Garden Gate will either reseed itself or I’ll have to collect its seeds for next year also. Both were described to me by the seller as “heirloom plants”, going back to the gardens of Thomas Jefferson at Monticello. No one has to my knowledge ever referred to him as having a green thumb or a black one, so don’t worry about your digits either. Just have fun – that’s the main reason we garden, isn’t it?