ShareThisOver the past 30 years, I have committed every grievous error of gardening.
I have starved my plants, drowned them, hacked them to bits and killed thousands of them. Despite these losses, I don't look at it as failure because I learned so much from each and every mistake I made.
Millionaire Malcolm Forbes said, "Failure is success if we learn from it," and this is as true in business as it is in gardening. So read on to find solace should this year's seed planting not go as planned.
If you're attempting a food garden for the first time, you will at some point have to plant seeds. Certain types of plants, such as corn, beans, sunflowers and peas, are always grown from seed sown directly into garden soil. These are all large seeds planted in blocks or rows in traditional vegetable-garden style. The packet label provides the depth and spacing requirements of your seeds, making it all seem incredibly simple.
This simplicity is deceiving, however, and over the years, I discovered the hard way that growing from seed is both art and science. Perhaps you'll discover as I did through trial and error the nuances of timing and weather.
After abnormally hard winters like this one, the itch to plant is downright irresistible. One year, a spate of warm, sunny days convinced me that I could get a head start on the season by planting a couple of weeks early. The seeds never came up. I eventually learned that despite the warm air, the ground itself was still too cold. Most summer-vegetable crop seeds need warm soil to germinate and grow. A few sunny days are not enough to heat sufficiently. I learned that soil temperature is so important that, when in doubt, you should use a soil-temp thermometer.
Stinging from that failure, I was keen on sticking to my tried-and-true May 1 planting date. However, that year we had unusual weather with very late rains that allowed few sunny days. I planted right on schedule, but again, the soil was still too cold. Continuous rains caused the cold seed to rot in saturated ground. From this failure, I learned that planting dates are just guidelines. Gardeners must keep one eye on the weather and the other on the soil to make adjustments accordingly.
One year, the soil had warmed prematurely so, again, I planted early. Germination occurred, and when those little shoots came up, I was delighted. Each morning, I would go out before work and inspect the garden, but I was aghast to find the shoots were actually growing shorter! It was clear that, overnight, creeping critters had nibbled the shoots to lace -- or down to shorter nubs. From this, I learned that even if conditions are suitable for germination, the nights might be too cold for vigorous growth. The advancement is so slow that crawling pests will feed on the tender, young plants. Under ideal conditions, they would shoot up so quickly that a few nibbles wouldn't destroy the seedlings.
During those years of less-than-perfect starts, I tried all sorts of remedies. The year that seedlings wouldn't grow I tried to apply fertilizer, thinking it was something lacking in the soil. When the plants finally did grow later on, the resulting overabundance of nitrogen in the fertilizer caused everything to grow enormous foliage and stems. Plants were huge but failed to flower, so it was a year of tremendous collards and few tomatoes.
If you encounter any of these setbacks, don't give up. Replant as quickly as you can. By the time the second planting comes up, you're assured the soil will be nice and warm. What makes a great gardener is the unwillingness to be deterred in the face of loss. Forbes knew the value of the comeback attitude all too well. "Victory is sweetest when you've known defeat," he said.
(Maureen Gilmer is a horticulturist. Her blog, the MoZone, offers ideas for cash-strapped families. Read the blog at www.MoPlants.com/blog. E-mail her at mogilmer(at)yahoo.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
YARDSMART
