Gardening is harder than it looks!

I have been there, my first two gardens were total failures! The third try I decided to use raised beds and containers which worked better for me because of drought and a yard filled with shade trees. Now, I'm on my fifth season and I have cut down enough trees to use the yard but Istill grow in containers too. I have learned what grows best and what doesn't.

I have found that Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans always grow for me with little care, just lots of water (in my area anyway) I have found that squash and melons grow wonderfully, pumpkins not so much. Tomatoes were hit and miss until I found a couple of varieties that work well for me and now I can an abundance each year. Mine are doing great on the vine and I still have canned and frozen left from last year.

Don't give Up! You will get the knack for it, maybe keep it on the smaller, easier to manage size until you get it down pat. As for the family, my kids were not too into it until I got good at it and they saw the bounty so they got on board and now they love to grow anything they can put in the ground and compete with each other to see who can grow the most.

Good Luck!

I've reduced gardens down from about an acre to a quarter acre and I'm doing better with that than I ever did with the larger gardens.

Ultimately I think gardening just isn't for everyone. I grow just a handful of things in my garden (tomatoes, potatoes, onions, squash, and carrots usually) and then set out a handful of herb and pepper plants. The rest of the food is primarily livestock.

Green peppers used to be my unicorn and then last year I grew more in one season than the previous 30 combined. We'll see how this year goes.

OP - keep plugging away at it. Experience is the key.

Corn is our unicorn. We can grow zuchinni and cukes until it's taking over the garden...corn seems to fail every year lol.

I grew up in a family that has owned a greenhouse/nursery since 1918...so imagine the shame when I have a plant die!

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I don't even chase my whiskey, what makes you think I'm going to chase you?

Don't feel bad. I lost almost 100 tomato plants and tilled up what other seed I had allready planted and forgot. And I been gardening for 50 years LOL Ya got good advice

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you have learned to grow your seeds inside...that is a big start. hurray for you, do not give up....

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Take heart. This spring has been horrible weather-wise. We're still growing things in pots because we can't get a long enough break in the weather for the soil to dry enough to till. But, you just have to take what nature gives you and try, try again.

Gardening takes persistence and unflagging optimism.

I needed to hear this...

All along I thought it was just me. :banana02:

I am working towards getting a large, serious garden going, but feel like in reality I am wasting alot of money and killing a lot of plants. I figure, the end result is not really the amount of veggies I produce, but the amount of knowledge I get, so that makes it worth it, and if I keep at it, I'll get better!

I've grown a garden for 45+ years and every year is a struggle and a joy...either too much rain or not enough or huge bug problem...it is always something. Plus we moved from our elbow deep loam soil of MI to the rocks of MO...whole new learning curve. Even with a small greenhouse you keep second guessing yourself. Should I plant my babies out or not?? We've had over 17" of rain in the past month and there's parts of my big garden I can't walk in yet. The rain has grown more rocks then I've ever seen. Still have tomatoes/peppers wilting in the greenhouse. Way behind. Yet I know if I didn't plant until June I could have a decent garden. The South has had crazy weather this spring and many have your same woes.

And stuff we grew in Mi without a care just don't do well here in the heat/humidity. If I get three zucchini before the plant dies I consider it a blessing! Impossible to grow winter squash though I try ever year...this year they'll all get covered all season with
Remay except when blossoming. Please don't let it get you down...plant again and always plant flowers. Zinnias, sunflowers, bachelor buttons, asters...all easy and make you smile when you go out to see your garden. A small garden well-tended will out yield a bigger one. Know people are feeling anxious about their food supplies but remember the farmers markets. You can't do it all ....enjoy the process. You don't have to plant everything on the seed rack. Just plant what you really like to eat. I think everyone has a hiden green thumb. I might recommend the book Gardening When it Counts; excellent. If you were here I'd glad give 'mater plants!! DEE

I agree with others, don't give up. You still have plenty of time to replant. You can even start tomatoes from seed straight into the garden and have a good crop. What about lettuce, spinach? Still time to plant all that you have listed and enjoy a good crop. Wait till the ground dries out a bit and start over.
As you drive around your area, take note at what the other gardeners are doing. It will give you an idea of when to plant. Buy plants if it helps.

I lost all my squash 2 years ago due to vine borer, i ripped them up and took the chance of replanting. It was late June. I had the 'best' squash I have ever had that year!

Last year my garden was a failure. Goats ate it all. This year I am still recovering medically, so have a smaller garden than usual, but whatever I can grow, will help our family stretch our budget.

Remember pots and tubs. Your children can 'nurture' their own strawberries, lettuce or tomatoes!

