Magic Or Miracle

Every industry has its share of Witch doctors and the garden industry is no exception. Corporations are relying on the fact that consumers are uninformed or desperate. How else can you explain the myriad of enticing new garden products each Spring that have the words Easy, Magic or Miracle in the name?

For example a couple of weeks ago I saw a grass seed product advertised that grew grass on a concrete block. But like all these too good to be true products its claims were built on half truths. This particular product had a food source mixed in with the seed. So it probably would grow anywhere...for the short term.

The fact remains that grass feeds by drawing nutrients from the soil. Which means once these seeds germinate and deplete their 'encapsulated' growing medium they will starve no matter where they are placed.

I make this assumption based on the fact that anyone buying this product is planning to place it over a problem area that didn't support grass growth to begin with. The underlying problem has to be identified and corrected before any new seed or sod is factored in. There is no magic bullet.

But once the problem is corrected you can simply cut a patch from a less obvious area of your lawn and press it into place. Grass is easy to grow anywhere once the conditions are right. And impossible to grow if conditions are not.

Today I've included a pic of a carved wooden column that is mounted in one of my garden beds. I began training a Golden Euonymous to climb it three years ago. It's now grown to forty inches in height.