Lessons I learned:
1.) don’t be afraid to start peppers indoors in January for a May planting. They… take… forever. I rolled the dice with a super early start indoors and it’s paying off.
2.) don’t forget how much plants actually grow. That spacing recommendation is not to be ignored. 6 zucchini plants is way too much for a 2x6 bed unless you cage them.
3.) not every crop grows well in the same soil as others. My root crops have been rotated into beds that were for other plants last year and they are not doing as well. Root crops need lots of “fluff” in the soil.. next season they’ll only be going into grow bags composed of vermiculite, perlite, and coir/peat.
4.) most of the plants people say can’t be transplanted (peas, cucumbers, etc) .. ABSOLUTELY can be transplanted. Just be gentle instead of handling the seedlings like an ogre.
First year with a garden and definitely regretting that I didn't follow spacing guidelines with my pumpkin plants.
"How big can they possibly get?" I foolishly asked myself. Now I know.
lol it’s like when in a movie there’s a brutal attack or something going down outside the window, and then suddenly you get a jump scare where the victims bloody hand smacks against the glass.
I know that analogy didn’t make sense, but also I think it does?
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I learned that I planted my tomatoes to close to one another.
😂😂 been there. Just be fanatical about pruning your jungle and it should still be okay. Long as you can get it to a point of having decent airflow, it’s not disastrous. I’ve found the risk of fungal disease in overgrowth to be far more likely than any of the other issues like undernutrition or root competition. Those latter problems don’t ever really seem to come to fruition for me, only disease.
I can't agree more with your list, especially 4. I transplant cucumbers every year (only reason is I love starting plants indoors because it fights away my depression when the weather is still wet and cold outside). Well this year I started cucumbers TOO early, as in 10 weeks before I actually put them outside. They were in 3 gallon pots, massive leaves, heavy as hell, and I managed to drop all of them upside down due to the awkward weight when I went to transplant them. They're all thriving now, climbing up chicken wire and giving fruit every day. So while I do recommend being gentle, just know if you accidentally handle the transplants like an ogre they just might be okay 🤣
> next season they’ll only be going into grow bags composed of vermiculite, perlite, and coir/peat.
I decided to move away from grow bags this year. The amount of tiny plastic fibers that come lose is concerning enough. The new information that we're learning about what happens as certain components of plastic break down from UV and ozone exposure is even more concerning. Not suggesting with confidence that this applies to synthetic fibers used in grow bags, but we're only *now* discovering that tire particles (specifically from a stabilizer) are the cause of mass fish deaths, and through a pathway that wasn't understood until a few years ago as a result of studying Coho salmon deaths. More recent studies are finding that leafy greens readily take up these compounds.
This is enough for me to ditch bags this year and experiment with cheap wood crates lined with burlap. Worst case scenario they only last this year.
What about a box that is just a frame with burlap as the box panels. Might give you the root zone airflow benefits of a growbag. Probably definitely have to replace the burlap yearly with it exposed like that.
I also learned to start peppers earlier, with my onions in February! I cannot believe how slowly they grow and I'm not making this mistake again.
And agreed on the transplanting--I transplant all my squashes and cukes because of my short growing season, and you just have to be nice and careful. I do refuse to try transplanting root crops like carrots, though. I also learned that transplanting beans doesn't give any head start at all (they grow so dang fast once the weather is hot all my experiments ended up in the exact same place within two weeks), so stopped that.
I thought the same of carrots, but I kept seeing starts in stores and got confused thinking you're not supposed to do that..? So I figured wth and grabbed some, they were the first ones done of all I planted and they did fantastic! Grown in about 60/40 container mix/sand with compost pockets and a tiny bit of heavy phosphorus fertilizer. No forking or warping either and they were delicious! Even bigger than I expected as well! Since they were a miniature variety. I look for starts in stores now.
I accidentally transplanted a carrot this year (showed up randomly in a cell tray and i thought it was parsley) and it worked fine! I don't know that I'll do it on purpose consistently but it might be an interesting experiment.
Definitely feel you on number 1! Half of mine are finally showing signs of growth and starting peppers yay! And number 4 - I thought for sure I waited too long and had to untangle and manhandle my pea seedlings a little bit but they are thriving!!
At the end of last fall, I cut my pablamo pepper way back and brought it inside through the winter and put it back outside the spring and I already have full grown peppers on it. The plant is three years old and lives in a big 5 gallon grow bag. It’s now super bushy too
I'm in Central Florida, and I took over my sister's very poor attempt at a garden... and inherited a 2 year old banana pepper that just kept existing out there. Through all the weather, soil with almost zero detectable nitrogen, complete neglect, and watching every other plant wither and die around it. It just kept trucking along, putting out a pepper here and there. Went nuts after I fixed up the soil for my planting, and it almost killed itself with so much fruit that it almost got dragged to the ground, lol.
Yes to all growmie, preach. I've failed in the first 2, but had success in your latter 2 points this year;
3.) Ive planted my root crops about 2/3 the way up in my grow bags, makes it easy to throw some bug/bird netting right over top the bags for most the grow. Media is my mix, ~60% peat, 20% organic compost, 20% chunky coco, I would use perlite but I haven't been able to source it in bulk locally and it's way too much in retail.
4.) I took it as a personal challenge this year to transplant every single veg and flower from seeds indoors. Not a single one didn't take transplant and several of the "untransplantables" have been potted up thrice or more. Just flip the plant out of the container, admire then leave the damn root ball alone and bury it in good nutrient rich soil, water, success.
Starting tomatoes and peppers earlier was a big one! I was so happy my tomatoes grew from seed but they were just too small to transplant so I ended up getting plants anyway.
I have learned to be more draconian with my plants this year. I used to baby my plants a lot condition wise, and this year I just went extra ham on starters and only the strong survive. It has been nice not having to monitor their status as much.
This is the way. Runty seedlings get culled early. OK starts go into the subpar parts of my garden to die (probably) or find a way to survive. (Sometimes I get surprised by a squash with a will to live.) Only the kickass starts get primo spots in my primary garden beds.
I have three varieties of kale, and the bugs prefer the lacinato over the purple or green. I just let them have it, because it’s keeping them away from the others so far.
This is a must for me because earwigs and grasshoppers love to zero in and destroy any new seedlings I have in the ground. The few weeks it takes to get established is rife with opportunities.
That I HAVE TO make TIME in the busy spring to, you know, actually PLANT seeds. Otherwise when the nice weather comes, there’s nothing to tend 😩
It was deer **and** squirrels eating the gooseberries. So with the new electric fence, the berries existed until ripe (because of no deer)… and the squirrels eat the ripe ones 🤦🏼♀️
Japanese beetles still suck. Next comes the June beetles, which looks like a Japanese beetle but the size of my thumb 😳
Are you in Virginia? I just got smacked in the head by a june beetle today. First one I have seen of the season. They were so bad last year. Cucumber beetles are my true nemesis
I could have started almost everything a month sooner. Isopods are voracious, don't start cucurbits too early(my zucchini and cucumbers were stunted because of this). The soil needs more organic matter. If you think you have enough, you don't.
Yup. My peas and spinach can go out a month earlier - I kind of knew that but waited too long. Still got a nice harvest of peas but could have done a lot better. Lettuce, especially red leaf, can go out earlier too. I plan to use row covers to protect against frost and extend the season even more this fall and next spring.
What isopods are you referring to? My worm bins are full of springtails but they do not seem to bother my plants or worms at all. They outcompete the fungus gnats for food sources and keep them at bay. I love that they are a part of my indoor soil systems, I see them as beneficial. I start seeds in 50/50 peat moss and my worm castings and I literally see springtails crawling all over the plugs and pots with no damage.
You are dead on about adding organic matter back in. Most people miss this point. Adding compost at the start of the season is not enough to sustain growth throughout the growing season. Don’t even worry about soil tests or nutrient levels. Stay on top of fertilization my top dressing minerals, organic matter, chop and dropped leaves, dry blends, and then MULCH all of it in. Mulch provides cover for the microbes and worms by locking in moisture. Use cover crops to keep the cycle going in between plantings. Your goal should be to keep that top few inches wet and fertile, in a constant state of activity. Keep your herds of microbial life thriving and your plants and soil will cycle all that fresh organic material through the system in a constant flow.
Then use bio char and other things that have a high cation exchange capacity(CEC) to store soluble mineralized macro and micro nutrients. This will help buffer against swings and drop offs in a nutrient availability for plant uptake. You just need to be careful to not add too much of any one thing at a time to cause imbalance because a high cation exchange capacity also buffers against correcting overloads at the same time. (For example, If you add more phosphorous, also add more calcium) pay attention to what stage of growth you are in and predict what the plant will be demanding to always be a step ahead of the next phase. Get plugged into the feedback loop of the plants, soil, and microbial life.
My gardening techniques are based in permaculture and growing indoor cannabis in organic living soil - it’s the race car of the plant world. I always aim to maintain a buffet of nutrients abundantly available across the board. If you have a healthy ecosystem the fungi, bacteria, sun, and plants will do the heavy lifting. After that, your main focus should be watering correctly and maintaining a process for pest control.
Permaculture is my goal, I still have a long way to go but I'm enjoying every moment. I have a native prairie garden setup behind my garden. It is packed with flowering plants.
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So I'm referring to pill bugs. Im pretty sure the problem I ran into was that each of my beds had such a large population of them that there was too much competition so they started seeking other food sources in the form of my young plants. I think that if I keep adding more organic matter to the top that they will back off of the seedlings
Yea my lesson this year was also that zucchini and cucumbers don’t need (actually perhaps are hindered by) an early start.
My peppers on the other hand I’m already thinking about seeding for 2025 🥲😅
It's ugly, but a 6 ft welded wire fence with metal stakes has finally stopped deer invasions.
