Seven Habits of a Highly Successful Gardener
Gardeners in the southwest enjoy the unique luxury of living with
few rules about what's right and wrong in the way we plan our
gardens and grow our plants. Our desert climate is generally
favorable for gardening. We are able to appreciate and adapt our
garden settings with worries mostly centered on the heat of
summer.
In the desert southwest, we have a seemingly endless number of
colorful and healthy and suitable trees, shrubs, and perennials to
choose from for our landscape gardens. Our welcoming, plant-
friendly climate especially during the fall, winter and spring months
gives us many months in which actively cultivate garden plants. But
perhaps the horticultural excesses overflowing our lives calls for a
little discipline?
So with apologies given to Steven R. Covey's "The Seven Habits of
Highly Successful People", we offer the following seven habits of a
highly successful gardener:
1. Habit One: Hone Your Powers of Observation. Invest time in
understanding your garden's microclimates, noting everything from
sunlight patterns to the location of your sheltered or exposed
gardening spots. Exploit your garden's unqiue microclimates by
placing the appropriate plants in each microclimate spot.
2. Habit Two: Choose the Plants You Love. Buy from local growers,
and experiment with new plant introductions.
3. Habit Three: Do Your Homework. Study useful reference books
on southwest gardening. Visit local nurseries such as Baker's on
40th Street north of Osborn, and visit the Desert Botanical Garden
and Boyce Thompson Arboretum, especially during times when each
have their plant sales.
4. Habit Four: Know Your Soil. Our desert soils are alkaline with pH
values between 7.5 and 8.5. Our soils are also very low in organic
matter content. As a result, you should add organic matter as a
garden amendment and/or surface mulch whenever possible.
5. Habit Five: Be Water Wise. Use drought adapted plants (even
heirloom native fruits and vegetables) whenever possible AND
irrigate accordingly. Use of organic surface mulches will reduce
evaporation of water from your soil leaving more in the soil for use
by your the plants.
6. Habit Six: Take Advantage of Every Moment to Garden. Divide
your gardening tasks into short 'doable' chunks, and you'll find that
you have a well maintained garden space. See a weed? Go ahead
and pull it right now! Also, remember to divide your time between
'doing' and 'being' in the garden. Apportion time for both.
7. Habit Seven: Celebrate and Share Your Successes and Failures
with Others. Embrace the generous spirit of gardening and practice
healthy, lifelong gardening habits.
These seven tips were excerpted and adapted from an article
in Pacific Horticulture Vol. 67(1):15-17 by Mary Robson and Debra
Prinzing.
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