LSU horticulturalist speaks to Garden Club

• By C.J. FUTCH
• Advocate Ascension writer
• Published: Nov 4, 2009

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GONZALES — Dan Gill, Prairieville resident and LSU horticulturalist, believes people should be more forgiving of their home gardens.

“I don’t spray pesticides,” Gill told members of area garden clubs at the District VI Louisiana Garden Club Federation’s fall meeting on Oct. 30, hosted by the Gonzales Garden Club.

“If you’re in my garden, you’re on your own,” he said, and pointed out the pros of letting nature take its course in outdoor spaces.

The best outdoor spaces leave a home gardener time to enjoy it, Gill said, and that means the less maintenance, the better.

Most gardeners worry about yellowing leaves, spots, diseases and blights, Gill said, but the far more time-consuming problem gardeners face is fighting to keep the garden too perfect.

Treating for pests, fertilizing and watering a lawn may keep it green and lush and yellow-spot free, he said. But it also means you’ll be mowing more often than you’re smelling the roses. The same goes for flowers and ornamental plants.

Don’t water the grass until it asks to be watered, Gill said. Plant the right plant in the right location. Don’t tell your garden what it will grow, but allow your garden to grow what it grows best. That way, a garden will require less water, less trimming, and less overall work.

If gardeners reduce their input, he said, which means growing plants in your soil that will thrive there, then inevitably they’ll reduce their own personal output — the amount of time, energy and expense it takes to maintain your outdoor spaces. Also reduced, he said, is the carbon footprint one’s garden leaves, he said, and the amount of fertilizer and pesticide that will run off into the water system.