Here is what i learned.
1. That i love the hard work that goes into my garden.
2. I learned that all the planning i did was still not enough.
3. I learned that my garden is my zen place.
4 that i need more room...
5. That were i live it is easier to direct sow most seeds.
6. That my seeds grew very big...lol
7. That i have so much more to learn.
8. That their are lots of different types of every veggie.
9. That i don't have a black thumb as my hubby says.
I am so glad that I found this forum there is a great wealth of knowledge to be learned from the fine people here and I greatly appreciate everyone that has answered my questions no matter how silly they seemed.
10 i learned what a tomato horn worm is and boy are they yucky looking.
Thank you everyone and may god bless you yours and your gardens.

"That too much rain is worse than not enough" truer words have never been spoken!! All this rain has really put a damper on my garden this year. Last year was the complete opposite hot and dry, this year cool and WET.

That the pole beans that straddle a garden path make too much shade for chard - now I have to move some.

Rabbits (I think that's what it was) will eat newly planted sweet potato slips down to the ground and kill them.

Not to anticipate the season too early and plant out a couple of tomatoes - they just got weird from the cold and the rain, even without frost damage, and had to be pulled.

I may regret planting Jerusalem artichokes, but so far they are doing beautifully.

mzteaze, to combat that with the squirrels, once the tomatoes start to show a hint of color, pick them and allow to ripen inside. I have read that once they start to change color, they are no longer being fed by the vine. The problem with grocery store tomatoes is they are picked when rock hard and completely green.

Thanks tishtoshnm. I will go pick the red ones tomorrow.

Apples love a drought as much as feijoas hate one.
I can leave my dried runner beans on the dead vines for ages. I better get them in before spring...
I'm not lazy about pruning, but protecting my plants from the 'once in a generation' storm!

Squirrel, first year with my raised raised beds. People on the container forum said I could grow almost anything in 1' deep beds.
I have my tomatoes, asparagus, potatoes and beans in a regular raised bed due to their size and permanence (asparagus)
In the tall beds, I have 3 squash plants in one bed (They don't seem to be as big as when grown in the reg bed, but are doing OK) The next bed has 6 asian eggplants, 2 hot peppers and a cuke. The 3rd bed has 6 Bell peppers, beets, and 2 cukes. I have marigolds surrounding each bed.
Things are growing REALLY well, and I might be in some trouble with the cukes! I've never had this many flowers in the past! I'm also going to be over run with eggplant all at once and peppers, both of which I used to just get a few at a time!
Luckily I just retired last week and will have time to process things instead of tossing them on the neighbors' porches and running away! LOL Nancy

I learned that 1)ants harvest aphids, 2)aphids like borage, spinach, tomato, apple and pear leaves, 3)cucumber beetles are very difficult to get rid of, 4)despite my inital garden woes the healthy plants will persevere, and 5)even though every year I complain that my garden is not big enough this year it felt almost overwhelming and I think I am good with the size.

Pat -- Oh no, you mean my parsnips that look so wonderful may well not be delicious?!? It makes sense to me now, since they germinated very late fall and were there all winter, so to them this is their second year (sort of). Oh well. Hopefully I'll get a few good ones out of the mix.

So is that one less thing I learned, or one more thing I learned? :)

that just because i didn't have tomato hornworm last year doesn't mean i won't have it this year :(

You can germinate Candlelight Chiles on a wet paper towel in a zip lock bag set on top of a PlayStation 3 for 5 days. :D

Regarding rabbits and beans:

They will eat the leaves off edamame even after the plants are quite large.

They don't seem to care for even small lima bean plants.

They will leave bush beans alone after they are seven or eight inches tall.

CreeksideARE YOU KIDDING ME??Rabbits will leave bush beans alone after they are 7 or 8 inches tall. Oh no, they love them to get tall so they can hide under the leaves and eat the blooms and beans.

