Question for all of you beginner gardeners

What are the things you struggle with the most when it comes to gardening?

Making choices. I have a hard time figuring out what goes where and why or when to do things. Every year the goal is to just get things in the ground and figure it out later.

1) Buying ALL the seeds!

2) Patience. I live in Northern Virginia and we always get a beautiful false spring (having it right now) so everything starts to wake up and I get excited and start planting things. Then come early April, we get nailed by a cold snap for a week and occasionally snow, killing a lot of what I planted since its just coming up.

3) Sticking to my garden plan. Every year, I plan out my garden in extream detail (6-in grid for a 30x30 ft garden). Come planting time, I ignore all of my planning in my joy and excitement and scatter and plant seed/transplants willy-nilly

So to summarize, I struggle with discipline and self-control! To help mitigate that, I continually expand my perennial plants and let a lot of my plants self sow. I haven't planted tomatoes, potatoes, or parsnips in 3 years

Organization.

I learn that I like to start plants but I don't do a good job planning out where to put them, what to put them with, labeling them appropriately out in the garden. Ect. Ect.

My biggest struggle is creating a closed loop system for soil building. I struggle to source affordable compost, mulch, and other organic matter to build my soil. I vermicompost, but it is not sufficient for the area I need to cover. I created a compost bin, but I haven't had sufficient materials all at one time to get it to heat up, so I am still waiting to get any compost from it.  Leaf mold from my neighbors' leaves in the fall seems to be my best bang for my effort so far. Otherwise, I am dependent on buying mulch and compost from retail stores. The city I live in does offer free mulch on certain days, but I stopped using their mulch after I noticed scraps of painted and treated wood in what was supposed to be purely untreated wood scraps. Plus, I don't have a car or truck, so schlepping mulch and compost on my bike requires multiple trips.

Design and landscaping for aesthetics has been a learning curve. My focus this year is on more intentional design instead of just throwing plants wherever and seeing what happens. I don't use power tools for landscaping, so my garden gets very weedy and unkempt looking. Other people think it looks ugly, and I cannot decide how much of that is because they have unreasonable expectations based on herbicide and petroleum usage and how much is due to my lack of skill in permaculture landscaping. Probably a bit of both.

Also, I try to do too much without really knowing what I am doing, but I am telling myself it is a strategy If I throw all the plants at my garden at once, I'll learn quickly what is already adapted to my ecosystem and what needs active work to thrive. But that means I've had failures that perhaps I would have avoided if I had fewer plants and could devote more attention to each one. In particular, I struggled with plant illnesses. I figured plants would grow or not grow, live or die, but I was not prepared for an between stage of plant illness. I have some hollyhocks that have been plagued by rust and  perennials that weren't doing well last year, and I don't if they will bounce back this spring.

[Edited to add detail]

Right now I'm container gardening because that's what I have space for on my apartment patio.  I learnt a lot last year and so I'm entering this year feeling more confident in my ability to grow things.  I think the hardest thing right now is that my crops grow, but because of the space constraints I'm in I can't grow "enough" for us.  But I'm working with what I have.  I think once we have a little house with a yard my biggest challenge will be sourcing enough soil to get started with raised beds, acquiring/building said raised beds.  I will also have to be more purposeful about companion planting, now I can just move the pots around but in the future I'll have to be more purposeful where I put things.  Another hard part is when I go away for a few days and the plants need watered.  I realized that they'd lose less water if I brought them inside, that was last summer's realization.  But this year if we can move I'll find a neighbour kid to pay to water them when we're away performing etc.

Germinating carrots.

Retaining moisture, especially in regards to wind.

Dan Fish wrote:Germinating carrots.

Retaining moisture, especially in regards to wind.

Dan, I place old 1x4 fence boards on top of the rows after planting carrots, to retain the moisture in the air pocket underneath and get good germination. Works like a charm.

You tell me.

