What did I learn from my garden this year?

in HiveGarden2 years ago

This year’s carrot harvest

Darling, it is snowing already! Where have you been? Hi, I am m31, and I fell off the planet Earth for a bit! Or, in other words, I wanted to write this post for a while but did not find time nor energy while actively working on Inktober this year, and, well, 27 days after the completion of the challenge, I am finally ready to reflect on some things.


I am not a professional gardener, but I have been gardening pretty much my entire life. I have experienced great successes and failures of various natures throughout the years. Despite having quite a bit of experience, I am still learning and also fail a lot.

How do I feel about the year 2021? It was an okay year. I definitely wouldn’t call it a great success in terms of the harvest. Due to my surgery in May, I was unable to do most of the prep work and was pretty much a weakling for the first part of the growing season. That greatly affected the growth in the big field since everything was sown and planted with quite a bit of delay. You snooze, you lose! Getting your stuff in the ground at the right time is of the essence. That would be lesson one. Each plant has its optimal life cycle and the time they need to start, or they are likely not to realize their full potential.

Lesson number two - critters don’t give a fuck about your goals of growing chemical and pesticide-free veggies. They will love them so much that they will sneak into your garden, snapping the leaves off of your beetroots (which hinders their growth too), and there is nothing you can do about it unless you want to build a high fence which I had no time to do. Rudolph, you better stay away from me this Christmas! Yerk! And, of course, caterpillar invasion has no end ever!

This brings me to lesson number three. The cabbage covers as protection from caterpillars work. Sort of. I used frost covers which are prone to breaking apart, and after a while, there would be holes in my protection layer, and the white cabbage butterflies managed to get in and lay eggs. I was removing the covers when it was time for weeding and would check each plant for the eggs and caterpillars. I found a bunch each time, but not nearly as many if I had no covers. It was manageable. But I think it was also stressing the cabbages a lot. And you don’t want to stress out the cabbages! I think the covers also were stressing the cabbages out. If I ever use the cover system again, I will find a more durable material. And get the poles that are a lot higher so that the covers don’t touch the plants, stress them out, or even smother them.

That would be lesson four. Don’t smother your plants! Plants need a lot of room to grow. That is the reason why on the seed packages, they note the spacing between each plant. Plants compete for space to expand their leaf and root systems. My cabbages did not explode in size as I expected them to. They just remained tiny because they did not enjoy the touch of the covers. I did not remove the covers since the cabbage butterflies were active in the area until at least mid-September. When I took the covers off in hopes my cabbages would increase in size, it was already too late.

The final lesson I would like to mention is that sometimes you can give all the love and care to your plants and in the end, it doesn’t even matter, because an idiot with a tractor shows up! So it was late October, and it was still quite warm. While I was tackling my art challenges, I decided to postpone bringing my cabbage harvest home in hopes for them to grow a bit more. That is when the person who usually plows our field after the season, decided it was okay to plow the field without even asking us first. I was devastated. Countless hours of weeding, watering, de-caterpillaring, removing, and putting the covers back. Gone! Just like that. I understand that they did not look like much to the person with the tractor, but to me, that was blood, sweat, and tears. Yes, tears too! The garden this year helped my recovery, and it wasn’t an easy fucking year!

Anyhow, at least my raised garden boxes were a great success, the cucumber, bell pepper, onion, and tomato harvest was amazing too! And I harvested a lot of medicinal plants from the garden and nearby meadows as well which I dried and stored for later use.

I enjoyed every moment in my garden despite the difficulties, horse fly hordes, the heat, and asshole neighbors.

Now, let’s have a look at the last glimpses I captured in my garden and of my harvest too!

Some of them were pretty nice, little cabbage heads! RIP!

It was not the bean season. None of the varieties grew much.

The covers need to be a lot higher up so they would not touch the cabbages in any way. I think it should take care of smothering the plant issue.

I missed the timing for the milk thistle. Maybe next year, I will harvest it in time. Calendulas enjoyed the company of the parsley. The dill and asparagus also seemed to get along just fine.