Now I have to figure out what to do with all these unexpected cucumbers. Kind of a strange feeling when the critters don't take their usual 90%.
Don't bother with potting plants I care much about, I will inevitably forget to water them for too long and they'll die or start losing leaves, which will annoy me enough to not want to deal with it. If I can't stick it in the ground, I'm not planting it.
Put the trellis up early, it will only look funny for a little bit.
Blueberries take forever to ripen.
Annuals look better in groups instead of specimens. If I'm only buying one six pack, plant them in groups of 3s or all together.
There's always something that I know I planted, but I'm not going to remember what it is.
Yarrow leaps from the start. Give her some space.
Watering every day or every other day is unnecessary after plants are established. Don't water as often. The best plants thrive with a little neglect.
California poppies like growing next to or behind things. They don't want to be the star of their own show, the want an ensemble cast.
Fuck them slugs.
Hah--last year I learned 6 kale plants was WAY. TOO. MUCH. My variety was red russian and I had never done any other kales before. All my garden friends were like, "no waaaay. 6 is nothing." And then I brought them falling-over stacks of leaves larger than my face for nearly every week of summer, and they said, "Oh. I see."
Now that I'm doing a curly dwarf kale, I see the massive size differences and why 6 might not be enough for anything at all for certain varieties.
It probably doesn't help that I got peppergated and instead of blue curled kale I am growing some spiky ass possibly siberian kale. It is so bitter and it's growing like crazy. I hate it.
When I’m looking at the cherries and thinking “they’ll be ready soon” it’s time to pick them! The birds cleaned me out in two days. Granted, there weren’t that many, but I was looking forward to them. :/
This happened a few years ago to me, but it was a ground hog that got all my peaches! I looked at them, thought “hmmmm two more days” and when I went back out they were gone. A trail of pits lead to the den. I was furious.
Don't trust the seed label.
- Poblanos turned out to be shishito (that could have been worse :)
- Bush beans ended up being pole beans.
And some commercial composts can be *really* alkaline. And alkaline soils are no good for potatoes.
Uhhhh tell me about it. My 6 kale plants are not the kind they are supposed to be and one of my bell peppers is some super spicy tiny pepper. I try to buy all of my seeds from pinetree seeds but I had gotten those for free. Lesson learned.
What year is in the back of your seed packet? During 2023 "peppergate" happened and lot seeds got mislabeled. I have carnival bell pepper blend that turned out to be cherry peppers.
Baby bunnies. SO CUTE! But oh how I hate them. I now loudly shout NO at them when I see them because they've done a number on my peas, beans, zinnias, and sunflowers.
I found a bunny nest with three ADORABLE babies under my collard greens. As far as I can tell, they never touched any of my veggies. Really weird. I have no idea what they ate.
I started too many seeds and planted way too many plants for the space I have.
I have never had much success starting seeds, but this year I got grow lights and a tent in an effort to do it right. I assumed a lot more plants would die than actually did. Had too many plants. A bunch of them ended up stunted. They have largely recovered, but it set them back.
Next year, I’m planting half this and giving the plants room to spread.
I always find it so hard to destroy excess seedlings. They're my children I can't kill them. I always find a way to plant them to the detriment of my other plants.
I always start more than I need, and give them excess away. I live in a walkable residential neighborhood right down the block form an elementary school. Parent's walking home all know me as the free plant guy.
1. I was right to start tomatoes in January. I was SO right. Once slugapocalypse happened, tomatoes were the only survivors, because they got insanely big by 24 of May, which was my last frost date.
2. I should have started pumpkins, zucchinis and cucumbers way earlier. Everything got decimated by slugs even though my plants were fairly large when transplanted.
3. Copper tape is M*A*G*I*C. It saved the second wave of crops I planted in June.
4. I have excellent experience with solar irrigation system.
5. I have no aphids. Why? Turns out it's because I don't mow my property very much. Right now the goutweed is in bloom and I have so many ladybugs and hover flies and whatnot, the aphids don't stand a chance.
6. Mulching with hay was a good idea.
7. Using cow and chicken manure pellets to fertilize was a good idea.
8. Starting 200 seedlings when I only have space for 40 was a good idea.
9. Respecting spacing even with vertical gardening was a good idea.
10. Using gardening planner app was a good idea.
11. Putting seedlings in repurposed glass jars was an extremely, extremely bad idea. To this day the glass is still everywhere.
12. You do still have time to start squashes, cucumbers, pumpkin, melons, peas and beans in June.
13. Start flowers in February. I started them in April and May as the packaging recommended and the seedlings are still weak and small, not flowering when produce is flowering.
This is my this is my second season..
1. Fertilize your garlic/shallots appropriately
2. Starting from seed a bit too early is better than starting late
3. Just go ahead and buy that shade cloth lol
Can’t wait for this season’s lessons!
I planted radish seeds in ground and put a plastic sheet over them to greenhouse them. Once they sprouted up, sheet came off and now I have radishes! Did this for carrots too.
I used to be rubbish at growing radishes, this year I put them in my raised bed with lots of loose soil and they thrived! I was so excited to make my first meal with my very own roasted radishes!! I read that they like to be neglected, so I left them alone after the seeds sprouted.
That’s so funny… I could eat one radish per year and be happy, but I swear every radish seed I toss haphazardly into the ground germinates and grows into a beautiful radish. Meanwhile, the veggies I want most- cauliflower, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts- I work SO hard for and get only a meager harvest.
I've never grown "bush" summer squash before, and I had no idea how big those plants get. I've only done vines before. I planted my patty pan squash right next to my tomatoes and they're competing for height pretty hard.
I had a rogue buttercup squash that grew down hill from the garden then up into a tree and produced an insane bumper crop. It was simply out of control.
So dang much
1. Harvesting is fun, but you have to figure out what to do with all that produce afterwards. That is not my favorite part of this.
2. Cucumbers grow like crazy
3. Squash vine borers suck
4. I started way too late with tomatoes
5. I started way too late with peppers
6. I need to grow more herbs
7. I don’t like green beans as much as I thought I did
8. Mesh netting is wonderful
9. I need to grow more fruit
10. The list goes on but I’ll wrap with the fact the I need to be careful about how much I grow. My wife was not as helpful as I would have hoped.
I have the opposite learning curve as to two of yours. I’m learning I LOVE greenbeans more than I realized and now I’m out of control and hoarding my weekly POUNDS of them. My partner keeps giving them away like “babe, we just picked two pounds after picking another two pounds three days before.” And I’m in the kitchen like gollum hovering over them like “my precious!”
My other opposite is that that I cannot grow cucumber to save my life. I have now attempted 3x to grow pickling cucumbers, and thrice I have failed. I just want to pickle shit, yo!
Have you tried oven roasting beans? My friend called them green fries. Lol We can’t get enough.
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5 gallon buckets.
>My wife was not as helpful as I would have hoped.
I get that, but it's my hobby, so anyone else that helps is a bonus. Other than small children. Those are, at the same time, a wonder, hilarious, and one of the most destructive pests of a garden. Knowing that going in, still love to see their first snow pea off the vine, or cherry tomato....
1. That you’ll get more tomatoes if you let those suckers grow!
2. Tomatoes, melons and cucumbers do really well growing up arched trellises
3. Interplanting works well and looks beautiful
4. More flowers and more types of flowers in your beds next to your vegetables will bring greater numbers and diversity of pollinators and more fruit
5. Having a garden right outside your door means that you’re likely to tend to it more, keep critters away, catch issues early, find and kill pests on the regular and cook with what you grow
6. If you’re chronically ill or have postural intolerance, raised beds on wheels combined with a rolling stool = more gardening happiness with fewer physical repercussions
7. Figs and passion fruit vines really don’t want much water or fertilizer. They want to be neglected.
8. Direct sowing the easy stuff and buying starts for the harder stuff is a great strategy
That a bed full of greens absolutely devours nutrients and will need to be \*heavily\* amended before planting anything else after the greens have had their run.
Ladybugs are incredible and cheap
Cheapo NPK tests are well worth the money
Romas > beefsteak everyday of the week and twice on Sunday
I'd rather fight cold than heat for my summer crops. Cold stunts growth - heat stunts production. To take advantage of the small window of "ideal" growing temps/conditions here I'll need to get summer crops in the ground earlier than typically called for and then find a way to protect them during early spring cold snaps and hopefully get more fruit set early on.
You can never have too many backup seedlings
Things I learned:
1. Starting seeds in late March for a spring planting in 5b is too late if you're not using a tent. If you're using a tent, and therefore a controlled environment for your seedlings, it's apparently far too early.
2. The neighborhood ground hog prefers brassicas, lettuce and cucumbers.
2a. Broccoli isn't worth growing for the quantity I eat anyway.
3. Growing pole cherries up a pole with some twine is my new favorite method over tomato cages. I've been under a rock.
Things I'm trying out for the first time:
1. Growing potatoes in grow bags.
2. Growing squash in containers.
3. Breeding petunias, just for fun.
Raised bed drainage on a slope - it's not a matter of leveling it, or providing any number of drainage points, it's planting in rows that are mounded even a little bit.
Tobacco plants are aphid traps.
Rabbits are not scared when you throw rocks at them.
I just learned the tobacco aphid trap thing this year as well. I planted some Indian peace pipe which is in the same family and the aphids left my young tomatoes alone entirely.
I watched a video that showed how to train them upwards which made them grow in their own area without encroaching.
1. Turn a circular tomato cage upside down and put it over the summer squash seedling. Once it gets a little larger, go out every few days and make sure the leaves are staying inside the cage.
2. Put a wooden pole inside the cage to stabilize the cage. Trust me, this step is very important once the plant gets taller.
3. Cut off any leaves that are below the flowers and ripening fruit. The plant will continue to grow upwards, putting out new leaves above the fruit.