Elis, Pat and me are members of the same party. I have arugula, red mustard, komatsuna, some kale and daikon in free-seeding mode (purslane too, but that is a wild veg). Celery has occupied a whole bed and will no longer be allowed to self-seed. I ought to let parsnips do the same, right now I have giant plants with 90% ripe seeds, but I have to find a way to fit them in my bed rotation. The other vegetables have spindly enough spikes that I can plant around them, but little grows under parsnips.

Gardening is a learned behavior for me
Sprinkler don't work as good as drip irrigation

Second year with two 4'x8'x1' raised beds; previously lived in apartments so only had the capacity for container gardening. I've learned lots this year as it was my first time growing nearly everything from seed; last summer the raised beds weren't finished until the end of June so I ended up buying some large tomato plants and summer squash. I've made a lot of mistakes but the way I see it as long as I make new, different mistakes next year I'll have learned something :)

-Similar to the adage "never go grocery shopping when hungry" - spring planting should only be done in the right state of mind. Sleep deprived and overwhelmed with end of term work combined with a general despair at a winter of no precip but prolonged bitter cold is not the right state of mind.

-You can plant the green onions you buy in the grocery store, and they will make amazing flowers that bees go crazy over. But they will not make bulbs.

-Straw makes for a decent mulch when laid over black landscaping fabric. It also needs to be covered with a layer of netting if in a high wind area or it will all end up in your neighbor's yard.

-String of 90 degree days or not, you should not transplant tomatoes outside in April. Wall of waters are good but not that good.

-Corollary to the previous: it will snow at least once between April and Memorial Day.

-Turnips and radishes are pretty decent spring crops.

-Squash plants will take up way more room than you originally thought. Hard squash especially.

-Planting a zucchini as a sacrifice plant only works if the squash bugs get the memo. They seem to prefer the pumpkin vines.

-Herbs like cilantro and dill will bolt in full sun but they, as well as parsley, attract all sorts of pollinators and good insects.

-Squirrels will taste every tomato they can reach, regardless of the color of the fruit.

-Mammoth sunflowers planted in the dirt on the outside of the SW side of a raised bed can provide some shade as well as a bit of wind break. The squash especially like the break from directly overhead sun.

-Most plants can recover from freak hailstorm damage.

-Someone else said it: flowering plants like marigolds, coreopsis, and yarrow in close vicinity does great things for pollination and also brings in beneficial insects like lady bird beetles.

-Bungee cords are a good way to secure tomato cages to the containers they're in.

-Next year I'm tying the labels to the tomato seedlings. While they were hardening off on my front porch there was a strong wind and all the little paper tags I'd taped to toothpicks and put in each plant blew out. So I had ten plants that could have been any of three varieties and consequently I had to guess which was which when I planted them and gave them cages. I guessed wrong; some of the largest and fastest-growing varietes were stuck with the smallest cages and are now slouching down the sides of the

-A soaker hose works much better than hand watering for a raised bed, but is not adjustable. So plan ahead.

1- After years of planting indet matere, I learned this year to think DWARF , WINDOW BOX and DETS and not to worry about extending the cage extenders again to 7ft. ,
2- Plant Pole peas and beans, forget about trellising.
Yeah, I am learning how to get lazy. heh heh
3- NEVER again Brandywine.
3- BER, you can talk about it but you cannot do anything about it.
4- You can do hand pollinating but you can never be as good as the bees. A lesson in knowing the birds and bees. lol

1. Too much rain is worse than too little (though I learned that in 2011, repeated the lesson this year).

2. Raised beds (even mounded without any sides to contain the soil) are the way to go for everything.

3. While ants may build nests under burlap, it really does help keep the weeds down (wish I'd replaced the rotted stuff I pulled off early in the season).

4. What squash bugs, their eggs, and SVB moths look like.

5. Taking a vacation in April, even with someone to take care of my seedlings, makes a rush to prep the beds in time for planting (even when planting is delayed by weather, the prep work is delayed by it too!).

6. I need to start summer crops under cover to have anything to bring to market for the first half of the season. Market ends in Sept and this year I probably won't have any tomatoes until Labor Day!

Pole beans with no support? That sounds like a way to lose most of the crop.

