Surprisingly, vegetable gardening still hasn't caught on in my neighborhood. The only neighbor that I had who was growing veggies previously, has reverted back to growing only flowers this year.

Not even one measly tomato plant nor a compost bin for miles.

I think gardening is simply too much work for a lot of people. They have work, family obligations, school things - they can't devote the time needed. I believe that most people do, indeed, believe you just plant a seed in the ground and water, then harvest the bounty. They have no clue about soil preparation, fertilizers, pests, disease, frost dates, etc. Those that do take the time to learn and get into it will probably keep gardening, but I think most of the "new" gardeners will give up. Heck - some of us who have been gardening for decades are ready to give up now and then!! I can't imagine someone with no knowledge dealing with the problems we've been having this year with our weather issues!

All that being said, I really wish more people would garden. They'd be healthier, more ecologically conscious, and they'd save money - that is save money after the initial investments it takes in tools, amendments, fertilizers, etc.!! I greatly expanded my vegetable garden this year and even tho I already had everything as far as tools it cost me quite a bit in amendments (didn't have near enough of my own compost), building a couple raised beds, etc.

Lisa

This is my first year at gardening. I knew there was more to just planting a seed, but I had no idea what I was in for! I didn't realize the amount of diseases, insects (good and bad), fertilizers, and other things you had to deal with. I have learned a lot from the internet and other people like yourselves. I still have a lot to learn about gardening. My garden is about 12' X 50' I think. Though it has been a lot of work, I am having a blast doing it. My two year old daughter goes out with me to hand pollinate the zucchini and summer squash in the morning and helps to harvest anything that is ready. I started my garden to eat fresher veggies, but now I am eating veggies I didn't eat before just because I grew them myself. It is a lot of work, but it can be very rewarding at the same time, despite all the bugs, diseases, etc.

Paul

I am a first time gardener and I am having a great time as well as eating great things out of my garden everyday.

I was pregnant most of the season (just haby 2 weeks ago) and have an active toddler so I knew to start smaller and not bite off more than I could chew. Have 2 4x12 raised beds and a couple of container plants. Started with just a few veggies (12 tomatoes, zukes, cukes, bell pepper,6 melons, beans, arugala, lettuce, herbs).

Next year will try more things that I was too intimidated to try like asparagus, potatoes, watermelon, eggplant, tomatillos.

I have a few failures (garlic chives planted when too hot, beans planted when too cold so they grew slowly) but a lot of success as well. Tomato plants are all loaded and getting ripe tomatoes, cukes and zukes producing a ton.

Will see if I get any tasty melons.

My husband and I did a lot of research before planting our garden and I continue to do research daily to prepare myself if something does come up like hornworms, svb etc.

So far so good. As a family we are really loving the garden.

Here is a link that might be useful: 1st year gardening blog

Congratulations to the successful first timers and to tammysf on having a garden and a baby at the same time.

I think it will be temporary for some and will become a normal part of life for others.

We started our garden last year. After years of wanting one but not wanting to invest the time/money in to it, I finally gave in and started. Last year was not all that successful as far as the harvest was concerned. We got very little, if any, food from what we planted. But we learned so, so, so much and this year has been much more successful.

And apparently we have inspired quite a few neighbors to start their own gardens. Dozens of people pass our yard every day, walking on the canal that looks down on our back yard. So they have a front row seat to our little adventure. I have heard from half a dozen people that they have started gardening after seeing ours and listening to us talk about how much we have enjoyed it. My neighbor even told me he wanted me to speak to the Relief Society (I'm not even LDS) about our experience.

It's worth doing, even if you only try it for a year and realize that maybe it's not for you. If you learn only that from the experience, it will be worth it. So fad or no fad, I think it's a positive thing overall.

i live in a town that might have 500 people and with in 1 1/4 miles of me there are at least 30 gardens and maybe as many as 50 gardens.
i will be 66 next month and my family always had a garden. i dad was 6' 6" tall and i have a pic of corn taller then him.
we had a large extended family and we all worked together to grow things.
well over the i have grown gardens and have done well.
one year i worked about 2 mile form home and had an hour lunch hour. i went home and worked in the garden for that hour. one afternoon some friends were admiring our garden and they asked my why it was so well taken care of. i told that about the hour a day i put into the garden and said that is why. well my wife worked about 1/2 a day in a day care center and she got home about 2pm. she let me know in no uncertain terms that it look so good because she was putting an hour a day in the garden while the boys were down for there naps. so that garden was a real fine garden. it got two weedings a day.
well i still feel like a new gardener with all the info that is out there now. and i am learning new things every day.
the bottom line is work in the garden pays off.

WM

I am actually back to gardening this year after a long break (8 years). I am so glad I have stepped back to it!! My husband built me raised beds that are wonderful. The neighbors closest to us come over to see our "coffins" as that is what they looked like when we started setting them out:)

What surprised me is that my neighbors, a couple about 48-50 yrs old, have never gardened. Not only that, but they have never seen anything grown. They are both school teachers, and I was shocked when they came over and were simply dumbfounded at how it all worked.

I hope I have inspired even one person to grow a garden, even if it is a small container!!

