Over the course of the years gardeners learn many things through experimenting, reading, and talking to other gardeners. There are many different ideas and concepts to use in your garden and eventually you develop a little niche. Dictionary.com defines an ecological niche as " the position or function of an organism in a community of plants and animals." Your gardening niche is that small area of the gardening world that you are more passionately devoted to than any other area of gardening.
You may have one or two of these areas and they may change over the years. It might be something small like one particular plant you just can't do without. Or it might be a broad category that you love like vegetable gardening in all of it's many varieties. It could be flowers or water features, pergolas or wildlife gardening. It could be anything. Your niche is your primary interest, the thing that gets you excited about gardening.
So my question today is: What is your gardening niche?
There are so many things I'm interested in right now from seeds to patios (yep we're planning one of them, I'll save it for a later post) but it's pretty easy for me to single out the one thing that I could call my niche. It would have to be propagating plants. I'm still learning a lot about propagation and every experiment is a new learning experience for me. I just enjoy taking the cuttings and watching for roots to develop. The idea that you can encourage something to grow into a brand new plant from a small piece of another plant fascinates me. This past summer and fall whenever I drove around somewhere and saw a plant that interested me I said to myself "I wonder if I could get a cutting of that!" I've done cuttings mostly but I have dabbled with some layering. I'm hoping to try air layering of a Japanese maple this spring.
Now it's your turn! Tell us what your gardening niche is. You can do it on your blog if you have one, if not just post here!Labels: garden thoughts