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Quiz: How Are Your General Gardening Skills?

Gardening is actually a year-round process, even in cold climates and during the winter. In fact, the winter is a great time to brush up on gardening skills and to learn new things about gardening. It is also a great time for planning. 

One problem is in knowing what information we most need to brush up on or to learn. After all, if a person doesn’t know what knowledge they lack, how can they read up to gather the knowledge that they need or can use? 

That is where a quiz like this one can come in handy. This is just one of many possible basic gardening quizzes, but they can be helpful in identifying what areas of knowledge could use some expansion. For that reason, this quiz might be simple to some people and difficult for others. The quiz is also a bit different in that the goal is a high score, but even a low score is a good thing because it shows you where you can concentrate on learning.

  • Question of

    Which is a better gardening practice for established plants; watering shallowly once or twice a day or watering deeply once every 2-4 days?

    • Frequent, shallow watering
    • Infrequent, deep watering
  • Question of

    What does the temperature of the ground need to be in order for eggplants to blossom and set fruits?

    • 50 F / 10 C
    • 65 F / 18 C
    • 78 F / 25.5 C
  • Question of

    Let’s say that you turn over a shovelful of dirt and find a bunch of small earthworms. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

    • Good
    • Bad
  • Question of

    It is advisable to sprinkle the yard or garden during the coolest part of the day because of evaporation. How much water can be lost through evaporation from a sprinkler used during the heat of the day?

    • 25%
    • 50%
    • 75%
  • Question of

    The practice of growing certain kinds of plants next to specific other kinds of plants, so the plants can help each other in one way or another is called what?

    • Cohabitation planting
    • Raised bed planting
    • Companion planting
  • Question of

    “Hot” fertilizer can burn plants because it contains too much__________

    • Nitrogen
    • Potassium
    • Phosphorus
  • Question of

    Root rot can kill plants and many are especially susceptible to root rot. A common cause of root rot is:

    • Too much sunlight and high temperatures.
    • Waterlogged soil
    • Burrowing rodents
  • Question of

    Which of the following do *not* pollinate flowers?

    • Wasps
    • Moths
    • Bats
    • Ants
    • All of these are sometimes pollinators
  • Question of

    True or False: Blueberry bushes require very acidic soil in order to grow properly in the garden.

    • True
    • False
  • Question of

    True or False: Not all plants require water in order to grow.

    • True
    • False

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What do you think?

12 Points

Written by Rex Trulove

29 Comments

  1. I wish we could just transplant other peoples knowledge. I would love to know all that you know, it’s been a dream of mine much more about the flora and fauna around me.

    1
    • That is simply the years of exposure to it and trying to learn more. I’m still learning. I had my first garden when I was 8, so I’ve been gardening over a half-century. As for animals, I grew up in a national park, so my earliest memories dealt with wildlife. lol

  2. 10/10 I learned so much by trying to garden in our dry sandy soil and our desert winds. I have to water daily, in the evening, for a deep soaking. If I waited 2 days here even after a deep drenching my plants would be wilting. It is extreme gardening 101. I did start using a shade cloth which has helped so much. Blueberries wouldn’t be very happy here. lol Oh and thank you for the information on the eggplant, I guessed it right only because I have some growing really well right now, and was hoping the soil wouldn’t have to be at 78.

    1
    • I can understand how that climate would cause a person to either learn about gardening in a hurry or to not have a garden, except maybe succulents. lol

      Using shade breaks even works well here in Montana. The winters are cold, but the summers get very hot and dry. Even after watering well a few hours before, the sun can get so intense that especially the large-leafed plants droop. Our squashes need the shade or they spend more time recovering than growing.

      I learned about the eggplants many years ago, just before I first started growing them. I’d heard many people saying that their eggplants didn’t grow well and didn’t set fruit or even bloom. I didn’t want to grow a plant that didn’t produce, so I asked someone who I knew grew awesome eggplants, what would cause them not to bloom or produce. He didn’t even have to think about it. He laughed and said, “They are planting their eggplants way too early before the soil temperatures warm up. Eggplants need at least 65-degree soil or the roots suffer and may never recover.”

      The thing is that many people don’t really give it much thought, otherwise they’d realize that it takes a lot more time for the soil to warm up than it takes for the air to warm up. I should write about that.

      1
      • Okay, so I will anxiously await my first blooms. With the shade cloth and the way I have planted them just off the patio with a wind block of cactus and succulents and other plants they should do well. We do drop into the freezing zone but I have created a little micro climate in the mini garden. : ) And yes, you should write about it. I can use all the help I can get!

        1
    • There is a lot of information out there, but without knowing what it is that we need to know, we aren’t likely to seek that knowledge. You now have an idea of what information to look for. :))