Happy Gardening to All!!

g

This is my first year at vegetable gardening. My husband built me an 8' x 12' raised bed. I learned from reading this site how important a soil test is so I did get that done. I knew from the beginning that I had a lot to learn, but have to confess I didn't truly realize how steep the learning curve is, lol! Unfortunately, I planted many things too late, I went by what the seed packs said, but found out I should have started much earlier. I've done a lot of research and hopefully will be more successful with my fall planting. I'm not discouraged, but instead feel challenged!

My main reason for wanting to grow my own vegetables was not so much from a financial standpoint but from a health viewpoint. I want to know that what I eat hasn't been sprayed with upteen chemicals or irradiated. I believe that healthy, nutritious food is important for health but it has gotten where you can't buy anything that's healthy so I've decided to grow it myself! It's a great feeling to eat food that you know is pure food without chemicals.

I don't plan to give up so I'll probably be posting lots of questions here!

gabbygardener - that's another thing I was thinking of after I posted my reply - a lot of people have no clue where "food" comes from! They've never seen their vegetables actually growing, so they have no idea how it all works. I can remember being the same when I first started gardening - I was fascinated at how the flower "turned" into a vegetable!! With all the years of flower gardening I had under my belt I had just never made the connection that a veggie goes to "seed" the same way a flower does, but a veggie "seed" is the actual veggie itself! It's just a huge, edible seed pod when you think about it!

Lisa

Posted by mmqchdygg:
"Do you know any new gardeners that are simply having a hard time?"

Yeah I would have to admit I fall into this category. This is my first year gardening and its only going about as half as good as I would have hoped. The summer crop is over (thankfully) and IÂm getting ready to seed the fall/winter crop. Hopefully things will go a bit better this time around.

Most of my problems were not for lack of knowledge but from lack of funds. I researched and read up on the various aspects of growing vegetables, especially the specific ones I was to be growing. I read a huge amount of posts on this site as well as spending countless hours on goggle trying to learn as much as I could. While I am smart enough to know that I still donÂt know very much, and experience is the best teacher, I started the season confident that I knew enough to make a good go at it. It was the inability to purchase things I needed in a timely fashion that made this so difficult for me.

Being my first year, I had the task of turning the selected plot of lawn into a viable growing space, so I rented a tiller and started chewing through the hard mat of St. Augustine that is my backyard. I only had enough money to rent for one day so I chose Saturday as the rental place was closed on Sun and that gave me two days for the price of one. I figured two days would be plenty of time to till up 1000 square feet. Or at least it should have been. This is the time when I learned of the nifty little practice that construction crews have of burying massive slabs of concrete under the lawn when they finish up a project. Thanks guys. Now my 1000 sq ft garden is 700 sq ft do to the time it took me to mine all that stuff out.

Well now that the ground was broken, I tilled in about 900 pounds of compost, 100 pounds of composted manure, a big ole cube of peat, and the nitrate, potash, and soluble lime that the soil test suggested. I would have liked to have had more compost but that is all I had money for. All in all, though, the soil looked pretty good after the addition of the compost so I figured I was good to go.

My next stop was to the local feed store/nursery to pick out my plants. Better Boys, Romas, Cherry Reds, squash, zucchini, Cowhorn okra, and bell peppers all went into the ground with the Sugar Baby watermelons and pole beans started from seed. All was good and I was just waiting on my nephew who does wood working to supply me with my tomato stakes and bean poles as I was now out of gardening money and couldnÂt afford to buy any. The stakes were supposed to show up in a week or so but due to my nephew being overly busy at work, the week turned into over a month. By this time my tomatoes (and everything else in the garden) were growing like crazy and trailing all over onto the ground. When the stakes finally arrived my tomatoes had a nasty case of fungus from laying on the soil that went up the whole side of the plant. It was two more weeks until I got paid and could purchase some fungicide that the nursery suggested to try and slow the spread. Even with the fungicide, I spent the next couple months hacking the poor plants to pieces trying to keep ahead of the spreading fungus, removing infected branch after infected branch. Oh and the leaf miners (gah!). It was amazing how much damage those things did in the week and a half until I could afford to buy some spray. Even with the miners, the fungus and all the "pruning", I still got between five and ten good tomatoes off each of the Better Boys and a couple dozen Romas off each Roma plant before the heat shut down production and the aphids and leaf footed bugs moved in. Cherry Reds did pretty good considering My peppers caught some sort of viral infection and I lost three out of the six and the three didnÂt produce but a few peppers each. Beans didnÂt do much of anything as I think I planted those too late.

The bright spots in the garden were the other plants. The squash and zucchini went nuts and I could barely keep up with all that they produced. Plants were up to my waist and even though I only had three of each, I was eating tons and still having to try and find people to take the extras off my hands. The Sugar Babies did really well and I got two to three nice size melons off of each of the six that I planted. They were soooooo good! The okra is still going strong and the plants are over 10 foot high. My freezer is full of ziplock bags of okra lol. I plan on having fried okra well into the winter.

Well thatÂs how my first summer garden went. I have since pulled everything out but the okra and am gonna be adding some more compost to the garden this weekend so I can get the fall crop seeded soon after. Broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts are being seeded next week. In about a month and a half the carrots and onions sets will go down with the potatoes and sweet peas following after. Hopefully this time I wonÂt have so many problems as I will be better prepared. HopefullyÂ
Michael

This is my first year for a full out, in the ground, outdoor garden. Some successes, some failures, but doing OK for the most part.

