The other night I had a nightmare. One of my neighbors dug up my garden. There was nothing left – not even the fence. I know that I was screaming at him as he drove off with all of the flowers, vegetables and herbs that I grew over the summer. It was traumatizing.
When I woke up, the garden was still there. I was so relieved. Of course, the garden isn’t perfect but it’s still a success. Next year some things will be different. This year was a learning experience for sure.
There are about ten things that I learned about gardening either from making mistakes or Pinterest. Here’s my garden board on Pinterest.
Bugs, etc.
Bees are good. Butterflies will eat the leaves but I can’t deny a butterfly. Locusts and slugs are not that great. I only saw one locust. The slugs were a little sneakier. If you put beer in small containers around the garden, it should take care of the slugs. Slugs like beer.
I made a DIY pesticide with vegetable oil. It worked fairly well and didn’t kill the plants.
Weeds
Weeds are inevitable. This year I didn’t have any major problems with weeds in the garden. I spent plenty of time pulling weeds when I was digging in the yard to make room for the garden. I didn’t use weed killer in the garden. It kills everything including what you’re trying to grow.
Rabbits
There are rabbits in the area so I fenced in the garden as much as I could. So far they haven’t crawled under it.
Birds
The birds were lurking around the garden. However, I didn’t really have any plants that they wanted. If I had any berries, I would have put a net over the garden.
Mulch/Compost
Since I live in town, I put my compost pile in a big trash can with a lid. It stinks but the garden will benefit from all of the grossness. Did you know that you can put hair in the compost pile?
There’s not a magical portal.
My kids would come out to find me but not see me in the garden. Seriously, there’s no where to hide. I wish I could say that there’s a portal to another world out in the garden. It’s been pretty good for my mental health. Maybe because I’m not stuck in the house with my kids.
Planting things too close
I definitely planted the carrots too close together. I forgot to separate them when putting them in the garden. Lesson learned for next year.
Tomatoes will take over the world starting with your garden.
I had so many tomato plants that I lost count. At one time I had 30 or so. I gave some away and some didn’t make it. There are still so many tomato plants.
Did you know that if you don’t cage them or string them, it will be like urban sprawl but with tomatoes? The tomato plants will be everywhere. I’m pretty sure that they multiply.
The next step is to do something will all of the tomatoes.
Sometimes you forget what you planted.
When I started planting seeds, there were intentions of labeling. I did label most things. Unfortunately, the cats kept knocking over the containers and the labels fell off.
For the better part of the summer, I thought I was growing peas. They weren’t peas. They were pods for radish seeds. So there will be an abundance of radishes next year.
If you live in the northern part of the US, the growing season will end.
At least outdoors. Of course, you can still grow things inside. Definitely herbs. We had a tomato plant indoors last winter. It was enormous.