Glib, I had quite a population of naturalized parsnip at one location. After heavily dosing with lime and gypsum and plowing most of the area a year and a half ago, and raising fertility overall via dehydrated chicken manure, the crop that seems to appreciate the new conditions the least is the parsnip. It has almost disappeared while the naturalized B.napus has exploded.

This is my first attempt at gardening... I've learned to LAUGH!!!

A LOT!!!

I feel like the 'end times" have started to take place in my garden (or The Back 40...feet, as I jokingly refer to it) because it was one tragic event after another. First the horned caterpillars, next rats, and for the grand finale, birds. My poor tomatoes plants never stood a chance! I was only able to 'harvest' 3 little lovelies! They are resting comfortably in my window until they are ripe.

I'm also trying to fully understand the difference between determinate and indeterminate tomatoes, and what all that involves.

Other than that, I've fully enjoyed my garden, and have a new obsession! Walking through the hardware store is like going shoe shopping! (I still love to shop for shoes, but nearly as much as fertilizers and seed packets!)

My husband has been equally impressed bc he claims he married a "city girl". My husband grew up on crawfish and bean farms so its already in his blood. Oh well, I'm a fast learner!

Le Bon Vie

What I learned so far...

1) Never assume indeterminates won't outgrow your cages.

2) Less is more. Usually.

3) Every passing day makes you wish you could start the season over again.

4) Planting tomatoes in grow bags next to the side of my garage is remarkably the best place on my property.

5) There's a new battle to be fought every day.

6) Don't ignore dropped blooms or leaf issues.

7) Start a gardening log and update very frequently so you don't make the same mistakes next year.

•Posted by pnbrown z6.5 MA (My Page) on
Mon, Jul 22, 13 at 8:37
Pole beans with no support? That sounds like a way to lose most of the crop.
*****************************
@pnbrown:

Sorry ! I meant to say plant BUSH " instead" of POLE and forget about trellising.

Sorry for a second post

This post was edited by prairiemoon2 on Fri, Jul 26, 13 at 7:47

Growing tomatoes and peppers in the ground is by far better than growing them in containers.

That I shouldn’t kid myself that a stake and a commercial tomato cage are going to do the trick.

That new hybrids tell you what the plant is good at, but not what it is bad at. For instance, ‘Easy Pick’ Bush String Beans, really are much easier to pick, but they have no flavor and are not tender.

I was reminded of the importance of thinning crops to the right distance apart!

My seeder plants too closely so I always have to go back with a hoe and thin my corn, peas, beans, and okra.

This year we have had so much rain that I couldn't thin most of it.

I got one row of corn, peas, and beans thinned and 1/2 row of okra.

Everything that wasn't thinned is doing terrible!

Well, I knew I had wild rabbits in the neighborhood, groundhogs and the occasional skunk...but I never thought we would see a deer wandering around the neighborhood until yesterday.

My "monster" tomato plant got the best of the soil mix and is now reaping the benefits.

Hit all the after the fourth of July sales for the best deals on gardening supplies.

Cicadas still scare the heck out of me. Dead or alive.

Lol @ the above person's fear of cicadas..those things are kinda cool.
I sit in my garden laughing & shaking my head when I see the sparrows struggling to fly away with one in their beaks..LOL!

This season, I learned:

- to never plant watermelon in Milwaukee again
- that pumpkins need SPACE! (I thought everything was sunshine & rainbows til I learned they can get up to 10+ feet..so I went from 9 seedlings, to 7 lil stalks, to 5-6 bushes, and now 3 5' vines)
- that cucumber beetles are such a pain..
- that peppers seriously need heat + supreme care, even to GROW (in MY soil...which never happened -_-)
- bird netting is the freakin bomb ^_^

Lol @ the above person's fear of cicadas..those things are kinda cool.
I sit in my garden laughing & shaking my head when I see the sparrows struggling to fly away with one in their beaks..LOL!

