I know what you mean. I have read several books on the "right way" to garden. No matter how many "right ways" I have tried there has been success and failure. I have learned so much more from the failures than I have from the successes. I have my beds for the square foot gardening and my plastic to cover them for four season gardening. Does it mean I have figured it out? No I can honestly say I am five years in, still new and still learning by my failures.

Great topic!

Absolutely. I have a variety of techniques that I use because they work within the broader context of my life - wide beds instead of rows or blocks, drip irrigation for some things, spray or none for others, etc. I don't expect them to apply to others, but I think it is valuable to have a variety of options. New gardeners often benefit from following a particular regime, it helps to have a set of rules to follow as they gain experience in a very complex pursuit, but anyone with a few years of growing behind them should know better than to believe that their way is the only way, or even the best way. Failure is the best teacher for fools and sages alike, but they don't learn the same lessons.

New gardeners also tend to get very discouraged easily when their first experience doesn't go well. It helps them if experienced gardeners can help them avoid the most common pitfalls.

But encouraging them to be realistic; to see it as an experiment, a long term learning experience that has its up and downs rather than as the idealistic "throw some dirt in a pot and eat all the stuff that grows" experience is most beneficial I think.

What is "right" is just a matter of opinion.

Dave

I think you are right. We never read about gardening, we just did it. We learrned from experiencing it. Every book I've read has a different opinion. But, it is true that newbies will usually get easily discouraged. Hurray for you! Keep on trying!

This is a great topic, sunnibel. I suppose that all of us, through our successes and failures, rapidly become convinced of the "right" way, which is translated as what was successful for us. However, when you throw in the variables of climate, region, soil type and condition, etc., there are likely many successful ways of doing things, and even more unsuccessful ways of doing things.
I hope that folks who are just new to the hobby/sport of gardening feel and know that they can come into these forums and find someone who is kind enough and generous enough to share ideas with them, and in such a way that they don't feel belittled. There are so many of us that it's highly likely that SOMEONE has faced virtually any situation that is thrown our way. Typically, there are many someones, all with their own way of solving a problem. For my money, choices in approaches are a very good thing. As I tell my grown children, "I'm just giving you the benefit of my experience. What you do with it is your business."

This will be my 4th year gardening and I already chuckle at myself for the things I did the first year. But that first year, I was thrilled with the results I had from the plants I bought and the 20 cent seed packs I bought from Walmart. I grew all Cherry Tomatoes from seed, even though I don't like cherry tomatoes. I got a bumper crop, too! I got tons of zucchini and yellow squash. Then there were the watermelon and canteloupe I tried to grow, that were the size of a baseball, but I thought they tasted great! I miss those days when everything was a success, and I was thrilled with any result :) Now, I have more experience, and much bigger expectations, and much bigger failures. Even though I still consider myself a newbie, I envy the posters that are starting off their first year, and have their first thrill at eating something they actually grew themselves for the first time.

Some of my earliest memories are of working in the acre garden.
My father taught me to hoe beans, when I was 7-8 years old.
So until I tried raised beds,organic gardening, everything was an old hat.
My sister can raise seedling better then I, yet today.
I have better luck with seeds in the ground.

I learn something new every year! I just kind of try and combine all the stuff that sounds good. Maybe it works, maybe not! I'll remember for next year!
Even being a successful 10 year gardener, I often feel like a beginner at certain things. Other things I'm pretty much a pro! LOL Trial and error! Nothing is the "right" way! Nancy

Been gardening for a lot of years (decades) and the more I learn, the less I know--trial & error as stated above. No cooperation from the weather sure keeps the challenge going. This is not a hobby for me--I count on what I grow, especially since I won't eat what the grocery stores offer.

If you live where I do, the right way would the right way THIS year. Next year (or 2 months later) will probably be different.

Lets take this concept all the way to its logical conclusion in one quick step. YOU, whoever you are reading this, have a particular belief system regarding cosmology, and by that I mean who you understand God to be. It may be because of how and where and to whom you were born, or the experiences that life has thrown you, or choices based on how and what you think. It doesn't matter. because you have made that choice and that is what works for you. THAT IS WHAT IS RIGHT, no matter what anyone else prefers to believe. Almost all religions state that there are many names for GOD, many paths to salvation, many ways to achieve heaven, or nirvana, samsara, redemption, or, for the non-believers, ecological equilibrium.