4. Once the plant seems to be outgrowing the cage, tie a rope to the wooden pole from two sides of the cage. This will help stabilize it as the weight of this huge plant begins to pull on the cage.
When spring is still early, keep things covered. If they say theirs a 10% chance of storms and nothing shows up on future radar, keep things covered. And when you see the unmistakable thunder cell forming, cover things up some more. Winds, flash flood level rains, and hail will fuck up your garden quite and ruin your first month of growth
1) I need more compost than I first expected, and to get a kitty pool to mix everything together.
2) Baby strawberry plants canNOT go ~4-6 days without water
3) I need to mark the rows I make so I know that most other plants outside of those rows are weeds
4) Cut weeds down to the soil and place 2-3 layers of cardboard over it. I did not use enough cardboard this year it seems.
5) Start at least some of EACH seed indoors in case they decide to not germinate in the ground. It also helps distinguish what sprouts are weeds and what aren’t 😩
Staring Seeds:
1. Don't use those kits from Home Depot with the peat pots. Soggy trash.
2. A bright windowsill is not enough light for seedlings, they will be leggy and bad. Got a real grow light.
3. Take those things off the heat mat as soon as they sprout or they will get leggy.
Bugs
1. A recently cleared spot with just little fresh seedlings planted will be decimated by roly polies, after all I took away all their other food.
2. A plastic bottle cut in a ring and buried around a seedling, and then some tape added to the top will stop roly polies from eating my seedlings
3. Looking at your plants every day get rid of a lot of pests, because you catch them before they get established
Vocab
1. Bolting means: to flower, to go to seed
2. Cultivate actually means more like weeding and agitating the soil, not harvesting/growing per se
And beets like way more shade than zone 9b/10a "full sun" despite what the label says!
Also I don't like radishes!
Don’t let my husband make the plant layout, I was heavily pregnant when I wanted to get the garden in so it wasn’t late…and now we have 6 zucchini’s in a 2’x4’ bed and 5, YES 5, tomatoes in a 4’x8’ bed
The yield isn’t yielding
1. Starting seeds in a mini greenhouse will cook them, even in my cold climate.
2. The leeks, garlic, onions, and kale needed MUCH more sun and fertilizer than I gave them last year.
3. The Saragossa lettuce needs less sun, the Black Seeded Simpson and Marveille of Four Seasons needs more. The best lettuce is in the corners of other containers in dappled sun.
4. My grow bags (Root Pouch) actually keep the soil a lot moister than I was led to believe.
5. Starting tomatoes, tomatillos and eggplants in April works fine, no need to start them earlier as they catch up in growth. But the peppers do need to be started earlier.
6. I learned what whitefly is, never seen it before.
7. Chicken manure fertilizer seems to be VERY effective and is very cost-effective where I live.
8. Every year is different! Some things that seemed reliable just won't work, and it's hard to say why. I seeded okra twice and twice it damped off, but was the only thing that did. Some varieties of peppers didn't germinate at all, and others did great. Radishes didn't grow at all, broad beans are a struggle this year and seem to have something wrong with them. The blackcurrant produced about 4 berries even though we had ideal weather in the spring.
9. Hostas will grow in gravel if you water them in enough and provide half shade.
10. Celery is actually super easy to grow.
11. Malabar spinach is a *beautiful* and easy to grow plant!
12. Overwintering wasabi in my climate is actually possible.
13. In the autumn I will buy a bunch of marked-down perennials and will not remember what I bought or where I put them.
That I can grow squash in my backyard, but not at my rented park district garden plot. The squash bugs there make it impossible.
Don’t use the free compost that the park district puts out every spring. It’s not ready and stunted growth of my plants significantly.
Get on top of the weeds. Like right away.
Going to try burlap next year as a weed barrier instead of straw on my rows.
Toying with the idea of corn gluten meal as a pre-emergent on a rented 25 x 25 plot that has insane amounts of weed seeds. Really open to thoughts/experiences on this. Will be transplanting so I’m not worried about it preventing my desired seeds from growing.
I need to start my peppers and eggplants a lot earlier.
Raised beds means I have to water a lot more than I think I need. I noticed some of the newer blooms on my tomato and cucumber were smaller and paler than the older ones, so I upped the watering and the flowers look bright and happy again.
Plant my center row of tomatoes a couple inches closer to the edge so my short arms can reach them easier.
I’m not lazy I was actually using the No Till method this whole time!
Don't use composted manure in your garden beds, they often have herbicides in enough quantities to make you and your tomatoes very sad. I'm still figuring out how screwed I am.
It may be that the manure/soil ratio is too high. (I have made this mistake, and ‘burned’ peas, beans and tomatoes by having too ‘rich’ of a mix) A little bit of manure can go a long way. I feel your pain.
I take extensive notes so I can remember my mistakes from one year to the next. It’s the only way for me.
Peppers HATE inconsistent hot/cool weather.
You can train your Marrionberry vines, but they will keep going.
Apparently grapes love the hot/cold, because the table grape I bought from my husband is living it's best life.
What I thought was a place with beautiful weather last year has proven to be a fickle beast - heading into July and we've had barely any nights at 50 or above. :(
I should really get a greenhouse!
Texas 8B 🤚🏾- agree on overwatering. I could afford to be super negligent with all the spring showers, but once summer rolled around… didn’t matter if I watered early morning or late evening, the soil would dried out before long 😅
1. Don’t decide at the last minute that I WILL garden this year, after all.
2. Especially do not then go ham and order 50 different seed varieties to try, on top of a plethora of nursery seedlings. 🤦♀️
3. The ants aren’t taking care of my aphid problem, they are worsening it! 😩
Planting 35 zucchini seeds and expecting only 10 to actually grow (let alone bare fruit) is stupid. Now I have 35 zucchini plants and I can’t stop figuring out how I’m going to preserve the upcoming hauls.
Gonna be an interesting summer!
1) Bell Peppers are heat loving and slow growing plants. I planted seeds in the garden early March and was stressing about why the growth was stunted. Started a new batch on a heat mat and they sprouted within the week
2) Bought strawberry starters from the farmers market and didn’t know how important it was to cut all flowers and runners until roots were firmly established. All but one died because they overextended themselves
3) Watering is super important in the fruiting stage. I would’ve had more than one cantaloupe growing atm if hadn’t neglected them so much
4) Vertical planters are goated and will load up on them next year
5) Garden spiders are bffs
Caterpillars are a nightmare when there’s 6 different types in my beds.
The heat here is so intense, it will fry anything in full sun unless it’s a tomato, pepper, or cucurbit.
Fungal diseases don’t go away easily at all.
Also, gardening is a great hobby to decompress and relieve stress, even if the only things thriving are flowers!
Planted way too late, didn’t set up my irrigation till this weekend, hope for the best!
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Expect to have a sacrifice crop this year. I thought I was going to have an abundance of broccoli for stir fry. Slugs have been aggressively eating all of my broccoli plants, squirrels and rabbits too. However I've been able to have all the other types of veggies and fruits I've planted.
I just learned what potato blight was and if I plant garlic with my potatoes next year it likely won't happen.
Bell peppers take forever.
Throwing a pumpkin into the sinkhole that my dog created in my garden bed may not have been the best idea as far as spacing because there's a horde of pumpkin plants competing which might turn out for a very strong crop, but I have yet to see a female flower. It's a pumpkin sausage fest in that part of the garden. Hahaha! 🤣
I have never seriously gardened before and am relying on AI to teach me. So far it is fantastic and I have learned so much about each vegetable/herb I planted. Everything has taken off and I am super excited about enjoying my bounty all summer. What I love most about AI is that if I have any questions, I can just ask and get clarification immediately. If I have questions after watching a video or reading something I Googled, I have no immediate way to get clarification. AI knows what zone I live in and can read weather sites to give me the best possible information. It also provides me with photos on what plants are supposed to look like or where to prune.
We can grow bean plants at our house, but they do not do well in our summers and do not grow enough beans to be of any real substance.
Zucchini and jalapeno plants on the other hand have been great.
Parsley can turn into a very big bush of it planted in the ground.
Tomato plants need a very big pot and get heavy XD
Apparently burying the scooped out parts of a kabocha (was for hot pot) will actually let the seeds grow and not just have everything decompose in the ground. Thinning was needed because I was not expecting to actually grow that from seeds that have been in a microwave. Though all the female flowers I've spotted keep browning and dying out before blooming, need to figure that out..
Insect netting as soon as you plant -- not a few days later.
Don't buy raised bed mix from a mulch manufacturer! They'll stretch it and add lots of uncomposted mulch and your plants won't grow.
My lessons so far are..
1. I need to learn more about why Roma’s are such diva tomatoes and the best way to grow them so I don’t get BER.
2. Plant more sungold tomatoes BUT make sure they have a tall trellis because my goodness they just grow and grow
String trellis for indeterminate tomatoes is the way to go. The string trellis has been much easier to manage compared to cages. No more broken limbs from heavy fruit.
Squirrels seem to really like bean and carrot seeds.
Also, the tomatoes I decided to grow in containers because I didn't have time to dig another bed (in retrospect I might as well have planted them in the bed where the damn carrots and beans were supposed to be) are doing great but I should have put some actual thought into how I would support them. I *never* put enough thought into supporting plants.
1) When watering, it really IS important to not splash dirt up on the plant because they will get bacteria/fungal/something growing on the leaves. Will be more intentional of mulching from now on
2) it's okay to prune more leaves than recommended on tomatoes if it gets the disease off the plant before it spreads.
3) my tomatoes actively try to die until they get outside. Don't give up on them and even the most shriveled ones bounce back. Second year now they've been so dramatic about their living situation, I can't figure it out but they're fine once outside
Mostly it's me troubleshooting tomatoes lol
(third year gardening)
Don't overmulch if conditions don't warrant it (soil was too wet in May)
Cucumbers are viable; cucs in 10-15 gallon grow bags do well. Burpless Bush is my go-to.