Kale did not mind the more chilly nights for a long time and kept flourishing.

Marigolds, hyssop flowers, calendulas, chamomile, peppermint, red clover

I dry my medicinal plants and herbs either in bundles and hang them around the house or in the loose form and then store them in jars. I am so pleased with what I have gathered this year! I will be working with them hopefully soon as well.

My poor cabbages. I tried so hard, but in the end - tractor :(

Now, look at that! All those giant zucchinis are from a single plant! And so many pattypans squash too!

The crown piece! The giant sunflower head!

And here is my beetroot harvest, leeks, a tiny bit of beans, carrots, and turnips!

Gardening is not easy. It is not for everyone as some people will even say it is not worth it! To me, the great harvest or a tiny one doesn’t matter. I enjoy the process! And I will garden even if I have only a single window to garden until I am grey!

Song of the day: LiSA, Tokyo Machine - crossing field (Tokyo Machine Remix) Sakura Chill Beats Singles

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Ok girl there is no new post to leave this to so I will leave my have a great 2022 wish in your garden hihi. May you be healthy and loved and peaceful, I am sending you hugs from Romania🤗

Wonderful lessons learned and great shots that bring me back to summer a few moments.

I find myself rediscovering lesson number 4 year after year. I don’t know if it is looking at the seedlings and underestimating how big they will grow, or having too much fun buying them at the garden store. Love those raised boxes too and am up to 4 in my yard.

A bit of a shame about the tractor intruder. Another lesson learned when there are many to be learned each season.

Nice work and I hope you look forward to next year as much as I do reading your post!

Thank you for your comment @zekepickleman!

Yea, it is a though one. Especially, since the same plant in another variety can differ in size a lot and all the memory of the plants being certain size go out of the window haha! I sometimes also struggle to group them together in such a way that some of them don't overshadow or take over the place of other plants. Trial and error a lot. But I find it so much fun!

I am looking forward to the next year for sure. It probably will be a lot more different than what I have shared this year or previous years, will see! Can't wait! ^^

Ah, M, good to see you back. I’m so glad you took a well deserved break though, your Inktober marathon was inspiring but dang!

All of your produce pictures ares so glorious, and I always love it when you share garden stuff with us because I adore it all.

And you are so right about it being a labor of love. I’m truly sorry about the cabbage carnage, I would love to plop a fresh pile of cow fecal matter in a mischievous place for that neighbor to step in.

Your lessons learned hit close to home for me, one unseasonably warm year I had an extra patch of tomatoes (48 plants) that I had nurtured into greatness, they were just hitting peak ripeness when our steer broke out of his pen and ate every single vine, fruit and all. We had the last laugh cause we ate him:)

I loved everything about this post, especially the last paragraph. I’ll be right there with ya, gardening as a grey hair too!

Yea, the break was needed and also some other things came up that I can't wait to share soon!

Back in the day, when my granny had cows we used to call those the cow pancakes! xD Those would have worked for the deed perfectly!

Oh no! Poor tomato plants! And no delicious produce for salads and canning! I am sorry but I can't help but laugh out loudly when I just read the last bit about having the last laugh! xD What a silly creature! Hope he was delicious too ahaha!

Thank you for sharing your awesome stories, they always cheer me up! Hugs

Ooh!! I love the element of anticipatory surprise! Can't wait for the sharing of things!

Ahh, the cow pancakes, so many memories, soo much mischief, heh....

Flynn (the steer) was absolutely delicious, and I'm sure fairly tender from gorging on all that acid fruit, big brat. I loved him though lol, and I'm glad you got a guffaw out of that story, I still giggle a bit about it too on occasion, usually when I get a pack of steaks out of the freezer😁

Thank you for making my day with your awesomeness! Hugs right back at ya!

What a beautiful journey you've gone through @m31 and thank you for sharing with us your precious experiences! And yes, enjoying the process just brings you so much fun and it's actually the most enjoyable part of each journey for me too!
You remind me of us go hiking for 5 hours to get to the top of a mountain, stay on the top for 20 minutes and enjoy the view, then spend another 5 hours to get back to the bottom! Wouldn't we want to just enjoy the best out of those 10 hours of hiking? When we are seeing all the flowers and butterflies along the way, seeing new plants and figure out how to jump over a rock?