"Right" gardening practices are a complex calculation that embraces many elements - belief, ability, science, religion, philosophy, ecology, biology, economics, practicality, aesthetics, and plain dumb hunches. It is beyond the scope of mandate, in truth, it belongs in the realm of exploration. We are all - who practice the craft of gardening with passion - artists, scientists, pragmatists and saints. It is a part of our genetic predisposition to explicate those tendencies, and that is why we respond here.

Actually, I think the logical conclusion is to embrace a spirit of open-mindedness when discussing gardening techniques. And to strive to communicate not just what worked for you in a situation, but why, when making reccomendations to others. And to maintain an awareness that something that worked for you may fail miserably for someone else due to circumstances that you were unaware of.

I started this thread because I had just read yet another synopsis of a book of "just do this and you will have no failure-ism". I guess I dislike both the arrogance of stating that one knows better than all those before them (if indeed they are saying anything actually new) and the proliferation of the idea that one must have instant success for a thing to be worthwhile. That sort of mentality seems toxic, especially to those who have little to no experience. For if they fail in the face of having already followed what is right, then the failing must lie within themselves. It couldn't possibly be that the guru's proclimations did not fit their situation or failed to communicate some basic but needed information clearly. Could it?

Billme, forgive me, but your above post seems to be a form of conversational nihilism. Sort of "there's no point discussing this because everyone already has a belief that can't be changed". Really, why discuss anything then? I mean that as a nuetral, logical question rather than an angry retort. It can be so hard to communicate those emotional nuances in writing.

And I'm right. ;)

Cheers!

That was not my intention at all. On the contrary, my point is that one can choose to accept something as gospel, and pursue that path with unwavering diligence, as do many people who stick with the religion their parents had, or, through discussion and research and experimentation, one can find a way that is tailored to your individuality. The only time there is no point in discussion is when one party to that discussion is completely resistant to any ideas but their own. Some of those people are here on these forums, lots of them write the sort of books you describe (look at the dieting section in the bookstore, or investing, for instance), but I hope I'm not one of them, or sound like one when I write. I may be highly opinionated, and even nihilistic in some regards, but I find discussions such as these nearly as rewarding as gardening - and frankly, this is one of the rare times when I have the opportunity to participate in them. As you say, it is difficult to convey nuances, especially in the lightly edited posting of an internet discussion. That is why the cartoon with the caption "On the internet, no one knows you're a dog" is so funny. I find that often people "hear" my voice in print differently than I do - it may be my poor word choices or phraseology or a metaphor that misses its' mark, but it may be as likely to do with the mindset that they bring to the reading. I know a lot of people who go to an expensive restaurant and sit down convinced that it can't possibly be worth the hundreds of dollars they are about to spend. Because they enter with that conviction, rather than enjoying a fantastic meal elegantly served in a beautiful room, they find the foie gras too cold, the wine over-poured, and the server not quite as attractive as they would wish, but everyone else at the table has an unforgettably wonderful meal.

No apology necessary. Sometimes there really is no point in discussion, but if I really believed it was true all the time, I wouldn't be here. I am actually in complete agreement with you (I think) in that there are many right ways.

Ah, I misunderstood. I knew there was a possibility that was the case. It becomes obvious how much we humans rely on cues of body language, tone, pace of speech to convey our full meanings when it is all stripped away and we have to rely only on the written word. Anyway, it got my brain a'crankin', and I got to use "conversational nihilism" which was fun. If only "existential ennui" could have been worked in somehow...

To bad you're up in Maine, I bet we could get some rousing discourse going over a beer and some wings. Oh, and maybe nihilism is a natural part of the state of winter. Cheers!

This topic and comments reminds me of a radio show I heard part of the other day. The show was about the availability of knowledge these days with the internet. One comment was that, "the smartest person in the room(speaking of chats and message board rooms) is the room."

