Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Garden failures


A little while back, Ricki was brave enough to post some of her garden failures, so I thought I should fess up as well. I can't believe I'm about to tell you this. The stupidest thing I did this year was to not turn my horrible crappy soil before planting. Imagine clay. Compacted. With tree roots growing up into it. With rocks. The kind of soil you don't really dig, but more chip away at. This spring, I was just so tired, I convinced myself that I was following the no-till method. I literally thought this in my head, even though I knew I was seriously mistaking the intention of the no-till method. Anyway, the result is what you see above and below. Seriously stunted plants - plants that were lovingly grown from seed and cared for indoors for weeks. What a shame.


In the photo above, you can see a tomato in the ground and one in the pot. A couple weeks prior, they were the same size. What a shame. Below, bolted Asian greens from sowing seed in a too-sunny spot, too-late in the season. Duh.



Above, a blueberry shrub that never knew what hit it. Below, a result of sheer laziness. I know you can't leave this stuff outside through the winter, but I live in denial that my pottery will break.


Lesson learned. I only hope I can be disciplined enough to not repeat these mistakes!

14 comments:

  1. Well, if I were to do a post on my failures, it would be many pages longer! I have that kind of rock hard clay mixed with rock soil. Even after amending it for years, I had almost convinced myself it was pretty good. But, then I gave a friend a plant, with my soil (that I thought was good!), and realized how horrible it still is. Very embarrassing. The tomato picture showing the difference really is amazing, though!

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  2. Hi Wendy, oh so familiar. Thank you for your heartfelt confession. And in the spirit of your candor, I'll come clean and admit that I have done this too and it was before the "no till" method existed, or was written about at least. I can't remember what my rationale was but it was a sad, failed experiment for sure. One year I bought four good sized blueberry plants. Today, they're all dead, replaced with smaller versions in yet another attempt to keep them alive and have them eventually look like those at the blueberry farm. Wishful thinking, maybe. And I've also left pots outside... I'm in denial too. But no more, right? :) Let's have this discussion in a year from now, okay?

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  3. Sometime after a mistake in the garden, I thought it was well lesson learned. Next year I forgot and repeat the same mistake again ;-).

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  4. If it makes you feel any better a couple of our blueberry bushes are looking pretty sad this year too.:(

    "When you make a mistake, don't look back at it long. Take the reason of the thing into your mind and then look forward. Mistakes are lessons of wisdom. The past cannot be changed. The future is yet in your power." - Hugh White

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  5. Glad to know I'm not the only one!! :) Having said that - I've seen all your gardens and I know you're just being kind...

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  6. I sincerely feel that most gardeners goes through what you shared, or at least I too face this feeling a lot. I had abandon my garden like 6 months ago.
    Only recently Im slowly picking up the pieces.
    So really, thanks for sharing.

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  7. Good lessons ha ha... but thanks for your honest sharing. I hope the tomato in the pot will produce lots of fruits for you ;-) Have a wonderful day.

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  8. Of course you are not the only one. I have clay and rocks too. I had newly purchased fruit trees died on me because it couldn't breathe with that kind of condition.

    I have 2 dogs that till the soil regularly for me. But they always choose the wrong spot and expose roots along the way...

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  9. It's happened to all of us probably - for me, especially the ceramic pot breaking. I was so sad when that happened to me.

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  10. Perhaps you could take up the hobby of mosaic art so you can make good use of that broken pot?
    I made a pot earlier this year from broken tile and it turned out really nice. It's a no-brainer....perfect for me.
    I had a ceramic bird bath at one point, ( that was a dumb idea) and a bear decided he wanted to take a drink out of it. Crack...

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  11. Garden failures can be taken as an adventure in gardening where lessons are learnt. Or, we can just view them like the seasons that repeats itself.

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  12. Thanks for following my lead. Looks like we could all play one-upsmanship in the "oops" department. I find that broken, beautiful blue pot to be the biggest heartbreaker. Come to think of it, knowing the care you lavish upon your seedlings...

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  13. I have some spots like that. I was so excited that we got the veggie garden rabbit proofed, but insects of some kind have my bean plants full of holes. I have a nice oval shaped metal planter that we can't move because the bottom is rusted off. I planed a couple perennials in it to see if they'd survive the winter in it. I don't know how many more seasons it will survive, though.

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  14. My onions were a flop/failure this year. Next year I'm not going to plant them in my raised beds .. instead in the old garden where I know they will thrive. I bought two ($1.00/ea) bare-root blueberry plants several years ago and planted them past the prime time in the spring .. and finally this year they have fruit. Same with some gladiola bulbs I bought this year at half price .. a chipmunk ate half of the buried bulbs .. but I still have 18 growing.

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