HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WDAM) – During this spring season, many of you may be looking to start your gardening journey and asking, “How can I get started?”
Vendors from different areas were blooming in excitement at the Pine Belt Master Gardener’s Spring Garden Day on Saturday.
Not only were they happy to sell their plants to visitors, but they were also willing to offer advice to beginners looking to blossom in the world of gardening.
“The best thing to do would be to start with plants that you are excited about, that you care about, and ones that you want to have in your environment,” Backhouse Garden co-owner and operator Ben Boerner said.
Boerner recommends talking to the grower that you purchased your plants from.
They will know important details like what habitat the plant wants, whether it wants full sun or shade, or whether the plant wants to be in water.
“They’re going to be your encyclopedia, kind of, to give you information about the background of the plant, what the plant will thrive in, and the conditions that it wants,” he said.
All plants are not the same, which means that the process of growing different plants cannot be approached the same way.
Larry Stephenson, another vendor, offered fruit trees to the people in attendance.
However, Stephenson says that the fruit trees he and his wife are selling were planted with the conditions of the Mississippi region in mind.
“It’s like a legacy, you plant a fruit tree, and you hope they survive you and live to be 100 years old, and people in future generations will eat them, so that’s a good thing about them,” Stephenson said.
Stephenson also enjoys the thought of leaving your mark in the gardening community.
“I am a history bug too, and that’s why I grow more apples than anything else. There’s more documented history behind apples than any other fruit, and I love that mix of history and the culture. That’s just cool to me,” he said.
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