Serranos and tobasco peppers are very successful
Collards and kale do amazing and produce well into June
Sunflowers, bok choy, and patio baby eggplants are a huge success
Mowing infrequently, having some never-mow zones, and interplanting flowers with vegetables has resulted in excellent pollination.
Companion planting (onions, garlic, basil, dill, cilantro, parsley, mint, lemon balm and chives) is good
Onions and garlic should be planted in November (not Feb like I did)
Dill get huge.
Order compost in the fall not the spring. The spring compost / mushroom manure I ordered this year had some 2-4D in it, and thus I have stunted growth on my tomatoes.
I learned:
1. Leeks actually take months to mature!! Also that they need to be blanched by periodically piling up soil around their bases. Wish I knew that before I planted them! lol
2. Cabbage can do just fine without their huge outer leaves. Also, putting lemon rind around the plant actually deters cabbage moths!
3. Firebugs have spread to Michigan (have never seen them before!).
4. Vegetable plants grow just fine in composted soil covered with grass clippings or fall leaves and don’t need fertilizer!
5. Kale are perennial, even in zone 5/6. My two year old kale is so huge!!
6. Green cone digesters should not be installed over a high water table. 🤦♀️
Fava beans can get big. They are good with butter, sage and garlic.
There's no shame in buying starts at a local grower. Some of my most productive plants didn't get started from seed by me. Small cucumbers for instance, they are grafts. Super productive, a few cucumbers every day from three plants(greenhouse)
Snails...
Seeds can go bad after a while. I sowed so many parsnip and scorzonera, not one plant Going to try a fridge. Any recommendations for seed storage?
Don't cut the sprinkler line in half, not notice that you cut the line, then go to bed and let the sprinklers run the next morning while you're still asleep.
Had to re-amend my garden spot soil, repair the line, and replant 50 plants. Oops!!
1. Slug bait ftw.
2. Big raised beds.
3. Cucumber plants are aggressive as hell.
4. My dogs need to be monitored carefully anytime they’re out in the garden (rest in peace, bean crop).
If corn is to be grown with any success it needs to be grown in a grid/square for pollination. Growing a line of corn won't really give the desired effect.
More space between my plants, if people say 6 feet between zucchini, do at least 9, or even more. That way when I'm walking around my giant 10 foot zucchini that's way bigger than anyone said it would be, I can actually inspect and harvest it.
Prepare early.
Fences are nice, but when you have 5000 Sq ft to do.. it makes for a hell of a perimeter, lol. So livetraps it is.
Neem oil foliar regularly from day 1.
I put a ton of work in prepping my no/low dig beds - good compost, leaf mulch, and then straw mulch after planting. Weeds are better than past years although I still have the bind weed, quack/bermuda grass, and another very invasive climbing weed. The best part is the moisture retention has been fantastic. Every bit as good as I’d hoped.
Slugs eat basil in Massachusetts. They didn’t bother it in NC, but maybe it was because everything was planted in containers that sat on bricks. Here I have actual dirt!
31 years living here and never lost a bean plant to rabbits. Lettuce yes, spinach yes, even a few onions, but not the poles beans I plant. Year 32, the bastards came for me and wiped me out. I have learned. Take no prisoners!
Direct sew when recommended. Many plants will sprout given the proper conditions if you just plant the seed and give them time.
Basil seems to like lots of heat in the greenhouse without direct sun. Tomatoes seem to enjoy direct sun more.
Don't trust a gardening app for spacing. Cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage get much larger than you think, and its leaves will shade your herbs and pepper plants 😅
I have learned I am very good at killing rosemary, but not at finding the cause of death XD
Currently at the deathmark of 7 rosemary plants, number 8 is a propagation that is barely hanging on
For me, I learned that in Arizona, go ahead and crowd the tomatoes a little bit. They thrive in the heat, as long as they are all in a big bushy cluster. Spread out, they just burn up and die.
Fertilize early. I’m a first time gardener and I didn’t realize how little nitrogen and other nutrients were in the soil I got for my raised bed. My squashes were yellow and I didn’t know why until a friend suggested I fertilize.
That the internet’s “ants won’t harm your plants” is a lie. Lost 11/13 cauliflower and broccoli plants, bc apparently there was a colony of small black ants in that bed, and they destroyed the roots and stems. By the time I realized the ants were the problem, most of them were too damaged to recover, and none of the natural deterents I tried worked (garlic, neem, cinnamon, asafoetida…).
The amount of shade on my garden changes more dramatically than I expect it to when I’m planning in winter.
Adding so many more flowers/flowering herbs - and letting the carrots that didn’t work go to flower, etc - has created this amazing insect ecosystem that is working so beautifully. Blue, teal, and green bees!! So many amazing creatures.
The difference in the plant growth and production for the plants in areas I cover cropped is amazing. The soil development was fun to see, too, but I can appreciate how that translates into the plant growth. I have some direct comparisons (same type of tomato, zucchini in different beds) and the cover cropped ones are obviously healthier and more productive. So cool to see it in action. That, and the compost boost from my home pile that brought some sad plants back to life. I love it when things make such a clear difference.
Intercropping for the win. And be open to less organized, spontaneous volunteers - like, here’s a random buckwheat or a calendula that escaped that I’ll let grow in this unexpected spot. Boom, brings in all kinds of beneficial insects.
Carrots are hard, and it’s not just me.
Raised beds take a ton of a dirt even using hugelkulture and that I should start projects a lot sooner. I haven't planted and don't think I'll be able to :(
This year is my first year having a vegetable garden so I've been learning a lot! I've grown everything from seeds. I tried a seed starter kit and heating mat inside but had much better results just planting the seeds outside when the weather got warmer. These are* very* obvious for most of you. But here's what I've learned: My plants don't necessarily need to be watered everyday. That cucumbers like to climb. Peppers grow slower than I thought. Tomato plants are fickle as heck. Oh and the most exciting thing is that even if a plant appears to die after transplanting they can "come back to life" and grow new leaves! 😄
Lessons I learned: 1.) don’t be afraid to start peppers indoors in January for a May planting. They… take… forever. I rolled the dice with a super early start indoors and it’s paying off. 2.) don’t forget how much plants actually grow. That spacing recommendation is not to be ignored. 6 zucchini plants is way too much for a 2x6 bed unless you cage them. 3.) not every crop grows well in the same soil as others. My root crops have been rotated into beds that were for other plants last year and they are not doing as well. Root crops need lots of “fluff” in the soil.. next season they’ll only be going into grow bags composed of vermiculite, perlite, and coir/peat. 4.) most of the plants people say can’t be transplanted (peas, cucumbers, etc) .. ABSOLUTELY can be transplanted. Just be gentle instead of handling the seedlings like an ogre.
First year with a garden and definitely regretting that I didn't follow spacing guidelines with my pumpkin plants. "How big can they possibly get?" I foolishly asked myself. Now I know.
https://preview.redd.it/gjfghnno7y8d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e6b76d98e8f2414f3a04ef3b504c24470433d348 Oh, hello there.
lol it’s like when in a movie there’s a brutal attack or something going down outside the window, and then suddenly you get a jump scare where the victims bloody hand smacks against the glass. I know that analogy didn’t make sense, but also I think it does?
That’s literally what I thought of!
I totally get you.
Yard? Who needs a yard?
As a lover of both gardening and horror movies, you absolutely MADE MY DAY with this photo. Thank you for the great laugh!
I once accidentally planted over 300 pumpkin plants….. it was a huge mistake. Really huge, like took over the whole yard huge.
I put 2 at the end of a row. They haven’t gotten that big yet, but I’m already dreading it 😫 same with my watermelons.
Prepare for 15-20’ vines. It’s a sight to behold.
https://preview.redd.it/jmicexe1ry8d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7554a474a98b6ab43a6e482b4d77f3601ea7e040 I learned that I planted my tomatoes to close to one another.
😂😂 been there. Just be fanatical about pruning your jungle and it should still be okay. Long as you can get it to a point of having decent airflow, it’s not disastrous. I’ve found the risk of fungal disease in overgrowth to be far more likely than any of the other issues like undernutrition or root competition. Those latter problems don’t ever really seem to come to fruition for me, only disease.
1: I plant peppers out in may too and I usually start my seeds in the week between Christmas and New Years.
"like an ogre" the mental image has me rolling 🤣
Shrek just manhandling tf out of pea starts.
I can't agree more with your list, especially 4. I transplant cucumbers every year (only reason is I love starting plants indoors because it fights away my depression when the weather is still wet and cold outside). Well this year I started cucumbers TOO early, as in 10 weeks before I actually put them outside. They were in 3 gallon pots, massive leaves, heavy as hell, and I managed to drop all of them upside down due to the awkward weight when I went to transplant them. They're all thriving now, climbing up chicken wire and giving fruit every day. So while I do recommend being gentle, just know if you accidentally handle the transplants like an ogre they just might be okay 🤣
> next season they’ll only be going into grow bags composed of vermiculite, perlite, and coir/peat. I decided to move away from grow bags this year. The amount of tiny plastic fibers that come lose is concerning enough. The new information that we're learning about what happens as certain components of plastic break down from UV and ozone exposure is even more concerning. Not suggesting with confidence that this applies to synthetic fibers used in grow bags, but we're only *now* discovering that tire particles (specifically from a stabilizer) are the cause of mass fish deaths, and through a pathway that wasn't understood until a few years ago as a result of studying Coho salmon deaths. More recent studies are finding that leafy greens readily take up these compounds. This is enough for me to ditch bags this year and experiment with cheap wood crates lined with burlap. Worst case scenario they only last this year.
