Failure in Gardening

My gardening experiences have mostly been based on trial and error. I'd read a bit here or there and glean advice from friends, books and websites, but most of my gardening consists of: plant a seed, water the seed, see what happens. In my earliest gardening days I didn't even do that. It was more: buy a plant, plant it in the ground, water it, see what happens. Sometimes wonderful things happened. It was truly exciting to see sugar snap peas grow on vines that started as a little seed in the ground. I'll never forget the first yellow squash I harvested or the pure joy of seeing a pumpkin growing just a couple of weeks ago. But then there are the failures....sometimes the disasters. Last year I planted watermelons and never got even one. I also tried Kale last year and the little plants died when they were barely a few inches tall. Then there were my two bell pepper plants that produced one small pepper each. Its frustrating when you realize you spent more on the plants than what it would have cost just to buy the produce at the store.

A friend on facebook posted a link to this article and although its about farming, I thought it translated very well to gardening. How many times have I thought "it would be nice to grow that but I don't know what I'm doing!" The article made me reevaluate some of the plants that I "tried and it didn't work out so I guess I just won't grow that anymore" (i.e. broccoli, cauliflower, sweet peppers, ...ahem... watermelon). I've learned that success CAN come after failure. Remember my Kale failure? This year I have an abundant Kale plant that I've used in soup, salads and even as greens in a fajita! I'm already starting a list of things I want to "try" next year, like Swiss Chard, and maybe I'll just have to revisit some of my past failures....we'll see.

Today in the Garden

Its amazing how much taller the corn has gotten in just a few weeks. Last year we only got two ears of corn....this year I think we'll get at least 4 or 5.....enough for a meal.

These are the brussel sprout seedlings I started a month or so ago and just transplanted.

Finally! A decent head of lettuce. My last crop got killed by our extreme heat. Its going to be hot again this week so I may need to harvest this one soon, even though its still on the small side.

My butternut squash plant never did much.....just some leaves and a few blooms but no squash.....sad.

Italian Parsley on the left; new lettuce seedlings where I replaced the lettuce that the heat killed on the right; in the middle is the cucumber vine that decided to climb over the fence.

No, its not weeds! Just large herb plants: lavendar, kale, thyme and basil.

About a week ago I almost lost my garden when a car in my neighbor's yard came barreling through the fence. That entire section of fence flattened my herbs, but thankfully they are pretty resilient.

Our first pumpkin! Right now its about the size of an apple. I see more coming, too, that are currently about the size of ping-pong balls.

The Garden in late July

This picture is a couple of weeks old, but due to some computer issues I'm just now able to post it. Stay tuned for a true up-to-date photo coming soon!