Here wishing you good health to keep gardening cause it seems to be the thing that you're born to do! 😊

Thank you so much! And your username is so sweet @littlebeatle! You draw such nice parallels there with hiking up the mountain. Makes me think of the solo hike I completed two years ago of Slieve Donard in Northern Ireland. My twenty-ish minutes at the top were funny since the fog showed up once I reached the top, and I could see only the rocky cairn, but nothing beyond it -

So imagine if that was all that mattered? Pretty sad, right? But no, you are right! It is all about the journey, about the adventure and the little things along the way :) I wouldn't trade the journey for anything!

Thank you so much for your comment which led me to amazing memories of the mountains too! :)

aw I'm crazy fan of The Beatles and I'm a rare little Vietnamese girl here in the Western town who performs lots of Beatles songs so I got that nickname! 😊
And you know your story just put a big smile on my face cause my story is exactly the same haha
Here is the photo I took from the top of a mountain I went hiking in Tay Ninh province, Viet Nam in 2016. Took me 3 hours to get to the top and this is all we could see

IMG_0563.JPG
That was my first time hiking actually and the journey was very rough but those were unique experiences of what I saw along the way, new skills I learned, the laughs and memories I made with my friends. It is very cool of you to do that alone and still enjoyed the best out of it!
Cheers for the "journey lovers" and another beautiful week! 🤗

Whaoo! Those crops look so healthy and also what a good capture you had.

Aww, thank you so much. They were lovely and I did what I could to keep them happy.

Nice to see you're back, but sad to hear about the senseless cabbage massacre.

It is nice to be back from lurking mode (since I can't really stay away from Hive for too long ever) and to be in the creating mode slowly but surely.

I was shocked. And went through all stages of grief xD I was angry for a while, but then I was just sad. The tractor dude probably thought that I left them on purpose since they were "nothing special" in their size or something. I bet I could have at least made one big jar or two of Sauerkraut out of them.

Now I want sauerkraut and bratwurst. Supper plans!

Very German, right? I bet we did not even have equivalent to Sauerkraut before German times in Latvia. It is interesting how we adapted some things and even words from them :)

American Karens are probably OK with cultural appropriation like that, as long as both cultures are white.

Your carrots are amazing! I never seem to be able to get a decent sized carrot

Aww thank you so much! The secret of bigger sized carrots is in spacing. While carrot seeds are quite tiny, it is important to have space between each tiny carrot seedling that sprouts. If you leave too many seedlings in a bunch close together, they will have no room to grow unless you sow them in a raised bed where the soil is very loose, but even then there is no guarantee. I usually sow them in a line in the row and as they grow I remove a bunch of them leaving at least 5 cm gap between each individual seedling. I also hoe the surrounding soil in the row, but not too close to the carrots. It seems to make them happier and grow bigger after each session.

I will have to remember this next time I grow some carrots, because their spacing was rather tight. I sometimes have germination problems with them so I planted a bit to much seed and of course, they all came up. Will have to thin them next time

Bounty harvest. Crazy you got all vegetables in there

Thank you! We usually try to get as many vegetables as possible. Even used to grow the potatoes, but the recent years Colorado bugs were too much to handle since we don't use any pesticides or chemicals in our garden.

Nice carrots... Good harvesting. Really a beautiful farm.

Thank you! I am never taking the access to the garden such as this one for granted. It is a true privilege that keeps giving every year.

The first year of my own on-my-own gardening experience is almost done. I would not let neighbors, uncles, other helpers in since they would do away with a lot of my abnormal ideas. Like keeping the biomass of leaves, grass, etc. in heaps so that I can cover some of the ground later. I planted a few trees and I keep on wandering should I listen to the knowledgeable or should I risk it my way, letting nature decide the faith of those.

Congratulations on your first year! I know exactly how you feel about wanting to do things on your own with your own preferred methods. After all it is your gardening journey!

