Too complicated? They may not know.

I was doing some research on various things this morning. It amazed me how much stuff is online and how much of it seems to be written by people who really know nothing about the topic they’re writing on.  It’s as if they read a lot of information and then put together an article using all the right words.  Their favorite thing seems to be ‘making the simple complicated’.

If you are a novice in the field you are reading about, it may be hard to tell who’s “blowing smoke” and who’s not.  But if you’ve had any experience in the particular subject matter — it seems pretty transparent.

I happened on an article on “basic knowledge that one needs to become skilled at growing poppies”. I couldn’t help but laugh as I read the article, because if I had needed to do and know everything the writer said was required —–I would never have grown poppies.

For example: The author recommended putting a net over the seed to keep if from the birds. I guess somewhere in the world this might be practical for someone.  But it’s certainly not practical in my garden borders.  And besides, I’ve never seen birds flock to poppy seed I’ve sown.

The writer goes on to recommend scattering slug poison around the seedlings.  Otherwise he says “the slugs will devour them in an instant.”

I’ve never used poisons in any part of my yard or garden and I don’t intend to start.  If slugs get out of hand I use Escargo from Garden’s Alive which does a nice job of killing slugs and doesn’t harm my soil.  (I still follow the principle of moderation even with this natural products.  I don’t use it in amounts that would leave an overabundance of it in the soil.) And besides —-I’ve never had slug damage on poppies.

One of the things I enjoy is sowing the seed of annuals (like poppies) in my borders and letting them come up among the perennials where they will.  I’ve always considered poppies an easy flower to grow.  Like anything – they have certain requirements that need to be met.  For instance, you can’t “bury” the seed in heavy mulch.  But for the most part you just sow the seed in autumn or spring.  When conditions are right they grow.

It is important to note that every season has conditions that meet perfectly the requirements of some plants and not so perfectly the requirements of others.  Each year is a bit different.  Some plants will always do better than others because of the variables that exist.

It’s sort of amazing really.  Seeds and plants with all their complexities are user friendly.

If  you don’t know an author or their qualifications,  a good rule of thumb to follow when reading articles is ——-when they make it too complicated they may not really know what they are talking about.

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