FACT vs FICTION

MYTH BUSTERS SERIES

IT’S LIKE MAGIC – just type a gardening question into the Google search bar and voila – thousands of results pop up right before your eyes!

Whether a new or experienced gardener we’ve all done it – followed well-intentioned advice trusting that the advice was reliable, relevant and unbiased, when it wasn’t.

There’s lots of good gardening advice that’s been passed down through the generations, but some incorrect recommendations have trickled down as well. Which makes it that much more important to understand the WHY behind the advice we follow.

Yes, we should be open to the gardening wisdom of the past, but not at the expense of critical thinking. As stewards of our environment, we need to continually evaluate the effectiveness of horticultural practices, old and new.

TIPS FOR NAVIGATING THE DIGITAL SEA OF INFORMATION

• Gardeners with personal blogs may make claims based only on their own experiences. If you can’t find any sources cited for the information, consider that a RED FLAG!
• When you perform a standard Google search include the word

extension or suffixes such as edu, gov or org in the domain name.

University Extensions have already performed much of the research for you and present it in an easy-to-understand language.

• When you arrive at a website, look at how it’s organized. Does it end in .com? If it’s a business, there may be a bias in favour of advertisers and their products.
• For videos, start with extension YouTube channels (see two extensions in References) or visit Good Gardening Videos – 1,000 gardening videos curated for accuracy and quality.

Sources:
Oregon State University Extension – https://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening

Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott – Washington State University –https://puyallup.wsu.edu/lcs/

Garden Professors – https://gardenprofessors.com/

University of British Columbia Botanical Garden – Hortline Advice

https://botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/advice/hortline-garden-advice/