It's a Miracle!

Let me be perfectly clear --
I love Burpee.

I order from them every year and you should, too.
They are one of the GOOD GUYS.

Their vintage ads are pretty enough to frame and hang on the wall.

When I was young and naïve I wanted a job that involved cute clothes and great shoes so I took a job in advertising. It was hard for me to believe an ad career involved much more than that. Suffice to say, my attitude was a bit problematic.

That's why I pay a lot of attention to advertising. And, also why gardening ads drive me a little batty.

Ever notice how gardening commercials put the fear of God in you?

Buy this or that or you’re gonna fail for sure?
That's me! Well, not me precisely, I'm retired, but there's always someone eager to fill your shoes.

Companies predict doom and gloom because they have to. Gardens grow just fine without their products. If brands like Miracle-Gro can’t create hysteria you might figure out you don’t need them.

This being my blog, I'm free to throw a fit about all sorts of things. So, let's start with the 'thing' that spends $50 million on television commercials telling you how you'll fail if you don't use their product.

Miracle-Gro is a synthetic fertilizer that is prohibited from use in certified-organic farming.*

How could that be? Their commercials are so pretty!

• It works just like addictive drugs for humans. Once your soil has some, it wants some more. Over time, the ingredients in Miracle-Gro (and similar fertilizers) deplete the nutrients your soil creates naturally.

What to do?
It's this simple: Mix grass clippings into your flower beds. As the grass decomposes, it will improve your soil’s texture, stimulate microbial life and help prevent disease, all the while releasing plenty of nutrients to feed your plants.

Real gardeners don’t need miracles. This entrance way has never been fertilized:
* Studies conducted at the University of Wisconsin, Wallace Laboratories in El Segundo, California, among others. Write to me for more details.