Dear Friend, Don’t Give Up Gardening!

Dear Friend,

It’s totally normal for a garden to not flourish. Every year you learn more about your particular spot of land, which plants are working and which aren’t, and then use that knowledge to have more success. 

BUT there will still always be some failure because every year is different. The weather is different, the bug cycles are different (Gosh, I’ll never forget spider mites destroying my entire bean crop when I had never even seen them before years prior. Yes, I had a tiny garden then so it was “just” 4 square feet of beans but that was a huge chunk of my garden back then!), or sometimes the soil conditions need improvement. (We compost everything, we just bury it, no need to go through all the hassle of a “proper compost pile with exact ratios of green verses brown materials” when nature can just deal with it underground). 

I hope you’ll keep trying! There is always failure in garden, there is never 100% success because not all of your seeds are going to germinate, then there’s bugs and critters ruining some of your plants, then there’s drought or extreme heat or excessive rain, and in the end you’re doing great if you get any crop! So we look at any amount of success as SUCCESS. 

We learned a lot from last year to this year and we produced more food this year, but I have found so many ways where we need to up our game. Like the darn vine borers. I’m coming up with strategies to outsmart them, but they are a menace in this region. We have no idea what it’s like to be overrun with zucchini squash! Lucky people who live in regions without vine borers. Though our poor tomatoes, there’s nothing we could’ve done to help them. The very stormy summer caused so much tomato cracking (uneven watering causes tomatoes to swell and crack) so we’ve lost so many to rot. It’s not just us, the other gardeners we’ve talked to had the same problem this year so it was the weather conditions. Whereas last year was drought and while that meant more hand watering (which is a huge time consuming labor-intensive hassle when you have to do it by hand because hoses are not allowed at the community garden), it did mean more control over the condition of the tomatoes. So every year is different. 

Haha, I know I’m boring you with vine borers. 😉 But truly, keep growing food. Just keep at it, endure the failures, and you’ll keep learning and growing as a gardener. You will become more successful if you just keep trying. I promise!

Much Love,

Growing Goodies ❤️