What if you have a black thumb? In today's Q&A episode, I'm going to answer this question. It comes

from an email from a woman named Samantha, and I think it's one that many people can relate to,

especially right now when a lot of people are wanting to grow their gardens for the first time,

but they're really nervous about whether they can actually make it happen.

Samantha's email talked about how she is notorious in her family for killing anything she tries to

grow. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard that from lots of people over the years,

and if you've ever thought that yourself, I want to give you some hope.

Samantha listed a couple of examples of how what she had tried to grow in the past had died.

And the first thing I wanted to tell her is, I don't think there is such thing as a black thumb.

I think that is a complete myth. I believe that anybody can grow anything. I also didn't believe that the two

examples that she gave me were related. I'm not going to list them because I don't think that

they're pertinent to this conversation, but it's easy to think if you've had a couple of mistakes,

then maybe it's somehow your fault. But most likely, whatever happened in the past, they're just

not related to each other. The first thing I would recommend is to get that notion that you have a

black thumb out of your head. You can totally do this. The second thing that I wanted to tell

Samantha, and I want to tell you if you're relating to any of this today,

is that you've taken the first step in that you haven't quit yet. You're still listening to this

podcast episode right now in the case of Samantha. She emailed me, and that goes a long way. Also,

keep in mind that every time we fail at something, and yes, we gardeners fail every year

at something, it's a learning experience, a learning opportunity.

You're able to learn what doesn't work so that you can adjust for the future.

Don't expect everything to be perfect.

...