Because funds are tight, I'm trying to do everything on the cheap - digging soil from the bottom of the stick/"compost" pile instead of buying, planting herbs from a store bought packet, starting as much as possible from seed instead of buying plants, etc. I totaled everything up a few weeks ago and I think I've invested about $75-$80 so far this year. Most of that was start up (landscape fabric, fencing and seeds have been my biggest expenses) and won't have to be repeated for a few years.

I'm also spending a lot of time on these forums so that I can learn as much as possible to maximize my time and money. I was getting a little down a few weeks ago because I had only harvested like 4 cucumbers and a handful of green beans while all the tomato blooms teased me. Seriously, I'm getting sick of going to the grocery store and NOT buying things like tomatoes and peppers because I keep telling myself "they'll start ripening in the next few days, just wait it out". At least the strawberries are sending out runners!

I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel now though because tomatoes have finally started blushing, I seeded some spinach and lettuce for the fall, buried some sweet potatoes for fall and the beans are flowering again (finally, a silver lining for the coolest summer we've had in a long time!).

Honestly, knock on wood, I've been really lucky for a newbie as I haven't had to deal with any major pests or fungi or anything like that. Honestly, I just put everything in the ground, mulched and hoped. I know there are things that I didn't do correctly, but I'm so annoyed by those failures that I'm going to research my way to a solution! :)

This is definitely something I'm going to continue doing though in the future. I'm learning about 4 seasons gardening and will have much more experience for next year. Also, the few plants I actually purchased (blackberries, blueberries and strawberries) won't produce until next year, so that is something to look forward to!

This is only my fourth year gardening, but my first year for actually getting a pepper to grow more than 6 inches, first year trying sweet potatoes in a very bad climate for them, and first year for what could be called an attempt at vermicomposting - a five gallon bucket with a hole in the bottom that sits in the shade next to my porch, with an off-kilter cover and occasional water that I throw the occasional worm in. I thought it wasn't working until just now when I went and dug in it! Yay! Half a bucket of worm poop!

--GW

@gardenwolverine,

Have you tried Sweet Banana peppers? I had good luck with those in zone 5 when I lived in Massachusetts.

Glib made a point in another thread that bears repeating here, I think, for all gardeners but especially new gardeners and those with serious time constraints - if you concentrate on growing *mostly* veggies that are well-suited to your climate, it will be easier and less hard work & disappointment.

Of course, we all seem to want things like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, melons, okra maybe...yes there are varieties that are more cold or less tolerant and so on, but these plants are just not suited to the climate everywhere! The less suited they are for your climate, the more work or infrastructure is needed to bring them to fruiting - glasshouses, hoophouses, row covers, clear plastic mulch etc.

Plus plants that aren't growing so well are usually the ones that suffer most from pests and diseases.

Not suggesting we all give up growing tomatoes or melons or anything! But trying to work *with* the local conditions as much as possible will cut down on disappointment and may help new gardeners stay in the game long enough to figure out which vegetables and which varieties work best for them, and what pests are always going to be problematic.

Gardening can be fairly simple (provided we look after the soil), or a lot of work, depending on what we choose to grow, and when. When frustration strikes its important to remember that that choice rests with us. Next season we can do it differently, building on what we learned this year.

I really hope new gardeners *do* stick at it, because it DOES get MUCH easier.

I am second year gardener, and I've had mixed success. I bought a bunch of expensive heirloom cauliflower and carrot seeds and planted them right before it monsooned for two weeks, and not one sprouted. (This might have been partially because the cauliflower seed I bought from seedsavers was FIVE YEARS OLD). My tomato plants don't look good, but they are making fruit. They seem to need a lot more watering than I feel like doing, and they're falling over and pulling down their stakes. I think I'm going to blast them with fans next year while they're growing. I have trouble with peppers too-- they just seem to do nothing for weeks and months. My hot pepper plant just exploded and set a whole bunch of fruit after doing nothing for like-- five months. Peas and beans did absolutely nothing. Sprouted and died. But I did manage to grow a tiny watermelon, which I'm completely in awe of! I hope nothing happens to it. Cucumbers seem to be almost immune to drought. Which is an excellent quality for a plant trying to survive my care. . . .

I am a first year veggie gardener although I had helped my father for years. Actually, now that I see how much back work is involved, I probably didn't help out too much!! I do clearly hear him saying over & over that "people have no idea how much work a garden is!"

I worked as a full time nurse for over 16 years and am now blessed to be a stay at home mom. I had always wanted a garden and with the economy, I thought I'd give it a try. I must say, I have been successful more than failing!! I did learn agood bit through trial and error (like tieing my tomato plants too tight and not realizing how much the stalk would grow...a few tumbled over from being cut through!!!) But honestly, getting my questions answered here has been the biggest plus. I have a freezer completely filled from my spring garden and have canned dozens of jars of salsa and pickles and jellies (even made purple-hull jelly from the hulls of my peas...so great!!) and i have NO IDEA where to store my summer and fall bounty!!! But again, a lot of success came from my answers here, as did my want of trying new things. My father always planted the same veggies year after year. I have found SO MANY new beans (and my family loves beans!) and discovered all about heirlooms....I can't wait to try some more new things as I progress. I can say though, I worked hours at a time in the garden and would in no way be able to do it if I still carried a full time job. But I rathar life now!!!

Thanks to all of you here who answer questions for us newbies!! Oh, and those who trade seeds!!!!!

