My neighbor's kid explained why my garden keeps dying and it was painfully obvious

Got a 15 foot patch of dirt in the backyard that's been stubborn for the last 2 summers. Tried different soil, more water, less water, even some expensive fertilizer from Home Depot. Nothing. Then my neighbor's 12 year old daughter walks over last Saturday while I'm sweating over it and says "you're planting too deep, the seeds need to be like a finger knuckle down, not a whole hand." I've been burying everything like 4 inches deep. Felt real dumb. She said her science class did a whole unit on it. So now I've got beans and lettuce actually coming up after 10 days. Has anyone else had some kid just casually fix a problem you've been overthinking for months?

3 comments

3 Comments

robertb471d ago

My buddy Mark spent 3 months trying to figure out why his basil kept turning yellow, bought all these pH testers and special lights. His 8 year old nephew came over, looked at the pot for 2 seconds and said "uncle Mark, you put it in a pot with no holes, the roots are drowning." Had to poke some holes in the bottom and it came back in a week. Kids see the simple stuff we overthink into a mess.

elliotm701d ago

Honestly, is a yellow basil plant really worth three months of anyone's life though?

hunt.nora1d ago

Drain those pots first thing, I've seen this a hundred times with people getting fancy grow setups when the problem is just water sitting in the bottom. @elliotm70, it's not about the basil being worth three months, it's about catching that one dumb mistake that makes everything else fall in line. Pop some holes with a drill or even a screwdriver and the roots can breathe, then you'll probably see green in like a week or two.