If you're a gardener then without fail you've experienced some type of plant problems. Whether it be an infestation of bugs, a besetting leaf issue or your plants just keep dying there seems to be no end to garden problems. You deal with one and another raises its ugly head. You solve that one and the season changes bringing even more challenges than you had before.

Then you head to the nursery or garden centre for a little advice, or at least some suggestions, and you end up looking at powders, chemical sprays, plant-based foliar sprays, trace elements, enhanced super nutrients, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides...the list goes on, and on. "Will this really solve my plant problems?" you ask yourself, secretly hoping that you don't have to spend any more money on this stuff.

Well, put down the phone if you're trying to call a talkback gardener, set aside that pen instead of writing to the gardening mag and don't head for the nearest online garden forum. The answers are much simpler than you think and right in front of your eyes. In fact, if you think about it long enough you'll soon discover that you've known the answer to your plant problems all along.

Are you ready for it? Do you really want the answer? Sure, you can handle it. Out of sheer desperation you might give everything for this one simple key that promises to unlock all your plant problem issues. But you don't have to - I'm going to give it to you for free. Here goes...the way to solve 99% of your plant problems is...to STOP GARDENING. Yep, that should fix it!

If you stopped gardening then you wouldn't have plant problems - well 99% of them anyway. You can't escape the weeds that will ALWAYS try to invade your yard, even if you concreted the entire garden. But, you will no longer have to deal with problem plants. Insects and bugs probably won't show up, fruit-eating birds will look elsewhere and the plethora of garden issues that you constantly face will magically disappear. You can begin to dream again how wonderful your yard will be without all these issues to confront.

I'm guilty of getting to this same place where sometimes the plant problems seem so insurmountable that giving up is an easier option. Yet following this thought process through for a further 5 minutes reveals how asinine I've been.

While I'm not a big fan of garden problems I've come to realise that it is the challenges that makes me a better gardener. Any Tom, Dick or Harry can stick a plant in the ground but it takes a seasoned gardener, one that's wrestled with various plant problems, to keep it growing healthily.

Not only are plant problems part of gardening, they are "Gardening". Without them we wouldn't grow so learning to embrace them is more the issue than the garden dilemma we're facing.

Here's to lots more plant problems in your garden.