;)

j

Riona Abhainn wrote:Another hard part is when I go away for a few days and the plants need watered.  I realized that they'd lose less water if I brought them inside, that was last summer's realization.  But this year if we can move I'll find a neighbour kid to pay to water them when we're away performing etc.

You can take an old bottle and poke a hole in the lid, fill it with water and then stick it upside down in the pot so the water slowly drips out. I suggest trying it before you go anywhere so you can figure out how long the water will last and how fast or slow you need it to drip out.

I'm not a beginner anymore, so I'll answer this way:
when I was a beginner, I wish I knew that sometimes things just don't work out the way you thought. As the saying goes, the rain falls on the good and the wicked.
More experienced people shrug it off and plant again, or had another batch of seedlings ready just in case of this very event. It happens, it's not a judgment. Live, learn, plan better next time.

Time......

Dan Fish wrote:Germinating carrots.

Retaining moisture, especially in regards to wind.

I cover my carrots with the white agricultural barrier for about a month.  It really improves the germination rate.  I use little sticks to make a long tent out of it.

Deer used to be our main problem but we found long thin fenced areas with raised beds down the middle was the key as they can jump pretty much anything, but won't jump into an area where they feel there's not enough room to easily jump back out of.  

My biggest problem now is our July / August mosquito season, when I abandon it until fall and just hope there's something left for us to pick after they die down.

My animals getting in the garden and devouring all my growies

Ugh, morning glory (bindweed). It's everywhere, I hate it with the burning fury of a thousand suns. It chokes everything I plant and there is no getting rid of it short of hiring a priest. (Unless one of you lovely people has an idea?)

Harvest time By then I'm so dang tired way to much ends up going to waste.

Disease!! Which is partly an organization/discipline problem - as others have stated, I get way too excited and pack too much stuff in, and often I'm watching tomato plants to see what is going to happen first - ripened tomatoes, or a fully diseased plant. Also, vine borers - every year I try to be really careful about them and it just gets worse and worse. The first year was kind of beginner's luck in that I didn't really know anything about them and I got tons of squash and didn't have much in the way of issues.

Planning more than I can actually do. Chronic fatigue and heat intolerance have been problems for a few years, but I always forget that when I'm sitting down in the cool of winter and making plans.

Getting others to eat what I grow so it isn't wasted.

MugWort

I'd say I'm slightly more advanced than a beginner but I can say for certain a weakness of mine I'd like to weed out eventually is lack of patience. It's not that I harvest things too early, it's that once my melons start growing I'm out there every day hand pollinating, checking for pest damage, and observing fruit growth but no matter how much I know I'm a long ways away from harvesting (assuming a successful growing season) my brain still can't help but think about harvesting every day. 4th generation of saving seeds from a hybrid carrot and I finally have giant carrots to save seed from but it some what hurts too think about having to continue to wait before I can have bountiful carrot harvests, at least this time I'll have a ton of seeds of localized carrots that grow big here so maybe one day I'll be able to look back and laugh at my impatience.

For me, the biggest struggle is direct-sowing seeds. I'm pretty successful with big seeds (sunflowers, beans), but haven't made a single tomato or beet pop up yet from a direct sow. Hearing Paul Wheaton talk about all the benefits really makes me want to succeed at it.

Josh McDonald wrote:For me, the biggest struggle is direct-sowing seeds. I'm pretty successful with big seeds (sunflowers, beans), but haven't made a single tomato or beet pop up yet from a direct sow. Hearing Paul Wheaton talk about all the benefits really makes me want to succeed at it.

That's funny because I have the opposite problem. The big seeds are hardest for me because the birds and the rodents eat them up but they leave the tiny seeds alone. And then the ones that do sprout get nibbled up by the slugs.

I bet a big factor is your personal micro-climate and environment. Once you start saving your own seeds, you can afford to waaay over plant, direct sowing those hard to germinate seeds and then the few that come up will make seeds that will germinate even easier for you the following year, eventually ending up with varieties that will self seed for you.

My apologies.  What I intended to be a short post turned into a novel.  

