A Gardener’s Learning Curve
Gardening is a skill. And as with any skill (including writing), there’s a learning curve.
The first vegetables I grew as an adult were tomatoes. And that was ALL I grew in that first year.
I needed the time to learn how to tend to the soil, how to water the tomato plants properly, how to stake them, how to attract pollinators, when to harvest their fruit and then their seeds, how to prepare the bed for the next year and so on.
I made mistakes. Some plants died. All plants grew…not terrifically. (sheepish grin) The harvest was…underwhelming.
I learned from those mistakes and the following year, the tomato growing went MUCH better.
So much better that I decided to grow green beans also.
And I made mistakes with those plants also.
I learned. I became a better gardener.
I added another type of vegetable to the garden. And the process repeated.
If this was your first year gardening and your harvest was underwhelming or completely nonexistent, know that is normal.
That is expected.
Your mistakes this year will make you a better gardener next year.
(smiles)
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Gardening Failures Are To Be Expected
We watch a gardening video. We duplicate the steps exactly.
The seeds don’t germinate. Or they germinate and days later, the plants die. Or the plants die for some other reason.
What did we do wrong?
It is likely nothing we did.
We will never have the exact same garden as the person on the video.
Because every piece of land, every bit of soil is unique.
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I have different soil in the back yard than we do in the front yard. Stars. We have different soil in the north side of our tiny back yard than we have in the south side of the same back yard!
One of the many reasons it is different is because we have a giant horse chestnut tree that has dropped its leaves on the north side for the last twenty or more years. And the north side gets more sun. And it is a bit windier on the north side. And…And…And…
All those factors make a difference in growing plants.
Which is one of the reasons why it often takes years to figure out what grows well and how it grows well in our little plots of land.
(And every bag of soil purchased has variability also because it is ‘harvested’ from different land.)
Gardening is trial and error. In the beginning of our gardening journeys, there will likely be more failures than successes. Over time, as we build on our successes, we’ll become experts at growing things in our spaces. And the successes will far outweigh the failures.
WE will become the gardeners other people envy and try to duplicate.
And THEIR gardens will never mirror ours. Because our soil, our land is unique.
(smiles)
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