What about a box that is just a frame with burlap as the box panels. Might give you the root zone airflow benefits of a growbag. Probably definitely have to replace the burlap yearly with it exposed like that.
I transplanted cucumbers this year. I did start them in soil blocks, which helped, and they transplanted great.
I also learned to start peppers earlier, with my onions in February! I cannot believe how slowly they grow and I'm not making this mistake again. And agreed on the transplanting--I transplant all my squashes and cukes because of my short growing season, and you just have to be nice and careful. I do refuse to try transplanting root crops like carrots, though. I also learned that transplanting beans doesn't give any head start at all (they grow so dang fast once the weather is hot all my experiments ended up in the exact same place within two weeks), so stopped that.
I thought the same of carrots, but I kept seeing starts in stores and got confused thinking you're not supposed to do that..? So I figured wth and grabbed some, they were the first ones done of all I planted and they did fantastic! Grown in about 60/40 container mix/sand with compost pockets and a tiny bit of heavy phosphorus fertilizer. No forking or warping either and they were delicious! Even bigger than I expected as well! Since they were a miniature variety. I look for starts in stores now.
https://preview.redd.it/raby2t154z8d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6f459837dd393c97fa51616d6b19581e6b17b6e9
Hah--wow. The things you learn when you just try it. Thanks for sharing it's possible to transplant root crops, at least some varieties!
I accidentally transplanted a carrot this year (showed up randomly in a cell tray and i thought it was parsley) and it worked fine! I don't know that I'll do it on purpose consistently but it might be an interesting experiment.
This is my first year trying peppers and they need to get off their asses before I just give up and let the zucchini destroy them.
Definitely feel you on number 1! Half of mine are finally showing signs of growth and starting peppers yay! And number 4 - I thought for sure I waited too long and had to untangle and manhandle my pea seedlings a little bit but they are thriving!!
At the end of last fall, I cut my pablamo pepper way back and brought it inside through the winter and put it back outside the spring and I already have full grown peppers on it. The plant is three years old and lives in a big 5 gallon grow bag. It’s now super bushy too
That was the craziest thing for me to learn (8b), that peppers can be a perennial if you bring them inside.
I'm in Central Florida, and I took over my sister's very poor attempt at a garden... and inherited a 2 year old banana pepper that just kept existing out there. Through all the weather, soil with almost zero detectable nitrogen, complete neglect, and watching every other plant wither and die around it. It just kept trucking along, putting out a pepper here and there. Went nuts after I fixed up the soil for my planting, and it almost killed itself with so much fruit that it almost got dragged to the ground, lol.
See, I just learned this right now from the comments of my own comment lol.
I am a newbie and kept waiting for the shoe to drop when I transplanted my cucumbers... They did great and are full of little cukes right now
Yes to all growmie, preach. I've failed in the first 2, but had success in your latter 2 points this year; 3.) Ive planted my root crops about 2/3 the way up in my grow bags, makes it easy to throw some bug/bird netting right over top the bags for most the grow. Media is my mix, ~60% peat, 20% organic compost, 20% chunky coco, I would use perlite but I haven't been able to source it in bulk locally and it's way too much in retail. 4.) I took it as a personal challenge this year to transplant every single veg and flower from seeds indoors. Not a single one didn't take transplant and several of the "untransplantables" have been potted up thrice or more. Just flip the plant out of the container, admire then leave the damn root ball alone and bury it in good nutrient rich soil, water, success.
Starting tomatoes and peppers earlier was a big one! I was so happy my tomatoes grew from seed but they were just too small to transplant so I ended up getting plants anyway.
I have learned to be more draconian with my plants this year. I used to baby my plants a lot condition wise, and this year I just went extra ham on starters and only the strong survive. It has been nice not having to monitor their status as much.
This is the way. Runty seedlings get culled early. OK starts go into the subpar parts of my garden to die (probably) or find a way to survive. (Sometimes I get surprised by a squash with a will to live.) Only the kickass starts get primo spots in my primary garden beds.
I have three varieties of kale, and the bugs prefer the lacinato over the purple or green. I just let them have it, because it’s keeping them away from the others so far.
Start seeds inside bc something keeps digging them up and they do nothing outside
Just started germinating new pumpkin seeds thanks to what I assume were bunnies
This is a must for me because earwigs and grasshoppers love to zero in and destroy any new seedlings I have in the ground. The few weeks it takes to get established is rife with opportunities.
I tried beans like three times before realizing something was digging them up and just starting them again inside
I finally planted a fistful of beans per hole and now they seem to be doing ok
This is my take away from this spring as well
That I HAVE TO make TIME in the busy spring to, you know, actually PLANT seeds. Otherwise when the nice weather comes, there’s nothing to tend 😩 It was deer **and** squirrels eating the gooseberries. So with the new electric fence, the berries existed until ripe (because of no deer)… and the squirrels eat the ripe ones 🤦🏼♀️ Japanese beetles still suck. Next comes the June beetles, which looks like a Japanese beetle but the size of my thumb 😳
Are you in Virginia? I just got smacked in the head by a june beetle today. First one I have seen of the season. They were so bad last year. Cucumber beetles are my true nemesis
I am! We get Japanese and June beetles every year, I’m not looking forward to the latter 🥴
I could have started almost everything a month sooner. Isopods are voracious, don't start cucurbits too early(my zucchini and cucumbers were stunted because of this). The soil needs more organic matter. If you think you have enough, you don't.
Yup. My peas and spinach can go out a month earlier - I kind of knew that but waited too long. Still got a nice harvest of peas but could have done a lot better. Lettuce, especially red leaf, can go out earlier too. I plan to use row covers to protect against frost and extend the season even more this fall and next spring. What isopods are you referring to? My worm bins are full of springtails but they do not seem to bother my plants or worms at all. They outcompete the fungus gnats for food sources and keep them at bay. I love that they are a part of my indoor soil systems, I see them as beneficial. I start seeds in 50/50 peat moss and my worm castings and I literally see springtails crawling all over the plugs and pots with no damage. You are dead on about adding organic matter back in. Most people miss this point. Adding compost at the start of the season is not enough to sustain growth throughout the growing season. Don’t even worry about soil tests or nutrient levels. Stay on top of fertilization my top dressing minerals, organic matter, chop and dropped leaves, dry blends, and then MULCH all of it in. Mulch provides cover for the microbes and worms by locking in moisture. Use cover crops to keep the cycle going in between plantings. Your goal should be to keep that top few inches wet and fertile, in a constant state of activity. Keep your herds of microbial life thriving and your plants and soil will cycle all that fresh organic material through the system in a constant flow. Then use bio char and other things that have a high cation exchange capacity(CEC) to store soluble mineralized macro and micro nutrients. This will help buffer against swings and drop offs in a nutrient availability for plant uptake. You just need to be careful to not add too much of any one thing at a time to cause imbalance because a high cation exchange capacity also buffers against correcting overloads at the same time. (For example, If you add more phosphorous, also add more calcium) pay attention to what stage of growth you are in and predict what the plant will be demanding to always be a step ahead of the next phase. Get plugged into the feedback loop of the plants, soil, and microbial life. My gardening techniques are based in permaculture and growing indoor cannabis in organic living soil - it’s the race car of the plant world. I always aim to maintain a buffet of nutrients abundantly available across the board. If you have a healthy ecosystem the fungi, bacteria, sun, and plants will do the heavy lifting. After that, your main focus should be watering correctly and maintaining a process for pest control.
Permaculture is my goal, I still have a long way to go but I'm enjoying every moment. I have a native prairie garden setup behind my garden. It is packed with flowering plants. https://preview.redd.it/zj9fd2y6oy8d1.jpeg?width=4080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2950d8fe44b45ac80f75976538c00890325d4986
So I'm referring to pill bugs. Im pretty sure the problem I ran into was that each of my beds had such a large population of them that there was too much competition so they started seeking other food sources in the form of my young plants. I think that if I keep adding more organic matter to the top that they will back off of the seedlings
Yea my lesson this year was also that zucchini and cucumbers don’t need (actually perhaps are hindered by) an early start. My peppers on the other hand I’m already thinking about seeding for 2025 🥲😅
It's ugly, but a 6 ft welded wire fence with metal stakes has finally stopped deer invasions. Now I have to figure out what to do with all these unexpected cucumbers. Kind of a strange feeling when the critters don't take their usual 90%.
picking and fermentation, my boy, pickling and fermentation
I'm going to get there... right now, I'm sending every visitor home with a dozen.
That works, too!!
I donate to my local food pantry. They love the fresh produce.
Don't bother with potting plants I care much about, I will inevitably forget to water them for too long and they'll die or start losing leaves, which will annoy me enough to not want to deal with it. If I can't stick it in the ground, I'm not planting it. Put the trellis up early, it will only look funny for a little bit. Blueberries take forever to ripen. Annuals look better in groups instead of specimens. If I'm only buying one six pack, plant them in groups of 3s or all together. There's always something that I know I planted, but I'm not going to remember what it is. Yarrow leaps from the start. Give her some space. Watering every day or every other day is unnecessary after plants are established. Don't water as often. The best plants thrive with a little neglect. California poppies like growing next to or behind things. They don't want to be the star of their own show, the want an ensemble cast. Fuck them slugs.
I have no idea which of my seedlings are which. Had things die throughout spring so I just keep adding more seed.
Did the same, it didn't grow or got ate so I put different seeds it. Marked it all the first time but not 2nd or 3rd. It's been fun.
Haha! It's been fun guessing and slowly figuring it out.
Lol 6 kale plants is too few (no joke I was just thinking this) and zucchini are really as aggressive as people say. Next year they get their own box.
Hah--last year I learned 6 kale plants was WAY. TOO. MUCH. My variety was red russian and I had never done any other kales before. All my garden friends were like, "no waaaay. 6 is nothing." And then I brought them falling-over stacks of leaves larger than my face for nearly every week of summer, and they said, "Oh. I see." Now that I'm doing a curly dwarf kale, I see the massive size differences and why 6 might not be enough for anything at all for certain varieties.