I think that just like with any interest, it'll be a fad for some newbies, but will really gel with others and they'll take it seriously. I started gardening just this summer and I didn't know anything. I definitely did the research and tried to educate myself on what to do. Of course I don't have the answers for everything but I don't just give up. I google, I ask, I check out books from the library. I got interested in growing food because we do have such a fast minded culture where every thing is in season in the super market. I wanted to know what went into producing food and have a taste of what humans have done for thousands of years. So I think I went into it with a realistic POV. I knew it wasn't just going to happen over night.

Since I don't have any soil to plant in, I went with an Earthbox since I read so much information on it vs a regular planter. That's what's working for me and I have squash and peppers growing perfectly. I do hope to have a full fledged garden some day but that's not possible for me now. I'm just glad I tried it, even on a small scale, so I can be better prepared for that one day when I can take over an entire yard.

iam3 - nope, but I'll try and keep those in mind for next time. I bought a packet of Sweet Chocolates three years ago and am still working on it. According to other local gardeners peppers do very poorly in our microclimate for some reason, so I tried to get a short season one.

Really, I'm just happy its put out a few peppers, even tho their growth has been stopped by our current heat wave. The first pepper I grew got about 6 inches tall and put one 1 inch pepper out that got eaten before I even saw it. The second year died quick.

--GW

I struck how similar my story is to mommaval RN 18 years now a stay at home mum, with nether the time or inclination to do the nursing exams over here, 2 very "busy" twin boys and my garden which when is all said and done is a hobby, I have spent a small fortune on it, but no where near as much money as my husband has spent on his hobbies over the years (the telescope which remains unpacked after a year! springs to mind!)
I started at the same time as my Aunt who is still in the UK, she has fallen by the way side I think as she is very evasive when I ask her how it is going, we are an interesting case study as related, close in age 6 yrs appart, both always worked even with children (until recently) but very different upbringings ,her dad wealthy hired a full time gardener who did every thing for him including a large Veg garden, lived in London and urban areas, my dad left school at 14 to become a farm labourer like his father before him (although he did join the army at 15 as a boy solder and never looked back) but he and my grandad always gardened and as he could afford to moved back to rural areas, which introduced me in my drinking years to Young Farmers (like 4H only you are older and drunker:) ) I have worked on farms as a teenager, and shown cattle in my 20's and have an appreciation of how slowly things can appear to grow, but I have never had that need for instant gratification, I like anticipation, my aunt, see it, want it, get it, we have different outlooks on life, I think she was imagining "good neighbours" I was imagining my first tomato, way back in Feb and still am, and I love looking at them, noticng how they go from dull green to a shiney green to a kind of yellowishy green, which I swear I saw today!
me and my aunt are best friends, we used to spend every saturday afternoon together, before I felt home, she help me to be impulsive and I help her to relax, it is a symbiotic relationship, and just because she failed is not a failure in her, she just hasn't found the right hobby,
I also look at all my "failures" as learning I know a lot more about the plants that have failed through reading up, than those that have done well!

I'm a second year gardener. I started my garden last year as a source of organic food and to possibly save money on vegtables. While I didn't save money last year because it just didn't produce a whole lot I still got alot out of it. I probably won't save money again this year because I have a new garden at my house instead of using my parents old garden so that means all new tools and etc. I don't care if it is more expensive this way, the vegtables are fresher, healthier, tastier and I like the time spent in the garden and sharing my harvest with my friends and family. I'm sure I have alot more to learn but improving every year is part of the fun.

It seems funny to me that people are taking up the hoe now as a way to save money, because for the first year or two you certainly don't! I'm not a newbie but I'm re-starting after a long hiatus. The economy has not been kind to me (I lost my job in June and most of the places that would hire a person with my credentials are under hiring freezes right now), and while working on converting my new backyard into a veggie garden is giving me something to do, buying a whole new garden's worth of seeds and buying compost and mulch since I don't have any of my own ready yet is certainly hitting my pocketbook hard.

Gardening is a long term investment, and most people want instant results, so I'm sure a lot of people try it out and then give up after the first year. Though a few will stick with it, and good for them. It does get easier as time goes on. Not only do you become more experienced, but you'll have less expenses because you'll already have your raised beds, seedling flats, grow lights, tools, etc. Plus your compost pile will be going so you won't have to buy more, your soil will be improving, and if you're like me you'll now be saving your own seed so you don't have to buy more.

But I'm under no illusions that I'm saving money RIGHT NOW, quite the contrary. By the time my garden starts being really productive I'd better have a job by then! I can't pay the rent with tomatoes, after all. But also the sooner I get my garden started, the sooner I'll start reaping the rewards. (Plus maybe I can get a lot of the labor-intensive stuff out of the way while I have more time, and then once I have a full time job again I'll already have all that stuff done.)

A garden can be costly to start up. And if you have poor soil you won't be able to avoid many of those costs.

But you can do a garden on the cheap if you have decent soil to start with.

You can dig ground by hand if you have to. I've prepared small gardens with nothing but a 3-pronged hand cultivator and raised beans, squash, and herbs in unamended soil. I don't recommend it as a good way to go about things but it can be done and if you need the food you'll put in the effort.

While I love having a tiller available, a larger garden *can* be dug with a shovel or a digging fork. You'll save on both the tiller and the gym membership that way.

