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Every successful gardener knows that if you haven’t killed something in the garden, you aren’t really gardening.

Mined Rainbow Chard Leaves

And, we all know that every gardening year is different. We strive to put the right plant in the right place, rotate our crops, test and amend our soil, prune properly, find balance managing our flora and fauna pests, yet among our victories come failures. From our failures, we learn and become better gardeners. Each year something in my garden inevitably goes wrong and becomes a learning experience. It may be the result of something I did (or didn’t do) or it may just be the result of nature being unpredictable. Regardless, failures are humbling and they help me grow. Admitting them isn’t always easy, but here goes. Maybe they’ll help you as well.

2009 Gardening Whoops!

• Not so Successful Succession Plantings: Sure, I planted an array of bush beans and seeded them every few days for many weeks during the planting season. But, I didn’t do as good a job with other crops.
  

  Scarlet Runner Bean Flowers From Monticello

  Next year, I’ll do more regular succession plantings of everything, especially curcurbits. That way, I can more easily cycle out the older mildew infested plants as the later plantings roll in. As well, more early succession seedings of tomatoes rather than a slew early and just one late planting.

• Corn from Seed: I got anxious about my corn this year and hoped to get it rolling early, so I seeded it in the greenhouse early. It bolted a bit and then didn’t do well when transplanted into the garden. I did do a succession planting and am waiting to see how the later plants do. They don’t look great, so it may mean I need better seed as well as better timing.
• Cabbage worm and Leaf Miner Protection: I did a great job protecting my early plantings from flying, egg-laying insects like cabbage worm and leaf miner. I didn’t do a good job protecting my fall brassica seedlings in the greenhouse, which the cabbage moth made home to many green worms. And, I didn’t protect my later chard well from leaf miner. So, here I am in August picking thru my crops. Next year, the fleece will line my seedlings in the greenhouse, which is opened on warm days to allow airflow and to encourage pollinators for the blooming foods inside.
• More organic matter:
  

  Our Own Hothouse Cucumbers

  My cucumbers didn’t do as well as they have in past years, and I truly believe it is because I didn’t amend the soil with enough organic matter. Don’t get me wrong, I got some great cukes this year & they’re still rolling in. I know they love organic matter and frankly thrive when they grow right out of a compost heap. I learned this year that means heaping on compost every couple weeks to the sandy garden soil in which I’m growing cucumbers.

• When in doubt, take it out: Sometimes I hesitate to remove a plant that I know is really in the wrong place. I’m getting better about this and will no longer let nostalgia hold me back from digging out and giving away the wrong plant in the wrong place.
• Letting go: Several years ago, I planted a small Hinoki Cypress in my garden. And, it has struggled. An arborist friend told me, not long after I planted it, to be patient and allow it to lose interior and lower leaves as it settled into the garden space. I did that, but it always looked a bit sad. After the freezes of last winter, it looked even rougher than before, but it continued to plug along until we were hit with 104F weather in July. Despite my tlc and diligent watering, it simply gave up the ghost this summer. In my garden  of experimentation and survival of the fittest, I simply have to be content letting it go.
• Maintain more flowers in the greenhouse: Because we have inconsistent weather in Seattle, I kept a variety of summer heat loving crops in containers in my greenhouse to help ensure I was able to harvest peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers. This worked pretty well until I realized the crop flowers weren’t quite enough to entice a lot of pollinators into the structure. Then, when I brought in some potted allysium and let my bolting cilantro to flower and form coriander seed, the pollinators flocked inwards to the flowers. Next year, I’ll specifically grow flowers the bees (and others) love to bring them into the greenhouse and out of the diverse garden beds surrounding the structure.
• Spit bugs and Leafhoppers: I’ve never been too worried about spit bug damage. It isn’t pretty, but most perennials do just fine with the damage. This year I realized the hopping instar that follows entered my greenhouse, hopping off an infested potted salvia just outside the greenhouse door. The hopper began doing its damage to my cucumber and watermelon in the greenhouse. They survived, but I did a lot of bug hunting and set up a lot of sticky traps to catch them. (And unfortunately, the sticky traps also caught some of those desperately needed pollinators.)

I’m sure I’ll think of other things I need to do better. Past years have taught me other lessons, and each year I grow with them and with the garden. (For instance, this year my bush beans are in bush spots and my pole beans are on poles!) Please, share what you’ve learned and will do more of  (or less of) in the years ahead. Together, we’ll all do better.

Tags: bee, cabbage worm, corn, crop rotation, curcurbit, floating row cover, Gardening, IPM, leafhopper, leafminer, spit bug, succession planting, trees, vegetable gardening

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at 9:54 am and is filed under Food for Thought. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.