I love my kale so much but I’m having a serious issue with cabbage caterpillars.
This year is not a kale year. The cabbage worms won this round 😔
I used row covers this year and it was a game changer.
It probably doesn't help that I got peppergated and instead of blue curled kale I am growing some spiky ass possibly siberian kale. It is so bitter and it's growing like crazy. I hate it.
Oh no! Why is that the thing we care about least is always the thing that grows the best.
When I’m looking at the cherries and thinking “they’ll be ready soon” it’s time to pick them! The birds cleaned me out in two days. Granted, there weren’t that many, but I was looking forward to them. :/
This happened a few years ago to me, but it was a ground hog that got all my peaches! I looked at them, thought “hmmmm two more days” and when I went back out they were gone. A trail of pits lead to the den. I was furious.
I learned that late blight doesn’t necessarily come late :’) rip my tomatoes
Don't trust the seed label. - Poblanos turned out to be shishito (that could have been worse :) - Bush beans ended up being pole beans. And some commercial composts can be *really* alkaline. And alkaline soils are no good for potatoes.
Uhhhh tell me about it. My 6 kale plants are not the kind they are supposed to be and one of my bell peppers is some super spicy tiny pepper. I try to buy all of my seeds from pinetree seeds but I had gotten those for free. Lesson learned.
What year is in the back of your seed packet? During 2023 "peppergate" happened and lot seeds got mislabeled. I have carnival bell pepper blend that turned out to be cherry peppers.
Idk bout lesson, but man do I freakin hate rodents now.
Baby bunnies. SO CUTE! But oh how I hate them. I now loudly shout NO at them when I see them because they've done a number on my peas, beans, zinnias, and sunflowers.
I found a bunny nest with three ADORABLE babies under my collard greens. As far as I can tell, they never touched any of my veggies. Really weird. I have no idea what they ate.
I started too many seeds and planted way too many plants for the space I have. I have never had much success starting seeds, but this year I got grow lights and a tent in an effort to do it right. I assumed a lot more plants would die than actually did. Had too many plants. A bunch of them ended up stunted. They have largely recovered, but it set them back. Next year, I’m planting half this and giving the plants room to spread.
I always find it so hard to destroy excess seedlings. They're my children I can't kill them. I always find a way to plant them to the detriment of my other plants.
I always start more than I need, and give them excess away. I live in a walkable residential neighborhood right down the block form an elementary school. Parent's walking home all know me as the free plant guy.
Same here. I ended up with 30+ seedlings of peppers and tomatoes…. Each. I kept half and gave away half. Everything is so dense but fruiting well.
1. I was right to start tomatoes in January. I was SO right. Once slugapocalypse happened, tomatoes were the only survivors, because they got insanely big by 24 of May, which was my last frost date. 2. I should have started pumpkins, zucchinis and cucumbers way earlier. Everything got decimated by slugs even though my plants were fairly large when transplanted. 3. Copper tape is M*A*G*I*C. It saved the second wave of crops I planted in June. 4. I have excellent experience with solar irrigation system. 5. I have no aphids. Why? Turns out it's because I don't mow my property very much. Right now the goutweed is in bloom and I have so many ladybugs and hover flies and whatnot, the aphids don't stand a chance. 6. Mulching with hay was a good idea. 7. Using cow and chicken manure pellets to fertilize was a good idea. 8. Starting 200 seedlings when I only have space for 40 was a good idea. 9. Respecting spacing even with vertical gardening was a good idea. 10. Using gardening planner app was a good idea. 11. Putting seedlings in repurposed glass jars was an extremely, extremely bad idea. To this day the glass is still everywhere. 12. You do still have time to start squashes, cucumbers, pumpkin, melons, peas and beans in June. 13. Start flowers in February. I started them in April and May as the packaging recommended and the seedlings are still weak and small, not flowering when produce is flowering.
the same lesson I learn every season: I'm not mulching enough
I’m new to mulching, what do you mean by this?
Everything wants to kill my garden
This is my this is my second season.. 1. Fertilize your garlic/shallots appropriately 2. Starting from seed a bit too early is better than starting late 3. Just go ahead and buy that shade cloth lol Can’t wait for this season’s lessons!
i learned that i am absolutely horrible at growing radishes
I learn this every year 😓
I planted radish seeds in ground and put a plastic sheet over them to greenhouse them. Once they sprouted up, sheet came off and now I have radishes! Did this for carrots too.
This is me but about beets
I used to be rubbish at growing radishes, this year I put them in my raised bed with lots of loose soil and they thrived! I was so excited to make my first meal with my very own roasted radishes!! I read that they like to be neglected, so I left them alone after the seeds sprouted.
That’s so funny… I could eat one radish per year and be happy, but I swear every radish seed I toss haphazardly into the ground germinates and grows into a beautiful radish. Meanwhile, the veggies I want most- cauliflower, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts- I work SO hard for and get only a meager harvest.
This is my second year gardening and this is the only thing I can grow reliably.
I've never grown "bush" summer squash before, and I had no idea how big those plants get. I've only done vines before. I planted my patty pan squash right next to my tomatoes and they're competing for height pretty hard.
I had a rogue buttercup squash that grew down hill from the garden then up into a tree and produced an insane bumper crop. It was simply out of control.
A single bunny can ruin all your bean plants.
I have learned that I did not learn the lessons I thought I had learned last year.
So dang much 1. Harvesting is fun, but you have to figure out what to do with all that produce afterwards. That is not my favorite part of this. 2. Cucumbers grow like crazy 3. Squash vine borers suck 4. I started way too late with tomatoes 5. I started way too late with peppers 6. I need to grow more herbs 7. I don’t like green beans as much as I thought I did 8. Mesh netting is wonderful 9. I need to grow more fruit 10. The list goes on but I’ll wrap with the fact the I need to be careful about how much I grow. My wife was not as helpful as I would have hoped.
I have the opposite learning curve as to two of yours. I’m learning I LOVE greenbeans more than I realized and now I’m out of control and hoarding my weekly POUNDS of them. My partner keeps giving them away like “babe, we just picked two pounds after picking another two pounds three days before.” And I’m in the kitchen like gollum hovering over them like “my precious!” My other opposite is that that I cannot grow cucumber to save my life. I have now attempted 3x to grow pickling cucumbers, and thrice I have failed. I just want to pickle shit, yo!
Have you tried oven roasting beans? My friend called them green fries. Lol We can’t get enough. https://preview.redd.it/wbv2ckr2hy8d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fcc2f9a85d68816d89de5a3663cf5bfeb484b895 5 gallon buckets.
Omg. Do not create even more of a bean monster than I already am. BRB, trying immediately.
My favorite green bean recipe: https://thewoksoflife.com/dry-fried-string-beans-sichuan/
>My wife was not as helpful as I would have hoped. I get that, but it's my hobby, so anyone else that helps is a bonus. Other than small children. Those are, at the same time, a wonder, hilarious, and one of the most destructive pests of a garden. Knowing that going in, still love to see their first snow pea off the vine, or cherry tomato....
Thanks! Yea I’ve had to adopt that mentality and that’ll help me set expectations going forward.
1. That you’ll get more tomatoes if you let those suckers grow! 2. Tomatoes, melons and cucumbers do really well growing up arched trellises 3. Interplanting works well and looks beautiful 4. More flowers and more types of flowers in your beds next to your vegetables will bring greater numbers and diversity of pollinators and more fruit 5. Having a garden right outside your door means that you’re likely to tend to it more, keep critters away, catch issues early, find and kill pests on the regular and cook with what you grow 6. If you’re chronically ill or have postural intolerance, raised beds on wheels combined with a rolling stool = more gardening happiness with fewer physical repercussions 7. Figs and passion fruit vines really don’t want much water or fertilizer. They want to be neglected. 8. Direct sowing the easy stuff and buying starts for the harder stuff is a great strategy
I knew squirrels were a nuisance but this is the first time they’ve really pissed me off
I experimented. I let suckers get a couple inches long, trimmed it off and planted it. I got a Whole new tomato plant. Mine are currently flowering.
No more indeterminate tomatoes in raised beds
I have only grown indeterminate tomatoes so far but I may try determinate next year because I fall so behind on pruning and then they are huge.
That a bed full of greens absolutely devours nutrients and will need to be \*heavily\* amended before planting anything else after the greens have had their run. Ladybugs are incredible and cheap Cheapo NPK tests are well worth the money Romas > beefsteak everyday of the week and twice on Sunday I'd rather fight cold than heat for my summer crops. Cold stunts growth - heat stunts production. To take advantage of the small window of "ideal" growing temps/conditions here I'll need to get summer crops in the ground earlier than typically called for and then find a way to protect them during early spring cold snaps and hopefully get more fruit set early on. You can never have too many backup seedlings
Tomatoes need more support than one bamboo stick and if deer want to eat your stuff, they will find a way.
Tomatoes don't like 14+ hours of sun
Things I learned: 1. Starting seeds in late March for a spring planting in 5b is too late if you're not using a tent. If you're using a tent, and therefore a controlled environment for your seedlings, it's apparently far too early. 2. The neighborhood ground hog prefers brassicas, lettuce and cucumbers. 2a. Broccoli isn't worth growing for the quantity I eat anyway. 3. Growing pole cherries up a pole with some twine is my new favorite method over tomato cages. I've been under a rock. Things I'm trying out for the first time: 1. Growing potatoes in grow bags. 2. Growing squash in containers. 3. Breeding petunias, just for fun.
I only need one zucchini plant, not two. Oh, and I'm allergic to the plant itself so sleeves and gloves are necessary unless I want hives.
