by Rachel Johnson

Created on: November 25, 2010

I grew up watching my mother and both of my Grandma’s planting seeds and magically making things grow. They made it look so easy. But, for me, gardening is the farthest thing from easy. And to be completely honest, I know more about how to kill plants than how to grow them. But my many attempts at gardening have led to many lessons learned. I’ll share with you the most basic and most important ones.

 My first experience with plants was when my Grandma asked me to water hers. It sounded easy. But it led to my first lesson learned: Plants can drown. Lugging that huge hose around and watering her yard full of plants made me realize that plants are very specific about how much water they need. I don’t need to say more, I’m sure you can figure out the rest of that story.

 I learned the next lesson when I started to grow my own plant. I distinctly remember placing a seed in a pot of soil and watering it every day. I waited, and I waited. But nothing grew. When I grew tiresome of expecting something, but seeing nothing, I decided to unearth that seed and discover the problem. But I couldn’t find that seed. Instead, beneath all that soil, I found a rock. Now, let’s be clear, I have no recollection of putting that rock there, but it was there and the seed was not. This, even though not intentional, led me to my second lesson learned: Rocks don’t grow.

The next season in my gardening life came about with my fascination for roses. They were my favorite plant and I was so excited to watch them grow. But this time I had a much easier task. My Grandma, on my birthday, gave me a rose plant that was already blossoming. Now all I had to do was keep it alive. Simple enough right? Not so much. I watered it everyday; At least for the first month. But as time grew on, that rose received less and less of that important nutrient. This taught me my third lesson: While plants can drown, they can also die of dehydration.

 But that was not the end of my love for roses. My Grandma was sure to send me another one on my next birthday. Unfortunately, going away on vacation and leaving a plant unattended not only leaves it thirsty, but also vulnerable to an entirely new culprit, deer; which I will get to very shortly. But first, I have to mention my next gardening obsession: Sunflowers.

Sunflowers were the brightest and happiest plant I had ever seen. I knew these plants were going to be the ones to blossom. I would finally get something

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