My Vegetable Garden Sucks!!!

[mrbstephens]

That's it! I'm pulling everything out! I was just at a friends house yesterday and he was showing off his vegetable garden. Everything looked magnificent especially his tomato plants. They were huge and already had tomatoes on them. I feel like crying!

 

[TanksHill]

Don't give up. Find out what he has done to his soil. Compare it to yours. Take notes. Try again.

g

 

[bibliophile birds]

That's it! I'm pulling everything out! I feel like crying!

oh no! don't do it!

you just have to adopt a zen mindset when it comes to the garden. this year's garden mantra for me is "whatever happens, happens." if i get only one cucumber from the garden, well then, that's one cucumber more than i would have gotten if i hadn't tried. and it's all about learning what to do...

so, deep breathes and positive thoughts.

 

[charmed one]

That's it! I'm pulling everything out! I was just at a friends house yesterday and he was showing off his vegetable garden. Everything looked magnificent especially his tomato plants. They were huge and already had tomatoes on them. I feel like crying!

I know how you feel! I can't raise a radish for the life of me!

 

[bibliophile birds]

ok. my garden sucks. i planted about 40 ft of corn and i've got exactly 1 EAR coming in. but, to add insult to injury, the spilled chicken feed corn is growing like gangbusters in the MIDDLE OF THE YARD!

not pleased.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

You know . . . I hear that the seed we gardeners buy is never as good as the stuff they sell to farmers. Sometimes it is actually worthless, so our garden failures can sometimes be no fault of our own. I have a bed of beans that I split between a new type of bean I bought seeds for and the heirloom variety that I grew and saved my own seeds from last year. Both sides of the bed were treated the same, but the side with the heirloom beans is growing wonderfully, while the other side had spotty germination, slug damage, and lackluster growth. I suspect the seed quality was poor to begin with, but I am also unimpressed with the vigor of the bean variety. :/

 

[ducks4you]

You know . . . I hear that the seed we gardeners buy is never as good as the stuff they sell to farmers.

I disagree. :/
YES, I have bought packages of seeds that didn't grow. But everytime I had a vegetable do really well, and saved the seed, the NEXT generation grew really well and produced really well.
I have read and heard that if you save your seeds every year, you will develop types that are indigenous to YOUR back yard. That means, that they sprout well, and resist diseases better.
I LOVE tomato volunteers, too. They wanna live so badly.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

You are right, ducks4you, I should not have said "never" because sometimes the seed is just fine. I should have said "often." I read that from a guy who used to buy seed for a seed company. And I'm sure it varies by seed company too.

My main point is they sell the best seed to farmers because farmers buy in larger quantities and know bad seed better than home gardeners. So, if you as a home gardener have a bad experience, it isn't always your fault, it could very well be bad seed.

Yes, the seed you save should be better adapted to the conditions of your own garden.

ETA: The seed I described above that I had saved, I also shared with a member here and she said hers were thriving well too . . . in a much different climate than mine. So I don't think my seed was particularly adapted to my climate (only been growing it for two generations).

 

[tortoise]

ok. my garden sucks. i planted about 40 ft of corn and i've got exactly 1 EAR coming in. but, to add insult to injury, the spilled chicken feed corn is growing like gangbusters in the MIDDLE OF THE YARD!

not pleased.

. Sorry. The potatoes I threw in the rabbit poop pile are doing wonderfully.

To the OP - are you doing TOO MUCH to your garden soil?

I know a family that killed off their garden will aged horse manure. They put a lot on every spring. Finally they had the soil tested and it was off the charts in a bad way. They were told to wait 10 YEARS before putting a gardent there again!

 

[Lady Henevere]

My garden sucks too. I have planted a lot of new fruit trees/bushes/vines this year and nothing died yet (well, except an almond tree that never leafed out), but nothing has produced much either. I'm okay with that, and willing to be patient and wait for them to get bigger to produce more. But the vegetables -- forget it. All the squash has powdery mildew, I have a few green tomatoes on tiny plants that have refused to grow, a handful of dry beans made up my entire crop, and the herbs I planted just sort of never happened. At least I know I'm in good company!

Does anyone know if I can put rabbit poop directly around plants (as opposed to composting first)? Does it matter if it's been sprinkled with DE? Thanks.