My melon bed and 3 Sisters Gardens are in untilled lawn -- smothered under leaves and pine straw with planting holes dug by a shovel in the hands of a teenage boy. Neither is as productive as if the soil had been properly worked an amended but stuff is growing and I will have a harvest.

If you focus on easy-to-grow, high-value, highly productive crops you can get back more value than you put in -- even in the first year. Tomatoes, bush beans, and zucchini are easy to grow in most places and tolerate most soils. Fresh herbs are cheap to grow but insanely expensive to buy. If you get one head of leaf lettuce from a $1.25 packet of seed you've saved money over buying a head in the store.

If you can grow 5 of them you've saved more than you put into a few handfuls of lime and a handful of balanced fertilizer.

A lot of people over-think on their gardens -- building raised beds not out of necessity but because they are prettier or more convenient or fashionable, putting in more sophisticated fence than they need, and piling on amendments above and beyond the minimum.

Certain soils (I'm on acidic and nutrient deficient white quartz sand myself), ledge rock, high deer/rabbit/etc populations, paved urban lots, etc. do call for more input of materials that are not as easy to get free as many people say they are. But there are plenty of places where the soil really is good enough to stick a seed into the ground and jump back as it grows.

Doing the minimum will be less productive than doing the optimum, but in many places you'll find that the lower imput, lower production level makes the garden profitable rather than costly. :-)

This is my first year gardening, and so far it's going okay even w/ my newbie screwups. My wife and I make a decent income, but even with this, I have to admit that one of the incentives to start gardening was financial. We have a baby on the way in Sept, and my wife has gotten heavily into organic foods. Whole Foods has become her favorite store, and she buys often and in large quantities. She also insists that organic tastes so much better. I'm a little skeptical because I think some of the taste factor is psychological marketing. However, I still felt that heck if we are going to spend all of this money buying organic food, why don't I just grow it myself. And this way I know exactly what is going into the food, and can pick the varieties that are supposed to taste the best. This is part of the reason that I've been spending $$$ getting the garden setup going. I'm okay spending the money with the fixed costs like the tomato cages, pots, Earthtainer materials because I can use this every year, but I would like to save money with the variable ones like the cost of the potting mix. I've probably easily spent over $1K so far, most of it on my ~75 container tomato plants. (We have a small backyard that is mostly stone, so we can't plant in ground.)

Saying all of that, now that I've gotten into it, I find that I really like gardening. I spend a lot of time in the garden area, watering, looking for bugs, worms, etc. And I spend a ton of time on this website, learning new things on how to grow the vegetables, what new types are good to eat, etc. And of course, a lot of time on the seed websites, figuring out what seed to buy. Really, when I'm bored, I just go through my shoebox filled with the seed packets, and think about when I'm going to be able to plant them. (Yes, I'm nuts. :)

Anyway, now that I've gotten the gardening bug, I'm pretty sure it'll be a passion of mine for a while.

Another first-time gardener here. Lucky for me, the economy worked in my favor and gave me a chance to buy my first home (I never thought that could happen before 30, or even at all when a single family house was over a half million in my area). Having a home with a yard(!) ennobled me to try my hand for the very first time at gardening. The last time I ate a tomato fresh off the vine was over two decades ago in my grandmother's lush veggie garden and I really wanted to eat another one very badly.

I have a very large yard, but with the exception of a very fruitful lemon tree, I couldn't tell one plant from the other it was so overgrown. The front yard was so laden with water the lawn was dying, and the other half of my backyard was covered in gravel and weeds. I decided not to overwhelm myself, so I planted 6 tomatoes in planters with cages (following the directions of a local nursery), 2 zucchinis in planters and 1 in the ground. Everybody told me I'd have way too much zucchini and begged me to pass on tomatoes once they ripened.

The beefsteak tomato simply broke in half and I tried to salvage it, but it withered away and died. One of my better boys just grew and grew and then one day withered inexplicably. Still, it looks like all the tomato plants (save the beefsteak) will eventually produce ripe fruit. Not so lucky with the zucchini - all three store-bought plants died. So I grew two from seeds and let my boyfriend plant them - both died. Fingers crossed I can get one of the four seedlings I've got going now to not simply break at the base and die. I don't even care about eating the squash anymore!

While waiting for my food to grow I've discovered through hours of toil in 100 degree weather that somebody in the house's history had a grand plan for my formerly overgrown garden. I'm undeterred by my failures, encouraged that I can actually grow anything at all, and am working on plans so that the garden will provide food year round. I'm excited about trying my hand with the next round of veggies, but don't expect too much. My godfather, who since his retirement has worked in a nursery, has promised to come out in the fall to lend me a hand. With his advice and what I read here I know that someday the garden (and the house) will be beautiful. Who knows, maybe someday that giant gravel patch will be a giant veggie garden instead!

@max b,

Good luck with your tomatoes. Having to wait 20 years for a decent tomato is too long a wait.

Have you tried direct-seeding the zucchini in the place where it will grow? None of the cucurbits -- squash, melons, cucumbers, etc. -- like to be transplanted and often die of the shock.