Our generation of gardeners are exposed to gardening methods and beliefs from around the world. Something that works in the Northeast might not work in the Southwest, but then again it might, or it might with a little tweaking. So the oldtimers in my area have some great things to share and are probably the best place to start, but then again a grower in Ireland might have some great advice too.
I researched potato growing earlier today, particularly chitting. Most of the articles and videos that came up about chitting were from growers in the British Isles. In England, everyone chits their potatoes it seems. Yet when I bought my potatoes at a local nursery a couple weeks ago, the associate that helped me didn't know what chitting was.
Local growers recommend amending our clay soil with compost and mixing in some pine needles, straw or compost with our heavy clay when hilling the potatoes. So in an attempt to get it "right"(best yeilds, least diseases, etc.) I'll use advice from different sources.

Trial and error or experimentation is crucial to learning the "best" or "right" way for sure. Talking to and reading others is to though. So each year when I grow my tomatoes or other crops I do something different with some of the plants. Maybe something else will work a little better. Then again there are so many variables to consider. Hence I'm trying to make more journal entries.

suburbangreen, you make a good point. prior to the availability of the internet, I used to do a lot of reading of different print resources to learn about gardening. There have been people opining on the subject in writing since the Greek and Roman empires, and there are depictions of elaborate gardens in Egypt and ancient Persia that are calculated to date from 2800 BC. They hadn't the advantage of sophisticated research in bio-chemistry, commercial compost, or instant global communication, but they did have healthy, productive, and beautiful - and sometimes enormous - gardens. Very often here advice is proffered without regard to season or climate, let alone the assumptions made regarding a readers' physical or financial ability to follow that advice. Too often advice is given in absolutes, or sweeping generalizations, or with the presumption of fact that you describe. The right way is not, in fact, limited to how one achieves the best results, it must include the reasoning of the individual practitioner. I garden organically, and always have. My motivations spring from the early influence of Rachel Carson, the Cuyahoga River, an elderly neighbor who would bring my family honey and vegetables from his garden in exchange for the use of our rowboat and access to the pond behind the house I grew up in, and a precocious introduction to the writings of Virgil. It's highly unlikely that anyone else here brings that same specific combination of influences to the discussion, but each participant has something of value to share. This topic has been a subject of debate, in print, since Columella and Pliny the Elder and Palladius, and was surely a matter for discussion in ancient Egypt - in other words, this is a debate that has likely continued for almost 5000 years! That is not to imply that it is not worth continuing, rather, it is an indication of just how passionate and dedicated we can be regarding the pursuit of the many psychological afflictions we share and lump under the general term agriculture. It is a matter of some debate, to me, why one needs to grow poinsettias, or 1,500 pound pumpkins, or a ten-foot row of sweet corn, or any cucumber for any intent other than pickling - but that's just me. The right way may well be what you describe - the adoption of any technique that suits all of the circumstances of each individual - which means, by extrapolation, that there are as many right ways as there are successful gardeners, (or even partially successful because even after all this time, there are some things that even the best gardener can't control). Two of the essential traits of being a part of a community, be it a literal neighborhood or a virtual one on-line such as this, are tolerance and communication. We display our information for all to see, it gets talked about and picked at and turned different ways, and eventually some kind of decision is reached, and we all agree to live together despite our differences. It may not result in a uniform approach, but it creates a harmonious atmosphere in which to explore.

Here is a link that might be useful: how they used to do it the right way

The "right" way to garden is the way that works for your specific soil, microclimate, sun availability, time, and taste. If you don't like a particular vegetable, don't grow it.

What can help you enjoy gardening more is the continual learning experience. I read everything I can (that I have time for) and go to gardening classes. Try new things. Even the experts are continually learning. We benefit from the knowledge of those who have gone before us, but there is still much to be learned.

HA! i thought i had a alot of it somewhat figured out,(self proclaimed garden expert of the neighborhood) until i went to the farmers market saturday and saw bell peppers the size of my head. sigh. it was then i realized i have a long way to go still. lesson learned, if i get to thinking im good, go see professionally grown vegetables. (along the lines of an old saying "if you think youre a person of some influence, try ordering someone elses dog around")

personally, every year is an experiment for me. My goal is one day have enough property where i can grow my own stuff, and maybe sell a little on the side. the unfortunate (but very realistic)side of it ill never be able to own 20-30 acres, so lately ive been learning small space growing. i make it a personal challenge to grow something that "cant be grown in XXXXX situation/space/etc" usually im wrong, but close enough to try again.

except for the stupid potato bin...that went in to the fire pit.