This season, I learned:

- to never plant watermelon in Milwaukee again
- that pumpkins need SPACE! (I thought everything was sunshine & rainbows til I learned they can get up to 10+ feet..so I went from 9 seedlings, to 7 lil stalks, to 5-6 bushes, and now 3 5' vines)
- that cucumber beetles are such a pain..
- that peppers seriously need heat + supreme care, even to GROW (in MY soil...which never happened -_-)
- bird netting is the freakin bomb ^_^

Lol @ the above person's fear of cicadas..those things are kinda cool.
I sit in my garden laughing & shaking my head when I see the sparrows struggling to fly away with one in their beaks..LOL!

This season, I learned:

- to never plant watermelon in Milwaukee again
- that pumpkins need SPACE! (I thought everything was sunshine & rainbows til I learned they can get up to 10+ feet..so I went from 9 seedlings, to 7 lil stalks, to 5-6 bushes, and now 3 5' vines)
- that cucumber beetles are such a pain..
- that peppers seriously need heat + supreme care, even to GROW (in MY soil...which never happened -_-)
- bird netting is the freakin bomb ^_^

Have you ever aggravated a cicada?

I did one time, I kinda poked it with a stick and it screamed so loud it scared me! It sounded like something from a horror movie!

Never have I ever nor WILL I...they can be horribly loud from even 15-20 ft away..yeesh..

Don't plant a dozen crenshaw melon plants in 40 Sq ft area, and then don't plant another dozen watermelon plants in the 40 sq ft area next to the crenshaw melons. it makes a big tangled mess.

LOL,

wertach, I've never aggravated a cicada but I did see one person nearly lose their life because one was on their back. The person who spotted the cicada, whacked it with all her might. The poor man never knew what hit him. LOL

We used to get a swarm of them in MD when I was growing up. It was like something out of a horror movie because it was just soooo many of them. Blech.

MrTeaze has taken to laughing at me running and wildly waving off bugs while trying to tend to the garden.

.. that Honey & Pearl corn planted on April 9 took approx 72 days to maturity, planted on May 8 took approx 68 days to maturity, and planted on June 2 took approx 57 days to maturity...I also know from past years that the above numbers are weather dependent and are subject to change for the years ahead.

But it is more about what I didn't learn that is bugging me.. what critter was climbing up the corn stalks (I'm fairly certain in the middle of the night) and gnawing on the ears of mature corn. I know it is not a large animal because 1) I have an electric fence, and 2) the damaged corn ears remained on the stalk. I thought it might be a rat or mouse, but none tripped the baited rat traps. The damage looks to be typical of what a squirrel would do, but usually they feed in the middle of the day. In any case, the 2013 corn is finished so it looks like I'll have an opportunity to possibly "learn" something new in 2014. i.e. who would be the culprit.

It is my first year growing Kale. I learned NOT to plant so many plants next year! I learned my favorite Kale is the Red Russian and Dino kales. Curly is alright but seems the strongest of the three to me in taste.

I learned all about the 17 year cicadas. There were a lot of them near me and I got to stand in the middle of the activity.

They are harmless to people and plants, with no biting or chewing mouthparts.
The sounds are deafening but are mating calls.
The eerie sound they make when you pick them up sounds like zapping electric wires.
The adults lay their eggs in tree bark, then die.
Eggs hatch into ricegrain size larva which drop to the ground and feed harmlessly on tree roots for 17 years, come up and pupate into adults.

The above-ground life cycle takes a few weeks and it's over.

The fact that I may never see them again in my lifetime is kind of scary.

I learned:
- In my 4' wide beds, plant fava beans in the middle. This was my first year planting them and I didn't know they got so tall. I could barely reach through/over them to weed the bush beans in the center rows. Also, if you want enough fava beans for more than one meal, plant A LOT of them.

- How to make flea beetle traps out of plastic water bottles and tanglefoot. (I believe I learned that right here on this forum.) It works - but my purple mizuna still looks like lace.

-That our screened in gazebo works beautifully as a drying shed for the bunches of garlic now hanging from the rafters.

- That Mother Nature almost always wins.

