About Garden Science!

Who am I, and what do I do?
I’m not so much a gardener as a “plant enthusiast” with a soft spot for plants that are down on their luck. Nearly everything in my mini-garden was either rescued or nursed back to health from the brink of death, and I also have a selection of plants that have sprouted from kitchen scraps. My favorite types of plants are fruit trees, succulents, and other things that keep their greenness all year. 

What are GS’s “Experiments” and how do they work?
On Garden Science, I run a wide selection of experiments mostly geared toward seeing whether or not it is possible to grow a certain plant under a preset of conditions. To keep things entertaining, the conditions are often far-fetched or ridiculous.

I attempt to run all experiments more or less according to scientific method, but by nature of by how little time I have and/or how difficult it is to procure the ingredients, I probably will not be able to maintain a control group for every experiment (when applicable). I am also pretty sympathetic toward the plants I grow, which means I tend to steer clear of scientifically favorable methods which will almost certainly lead to the demise of the test subjects. 

I am not any kind of certified scientist, although I do own safety goggles.

Experiments will have the following components to them:

  •  Introduction/Background – Explains the basics behind the experiment and/or its origin story.
  •  Experiment Goal(s) – These can often be very general, i.e. “Just grow something.
  • Experiment Condition(s) – These are the rules that must be followed in order to achieve the goal(s) of the experiment. Conditions may also specify what will happen to an experiment if it succeeds or fails to meet its goal(s). 
  •  Possible Outcome(s) – Usually, the possible outcomes are a series of benchmarks (i.e. Failure, Success, Critical Success, etc). I’m sort of retiring this system in favor of just assessing the outcome of the experiment gradually in the “conclusions” component, though, so not every experiment moving forward will have an “outcomes” section.
  • Data Collection – All Garden Science posts relating to the experiment will be listed here.
  • Conclusion – Sometimes a conclusion will mark the end of an experiment, and other times the conclusion section will be gradually updated with new information as developments occur.

Check out the Poinsettia in a Can experiment to get an idea of how it all fits together!

List of Experiments

Have a question for me?
Click here or click “Ask Garden Science!” in the sidebar to ask me anything! I will answer to the best of my ability, although sometimes my knowledge on certain subjects may be limited. I reserve the right to not answer any question I deem inappropriate or which I may have absolutely no educated opinion on.