The way I approach it, I will listen to the advice or do my own research of different methods and pick and choose from all that what makes the most sense to me. Sometimes I will just experiment with things by myself and it ends up to be more like trial and error, you know. I learn a lot from mistakes and I love making mistakes because there is always some knowledge at the end that I can collect as a result.

Where is fun in life without a little bit of risk too? The experts might tell you - I told you so, but I find learning by myself feels like some sort of achievement.

Good luck with your trees and garden! :)

Yup, for now, I am telling people I am in the R&D phase and I am willing to sacrifice a bit of resources and time in order to learn and know how to do it my way. The area is about 1000 square meters and it takes a lot of labor just to keep the grass and thorns from taking over permanently. If you're doing it manually, which I am. And so with watering, too.

The carrots and beet turned out quite fine, except for the fact I wasted a bit of seeds not spacing them well enough so that each plant could grow near its full potential (in the case of the red beet).

But I found out that I care for the trees a lot. It's R&D but with some...contaminating levels of attachment.

!BEER


Hey @m31, here is a little bit of BEER from @manoldonchev for you. Enjoy it!

Do you want to win SOME BEER together with your friends and draw the BEERKING.

Wow, this is just amazing, I have always wanted to have a crop but I don't have the space to plant more than a TwT pepper pot, are you from Russia? the vegetables I have only seen them develop in such a beautiful way in that country, I like your work enjoy your splendid harvest, greetings;)

Hi there @reard! Aww, I hope you have a beautiful garden of your own one day!

Ahaha, close! On the border of Russia xD I am from Latvia. The weather here is quite alright for gardening even with the rising heat the past couple of years. Nothing that can't be fixed with a bit of watering.

Thank you so much! I am glad you liked my post! Always happy to share my adventures here on Hive :)

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So sweet, thank you! :)

It is actually quite rewarding. The process does bring joy. Those little success would mean a lot to you I reckon.

Still does look beautiful. Your lessons are pertinent too, generally speaking. Sorry about the tractor one, that must have being annoying.

That cabbage 🥺

Aww thank you @stevenson7! Absolutely they mean a lot. They are small reminders that hard work is worth it. It is a great feeling when something turns out as planned or even better sometimes.

Well, even though I lost the cabbages in the end, I still learned valuable lessons thanks to them and the next year I probably will succeed with cabbages a lot more.

I have no doubt you will.

You're an inter-galactic alien, a minor setback is no match for a powerful supernatural being like you sef eeh? 😏

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Thank youuuu so much!

Now you can take the $335 USD payout and buy 20 times this much food at the local farmers market :))

Perhaps that is true, but I still prefer learning about gardening and growing my own food. Totally worth my time and effort! ^^

Oh of course, it's priceless. Just about everybody should be able to grow their own food. 100 years ago almost everybody was a farmer. Now it's almost nobody!
!LUV

The sunflower looks so awesome! What a splendid garden you have, it must feel so relaxing to be in it

And now I have yummy sunflower seeds! ^^ I recently learned that sunflower petals also have use in folk medicine since their infusion help with digestion problems. Fascinating things!

It is, for sure! It is so peaceful to work with the plants and sort my own mind out. Even if I have some things going on or stress, it quickly goes away. Maybe it is a focus thing since I focus on the tasks I need to do and not the loudness of my thoughts.

Thoughts can be so loud and very consuming. I find it helpful to be in nature and walk and admire the sky in order to quiet the stream of thoughts, maybe it can help you too

 2 years ago  

Gardening is not easy. It is not for everyone as some people will even say it is not worth it! To me, the great harvest or a tiny one doesn’t matter. I enjoy the process!

I agree and I also enjoy the process.

I just realized four months ago that farming/gardening is in my blood then I quit my day-time job and settle in the countryside while farming and planting vegetables.

Greetings from the Philippines!

Woah, that sounds like a big step for you! Congratulations on your realization and good luck with your farm! So cool! Growing food for yourself and others is an amazing job! Truly!

