OPINION For would-be gardeners, community help abounds

When it comes to gardening and growing things, there are some in our community who just seem to have a gift. You know the ones: Their lawns are lush and green, their flower beds bursting with color. If they have a vegetable garden (and they probably do), it is laid out and tended in a way that brings forth a bumper crop of delicious produce throughout the growing season. They know what to plant where, when to water, and which garden tools are worth having.

If this sounds like you, I’d like to thank you for giving the rest of us something to which we can aspire. Because some of us have quite a ways to go.

Just speaking for myself, if I was not blessed with a green thumb I was at least gifted an enthusiastic one. Like many would-be gardeners, I enjoy nothing more than gleefully picking up an armload of seed packets, looking carefully over the instructions printed on the back, and then marching confidently outside each spring to commit all manner of seedsowing sins. While good common sense would suggest calling in an expert, my usual m.o. is to wing it, planting things where I think they will look best and paying only fleeting attention to things like soil quality, sun exposure and spacing. The results, as you might expect, are usually not great, though nature usually manages to triumph—at least to a certain degree—over my ham-handed efforts. My flowers usually survive for a while and my tomato and pepper plants will offer up a tiny harvest, just enough to keep me coming back year after year. Still, as I drive through the county or visit those who do grow bountiful gardens, I know just how far I have to go. Fortunately, in this area, we do have access to plenty of help when it comes to everything from vegetable gardening to keeping our lawns healthy. One suggestion for all gardening skill levels