Lily Singer, Good Gardener, Good Grammarian

Lily Singer is known in California by many gardeners for her book: CARE AND MAINTENANCE OF THE CALIFORNIA GARDEN. Recently, while encouraging gardeners to envision a variety of end results in the look of a garden by choosing a variety of plants in order to achieve water conservation, she said to her television audience:

"You can do something different."

Singer correctly used the adjective, different, instead of the adverb, differently. Had she used differently, she would have been suggesting to the audience that some given garden task or ambition could be achieved in a variety of ways by taking different actions.

By using different, the adjective, instead of differently, the adverb, Singer suggested a variety of things that could be done, not a variety of actions that could be taken on any one thing. Brava, Lily! Cultivating good speaking as well as intelligent garden design.