I can't garden

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I kill everything. Even house plants are not safe. I have killed a bamboo (which is supposed to be impossible).

I don't understand it. It makes me really mad because I would love to grow vegetables. I've tried a few times and had one tomato plant produce a few tomatoes before it died. That was it.

my mum is the same. she killed bamboo too >:[

although we dont actually have a garden so i imagine that makes it more difficult

maybe its where you live?

I have a hard time with gardening, as well.

I too am gardening dysfunctional.
I have killed bamboo plant too, and mother in law tongue, spider plant, cactus, aloe, ficus, etc. I hate it when people give me a plant for a gift, I'll just kill it.
I can't grow flowers or vegetables. Maybe I just don't do the 'time taking care of' thing.

However, I thought if I kill everything in my front yard, put in astro turf and a bunch of fake plants and in the spring some nice fake flowers, anyone driving by would just think it was all real.

Why is this post under the General Autism Discussion forum? What does gardening have to do with Autism?

You know what's weird? I'm in my 40s now and I don't kill plants any more. I used to kill any plant I tried to take care of and never knew WHY. Now I have an aloe plant, a spider plant, a fern and some kind of weird plant my daughter brought home from school that has green leaves with some kinda white fuzz on them (it's supposed to be there) and they're all alive and thriving. I used to refuse to take plants home when I was in my 20s and 30s because I knew they'd just die no matter what I did, but that seems to have changed. I have no clue why, either.

~Kate

lol my mom and I are brown thumbs too!........We've tried so many times to grow herbs for cooking....just basil and oregano....they never make it past a month.............and these are supposed to be hardy plants...(require relatively little sun etc.)..so sad.....

I love gardening. One of my interests is organic herb gardening.
Your difficulties may not be to do with you. It may be an environmental thing - wrong soils, climate, polluted water supply, etc. More knowledge on what you're doing may help - the conditions of the particular plants, the soil stypes and pH levels, how much drainage they require, whether they're fertilized or whether fertilizer actually burns them, how much space they need, etc.
Could turn into a special interest for you, too

Gardening is very climate specific--you should get local help to find out what grows well where you live.

I suck at gardening. The only thing that had lasted for me was a little cactus and then my mom accidentally got a towel trapped on the spikes and we had to throw it away.

It is possible to learn. I too used kill everything. Now I have a house full of plants and a garden full of fruit and vegetables.

With house plants the key is getting the right amount of water. I didn't really know what was the right amount so some got too much and their roots rotted and others too little and they shrivelled and died. Here's my basic tips for keeping houseplants alive:

1. Make sure they are double potted. This means that they are in a pot with holes in the bottom, which is then inside a pot without holes (or on a tray which can hold water drips).

2. Feel the soil to see if it is wet. If it is, don't water. If it is starting to feel a bit dry, then it needs watering.

3. To water, lift the inner pot and pour the water onto the soil slowly until water starts dripping out of the bottom. Then stop! The plant has enough. Job done.

Follow these easy steps and your plants will thrive.