Last of all, It 'will' get better.

Don't feel bad and don't Ever let it make you give up! These things always happen with Gardening. One year it one thing and the next year it's something else. That's just how Mother Nature is. I like the description-"Shotgun Gardening". Our weather is trying to sucker me into putting things in the garden, but I know better. But it even got me miffed at Dh when he had to help out a buddy last night and I wanted him to Till for me-he has said he would do "it Today" since Friday. Things are going to pile up, and Bam! -Failure. All my own fault for putting too much on the plate and expecting everyone else to See my vision and timeline. Now the tiller has carburetor issues, the wheelbarrow tire won't hold air and there are 6 new raised beds waiting for soil.(can't get in there with the skid loader) The Brilliant idea of raising chickies under the greenhouse benches, you know, chickie heat lamp heats the greenhouse...... Well all I got was a mess, everything growing in there has to be sprayed with a mister Everyday to wash off the dust those monsters put in the air. Can't let it get ya down tho...

It took us 10 years to get a good garden here. Gardening is a great patience builder.

I am on my 3rd garden.
What I think the best advice is (and what I have followed) is keep it simple and do not go too big.
My garden is about 20 x 30. It is just the 2 of us. I wouldn't mind a larger garden but with me doing all the work myself as my DSO is just not interested at all, my size is easy to manage.
I live in the Southern Part of TN so it is a bit warmer here.
This year I planted all my seeds into the ground. Well that huge storm we had here not too long ago washed away the back 1/2 of my garden. So I went and bought a flat of tomato plants (48 for $8) planted 1/2 and gave the rest to a neighbor and bought 8 pepper plants.

My garden is simple.
Corn with pole beans climbing up the stalks (1/2 of 3 rows)
Yellow Bush Beans -- they just taste so good (1/2 of 3 rows)
Tomatoes (2 full rows)
the last row is mixed with strawberries and pepper plants.

Not a lot of different plants but it is food we really enjoy. The strawberries were a gift from someone as they are not really something I would have planted on my own.

This year I am using newspaper and cardboard between the rows and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!!!
It is working so well. Weeding my garden is the task I just didn't like at all. Now I just have to weed on the rows and that is easy to do.

So keep it simple - keep it small - keep it enjoyable.

OH!! 7thSwan....LOL!! Chickies are monsters!! Tee Hee; I've seen years when the dust was my whole house from the loft to the basement because I had several different aged batches going at once,,this is BEFORE I got my "poultry building"..

OP, consider my plight. I have fruit trees that I have been soooo close to cutting down. Some of them are 25 years old and I have NEVER had more than a fruit or two off them. Frost,freeze and freeloaders(critters,disease) get it all every year. *Sigh* mama Nature is toying with me this year..EVERYTHING is loaded!!!! I keep walking around and oggling and ooooooing...... Plums,peaches,nectarines,apples and even a few pears on my tiny tree!

What you need is just one success. You can grow food! You have grown transplants. My "neverfail" is beans. I like pole beans because the produce all season long from one planting, but bushbeans produce quicker..some in under 50 days. Now that will give you a shot of "success"!!

Rememer the gardener's mantra.."Wait til next year!"

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" As needs-MUST!!"--- in other words..a gal does what a gal has too!

Here is my simple garden. Yo can see that I do not have newspaper and cardboard on every row yet as getting enough takes longer than I thought it would.

Wow! Ya'll are a great shot in the arm. Yeah, yesterday just wasn't what I hoped it would be in the garden, but today...it didn't rain after all last night, so TILLER, HERE I COME!!! Thanks, friends!

Every year, there is always a crop or two that is a complete flop for me. I just re-plant something else in that area or go buy started plants at the farmer's market to replace them. Because of our short growing season, I mostly embrace what seems to do well and plan to preserve the harvest.

Last year, the only tomatoes we got were cherry tomatoes. So, I canned lots of those as sauce. Last year, peas did very well. This year...my peas are probably not going to produce much at all. Just go with the flow and learn from your mistakes.

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~TheMartianChick~

My latest novels:
Bystander: A Tale of the End of the World as SHE Knew It!

Christmas in Bystander & Other Village Tales

Coming Soon: A Slice of Heaven

I'm so glad I read this. I put two of our tomatoe plants out the other day and I'm not sure eithr is going to make it lol.

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What we use for Homeschooling
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Most of my greenhouse stock suffered a horrible death. I have a few seeds left, but not an enormous amount. So I went today to pick up some tomato plants at the nursery in town.

No decent-looking plants and even at 5" tall most of them were showing signs of the blight.

I'm about to have a tomato fit.