Black Thumb

What my plants should look like

OMG, I have the blackest thumb ever! Geez, I tried to be a planter using one of my alts and my first 3 tries, everything died. Too funny! I would come back to my house and they all would be blackened and withered and have sad faces on them.  :(
But today, I finally triumphed over the mysterious world of botany. This morning I harvested 8 zinc, 8 beetroot, 8 mountain demon grass, and 8 ash. Woot!

Seriously, my guildie and mage/rogue hero, SavageBeast, is a superb planter and harvests loads of mats every day in order to make pots and foods. He explained how to do it and gave me hints on timing. I guess that's the trick of it: you have to log in three times a day to water and feed your plants. And that's where I keep going wrong. I have so many other things to do that I forget about the poor ol' plants wilting in the windowsill! Happens in real life too, I must admit.

So I'm thinking that what I need to do is plant my seeds at a different time so that they mature during the day and I remember to harvest them. Right now I've been planting at night and it takes two days to mature, so the first day I remember to water and feed, but by day two, I wake up and forget about 'em and they shrivel and die. But after reading the forums (link below), they say it actually only takes 36 hours to mature a "2-day" seed, so that's why my plants are dead after 48 hours. Whoops. So if I plant in the morning on the first day, then hopefully I'll remember to take care of the wee green bastards and harvest a more substantial crop 36 hours later, the evening of the second day. Make sense?

Anyhoo, as far as I know there are five ways to get mats for crafting: gathering, planting, farming at guild castle, buying using honor points, or buying from the AH. I have done all five. The question now is: which one is the best?

Helpful link for you: Basic Planting Guide from the RoM forums.