What I did wrong in the garden last year

[boggybranch]

We all know that gardening is on a "learning curve".......things don't always come out the way we plan.
Here is what I did wrong this past year in the garden.

(1) Planted the sweet peas toooooo late
(2) Made the tomato cages too small and too short (Have "fixed" that)
(3) Planted the Kentucky Wonder beans and cucumbers too far apart
(4) Planted the purple hull peas too close together (plants and rows)
(5) Convinced myself that the nutgrass wasn't going to be that big of a problem.
(6) Planted too many (22) crooked neck summer squash plants.....for 2 people. (Did you know that they can go from too small to eat, to too big and old to eat in just under 13 minutes)
(7) Planted taters when the ground was too wet (knew better...but couldn't help myself)
(8) Didn't plant NEAR enough onions
(9) ect.....ect.....ect.

God knows.......I love gardening.

 

[lesa]

There is nothing as humbling as gardening!! The best laid plans and all that! Your post made me giggle when I read the number of summer squash you planted! I hope you have chickens?? I was hoping my cukes would climb up a fence -but didn't plant them close enough to it! I just ordered seeds for Kentucky Wonder Beans- how did you like them? The only good thing about winter is that is gives you time to make another plan for next year! Counting the days till spring!

 

[ducks4you]

We all know that gardening is on a "learning curve".......things don't always come out the way we plan.
Here is what I did wrong this past year in the garden.

((7) Planted taters when the ground was too wet

No WONDER my first attempt failed!

 

[boggybranch]

There is nothing as humbling as gardening!! The best laid plans and all that! Your post made me giggle when I read the number of summer squash you planted! I hope you have chickens?? I was hoping my cukes would climb up a fence -but didn't plant them close enough to it! I just ordered seeds for Kentucky Wonder Beans- how did you like them? The only good thing about winter is that is gives you time to make another plan for next year! Counting the days till spring!

Hate to admit it....but I REALLY planted them toooooo far apart and didn't even get a "mess". Had seen pictures of how prolific there can be and "adjusted" for it.......sorry, should have said OVER-ADJUSTED for it.
Gonna do it different, this year, for sure.

 

[seedcorn]

used aspirin.....huge mistake. pruned the roots off of my egg plants and stopped the germination of my broccoli seeds for fall planting...........

didn't eat enuf of it this year either..........miss my tomotoes and peppers already.

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Didn't mulch the earth round my tomato plants enough & prune the leafy bottom growth.
I therefore lost the lot to the dreaded WILT

I have also learnt another important lesson -- don't believe the long term weather forecasters when they tell you we are going to have a long, hot summer!


Hattie

 

[Rosalind]

Didn't mulch the earth round my tomato plants enough & prune the leafy bottom growth.
I therefore lost the lot to the dreaded WILT

Yeah, that. It went from "doesn't look too bad, maybe they will pull through" to "oh crud, I'm outta luck for tomatoes this year" in less than a week.

Locally-purchased onion sets came out lousy AGAIN. This year, I'm going to order the proper breeds and fertilize the heck out of em.

Assumed the local garden centers knew jack about veggie gardens. They know enough about ornamentals and making yuppie front yards look pretty. They know bugger-all about veggies and fruit. Well, now I know their limits I suppose.

Built trellises too flimsy, they fell over in high winds, even with bean vines to anchor them. Going to build proper ones this year, with big spikes to hold them down.

Underestimated shadiness of some beds. Again.

Things I did right: Did small experimental plots for new things. Now I know which types I want to scale up for production. Crop rotation turned out not to be entirely stupidly-organized. Put zucchini in semi-shade, and they only produced exactly as much zucchini as I can actually use!

 

[journey11]

LOL, good thread!

(6) Planted too many (22) crooked neck summer squash plants.....for 2 people.

I did that one year too. You know, people start to hate you if you keep giving them bags of squash every time they see you? Last year was just right--3 yellow squash, 1 zuchini.

What I did wrong...
1--Forgot to lime! (but got away with it somehow)
2--Planted lots of blessed tomatoes, but all slicers (so had to buy proper tomatoes for canning and sauce)
3--Underestimated quackgrass in the strawberry patch
4--Sad, scrappy little trellis for one section of my cukes, didn't hold up
5--Planted wayyyyyy too much butternut squash (thankfully a good keeper)
6--Grew lots of potatoes (first timer, but didn't have an adequate place to store them and they sprouted on me)
7--Grew monstrous King Kong marigolds that shaded one side of the tomato patch
8--Got lazy on weeding the canteloupe/watermelon/winter squash and will certainly pay for it next year...
9--Never got around to putting down a winter ground cover/winter wheat in the fall
10--Gave up on the green beans after first planting washed out and regretted it later
11--Gave the chickens too much liberty in the garden (they got first bite out of all the biggest, best tomatoes, until I finally fenced it)

Oh well, live and learn I guess!

 

[digitS']

As some of you know, my big veggie garden is at a considerable distance from my home. When I broke a tine bolt on the tiller, I just swore at the rocky ground.

That was in July and I never took it back for cultivating and killing the weeds. Once again, some of that bindweed made it thru until the end of the season.

And, my New Years resolution in 'o9 was not to procrastinate so much! If it breaks, fix it, load it back into the pickup and get back out there! Gardening isn't a spectator sport . . .

Steve
My New Years resolution in 1020: Eagerly Anticipate both Problems and Success. Rejoice!
:tools

 

[wifezilla]

Planted wayyyyyy too much butternut squash

I think I can help with that...

http://www.examiner.com/x-798-Denver-Low-Carb-Examiner~y2010m1d1-RECIPE-Spicy-Butternut-Soup