6.05.2013

My garden: successes and failures...

My garden is having some wild success right now and yet, at the same time, some dismal failures.

First of all the success, the raised bed that I gave to the boys for their play garden is growing LIKE CRAZY!  I only put 2 tomatoes, a cucumber and 1 pole bean plant in there and they are doing so well.  The crazy thing is, I didn't do anything to the soil in that raised bed because I thought they would kill everything I planted.  No compost, no tilling, no mulch, nothing...and yet they grow!


My raised bed on the other hand is a completely different story!  I amended the soil, I tilled the soil, I formed furrows, I mulched with straw, John put in a drip system, and yet, things are DYING!  I have planted zucchini 3 times!  The snails have killed each and every plant.  I put strawberry baskets around the seeds so they could get a good start, and yet the snails managed to get in.  Seriously depressing.  My tomatoes are doing well, and my bell pepper are hanging on, but they sure aren't pretty.  My potato tower is a flop (my friend Shelly's is growing like crazy, so I know it works!) and my zucchini, well, I've decided I'm done trying with that for this year.  Today I finally grabbed a bunch of wildflower seeds and threw them out in my bare spots mostly just to see if I can get SOMETHING to grow there.  It just might not be my year.

Where my zucchini are supposed to be...

My raised bed.  Tomatoes in foreground, potato tower at the end...

My failing potato tower...

Other than working on the actual edible portion of the garden, I do have a couple things going well for me.  The first are these 3 cute little teacup birdfeeders that I made...

And, of course, the second thing going well for me in the garden are my helpers.  I've got the best ones around.  Henry is just as concerned about my dead zucchini plants as I am.  At least I have someone to commiserate with :) And Charlie, he keeps things well-watered as he has just recently figured out how to work the nozzle on the hose :)





Despite my failures, we're still having fun over here.  But, if you find yourself with a bunch of homegrown surplus, feel free to send it our way.  We'll gladly take anything you've got :)

2 comments:

JHNickodemus said...

Isn't that the most frustrating! I had some snow peas I thought had been killed for sure by multiple snows and me forgetting to water them and I get a picture message praising me for my snow peas....when I've been fussing over all my other plants for weeks! While I'm thrilled the snow peas made it, it kind of just gets my goat.
Consider me a fellow commiserator.

Scott and Malisa Johnson said...

I fail at squash. Every kind, every time. My kids like growing radishes the best because of the quick germination and harvest time. And they even will eat them (with enough ranch). I want to know more about this potato tower!