Lessons Learned

Now that the garden is pretty much at the end of the growing season, I thought I’d share some of my lessons learned. Trust me when I say, there were many lessons to be had this year. I am by no means a professional gardening, and I like to learn through trial and error, but I definitely have fun while I learn. Why have a garden if you cannot have a little fun with it?

Lesson 1: Planting

I actually took great care in planting this past season. I followed the recommendations of square foot gardening, because I wanted to get the most out of the garden in small spaces. I have raised beds all over the garden, and I wanted to get the most variety of plants into each bed as I could.

When you are gardening by the square foot, there are a certain number of plants that should be planted per square foot depending on the plant. For example, you may plant one cabbage plant per square foot, while radishes, you can plant 16 per square foot.

Well, this is where the lesson comes into play. Although, I think the premise is great to not overcrowd your garden bed, but I truly believe that there is something to planting like a crazy person sometimes. For instance, when it comes to spinach, other leafy greens, and beets, there cannot be enough. Planting in small rows instead of spaced out plants seems like a better way to go, because you produce so much more.

Another lessons learned from planting is to make sure you are not planting tall bushy growing plants next to something that is not as tall. The one plant will choke out the other. Lesson learned.

Lesson 2: In the Ground vs. In a Pot

I love to grow herbs, and there are certain herbs that are known to grow like weeds. Case in point – mint. Most of my mint is planted to pots, because I wanted to control its growth; however, there is one mint plant that I put into a corner raised bed. This Mint Basil plant just took off and grew… well… like a weed. It grew so quickly that it choked out my chamomile plant and almost took over my Bay Laurel plant. When it comes to mint, keep them in large pots so there is room to expand, but it stays contained. Unless, you would rather it grow like mad, then knock yourself out.

What I have found is certain herbs do better in the ground than in a pot. Tarragon is that plant. For several years, I had Tarragon growing in a large pot, but it grew very sparse. This year, I planted the same Tarragon plant in a raised bed, and it grew into Cousin It. For the first year ever, it thrived and grew like a small bush.

Another plant that does so much better planted in the ground is Lavender. Just like the Tarragon plant, my Lavendar did okay in a pot, but once planted into the ground, it flourished. On the flip side, the Bay Laurel plant that was almost choked out by the Mint Basil did so much better in a pot than in the ground.

I could go on and on with examples of this, but I think you get the point. Play around and see what works best for you. Start plants in a nice large decorative pot to see what happens.

Lesson 3: Vertical Growing

To save ground space from cucumbers or squash trailing all over the garden floor, I purchased a squash tunnel this year to allow my veggies to grow vertically. The squash tunnel was a great addition to the garden, and brings visual interest. Having veggies grow up the trellis made it so much easier to pick the veggies when they were ready.

Speaking of trellis, I did have a trellis for the green beans to grow straight up. You may think of green beans as a bush, but green beans do vine and trail. The green bean plant actually grew taller than me. Having the green beans grow up the trellis made it so much easier to harvest. Just make sure that you have pretty good support for the trellis, so it does not blow over in the wind.

Lesson 4: Bugs

There is something to having a garden where everything is organic and pesticide free. There are these little invaders that can kill your veggies after taking great care of growing them. This is what happened to my strawberries and my brussel sprouts. BUGS! I tried to use a home solution to rid the strawberries of ants, but I ended up killing my plant. As for the brussel sprouts, these little bugs invaded my plants and destroyed them after they were growing so well this year. I did not use any type of pesticide on them, but I think next year, I will have to find a nice organic spray to rid the plants of bugs. I really want to grow brussel sprouts, so wish me luck next year.

Lesson 5: Going to Seed

There are certain plants in the garden that you may not want to go to seed, unless you would like to collect the seeds to use next year or share with others. Herbs like dill and chives, if you let them go to seed, has the potential of blowing all over the garden and will grow wherever it wants. This can get crazy, especially with onions and chives, because they will take over the garden if the seeds blow away with the wind. You will be pulling little plants out of the garden all season long! So if you like the flower that comes along with the plant, make sure you pull the flowers before it goes to seed.