The author Robert Heinlein is quoted as having said "Always listen to the experts. They'll tell you what can't be done and why. Then they'll do it.'" When I do what people say can't be done in the garden, it usually stems (ha) from desperation: I move plants that shouldn't be moved, I move plants at times when they shouldn't be moved, I place plants in too little or too much sun because I can't seem to find any other place for them.

Because I'm not an expert, I rely on the expert advice I find in my gardening books or on the Internet, which is fast becoming my go-to source for garden questions. Universities all across the country offer information based on good, solid science and there is so much to learn from them. Yet when I'm up to my elbows in roots, I don't usually take time to run to the house and check the computer. Call me compulsive, but I just have the need to get those roots back into the ground somewhere. Anywhere! Oh dear. Results are sometimes stellar, sometimes not so hot. But there is that of the expert in each of us that wants to prove we can do what no one else can do, that seeks a surprise, that sees the garden as a quest and not as a rectangle in which to grow plants. Experts get to be experts, after all, by taking chances and learning from both success and failure. In nature, where so much is still unknown, we find endless opportunities to become experts. But in case you want to rely on other experts and decide to take your laptop to the garden--don't get dirt in the keyboard. That's my expert advice for today.