This is my first year gardening. I had about 6 tomato plants, 2 cucumbers, and a couple of different types of peppers. Oh and 2 basil plants. I planted lated for Texas (May) and have had very little luck. My Basil did great! Way to much infact. Just froze some. 1 of my heirloom tomatoes started producing fruit but as soon as they start turning red, they go bad. My other tomatoes are flowering like crazy but no fruit. The cucumbers are killing me! 1 was doing great. 4 or 5 cucumbers growing big and other starting. The other one got some disease (still don't know what) and started dying from the middle out. I think the disease spread (even though I pulled it out of the ground) because now the other one is dying. My peppers are finally starting to produce again. I picked a tough time to start (with 102+ heat everyday for 2 months) and got really disappointed at first. I have put way more money into the garden than I would have spent of veggies. I'm hoping it will get easier.

I have started my fall garden from seeds. Will transplant everything the first week in August. I'm praying that since we don't get our frist freeze till late October or early November that I will do o.k. with the fall crop. We'll see how it goes.

This grandmother has taken to gardening again, after about 18 years of not having time or space to do so.

Economy was a factor. We are now raising two grandsons, and they eat like there is no tomorrow! My Handy Husband has a reduced work-week (and paycheck), but still has a job, unlike many others. So growing our own seems a good idea.

Like others, I found the start-up costs more than I expected for raised garden beds, despite using anything and everything we could salvage from family and friends or find at yard sales for materials. Even transplants from Wal-Mart are pricy compared to the cost of seed. So we started a lot from seed.

We've had moderate success; sometimes an entire meal has been our 'homegrown' items! Then the aphids, mildew, and various viruses took a hold and did their damage. Despite waging warfare with the various store-bought and homemade remedies I've found on this website, we've lost some plants, and have diminished results from the survivors. But it is all a learning experience to do better next year. Perhaps the fall planting will fare better when the weather here in Central California begins to cool down.

But it was more than the economy. There is the soul satisfying aspect of being out in the garden, often alone, in the cool of the early morning or late evening. Whether watering, looking for what's blooming, what's ready to harvest, which plant needs tied again, or noticing the green lacewing eggs on the cantaloupe vine, the ladybug larva on the cucumbers (and rejoicing at their help), it's a peaceful, heart-soothing, fulfilling experience for this grandmother to garden again!

Recently, I read an article that quoted "Psychology Today" that I would like to share. "Researchers are discovering that growing your own food-however much or little you can do-is better for your health than anyone ever suspected." Research showed that when "certain strains of soil-borne mycobacteria" were ingested or inhaled, they "sharply stimulated the human immune system." Thus, stated the article, "it looks increasingly like ingesting components of the soil itself might be as critical to human health as the very finest fruits and veggies grown in it."

While not planning to eat dirt by the spoonful (which Im told I did as a toddler) I do plan to 'garden on', reaping the produce, the peace of mind, and the "soil-borne mycobacteria" for my health from my garden.

My home garden took about ten years to get into what now seems to be a sustainable mini ecosystem. I have a more remote, little-tended and un-irrigated garden that required a much shorter time. I attribute the difference to the low rates of moisture and fertilizer in the remote garden; lush amounts of both while leading to big harvests also tend to create big infestations of pests and diseases.

My experience over a dozen years in at least three different gardens and two different climates leads inexorably to the most important theme of management: plant diversity. Have representatives of as many of the different plant families as your climate allows. One will find that virtually all families have a member/s that are well-adapted to a given climate. Make the garden site as perennial or self-perpetuating as possible. Note that any well-adapted plant will become one or the other.

Secondly, forget about direct cost-comparisons. It's worth buying seed and growing things just for their beneficial affect on garden health (not to mention human). For example, sweet corn is very difficult in most areas to protect from pests, but field corn is worth growing just for it's service as bean-trellis and benefit to soil tilth and if one does not eat the grain or feed it to animals it can be returned in the compost cycle. Amaranth is a spectacular show and great draw for pollinators, as another example of getting a plant into the garden that is very easy and self-perpetuating and not closely related to common crops.

Well, I'm not a new vegie gardener, but since moving to the house I am in in 1993, I have grown flowers instead of veggies. The first summer here, I planted a vegie garden only to have everything eaten by deer and groundhogs.

I'm back to vegetable gardening after erecting a 7 ft fence and after hav-a-heart trapping 12 groundhogs last year.

I agree that many people over-think gardening. It does depend on one's climate--grow what other people in your area grow!!

There are good years and not-as-good years: too cold, too hot, too much rain, not enough rain, etc. There is some basic knowledge you have to have, like: which are spring/summer/fall crops in your zone, spacing and seed depth, when to plant out, etc. You don't, however, need a degree in horticulture! I started out with the original Victory Garden PBS series book, chatty explanations about different plant requirements, etc.

There are probably quite a number of vegies that grow easily in your area! Find out what they are and plant those. In my area, you can't go wrong in the spring with carrots, lettuce, beets, spinach, sugar snap peas, swiss chard. In the summer you can't go wrong with cukes, zucchini, peppers, bush and pole beans, more swiss chard, basil,and tomatoes.

Keep a compost pile, feed, water, and aerate it. Put down some kind of mulch so you don't have to go crazy pulling weeds.

Divert your downspouts into rainwater barrels and water your garden from that.

Add compost to your soil. Test the soil if your plants turn funny colors.

Relax, enjoy yourself, and enjoy eating what grows. Every year, the gardens is different. You'll learn a little more each year and will want to branch out. Go for it. But don't make it impossible to 'succeed' from the beginning by fussing too much or expecting miracles.