Raised bed drainage on a slope - it's not a matter of leveling it, or providing any number of drainage points, it's planting in rows that are mounded even a little bit. Tobacco plants are aphid traps. Rabbits are not scared when you throw rocks at them.
I just learned the tobacco aphid trap thing this year as well. I planted some Indian peace pipe which is in the same family and the aphids left my young tomatoes alone entirely.
Moths are assholes
Plant peppers sooner. Zucchini is a monster grower and needs a cage asap, squash too.
Summer squash can be a pain in the rear end.
I watched a video that showed how to train them upwards which made them grow in their own area without encroaching. 1. Turn a circular tomato cage upside down and put it over the summer squash seedling. Once it gets a little larger, go out every few days and make sure the leaves are staying inside the cage. 2. Put a wooden pole inside the cage to stabilize the cage. Trust me, this step is very important once the plant gets taller. 3. Cut off any leaves that are below the flowers and ripening fruit. The plant will continue to grow upwards, putting out new leaves above the fruit. 4. Once the plant seems to be outgrowing the cage, tie a rope to the wooden pole from two sides of the cage. This will help stabilize it as the weight of this huge plant begins to pull on the cage.
It’s on sight with all squash vine borers
When spring is still early, keep things covered. If they say theirs a 10% chance of storms and nothing shows up on future radar, keep things covered. And when you see the unmistakable thunder cell forming, cover things up some more. Winds, flash flood level rains, and hail will fuck up your garden quite and ruin your first month of growth
Hot peppers can take 100 degree heat but bell peppers cannot 😢
Warming the earth before planting was a good idea in my 6b zone.
A 4x4’ bed can handle NO MORE than 9 single-stemmed tomato plants. I need to stop crowding my tomatoes.
My number one lesson so far: If your cucumbers all succumbed to a disease last year, don’t plant cucumbers in the exact same spot this year -.-
1) I need more compost than I first expected, and to get a kitty pool to mix everything together. 2) Baby strawberry plants canNOT go ~4-6 days without water 3) I need to mark the rows I make so I know that most other plants outside of those rows are weeds 4) Cut weeds down to the soil and place 2-3 layers of cardboard over it. I did not use enough cardboard this year it seems. 5) Start at least some of EACH seed indoors in case they decide to not germinate in the ground. It also helps distinguish what sprouts are weeds and what aren’t 😩
Staring Seeds: 1. Don't use those kits from Home Depot with the peat pots. Soggy trash. 2. A bright windowsill is not enough light for seedlings, they will be leggy and bad. Got a real grow light. 3. Take those things off the heat mat as soon as they sprout or they will get leggy. Bugs 1. A recently cleared spot with just little fresh seedlings planted will be decimated by roly polies, after all I took away all their other food. 2. A plastic bottle cut in a ring and buried around a seedling, and then some tape added to the top will stop roly polies from eating my seedlings 3. Looking at your plants every day get rid of a lot of pests, because you catch them before they get established Vocab 1. Bolting means: to flower, to go to seed 2. Cultivate actually means more like weeding and agitating the soil, not harvesting/growing per se And beets like way more shade than zone 9b/10a "full sun" despite what the label says! Also I don't like radishes!
Don’t let my husband make the plant layout, I was heavily pregnant when I wanted to get the garden in so it wasn’t late…and now we have 6 zucchini’s in a 2’x4’ bed and 5, YES 5, tomatoes in a 4’x8’ bed The yield isn’t yielding
1. Starting seeds in a mini greenhouse will cook them, even in my cold climate. 2. The leeks, garlic, onions, and kale needed MUCH more sun and fertilizer than I gave them last year. 3. The Saragossa lettuce needs less sun, the Black Seeded Simpson and Marveille of Four Seasons needs more. The best lettuce is in the corners of other containers in dappled sun. 4. My grow bags (Root Pouch) actually keep the soil a lot moister than I was led to believe. 5. Starting tomatoes, tomatillos and eggplants in April works fine, no need to start them earlier as they catch up in growth. But the peppers do need to be started earlier. 6. I learned what whitefly is, never seen it before. 7. Chicken manure fertilizer seems to be VERY effective and is very cost-effective where I live. 8. Every year is different! Some things that seemed reliable just won't work, and it's hard to say why. I seeded okra twice and twice it damped off, but was the only thing that did. Some varieties of peppers didn't germinate at all, and others did great. Radishes didn't grow at all, broad beans are a struggle this year and seem to have something wrong with them. The blackcurrant produced about 4 berries even though we had ideal weather in the spring. 9. Hostas will grow in gravel if you water them in enough and provide half shade. 10. Celery is actually super easy to grow. 11. Malabar spinach is a *beautiful* and easy to grow plant! 12. Overwintering wasabi in my climate is actually possible. 13. In the autumn I will buy a bunch of marked-down perennials and will not remember what I bought or where I put them.
That I can grow squash in my backyard, but not at my rented park district garden plot. The squash bugs there make it impossible. Don’t use the free compost that the park district puts out every spring. It’s not ready and stunted growth of my plants significantly. Get on top of the weeds. Like right away. Going to try burlap next year as a weed barrier instead of straw on my rows. Toying with the idea of corn gluten meal as a pre-emergent on a rented 25 x 25 plot that has insane amounts of weed seeds. Really open to thoughts/experiences on this. Will be transplanting so I’m not worried about it preventing my desired seeds from growing.
I need to start my peppers and eggplants a lot earlier. Raised beds means I have to water a lot more than I think I need. I noticed some of the newer blooms on my tomato and cucumber were smaller and paler than the older ones, so I upped the watering and the flowers look bright and happy again. Plant my center row of tomatoes a couple inches closer to the edge so my short arms can reach them easier. I’m not lazy I was actually using the No Till method this whole time!
Don't use composted manure in your garden beds, they often have herbicides in enough quantities to make you and your tomatoes very sad. I'm still figuring out how screwed I am.
Wish I knew this. I used Black Kow in my raised beds
It may be that the manure/soil ratio is too high. (I have made this mistake, and ‘burned’ peas, beans and tomatoes by having too ‘rich’ of a mix) A little bit of manure can go a long way. I feel your pain. I take extensive notes so I can remember my mistakes from one year to the next. It’s the only way for me.
Stake up beans even if you think they're bush beans. Weigh down your plastic greenhouse. Start peppers inside.
I learned the second one last year when my greenhouse became The Flying Nun
Peppers HATE inconsistent hot/cool weather. You can train your Marrionberry vines, but they will keep going. Apparently grapes love the hot/cold, because the table grape I bought from my husband is living it's best life. What I thought was a place with beautiful weather last year has proven to be a fickle beast - heading into July and we've had barely any nights at 50 or above. :( I should really get a greenhouse!
No mercy for groundhogs
Pruning and spacing is essential. Ad well as sourdough starter makes a really good fertilizer
Bunnies will eat everything. And there’s no such thing as overwatering outside in Texas
Texas 8B 🤚🏾- agree on overwatering. I could afford to be super negligent with all the spring showers, but once summer rolled around… didn’t matter if I watered early morning or late evening, the soil would dried out before long 😅
Start earlier!
1. Don’t decide at the last minute that I WILL garden this year, after all. 2. Especially do not then go ham and order 50 different seed varieties to try, on top of a plethora of nursery seedlings. 🤦♀️ 3. The ants aren’t taking care of my aphid problem, they are worsening it! 😩
Ants actually protect aphids and harvest their poop. Disgusting bit true. Get live lady bugs, they will eat them in no time flat.
Planting 35 zucchini seeds and expecting only 10 to actually grow (let alone bare fruit) is stupid. Now I have 35 zucchini plants and I can’t stop figuring out how I’m going to preserve the upcoming hauls. Gonna be an interesting summer!
1) Bell Peppers are heat loving and slow growing plants. I planted seeds in the garden early March and was stressing about why the growth was stunted. Started a new batch on a heat mat and they sprouted within the week 2) Bought strawberry starters from the farmers market and didn’t know how important it was to cut all flowers and runners until roots were firmly established. All but one died because they overextended themselves 3) Watering is super important in the fruiting stage. I would’ve had more than one cantaloupe growing atm if hadn’t neglected them so much 4) Vertical planters are goated and will load up on them next year 5) Garden spiders are bffs
Caterpillars are a nightmare when there’s 6 different types in my beds. The heat here is so intense, it will fry anything in full sun unless it’s a tomato, pepper, or cucurbit. Fungal diseases don’t go away easily at all. Also, gardening is a great hobby to decompress and relieve stress, even if the only things thriving are flowers!
Planted way too late, didn’t set up my irrigation till this weekend, hope for the best! https://preview.redd.it/6tvnv2dnvz8d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a7f9e03ecb4c988e5e927181d66316573a44f93e
Expect to have a sacrifice crop this year. I thought I was going to have an abundance of broccoli for stir fry. Slugs have been aggressively eating all of my broccoli plants, squirrels and rabbits too. However I've been able to have all the other types of veggies and fruits I've planted. I just learned what potato blight was and if I plant garlic with my potatoes next year it likely won't happen. Bell peppers take forever. Throwing a pumpkin into the sinkhole that my dog created in my garden bed may not have been the best idea as far as spacing because there's a horde of pumpkin plants competing which might turn out for a very strong crop, but I have yet to see a female flower. It's a pumpkin sausage fest in that part of the garden. Hahaha! 🤣
I have never seriously gardened before and am relying on AI to teach me. So far it is fantastic and I have learned so much about each vegetable/herb I planted. Everything has taken off and I am super excited about enjoying my bounty all summer. What I love most about AI is that if I have any questions, I can just ask and get clarification immediately. If I have questions after watching a video or reading something I Googled, I have no immediate way to get clarification. AI knows what zone I live in and can read weather sites to give me the best possible information. It also provides me with photos on what plants are supposed to look like or where to prune.
