Take Gardening Advice with a Grain of Salt

I don’t know who needs to hear this but…you should take MOST gardening advice with a grain of salt. Yes, including mine.

Don’t get me wrong, gardening tips and guides from well-meaning and experienced growers are great to use as a compass.  But at the end of the day, those advice are unique to their own experience, soil, climate, and circumstances, and you shouldn’t let them stop you from experimenting and learning in your own ways. The only consistency in Nature is inconsistency.

My first year as a gardener, I scooped out seeds from a store bought butternut squash, germinated them, and got so many squashes from that one store squash that I had to give them away. But one well meaning gardener told me that I probably would not get any fruits because of “ya da ya da ya da something something something about store bought squash.”

She probably wasn’t wrong because she was speaking from HER experience. But I didn’t listen, thankfully, and planted those squashes anyway, and ended up more than rewarded for ignoring advice from a senior.

Just try. Just jump in and do it. Observe and adjust as needed. That’s the only way you learn. And that advice works for gardening and everything else in life.

You are unique. Your situation is unique. Don’t forget that, beautiful squash blossoms.