When investing their energy, good gardeners follow the same three rules that guide successful real estate investors: Location, location, location.   If a plant is not placed in a spot suitable to its nature, it will refuse to prosper no matter what subsequent coddling the gardener gives it.   Learning to graciously submit to this requirement marks the graduation of the novice gardener to the rank of respectable.   It has taken me years to get there and even yet, I have a tendency to try to bend the rules.   Enter, stage left, adult diapers and the world of container gardening.

Not long ago, I decked the windows of my house with some classy hayrack flower troughs and filled them with a gorgeous array of trailing foliage and bright blooms.   Then the war with the afternoon sun began.   Even though the nursery tags said these plants could tolerate direct sun and despite their being bedded in the best moisture control potting soil, it was impossible to keep up with the irrigation requirements in their high and dry locations. A water conservation technique would have to be employed if I wanted more than miniature tumbleweed outside my windows.

So I dumped out the hayracks and started all over again.   This time, I first lined the hayracks' empty coconut matting with adult diapers, their soaking-side face up, then refilled the containers with soil and plants and gave them a healthy watering.   Those fantastic little polymer crystals in the adult diapers kicked into action, swelling with moisture so they would be able to give back to the plants throughout the day as needed.   My window racks were now well on the road to an abundant flowering season.

Of course, the genius of this effort should not be over- played.   It certainly wouldn’t raise an eyebrow at the garden club.   Using adult diapers in the service of a garden comes as a natural for those who every autumn rush to get first dibs on their neighbor's horse manure.