I'm not a beginning gardener yet I'm always trying new plants and methods. Hopefully sharing this will help someone starting out.

My number one hurdle is time.  Gardening on weekends is iffy and I keep bankers hours during the week as I aim to quit by 3:00 so I can clean up and spend time with my daughter when she gets home from school.  I've been awake at 2am the last two nights working on potting up seedlings, determining what needs kicked outside and making room to start tomato seeds.  While not ideal, I enjoy the solitude of the early morning and enjoyed coffee in my makeshift greenhouse before dawn this morning.

Weather has been a big hurdle this year.  I've had a new bed laid out for over two weeks but the only sunny days we've had are days when I've had to be away from home.  Otherwise it's been rain, rain, rain with a chance of snow this weekend.  

I no longer trust purchased soils and the few bags of organic mix I have will be incorporated into the new bed along with compost, leaf mold and composted chicken manure.  75% of my inputs are produced here with the exceptions being wood chips, cardboard and chicken manure.  The manure is from my neighbor's chickens which are free range with no outside inputs.  The wood chips are from a large right-of-way clearing last year and I'm pretty confident that they were never sprayed.  We also have a small gas chipper and an electric leaf shredder that are used to process waste and shrub prunings to utilize as mulch or in compost.  

I love planting crops that "won't" grow here.  This will be my third year growing jicama and while they don't get as massive as those in the grocery store, I end up with enough to last until the next harvest.  Fall planted and heavily mulched potatoes yield a much earlier crop than spring planted ones and I thoroughly enjoy knowing the crop is already in the ground when spring arrives.

I also love seeds and probably have enough to supply a third-world country.  Beans are my main weakness followed by peppers and tomatoes and I grow enough for two families, share with friends and sell the excess to fund a bigger greenhouse build.  Our library has a new seed library and I participate in trials of crops occasionally and aquire and/or trade seeds from my gardening neighbors whenever possible.  I've found that I'm a repository for used flats, pots and seedling containers and other than purchasing some heavy-duty seed trays for my indoor starts, I purchase very little.  I also feel bad culling seedlings but the assortment of culled brassica seedlings made an excellent addition to the omelets I made for my family this morning.

Trying to crowd too much in an area is also a weakness but I've learned that giving plants ample space and/or growing in containers is a better option.

My gardening areas are probably the poorest on the property but their close proximity to our house is a definite asset.  The yield from my "old garden" established in 2020 have more than quadrupled on a plot in which half covers an old gravel driveway.  

My biggest pests are slugs and squash bugs and still trying to figure out how to conquer the latter.  Planted alyssum among the tomatoes for the last two years and only found two hornworms and one of then was covered in parasitic wasp eggs.

So even those of us with several years of experience struggle, but to me the struggle is worth it.  Never give up!  If gardening and sustainability is your desire, then by all means go for it!  It's a bit of hard work in the beginning but the rewards are definitely worth it!

Jenny Wright wrote:

Josh McDonald wrote:For me, the biggest struggle is direct-sowing seeds. I'm pretty successful with big seeds (sunflowers, beans), but haven't made a single tomato or beet pop up yet from a direct sow. Hearing Paul Wheaton talk about all the benefits really makes me want to succeed at it.

That's funny because I have the opposite problem. The big seeds are hardest for me because the birds and the rodents eat them up but they leave the tiny seeds alone. And then the ones that do sprout get nibbled up by the slugs.

I bet a big factor is your personal micro-climate and environment. Once you start saving your own seeds, you can afford to waaay over plant, direct sowing those hard to germinate seeds and then the few that come up will make seeds that will germinate even easier for you the following year, eventually ending up with varieties that will self seed for you.

Yeah, I'm in a hot dry environment, so I think it's hard for the tiny seeds to maintain enough moisture. And I'm in the suburbs, so few animals (with both the pros and cons that come with it).

