GARDENING

[Muhammad Arif Khan]

A hobby full of pleasure and frustrations, of joy and sorrow, starts as a hobby and becomes an addiction, once addicted you cannot quit.
Pleasure and frustration depends on expectations, the same result brings joy to one gardener and frustration to the other depending upon your standard of achievement.
There is lot of pleasure in being the best but you have to go through lots of pain. One wonders is it worth it?
If you want gardening to be a relaxing hobby then don’t set your goal too high.
If your climate is not suited to certain plants why should you frustrate yourself by growing them, if the plants are not happy you also can’t be?
I have learnt to be content with selected few easy to grow plants and that is my advice to our young beginners.
Arif

[hnasir]

"I have learnt to be content with selected few easy to grow plants and that is my advice to our young beginners. "

I think that is the best advice which can be given to newcomers. I've learnt that too. Trying to grow difficult/climatically unsuitable plants in the beginning can result in a lot of stress/feeling of failure. One should move up the ladder stepwise- the hobby requires a LOT of patience. But patience is usually well rewarded.

[KBW]

Very nicely put Sir All will agree to what you have written but only few will follow it. Some of us try to grow what can't be grown or is difficult to grow and in the process, will torture themselves as well as the plant they are experimenting with.

[Izhar]

I have observed that many who quit gardening early are those who bought the climatically unsuitable imported plants as their first plants.. learning from own mistakes is as important in gardening as in any walk of life...

[Muhammad Arif Khan]

I have a dozen of Spreklia bulbs, Bloomed only once in last decade, We both are testing each others patience.

[mikhurram]

I believe initially a beginner wants to try everything irrespective of the fact whether a particular plant is unsuited for our zone. Later after acquiring experience ends up being selective by choosing the 'survival of the fittest' criteria.

We need to grow plants that are also beneficial for the wildlife i.e. bees, butterflies, beetles etc in our surroundings, do not take a toll on the environment (invasive plants like lantana camara, water hyacinth, paper mulberry tree etc), conserve water (are drought tolerant especially in areas facing water shortage and lastly should promote our indigenous plants.

It shouldn't became a hobby for status symbol purposes. Often people end up purchasing extremely expensive plants like palms or bonsai based on the criteria that an acquaintance bought it irrespective of the fact whether it's blending in the garden design or not and often at times aren't even aware of its actual name ?

[Muhammad Arif Khan]

I have a fairly rich niece, she is member of a local (Lahore) garden club. Her main interest is Hotel get to gathers and purchase of exotic imported plants offered there for sale, it does not matter if none ever survives.
Please keep it in mind that, The ground realities differ from those of internet.