Happy but yet disappointed rant...

[farmettehopeful]

My first year of gardening and I find myself happy and sad at the same time. We got a lot of peas and green beans and lettuce so for that I am happy. My cucumbers were a complete failure (thankfully my moms did great so we are swapping zucchini and cukes!). My sugar baby melons started off good and I got two that grew to be softball size then we got over 2 inches of rain in about 2 days and the leaves never bounced back and now its totally deteriorating I had a zucchini plant fail at the same time, leaves doing the same thing. Tomato plants are growing like CrAzY and I know now where to plant next year and how to cage/string up....now if only they would turn red!!!! My mammoth sunflowers are growing really tall and growing huge heads...hopefully producing seeds that I don't see! If I had more patience, I think the potatoes would have done better.

I have learned a lot this year from first hand experience as well as from this site, so for that I am grateful but yet failure disappoints me. I can only hope that my garden journal will be helpful to me next year so I don't make the same mistakes!

Oh and I got my very first egg from my chickens yesterday so that makes me happy too! And I am grateful for the nice garden material that they are producing for next year too!

Thanks for listening

 

[desertlady]

This year is my biggest disappointment ! weather pattern has changed! I had terrible wind storms for the last 5 months!! wind did damaged my fruit flowers, and slows them down, then along came some new critters (jackrabbits, gophers, ground squirrels etc) I didnt had that problems before !! But now The plants decided to come out with humidity ! I am so excited that I will have tons of veggies for fall !!! That if not critters gets them first..

 

[RidgebackRanch]

I am happy to hear that you've had some great success! Being new to garden just know that every season somethings will do well and others will not, we are all at the mercy of the weather and other curve balls that Mother Nature throws at us.

Keeping a detailed journal will be a great help to you in the future ( I wish I could get myself to do that). Always keep trying and you will always be learning.

Happy Gardening!

 

[baymule]

No matter how long you garden or how much experience you have, there will always be success and failure. Some things respond well to care and overload you with their thanks and abundance of good things to eat. Other times, your best efforts go unappreciated by miserly plants whose number one job is to die or stay barely alive and give out stunted fruits of your labors.

I am glad you have had success and that you are enjoying your garden. I am 57 years old and my earliest memories are of toddling behind my Daddy in his garden as he weeded, planted, watered and harvested. I still marvel at the wonder of uniting a tiny seed with soil, water and sunshine and watching it grow into harvest. I still get excited when a seed pops up, new green growth raising above the earth, reaching for the sun. It never gets old. Good luck to you and always keep gardening!

 

[strantor]

I still marvel at the wonder of uniting a tiny seed with soil, water and sunshine and watching it grow into harvest. I still get excited when a seed pops up, new green growth raising above the earth, reaching for the sun. It never gets old. Good luck to you and always keep gardening!

I didn't know that gardening was so ...what's the word... marvelous, in the literal sense that I marvel at the cycle. I had never planted a seed before 2 months ago. When I planted my seeds, I didn't know what I was getting into. Then when they started actually growing out of the ground, I think I was more excited than my 6 y/o daughter. I go out and look at them before I go to work, when I get home, and once more. It's like being able to see your child develop inside the womb, but less creepy than that would be.

 

[NwMtGardener]

It is amazing, isnt it! I poke in my garden at least once every day, just to look sometimes, and enjoy. Farmette, congrats on at least GETTING STARTED! You'll be much more prepared next year

 

[digitS']

My first year of gardening and I find myself happy and sad at the same time. . .

I am real pleased to see young people become involved in gardening.

(Strantor, I was just over on the "gardening with kids" thread reading about your adventure and looked at your family picture on "Names and Faces" . )

Farmettehopeful, how about stopping at "happy" and, let's say, informed? You will always have some failures. Whether it is from not being able to catch up on the learning curve or Mother Nature's curve balls that RidgebackRanch talks about - not everything will turn out well. Just when you think that you might have it down to a gnat's eyebrow - here comes another curve ball! (Am I mixing my metaphors?? )

I wonder about the gardeners who only have 1 or 2 things in the garden. That would be a serious commitment - Yikes! Is it too dry this year? Too much rain in June? Where did all these leafhoppers come from? And what is with Benjamin Bunny? He always snacked on those things and never touched these things . . . until now!!

You can't cover all the bases. Every year is a jump-ball scenario and nothing is a slam dunk! Just getting it between the goal posts once in awhile is great

! Steve !

 

[lesa]

What an exciting adventure you have been on! So many firsts, and changes! Every season you will learn more and more- and hopefully enjoy increased harvests, accordingly...I really do think patience is often in short supply with the average gardener. We really need to trust mother nature. When your sunflowers are done blooming they will magically be full of seeds. I don't have any red tomatoes yet, either. In my opinion there is nothing more gratifying then growing your own food. Happy Gardening and Congratulations on your success!

 

[wsmoak]

This was my third spring garden here and I'm still making some of the same mistakes -- I didn't start more tomatoes in May so they'd be ready when the first set finished in July. It's on the calendar in REALLY BIG LETTERS for next year.

I keep notes about what went well and not so well (grow broccoli in the fall, don't bother in the spring) and eventually will have a custom planting calendar for my little ecosystem.

Even if something fails, the next growing season is right around the corner. You can switch varieties or try a different location or planting time, and see what works.

-Wendy