#growveg.com

The article I’m linking to here in this post is entitled 7 Common Vegetable Garden Mistakes. I bristled when I considered using this as a title for my post. I wanted something positive. I even consulted my writer friend and wordsmith, Elizabeth Marro for a more optimistic title. She had a few suggestions but nothing clicked.

Admittedly, I’ve made countless mistakes in my decades of gardening—some out of naiveté and ignorance and some from not following sound advice from seasoned gardeners or forgetting lessons learned. There was my first vegetable garden when I planted 24 tomato plants on stakes. After all, I had all these seed-grown plants. Just this year I ruined my broccoli crop which you can read about here. I forgot some very basic garden practices.

This week I listened to an interview with Ron Finley, the Gangster Gardener in South Central Los Angeles. It was inspiring and I did a post Ron Finley On Growing A Garden and linked to his MasterClass. Unwittingly, Ron gave me the title for my post. He said, “There are no mistakes. There are only lessons.” Beginning gardeners should take heart. Growing your food is about practice, observation and humility. Veteran gardeners like me need that reminder too.

Learn from Barbara Pleasant at GrowVeg. She’s my online garden mentor. I’ll stick with her title, 7 Common Vegetable Garden Mistakes but I’ll think of them as lessons.

I grow most of my winter vegetables from seed, but I’m a fan of growing onions from sets. Maybe because by the time I get around to sowing onion seed, the onion sets come in at my favorite nursery. I’m ready for easy.

I grow onions in the winter garden to have scallions and spring onions. I know the limitations of using onion sets if you’re desiring bulb onions for storage. I usually still end up with a reasonable number of onions that I use through the summer.

So yesterday I lined up my onion sets, spaced about two inches apart and rows about four inches apart. Then a push and a twist so just the tip of the onion showed. Onion sets will do nicely in containers for harvests of scallions.

Read more at GrowVeg.com:

I’ve planted my favorite variety of beet, 'Baby Ball’ again this season. It’s been reliable for many years. The Renee’s Garden catalog description of the Holland import is spot on: Perfectly rounded, petite crimson beets with fine tips, mellow sweet taste and delicious healthful greens. Early to harvest. Pick at baby size or maturity.

Before planting I followed these seed priming instructions to improve and hasten germination from GrowVeg.com:

Beet seeds have thick, wrinkled seed coats that soften when “washed” in several changes of water. Place seeds in a jar, cover them with room temperature water, and drain off and replace the water every 30 minutes. After six changes of water, many of the natural germination inhibitors present in the seed coats are removed. Drain the primed beet seeds on paper towels overnight, and plant the next day. Primed beet seeds emerge in 4 to 5 days, compared to 7 to 12 days for dry seeds.

Here’s the planting method that works well for me. Previously, I’ve added compost and organic fertilizer to the soil. I make an impression about 1/2 inch deep with my finger and drop the beet seed in the hole. Then, with a spoon, I cover the seed with sifted compost and lightly press the soil with the back of the spoon. No rocks or tiny pieces of wood for the emerging seedling to dislodge. Though planted close together, I pull smaller beets to make room for larger ones to grow.

Unless you plant mono-germ beets, each seedball/fruit will produce two to four seedlings, which of course won’t work. Thinning beets can be tedious but sharp scIssors help. I select the sturdiest in the seed clump and snip the others with scissors. Thinned beets usually find their way to a salad the same day.

For more information on growing beets check these short articles from GrowVeg.com

Beets for Beginners

How to Grow Gourmet Garden Beets

Who doesn’t like berries? High in antioxidants, various nutrients and great for immunity! Berries are so good for you that it’s worth growing as much as you possibly can. The downside? The cost of all those bushes and canes! But there is a cheap way to grow more soft fruit – and it can be done at the same time as winter pruning. Berry Healthy Fruit for Free! Taking hardwood cuttings in winter…

In the early weeks after planting the summer vegetable garden it all looks so pristine. Bright green, perfect leaves, newly emerged suggest a gardener with everything under control and a world without destructive garden pests. Then, a few weeks or months in the damage shows up. Here’s what I’m seeing in my garden a couple months in.

In photos from my garden this week, damage to delicata squash, rhubarb, bush beans and bell peppers.

Only occasionally do I find the culprit—in this case a harlequin bug.

Barbara Pleasant at GrowVeg is my online garden mentor. Recently, she wrote about some of the most common garden pests. I think you’ll learn some things just as I did. It’s a five-minute read.

December 8, 2015

In my vegetable garden I use pea gravel between the raised beds. In other gardens I’ve used salt marsh hay, grass clippings and pine needles. 

Your choice of materials for garden pathways may depend on what’s at hand, the size of your garden or the look you want.

Barbara Pleasant discusses her solution for garden pathways with benefits for the raised beds. 

Looking Between the Beds: Vegetable Garden Pathways

June 10, 2014

My gardening neighbor and friend, Ann brought me some zucchini from her garden over the weekend and I incorporated it into a simple pasta and cannellini dinner. As I was preparing the zucchini, I looked longingly at the green slivers. I really missed having zucchini in my own garden. 

I just planted zucchini seeds last week so it will be some time before I have my own zucchini.

Ann also brought me a generous handful of basil. Meanwhile I have three anemic basil plants that have languished for weeks awaiting a home in the garden. Really, I should just put them in the compost bin.

So life happens and we get behind. Good intentions turn to little daggers of guilt (as I pass by the basil). But there's hope.

If your garden hasn't happened yet for whatever reason, you might like this post from GrowVeg, Catch-up Gardening: Overcoming Failures in the Garden. Here's a bit of the intro.

So what do you do when you’ve fallen behind? Well, you could admit defeat and give up on the idea of home-grown fresh vegetables this year – or you could amend your plans a little and push on regardless. Here are three proven ways to catch up on the gardening year…Read more