YMMV

I'm in year 2 of my garden.

My garden has expanded from 3 raised beds to 9 throughout the last 18 months. I've had successes and failures.

I live in Yolo County California, which is the tomato capital of the United States. Sadly, my tomatoes have done poorly. BUT- my peppers do great!

I've found that I enjoy the winter vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, cabbage) more than the summer vegetables- and they take a lot less work!

I am not surprised by the amount of work required, but I am really looking forward to when I get an irrigation system working. My original drip system was fine for 3 beds, but it can't handle all 9. So I spend a lot of evenings watering the garden...which is nice, but it conflicts with taking care of a 1 year old.

Also, the expansion has meant that I need to keep importing soil. My house is on some heavy, heavy clay. So raised beds are must. I think my expansion is finally complete, so I won't need to keep hauling in dirt. But now it is time to ammend the soil!

I've got two compost piles, and one is going well with garden scraps. Down the road from me is a horse stable, and I'd really like to get manure (they are happy to give it to me) but I don't have a truck, and my wife isn't thrilled about me putting it in the back of the station wagon- even if it is in trash cans!

So for me, I am coming close to turning the corner to phase 2 of my garden. I know it will continue to be a lot of work, but I think there will be a little less work, and more vegetables as I improve things and learn more.

I'm surprised by the difficulty people are having getting stuff to grow. I have never not had an abundance of greens, beans, zucchini, cukes, sugar snap peas and tomatoes. I wonder if this is an especially bad year for bugs/viruses/other diseases, etc.

In my area, it has been at least one month behind, re: weather. It has been cool and there hasn't been an overabundance of rain. My flowers have grown like crazy, so have the weeds. I'd say it's one of the best flower years ever, except for the ones which require dry and hot. It hasn't gotten dry and hot yet. I have high hopes for August and September, though.

I planted my vegie garden very late, as it took much longer than I thought it would to get my 7 foot fence up around a very large garden. I'm optimistic, though. Annual plants want nothing more than to set seed. I'll probably be harvesting at least a month later than normal.

However, if the weather stays cool, I don't hold alot of hope out for the tomatoes. If so, I'll adapt and pretend it's a spring garden in Aug/Sept. Who doesn't love peas and greens and carrots and beets. I planted enough pole and bush beans that even a poor harvest will be more than enough.

If you have good soil kept mulched, enough water, and keep critters away, there is always SOMETHING that'll grow.

I grew up in southwestern PA (the mill towns north of Pittsburgh), and, having moved away, discovered that Western PA is one of the blessed areas for gardening where the soil conditions (as much as those who live on hillsides with too many springs might gripe about soggy clay that can't be tilled until late May), are such that you can drop a seed on the ground and have to jump back out its way.

I don't remember watering anything but new transplants when I was a kid (and since hose was relatively more expensive so that watering meant carrying buckets I'd remember). We added lime every couple years but never needed to do anything about fertility other than bury trash fish under the squash from time to time.

There is always something that will grow though -- but in less blessed areas its a little harder work. :-)

I'm a first time gardener and I'm loving it. I live in Ypsilanti, MI and joined an organic community garden close to home. My girlfriend and I are vegan so growing our own veggies just made sense. I did a lot of research to better my success rate and I think it paid off.

I've had great success so far with tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers, yellow squash, mustard greens, kale, beets, radishes, swiss chard, spinach, and basil. I'm having trouble with my bush beans and eggplant but I can use lessons learned from this season next year. I'm also hoping to start canning, especially when all my determinate tomatoes come in.

I think people are finally getting sick of our food system so let's hope the trend continues. Only time will tell.

This is my 3rd year in my house, the first house I have had that has room for a garden, and my first year planting more than tomatoes and peppers. The previous owner had a small garden space with good soil and enough room for a couple of plants. This year we expanded it to 11'X 14'. We also tilled up a 8' X 9' space that had been used for compost in the back of the yard.
I literally planted everything I could get my hands on to see what would grow, with some success and some failure. My tomatoes, bush beans, radishes, and peas have tasted wonderful. My cabbage, kohlrabi, and green onions are coming right along, but not quite ready yet.
On the failure end, I think I killed my zuchini and yellow squash with Sevin dust. I think I over applied it and the fruit on it rotted and the leaves died. I saw new green growth coming out of the middle of each of them, so I pruned off all of the dead stuff and am hoping they will come back to life. My melons have blossoms, but nothing on the vine. My peppers are finally starting to produce, but none are close to ready to pick yet.
Do melons have distinctive female blossoms like squash and cucumbers? Because all of my blossoms look the same. O have one lone watermelon that is about as big around as a 50 cent piece right now, but no cantelope or honeydew. My cucumbers completely died after the Sevin dust incident.
Although I am loving the benefits of teaching opportunities for my children, health benefits, and such, I have to confess, my true motivation for starting this was being spoiled with delicious homegrown veggies from my dad's garden when I was a child. He passed away 11 years ago, unfortunately. I sure wish he was here so I could pick his brain, but I am so thankful for everything I have learned from all of you.

Yes, melons have separate male and female flowers. All the cucurbits -- melons, squash, and cucumbers, do.

Sorry about losing the squash.