A new lesson. If you cut the okra back by half in mid summer, it takes less than 3 weeks to start bearing again! And, there are more than one blooming stalk per plant. I may cut it back very early next year!

1. Protect my bell peppers, or the critters will eat them as soon as they start forming

2. Plant cilantro all over the garden to attract bees

3. Don't bother growing spinach in the spring in my area, because it will bolt before I can eat it

4. Don't plant 8 leaf lettuces unless you actually like lettuce

5. Digging deeper than my 6" raised beds makes a HUGE difference to tomatoes

6. I am incapable of growing carrots, and should use the space for something else

7. Use a tomato cage around my bush beans or they will all fall over and be much harder to deal with

8. Potatoes in containers ARE worth it

9. Don't just cross my fingers and hope the squash vine borers won't be a problem, because digging them out is so much worse than preventing them in the first place

10. Start melons and pumpkins inside, because I am probably going to have a lot of beautiful fruit that won't have time to ripen taunting me at the end of the season

11. The free compost provided by the city is awesome, but be prepared to weed like crazy for a while

I learned something this season that I knew was coming down the pike but didn't know when, now I know when. For the first time in my gardening history I'll have to stop expanding the garden and start to shrink it next year. I've reached my upper limit on what I can successfully maintain and due to slowing down myself so goes the garden. Missing from next year's planting list will be Onions, Cantaloupes, and perhaps Butter beans. I'll still grow watermelons but on a smaller plot with smaller melon varieties, I just can't pick up those Big ones trying to tippy toe through vines without twisting my ankle or getting a hernia, ha. Will hold onto planting the main staples of the veggie world....as long as possible :)

mzteaze, I found a cicada stuck in my grass about an hour ago.

I decided to help s/he out of the grass. I got it up and off again but it was screaming so loud I almost abandoned my efforts!

A scary, but harmless creature!

Don't plant anything at home I can't cage the squirrels and rats out of :(

Learned: no matter how high fence dog will still get into the sage roll around.
guy two blocks away has better stereo system then me
take great enjoyment sprinkling lime and salt on slugs and snails-) so much pleasure

I learned that I must keep my plant markers in the correct pots when I start seeds indoors. I thought I had an equal balance of Brussels Sprouts and Broccoli. Nope. Almost all Broccoli.

mztease... love this quote.... " I don't have a brown thumb like I previously thought. I just hadn't found the type of gardening I really care about." really love it.

Anyhow... learned a lot of things here are the big ones:

1)certain vegatables need good supports... huge lesson... it was a bit of a theme

2)don't put 4 poorly caged tomatoes and 6 trellised cucumbers in the same 4 x 4 raised bed it will start a war (tomatoes won in case anyone was interested)

3) cukes need more than a 4ft tall trellis

4) Deer eat okra

5)blueberries need birdnetting

6)floating row covers are awesome to deal with fluctuating weather.

1. Don't crowd tomatoes, even when more starts prospered than you expected, and even though the varieties all sound so interesting.
2. If you said the same thing last year, it's probably still true. And you are probably an idiot to not follow your own advice.
3. 2 cucumber vines are too much for 2 people, no matter how pretty, especially if the 2 people aren't especially fond of cucumbers.
4. If you find it hard to thin living seedlings, plant one seed at a time.
5. Nothing tastes as good as fresh fruits and veggies from your own garden.

I forgot something from my earlier posting:

Veggies prefer water from the rain barrel, rather than from the garden hose!

Jim

Unfortunately, this year I learned what a tomato fruitworm looks like.

I don't have good luck with Italian pole beans

I will only plant bush beans, not pole beans

I hate SVB

I hate rabbits

Too much rain is worse than not enough

Keep better eyes on my tomato plants for disease

Standing at the garden and staring will NOT make it grow faster.

Start certain peppers and tomato seeds earlier

I can buy carrots very cheap at the store

Understand the varieties that I plant

One summer squash plant is plenty for two people

I like the Florida weave for my tomatoes

Take care of weeds on a regular basis so its not so overwhelming

I like the Silver Queen Corn