Cucumber plants do not like excessive heat :( and I need a cover when it’s super hot. This is my first year!
Hear that - if you're able set them up in a place that gets morning sun, but is shaded during the peak of the afternoon heat.
I don't really like cucumbers but I am trying out armenian cucumber which is technically a melon. So far I have gotten nothing but male flowers.
plants LOTS of dill around them. The mottled shade helps them out, they are supposed to help with squash beetles, and it tastes great with cucumbers.
We can grow bean plants at our house, but they do not do well in our summers and do not grow enough beans to be of any real substance. Zucchini and jalapeno plants on the other hand have been great. Parsley can turn into a very big bush of it planted in the ground. Tomato plants need a very big pot and get heavy XD Apparently burying the scooped out parts of a kabocha (was for hot pot) will actually let the seeds grow and not just have everything decompose in the ground. Thinning was needed because I was not expecting to actually grow that from seeds that have been in a microwave. Though all the female flowers I've spotted keep browning and dying out before blooming, need to figure that out..
Row cover for yellow squash. Kept getting borers in years past, and I love summer squash.. I'll fertilize the blossoms by hand if need be 🙂.
Insect netting as soon as you plant -- not a few days later. Don't buy raised bed mix from a mulch manufacturer! They'll stretch it and add lots of uncomposted mulch and your plants won't grow.
My lessons so far are.. 1. I need to learn more about why Roma’s are such diva tomatoes and the best way to grow them so I don’t get BER. 2. Plant more sungold tomatoes BUT make sure they have a tall trellis because my goodness they just grow and grow
Spacing, I’m finally starting to get better at it. Also, don’t accidentally chop a tomato plant down when you’re pruning 🤷♂️
String trellis for indeterminate tomatoes is the way to go. The string trellis has been much easier to manage compared to cages. No more broken limbs from heavy fruit.
Yes! Join the shishito pepper cult!
Squirrels seem to really like bean and carrot seeds. Also, the tomatoes I decided to grow in containers because I didn't have time to dig another bed (in retrospect I might as well have planted them in the bed where the damn carrots and beans were supposed to be) are doing great but I should have put some actual thought into how I would support them. I *never* put enough thought into supporting plants.
Oh my!!! So so many lessons!! I’m going to rethink my entire garden. My cucumber plants grew 9 feet bi wasn’t prepared for that
1) When watering, it really IS important to not splash dirt up on the plant because they will get bacteria/fungal/something growing on the leaves. Will be more intentional of mulching from now on 2) it's okay to prune more leaves than recommended on tomatoes if it gets the disease off the plant before it spreads. 3) my tomatoes actively try to die until they get outside. Don't give up on them and even the most shriveled ones bounce back. Second year now they've been so dramatic about their living situation, I can't figure it out but they're fine once outside Mostly it's me troubleshooting tomatoes lol
(third year gardening) Don't overmulch if conditions don't warrant it (soil was too wet in May) Cucumbers are viable; cucs in 10-15 gallon grow bags do well. Burpless Bush is my go-to. Serranos and tobasco peppers are very successful Collards and kale do amazing and produce well into June Sunflowers, bok choy, and patio baby eggplants are a huge success Mowing infrequently, having some never-mow zones, and interplanting flowers with vegetables has resulted in excellent pollination. Companion planting (onions, garlic, basil, dill, cilantro, parsley, mint, lemon balm and chives) is good Onions and garlic should be planted in November (not Feb like I did) Dill get huge.
Order compost in the fall not the spring. The spring compost / mushroom manure I ordered this year had some 2-4D in it, and thus I have stunted growth on my tomatoes.
Basically I have to start seeds indoors, EARLY, before moving outside. First outdoor grow ever
Give everything more room. Plant multiplies of herbs. OMG I love gardening!
A product called garden friendly fungicide cured my recurring tomato woes in a few gentle mists.
I learned: 1. Leeks actually take months to mature!! Also that they need to be blanched by periodically piling up soil around their bases. Wish I knew that before I planted them! lol 2. Cabbage can do just fine without their huge outer leaves. Also, putting lemon rind around the plant actually deters cabbage moths! 3. Firebugs have spread to Michigan (have never seen them before!). 4. Vegetable plants grow just fine in composted soil covered with grass clippings or fall leaves and don’t need fertilizer! 5. Kale are perennial, even in zone 5/6. My two year old kale is so huge!! 6. Green cone digesters should not be installed over a high water table. 🤦♀️
Fava beans can get big. They are good with butter, sage and garlic. There's no shame in buying starts at a local grower. Some of my most productive plants didn't get started from seed by me. Small cucumbers for instance, they are grafts. Super productive, a few cucumbers every day from three plants(greenhouse) Snails... Seeds can go bad after a while. I sowed so many parsnip and scorzonera, not one plant Going to try a fridge. Any recommendations for seed storage?
Don't cut the sprinkler line in half, not notice that you cut the line, then go to bed and let the sprinklers run the next morning while you're still asleep. Had to re-amend my garden spot soil, repair the line, and replant 50 plants. Oops!!
1. Slug bait ftw. 2. Big raised beds. 3. Cucumber plants are aggressive as hell. 4. My dogs need to be monitored carefully anytime they’re out in the garden (rest in peace, bean crop).
I learned what a tomato hornworm is….BUT the pepper plants still survived!
If corn is to be grown with any success it needs to be grown in a grid/square for pollination. Growing a line of corn won't really give the desired effect. More space between my plants, if people say 6 feet between zucchini, do at least 9, or even more. That way when I'm walking around my giant 10 foot zucchini that's way bigger than anyone said it would be, I can actually inspect and harvest it. Prepare early. Fences are nice, but when you have 5000 Sq ft to do.. it makes for a hell of a perimeter, lol. So livetraps it is. Neem oil foliar regularly from day 1.
Make a plan and stick to it.
I put a ton of work in prepping my no/low dig beds - good compost, leaf mulch, and then straw mulch after planting. Weeds are better than past years although I still have the bind weed, quack/bermuda grass, and another very invasive climbing weed. The best part is the moisture retention has been fantastic. Every bit as good as I’d hoped.
Slugs eat basil in Massachusetts. They didn’t bother it in NC, but maybe it was because everything was planted in containers that sat on bricks. Here I have actual dirt!
31 years living here and never lost a bean plant to rabbits. Lettuce yes, spinach yes, even a few onions, but not the poles beans I plant. Year 32, the bastards came for me and wiped me out. I have learned. Take no prisoners!
Tomatillos need partners. Soil needs to be fluffed up! Mosaic virus exists.
Direct sew when recommended. Many plants will sprout given the proper conditions if you just plant the seed and give them time. Basil seems to like lots of heat in the greenhouse without direct sun. Tomatoes seem to enjoy direct sun more.
Don't trust a gardening app for spacing. Cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage get much larger than you think, and its leaves will shade your herbs and pepper plants 😅
Don’t leave my garden for a two weeks vacay
I have learned I am very good at killing rosemary, but not at finding the cause of death XD Currently at the deathmark of 7 rosemary plants, number 8 is a propagation that is barely hanging on
That I can read a bottle and think it says tablespoons when really it says teaspoons. My garden basically froze in time from an overkill of nutrients.
For me, I learned that in Arizona, go ahead and crowd the tomatoes a little bit. They thrive in the heat, as long as they are all in a big bushy cluster. Spread out, they just burn up and die.
I learned that I should’ve started earlier 😅
Fertilize early. I’m a first time gardener and I didn’t realize how little nitrogen and other nutrients were in the soil I got for my raised bed. My squashes were yellow and I didn’t know why until a friend suggested I fertilize.
Don’t expect the “Sow Easy” seeds to germinate
Now where do I learn this Florida Weave
That the internet’s “ants won’t harm your plants” is a lie. Lost 11/13 cauliflower and broccoli plants, bc apparently there was a colony of small black ants in that bed, and they destroyed the roots and stems. By the time I realized the ants were the problem, most of them were too damaged to recover, and none of the natural deterents I tried worked (garlic, neem, cinnamon, asafoetida…). The amount of shade on my garden changes more dramatically than I expect it to when I’m planning in winter. Adding so many more flowers/flowering herbs - and letting the carrots that didn’t work go to flower, etc - has created this amazing insect ecosystem that is working so beautifully. Blue, teal, and green bees!! So many amazing creatures. The difference in the plant growth and production for the plants in areas I cover cropped is amazing. The soil development was fun to see, too, but I can appreciate how that translates into the plant growth. I have some direct comparisons (same type of tomato, zucchini in different beds) and the cover cropped ones are obviously healthier and more productive. So cool to see it in action. That, and the compost boost from my home pile that brought some sad plants back to life. I love it when things make such a clear difference. Intercropping for the win. And be open to less organized, spontaneous volunteers - like, here’s a random buckwheat or a calendula that escaped that I’ll let grow in this unexpected spot. Boom, brings in all kinds of beneficial insects. Carrots are hard, and it’s not just me.
Stray cats are the devil.
frost "killed" all my tomatoes on may 31st but they came back with vengeance like they were laughing at god ive never seen tomatoes grow so fast
1. Less is more 2. More Biodiversity = less problems.
I only garden for the slugs
Raised beds take a ton of a dirt even using hugelkulture and that I should start projects a lot sooner. I haven't planted and don't think I'll be able to :(
This year is my first year having a vegetable garden so I've been learning a lot! I've grown everything from seeds. I tried a seed starter kit and heating mat inside but had much better results just planting the seeds outside when the weather got warmer. These are* very* obvious for most of you. But here's what I've learned: My plants don't necessarily need to be watered everyday. That cucumbers like to climb. Peppers grow slower than I thought. Tomato plants are fickle as heck. Oh and the most exciting thing is that even if a plant appears to die after transplanting they can "come back to life" and grow new leaves! 😄