My 2nd (Hopefully Really Good) Garden

This is a sequel to My First Really Good Garden. I'll update this as the season progresses, whether the garden is good or not. I figure that if it's another good garden, it might encourage other beginners (excitement can be viral), and if it's a bad one, the it becomes 'a learning experience,' (for me and others.)

Today (11 March '21) was the first day I actually got outside and did 'gardening.' I put up my compost corral. The three photos depict the process; the first one just the stakes and the fencing, then a bunch of cardboard at the bottom; then the first batch of compost added. It's “Winter“ compost, kitchen scraps added to the edges of the garden over the months, collected in cardboard boxes to keep it together until today. Over the season as I add more fresh compost and turn it all over, this will get mixed in and gradually added to the garden as mulch, side dressing or even buried.

Not much for now, but it's a beginning!

I have yet to encounter a bad garden. Some gardens are very good at teaching me what not to do.

I never updated this throughout the year as I intended. So here is an unsolicited, year-end review of how the garden went.

First: the photo of the compost pile is inaccurate. I made it smaller and moved it a few feet away from where it's shown to make room for a mullein patch.

Second: I never got around to planting the mullein seeds. I had prepped that area by enclosing it within a small fence and then laid down cardboard to kill the grass. The cardboard is still there. Seeds are still in their packet in a tin box in the fridge.

Third: tomatoes did GREAT. I got 'em comin' outta my ears. There were even a dozen volunteer tomato plants that sprung up here and. The tomatoes basically said, "We like this garden. We're taking it over." I planted several dozen different kinds: heirlooms, indeterminates, hybrids, determinates, beefers, cherries, mortgage lifters... I went crazy.

Fourth: Cutworms took out half of my zucchini and all the yellow squash. Powdery mildew wiped out the rest. My fault, I planted a lot and too close together and didn't weed all that much. From what I found out, powdery mildew occurs when plants are too close together, not enough air circulation and it rains quite a bit.

Fifth: Some underground critter chomped on all of my potatoes.

Sixth: Herbs and flowers did well. Sunnies, black-eyed-susans, dill, basil, they joined the tomatoes in plotting the garden takeover.

Seventh: I found out some notes I wrote last year that were plans for this year. I didn't follow half of that, and those contributed to some of the problems I encountered. If I used those plans, I do think the garden would have had fewer problems, been more productive (apart from the tomatoes).

LASTLY: I learned a lot. Next year will be GREAT if I combine the lessons learned from last years' garden and this years'. Now all I have to do is write down a plan, and try and follow it.

I love this stuff. Success is always preferable, but mistakes and their results also contribute. "Experience is learning from mistakes," so I am encouraged.  

Paul, I love your comment that “mistakes also contribute.”  I have made plenty of gardening mistakes and they made me a better gardener.

I once had a friend (not a gardener by a long shot) who said that gardening must feel god-like as I make plants come into existence.  Really it is more of a humbling experience as plants, and in my case mushrooms as well, let me know who really is in control.

Actually it sounds like your garden turned out not all that bad and it is indeed it is good to learn a few things along the way.  As it was, I only got tomatoes going this year due to a very late start and I am only just now getting some ripe ones to pick.  Unfortunately I have a ton of splits—not the end of the world, but not ideal either.

I look forward to hearing about your next GREAT garden!

Eric

Yep, John, I have had many gardens tell me what not to do as well.  And sometimes I even listened.

Eric