I spent the weekend at a men's conference listening to a Californian keynote speaker - Gordon Dalbey. Incredibly liberating, his messages completely hit the spot for me and helped me to view the world a little differently than I had been.

Yet, there was one comment that I found I disagreed with. He shared an analogy that utilised the plant kingdom and stated that there were only two ways to kill a plant. Being an avid gardener he lost me for the next half hour as I started to contemplate that statement. For the way I see it there is an extra possibility.

So what are the THREE ways to kill plants?

1. Abuse

While most gardeners would never be guilty of murdering their plants there are some forms of abuse that will kill them. Much of this abuse comes from those pint-sized people we let play in our gardens who love to whack plants with sticks or who try and pick flowers by themselves.

Then there are the vandals who abuse plants for the sheer enjoyment of it and often curbside gardens or secluded parks bear the brunt of their destruction.

2. Negligence

The second way to kill plants is through pure negligence. Lack of water, nutrient, sunlight, wind barriers etc, etc all have the power to bring a plant down. In most cases, a plant left to its own devices will eventually die.

Negligence towards plants can come in several forms but mostly it's because we, as the gardener, have been away from the garden for a period of time. It wouldn't be the first time when I've come home from a summer vacation to find that the reticulation stopped working while we were away and some of the plants are looking a little worse for wear.

Or, that life just gets so busy due to a crisis that we just forget to spend the time we need in the garden. When life finally gets back on track its time to assess the garden and it would be rare to find that ALL our plants made it.

3. Ignorance

The final way we kill plants, and the one that Mr Dalbey failed to mention, was ignorance. Lack of knowledge or understanding plants can contribute as this killer.

If you've been gardening for a while it may take some time to remember back to when you first began. I'd be surprised if many beginner gardeners didn't end up killing a few plants in their journey and it's all part of the learning process.

In fact, I would even go so far as to state that ignorance is probably the biggest killer of plants - certainly moreso than the other two. How often have we over-watered, under-watered, over-fertilised, over-pruned and under-mulched our plants to the point of no return? If I were being completely honest I would have to say it's been more than once.

Conclusion

Yet the methods of killing our plants can't be remedied the same way. Abuse requires educating the perpetrator. Children need to be shown how to look after plants and delinquents need some appreciation classes. This education comes in the form of rebuttal.

Negligence can't easily be overcome, unless it continually occurs. If the same thing happened with my plants every year during my summer vacation then I'm obviously not making wise plans.

However, when it comes to ignorance this can be rectified through education - in the form of discovery and trial and error. Ignorance can be replaced with knowledge and with so many wonderful garden blogs available there should be no excuse for the newbie gardener to make the same mistakes we've all made.

If all three have been identified and actions taken to remedy them then it should become a little harder to kill plants in the future.