The Brown Thumb Myth

I used to be a firm believer in the idea of the brown thumb- those individuals who cannot keep a plant alive to save their life. I thought I had a brown thumb for a very long time. Throughout college and high school I did not even try to garden- actually it never occurred to me to garden. I have actually tried to kill other peoples plants (well, I only actually tried to kill one plant. A plant I believe Amber may still have). Aside: pouring lots of beer in a plant over a period of a year will not kill those awful hanging plants, I tried.
In reality, I had never really desired a plant. I just didn't care for the plants, so I over-watered or never watered, or didn't re-pot. Also, when someone buys you a plant from the store, it is not supposed to live in whatever container it came in. Most of the time, you need to repot that baby because the roots are going to need some more room to breath. I never understood that, so I just was unsuccessful.
As you know, the gardening-crazy has developed in the last two years, but notably since I moved to SD with all the great sun. At the same time, I began to spend a lot of time with a self proclaimed brown thumb (KD). She lives next door and has several spots to grow plants. Next to her front door there is a great raised window box (it is several feet deep!) and there are several places by the door that just begs for flowers. Most of the year, she has dirt and weeds. Seriously, right by the front door- just dirt with weeds. It wasn't as if she never tried to make it beautiful. She had bought several Sweet Alyssum plants (that are practically weeds with cute little white flowers) and other cute flowers. They pretty much all died within 2 months. And she was discouraged. Her idea that she had a brown thumb continued to grow.
Living next door and constantly seeing the dirt and weed box, I constantly suggested plants. The big problem was cost. Why should she spend another 15 dollars to plant a bunch of things that would just slowly die? I get it, it is just a waste of money and very sad to continually fail to keep them alive.
Several months ago, KD bought a packet of seeds from botanical interests. They were johnny up um flowers. She ripped open the packet and just poured the seeds out over the dirt. -- She didn't even pull up the old weeds before doing this maneuver. What I didn't understand was why she didn't ask for my assistance (since I have been fairly successful growing from seed). She then failed to water regularly. As you can imagine, the seeds never sprouted. Yet another disappointment.
After I was successful growing the 20 cent Marigolds, KD decided to invest 20 cents and try out the seeds. This time I was not going to allow her to do her pouring maneuver. She was in a hurry to plant the seeds because she had an appointment an hour later. So I came over to help her prepare the box for planting. I pulled out the weeds. There were a few struggling mini Alyssum plants. I moved the Alyssum to the edges of the box.

WATER!!! WATER!!!! WATER!!!!!
Then she poured two gallons of water on to the dirt. You wouldn't believe this, but the soil was so bone dry that even after pouring two gallons in when we scraped the surface, it was still completely dry underneath. So, we began the great water of 2009. We got out the hose and soaked the box, waited 10 minutes, mixed the soil and re-watered. We must have put at least 12 gallons -- 12 GALLONS-- of water into her window box.
As it turned out, KD had so much failure with her plants because she didn't know how to water. It takes more than 2 seconds to water. You have to allow the water to soak in and then, sometimes water again, especially in San Diego where the weather gets pretty hot and dry.
The picture above is what KD's garden looks like. The marigolds are taking off! And, some of the Johnny Up Ums seemed to have survived. The real surprise was the Sweet Alyssums that sprouted everywhere! The ones she killed last summer apparently left behind a ton of seeds that were just waiting for some good water!
Now KD is successfully growing Sweet Peas, Marigolds, Sweet Alyssum, Johnny Up Ums, Parsley, and Basil. YAY KD!!!! I can't wait for the day those Marigolds bloom!!!

MORAL 1:
Make sure your plants are getting enough water. You need to stick your finger into the soil to find out whether the plant needs water and then, to check that the water you are giving the plant is actually soaking in. At times, you will want to do a deep soak by watering and then re watering 10 minutes later to really get the water in deep.

MORAL 2:
Everyone can have success growing plants. It just requires a bit of attention to detail, mainly water! The brown thumb concept is just a myth! You can do it! Just keep trying and research what a plant wants before you start.


PS. I accidentally ripped out this carrot when I harvest my radishes! Isn't it adorable!
PPS. I went away for the weekend and came back and had to pick all these lovelies!