“I’m just not a gardener…I have a brown thumb.” If you have ever said this, or if you have felt any kind of despair after a failure in the garden, this post is for YOU! All too often people imagine that I must have success with everything plant in my garden and that I don’t fail at anything after all these years. Not true! Failure is a part of gardening and farming every year – and it offers life lessons that are about more than gardening.
Here’s the thing. Every gardener and every farmer, no matter how experienced, will tell you that they see failure of some kind every single year.
Each year brings new pests, new soil diseases, new weather patterns (drought, too much rain, not enough sun, hurricanes!). Sometimes I plant seeds a little too early or a little too late. Sometimes I plant seeds and forget to water them! Sometimes I end up with a bad batch of seeds and there is nothing I could do to make them sprout!
It’s important to make a note of what didn’t go well in your garden so you can make corrections for next year. Don’t be hard on yourself (I hate garden-shaming!) and just move forward with a plan.
That plan can even be, “I’m just not going to grow that anymore” and that’s okay! For vegetables that you really want to grow, start asking questions about what you can do to succeed next year. It’s a good bet that someone has an answer for you…and you can always ask me! A garden journal is also an excellent tool that every gardener should have. I promise you, you will forget what you did and didn’t do so write it down! That way, when I ask you, “what week of the season did you plant that lettuce that failed?” – you’ll know exactly when it was.
This is what failed HARD in my garden this year:
Camomile. I planted camomile years ago and by the fall, I always had a giant pillow of sweet yellow and white blooms. I made tea all winter and enjoyed every sip. Camomile reseeds itself every year and so for several years, I enjoyed camomile with virtually no effort at all. Then last year…it didn’t return. I’m not sure why. It could have been that I disrupted the seeds by doing a little landscaping project in the same area. It could be my neighbor mowed over it before it fully set seeds last year (it grows on my property line).
I bought a package of seeds and planted them. Nothing. I watered and waited another week. Nothing. I ended up starting 3 packages of seeds and I have nothing to show for it! Fortunately, I had plenty of chamomile left over from that last few years to get me through the winter, and I bought a new package this week. I’m ready to try again, and I will likely plant it in pots first just so I have more control over germination.
Cucumbers. My garden saw the worst case of cucumber wilt ever. I think I had an initial harvest of 6-7 cucumbers and then I saw the tell tale signs. The vines wilted and then died. This is caused by the bacterium Erwinia tracheiphila which is transmitted by the common cucumber beetle. To combat this problem next year, I used two strategies: one, I sprayed beneficial nematodes in the cool fall weather (see my post here to read about this effective, organic method) and I also abandoned my favorite heirloom seeds in favor of some hybrids that have been naturally bred to resist wilt.
Tomatoes. Sure, I harvested a ton of tomatoes this year, but no where near as many as I could have if not for the blight I battle every year in my Zone 6b/7a garden. I have a few tried and true methods to keep it from devouring my whole crop, but this year, I’m adding some hybrid tomatoes from Johnny’s along side my heirlooms from Baker Creek Seeds.
Corn. All was going perfectly until that &%#! raccoon showed up! He attacked my corn one night and deftly striped that tender ears right out of the husk leaving the stalks all over the ground. A new fence is the only solution here – and you can bet I’ll be adding one this spring!
In the end, I expect I will have failures every year in my garden and I will acknowledge them as I celebrate the successes (butternut squash! peppers! green beans!). Often, in this world, we hold ourselves and others to too high a standard. I have to remind myself when I look at a failed plant or crop in my garden, I believe God makes my garden grow, not me. I am only a caretaker, and a grateful one at that. And when I am reflecting on that failure and planning my next garden, I’m grateful to process it all over a cup of hot chamomile tea : )
Wishing you much success in the garden this year. Please let me know how I can help you grow your best garden ever.
Thank you for reminding us not to give up. Don’t take failures personally, just move on and try again.
If I gave up gardening every time I failed, I’d be giving up every year! Learning and growing from failures is such good life lesson.