What I Learned About Gardening This Year

My Lime Plant…No Limes Yet 🙁

I jumped into gardening this spring. Sure, I had planted things before but this time I went in full force. I had my husband build some boxes and got into square foot gardening. I experimented. I Googled when I didn’t know what to do and I tried a lot of different plants. Some grew well, some did not. Some were picked too early by a curious little boy who thought he was just trying to help Mommy out.

Tomato plant

Now that fall is just around the corner, I can look back and think about what I want to do next year.

Because this was my first year, I tried a lot of different types of plants. Some of them didn’t grow to well. Some of those plants I want to try again, others I don’t really care too much about.

Green beans

I learned that I LOVE growing peas, green beans, radishes and carrots. And while I like tomatoes, I was not a fan of them in my square foot garden. I also love corn on the cob but did not plan well and could not grow it.

For the most part bugs/critters did not bother my plants but they always attacked the cucumbers 🙁

My carrots grew but needed deeper soil.

Radishes can not be planted too close together and do not like the heat.

Pumpkins

So thinking on next year…I want one whole box of corn. The other box will have a mix of carrots, peas, green beans and radishes. I might throw in some flowers or peppers too. I might want my husband to build me another box but we will see when the time comes. I might do some lettuce before it gets too hot as well. Instead of just two types I want to try a lot of different varieties.

I plan to grow the tomatoes on my deck in planters.

I also plan to start a lot earlier than I did. I want to get a mini green house of some kind because I just don’t have the space to keep the plants where they need to be inside in the winter.

As far as my fall garden goes…it is going. My green beans are doing well. My peas that I planted a month ago look like they are doing well. I have a few tomatoes that will turn red soonish I think. My pumpkins are just not growing. They flower and look good but then fall off and die. I am not sure if it is a pollination issue or what. I have seen a lot of bees around the plants the last few months. If I do pumpkins again I will need to figure out what happened and what I can do to avoid that in the future.

I am not sure if I will plant more once all these crops are done. I think I need a little break. I thought I might attempt winter gardening but now I am thinking I won’t. It will be time to start the seedlings for the spring before we know it.

As far as where to buy seeds I plan to buy most of mine online next year. I am trying out a few different places. If you buy online where you do buy from?

What did you learn about gardening this year?