I would say  the first  is  telling  the difference in the early stages of a plant that grew from a seed that I planted vs a Plant that grew from a seed that i did not plant.
Second would be protecting the plants from all my 4 legged friends.  

quackgrass /Johnson grass is a perpetual struggle. Abundant mulch helps... but they are still there, just looking for one tiny area where the mulch isn't as thick... and they take over again!

What I'm struggling with:
Everything comes at once!
From now (March / April) on the new seeds and plants need to go in the ground and kept alive-and-well, while that ground needs to be kept clean of 'unwanted plants' (often called 'weeds') and this is the time of year my house needs a 'spring cleaning' and I want to go and make bicycle trips too ... and don't forget all other things I have to do (being retired ...)
;-)

Gina Jeffries wrote:Ugh, morning glory (bindweed). It's everywhere, I hate it with the burning fury of a thousand suns. It chokes everything I plant and there is no getting rid of it short of hiring a priest. (Unless one of you lovely people has an idea?)

I have an idea, but it's pretty much the opposite of getting rid of it. Look at it through the lens of "The Problem is the Solution"; morning glory juice was used in the processing of Mesoamerican rubber. You could try making your own rubber using morning glory juice to cure the latex into rubber! The traditional source of latex is rubber trees, but if they don't grow in your area latex can also be extracted from dandelions.

You're not necessarily going to have the same exact species of morning glory (or of dandelion) that the research was done on, but plants in the same genus usually share enough similarities that something is usually possible, just maybe with lower yields or lower quality. (Or maybe higher yields or quality; you never know, because not a whole lot of research has been done in these areas.) It could be a great research project, adapting natural rubber processing to plants that are well-adapted to your area. Might even be a thesis in it, if you are or know a graduate student. And there's a breeding project in it too, selecting plants (both morning glory and dandelion) to optimize for rubber production. Aside from the academic cred, this also has the potential to localize rubber production in case the distribution network breaks down (for the preppers), or just to minimize transportation emissions (for climate change concerns).

Jennifer Pearson wrote:

Gina Jeffries wrote:Ugh, morning glory (bindweed). It's everywhere, I hate it with the burning fury of a thousand suns. It chokes everything I plant and there is no getting rid of it short of hiring a priest. (Unless one of you lovely people has an idea?)

I have an idea, but it's pretty much the opposite of getting rid of it. Look at it through the lens of "The Problem is the Solution"; morning glory juice was used in the processing of Mesoamerican rubber. You could try making your own rubber using morning glory juice to cure the latex into rubber! The traditional source of latex is rubber trees, but if they don't grow in your area latex can also be extracted from dandelions.

You're not necessarily going to have the same exact species of morning glory (or of dandelion) that the research was done on, but plants in the same genus usually share enough similarities that something is usually possible, just maybe with lower yields or lower quality. (Or maybe higher yields or quality; you never know, because not a whole lot of research has been done in these areas.) It could be a great research project, adapting natural rubber processing to plants that are well-adapted to your area. Might even be a thesis in it, if you are or know a graduate student. And there's a breeding project in it too, selecting plants (both morning glory and dandelion) to optimize for rubber production. Aside from the academic cred, this also has the potential to localize rubber production in case the distribution network breaks down (for the preppers), or just to minimize transportation emissions (for climate change concerns).

Okay, this is something you could do. There is that white sap in the stem of the bindweed. But to get a useful amount of rubber I think you need acres full of bindweed!

My way of using bindweed is: let it grow for a little (about a meter or longer), but then pull it out (weeding). Strip the leaves from the stem and then you can use that stem as a piece of string. There is a reason why it is called 'bind-weed'!

J Garlits wrote:You tell me.

I saw this below your graphic and thought I'd respond, although I hit your site on permies - but do not want to get involved in anything else as I'm already way, way behind on my own gardening.

Being "Father's Day' though I wanted to post the photo below and ask Father's, Grandfathers, Fathers-in-law to become involved with all of their young ones in GARDENING as a form of teaching a generation that is far from rural to know some of the basics of self-support and self/survival by producing some of their own food. Please see the photo below for a bit of motivation!