Sevin is rather vicious stuff. Its the only synthetic pesticide I use but I only use it when I absolutely HAVE to. For caterpillars I use Bt. For other things I use handpicking, crushing the eggs, and sometimes Safer spray. To a large extent I figure that vigorously growing plants can tolerate a modest amount of leaf damage and just monitor the situation without taking any drastic action.

The Sevin only comes out when the other measures have definitely failed and I will otherwise lose the entire crop. I hate to use it at all because it kills the bees. So if I HAVE to use it I target it very carefully only on the affected areas of the affected plants.

I haven't (knock on wood), had to open the can even once this year so far.

I know what you mean about being spoiled rotten with good veggies. We've been eating garden veggies exclusively for a month but the other day I had to use frozen one day when I wasn't feeling 100%. It was so inferior that on Friday when we were rushed after a crazy day the family decided that they'd rather eat no veggies than frozen ones.

And later I found the teens having tomatoes for snacks. ;-)

I was told you can use Sevin in the evening and not effect the bees. Well, that is exactly what I did and the bees did not die at all. Indeed, they were back the next morning and every morning after and were never affected by the Sevin.

What I have found is the urgent need of many of the veggies for Nitrogen. That requires that I pour Miracle-Gro fertilizer solution with the aid of a garden hose to the individual plants especially the Corn which seem to go quickly without a nitrogen source replenishment.

I first amend the soil to use gypsum to acidify the clay soil, then add about 6" of top soil then add the Miracle Gro Garden Soil then cover with black Weed Block plastic to "solarize" the soil and kill the weeds...then I cut a hole into the plastic and plant a few seeds per each ole and water.. My biggest mistake was planting the seeds too close together and letting the Big Max vines take over everything.
Jesse Jr.

I personally spend too much time in the garden, neglecting all the other chores that are to be done. I'm lucky things are doing well, but I usually do bulk chores.

I weed once every few weeks (a weeding marathon)! Can't really justify running out there every 24 hours to kill a weed sprout.

Standing there with a hose water slowly and deeply takes WAY TOO LONG! I have two 60 gallon drums in the garden and let the hose fill them up. Then, I use a 5 gallon bucket and "flood irrigate".

Have to remember I'm the nut that is the single father of four. I always picture the "seasoned experienced" gardeners on Gardenweb as retirees. At least thats what I always picture in my mind. I guess it's hard to imagine having enough free time to learn any of this myself. If it wasn't for them and all the time they have spent my garden would be absolutely pitiful!

Now if newbie (such as me) wants to stay up all night and read Gardenweb posts, searching key words, following links, etc. That is the #1 way to learn gardening. Two or three - five hundred - books will never teach you what back and forth questions and answers here will.

I am a first year gardener. I grew up on a 160 acre farm supplemented with huge vegetable gardens. The gardens were beautiful and I helped tend them, as directed, but as a child had no interest. I had more important things to do. My parents had an interest because they needed to feed a family of six on the income of subsistence farmers. Fast forward 33 years and gardening is my new obsession. I referenced this board for hours to figure out what was happening almost on a daily basis. I know I would have been much less successful had it not been for the wisdom and willingness of people to share. Here is a list of goals I had in the middle of this past May:
- get a garden in the ground
- try to do something right to produce something
- learn, learn, learn.
- stay organic if possible.

Biggest lessons learned:
- plant at the right time for my zone. I grew up in Ky, a zone 6 I believe, and now live in zone 8, almost 9 because we are right on the coast. In zone 6, you live and die by the frost dates. Here the "ender" of the season is a mixture of heat and bugs.
- don't crowd the plants. The viners like cukes and melons need a lot more space than the 8 foot diameter requirements specified on the packets.
- I think I could have pruned more and been ahead. Planting in May instead of March, like I was supposed to, was asking for powdery mildew due to the crowding and the high humidity here.

I learned a lot in my little 14 by 20 foot space. I produced 37 pounds and it's still going. It will be like a jungle when I get back, since I am away on a two week work trip. The three biggest producers were cucumbers, tomatoes, and green bell peppers. I also interplanted with flowers like Zinnias and Cosmos, and these also did very well.
I have a 14 by 22 plot next to the existing undergoing solarization, and about 80 seedlings in the starting trays. I am encouraged and plan to start my fall garden when I get home. There will be broccoli, cauliflower, and lots of lettuce. I also plan to start some more yellow crook neck squash. It and all zucchini were destroyed by SVBs in the summer garden. I did however, remove and destroy about 15 of SVBs, so I did my part in removing them from the population.

I get a lot of information and inspiration from this board. Thank you. And right now, it lets me be a "virtual" gardener since I am away from home.

Well, i'm a new veggie gardener too this year, and for those of us who are new:

Aren't the different kinds of seeds just the coolest things ever?

Am i the only person who was delighted by the different sizes, shapes and colors of various veggie seeds? Fennel seeds really look like the fennel seeds in sweet sausages! Peas really look like dried up peas! And as for the teensy tiny seeds, isn't it amazing they actually turn into such huge vegetables!

Yea, you can see how new i am ... but it's been SUCH a wonderful and life affirming adventure. I can't wait to put what i've learned this year into use next year.

I grew up always having a small garden, maybe 30x60, but this is my first year of gardening on my own. I'm 30 now. I love the scientific aspects the most - the procedures & schedules & taking notes, etc.. I will be gardening every year I can.

I did not start gardening to save money, but I was laid off, and had the TIME to start. Now I MAKE the time to keep at it.