Why Plant Environments are Important
It's easy to go to your local nursery and buy plants without knowing the environmental conditions ideal for those plants. I know you get excited picking out your lovely rhododendron! Then you wonder why it is turning yellow and looks to be dying.
This could be because rhododendrons prefer acid soil, and placement that provides a fair amount of shade. Full sun and non-acidic soil are not ideal. The environment doesn't match and support it.
Here's a basic list of environmental factors supporting plant health.
Type of animals and native weather environment that will be interacting with your plants. This is where type of plants chosen matters.
Positive care with which the gardener takes interacting with the plants.
Soil for the type of plants. This includes amendment and fertilizers.
Sunlight, shading, and temperature zones for the type of plants.
Proper planting for long term root establishment and solidity.
Drainage, moisture, and air flow.
You can think about your garden in a similar way as you do your relationships with people. Plants and people need nourishment, care, touch, relationship building, communication, weeding out predators, systems, and support to grow up strong, stay healthy, and thrive. The forms vary in humans and plants, and we all have similar fundamentals with environment playing an important role.
Here's a great article from James Clear on how environment matters. This can applied to your thinking about your garden/plant environments and solutions to choose from when solving problems.
Motivation is Overvalued. Environment Often Matters More by James Clear.
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