Greetings to you too, from Latvia! :) Perhaps, one day I will visit Philippines too, seems like a wonderful place!

 2 years ago  

Congratulations on your realization and good luck with your farm!

Thank you (^_^) and yes, the Philippines is a wonderful place with hospital people.

 2 years ago  

Hah! I came here to see if you had posted something and... you did post. How come the tractor driver didn't spot the veggies on the garden? wtf! Sad ending. I haven't had the time to work on a proper garden at our ranch (busy with the chicken coop). It's almost done though. Maybe I'll try something similar to your raised garden first.

Ahaha, nice timing! ^^

I guess he thought that I had left them on purpose since they did not develop to their full size. I had cleared and harvested everything else from the rows. He must have thought that I did not want them. I was angry that he did that without communicating and letting us know he would be doing so at first. After that I was sad, but that's life. Better luck next time right?

You chicken coop is coming along nicely, moaaar saaaaand! Bet your chickens will love their new home! And can't wait to see how your garden beds work out too! Isn't it so satisfying to work on these projects?

 2 years ago  

Let's not be too hard on the poor man. He might've felt so happy thinking he was being helpful =//

Isn't it so satisfying to work on these projects?

Yeeeeeeeees! It makes us more energetic and less like a living poop on the sofa. Except when a matha facka log slips and hit me right in the shin (the one I broke).

I've got a question. Do you put something as bedding on the boxes used for the raised garden? I've seen people use straw bales, but not sure

Ahaha, poop on the sofa! xD That cracked me up!

I recycled my old carboard boxes at the bottom, and then added the old autumn leaves from the trees on top of that, and some smaller tree branches before the adding the soil on top. It worked alright, but if I would do it again or make more of the boxes I would put at least a double layer of carboard, because I feel that some grass from the bottom broke through the only one layer. Carboard deteriorated over time with watering and rain. Straw bales might work just fine too! Curious to see what you will end up making there! :)

 2 years ago  

I will end up making a mess, that is! I think I did pretty much the same as you. Now we have saw dust inside the chicken coop to collect chicken poop; it's easy to sweep and throw into the compost. This next weekend I'll go to the ranch and make some posts.

Such a beautiful garden!Gardening is actually good for the mental health. Glad you enjoy doing it, take care ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Thank you @lifewithera! I struggle a lot mentally if I am spending too much time within the walls. At first I don't notice it, but I grow less and less inspired or motivated to do things and the depression eventually sneaks up on me. Garden is like an instant relief. I always feel full of energy and life after spending time in my garden. I am so grateful for it!

<3

We all go through tough times, there are instances where we may feel life is monotonous, dull, and there's nothing to look forward to. Good thing you found an escape through gardening. Sending love and light 💕💕🤗

Looks like you've got your own mini supermarket and flower garden. It is the process of working that brings joy

Ahaha! I hope in future I will be able to live of the land and to become self-sustainable for most things. Growing your own food is an important skill imo. And indeed, it brings so much joy and I would even say the food I've grown myself tastes a lot better too :)

 2 years ago  

Well, despite your trial and tribulations, things look to have gone well anyway! And oh my goodness - the payout on this post is amazing!! I haven't seen one so high in ages.... that's a lot of veggies you can buy with that lol! @riverflows



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Thank you so much! Aww, yea, this post somehow ended up on top of the trending aaa! So cool! All thanks to the amazing curation projects we have here on Hive! And I am so happy to read all the comments from so many people working on their gardening projects too and their experiences! So happy with the engagment! :)

You´ve got lots of harvest... I wish I had a green thumb and eat my own veggies! My grandfather has a coconut farm in the province though, they are tall trees that it is always hard to harvest.

Are you struggling with keeping the plants alive? Maybe, you will discover your green thumb at some point? Oh, but that is so cool! I've seen videos of people crawling up the coconut trees, how they are able to get up there so quickly is amazing! I would never be able to do it I think, I am scared of heights.

Hi! Did you know that a wine can be made out of coconuts? It´s a sweet wine but strong, you won´t notice it because of its sweetness and just a bout of a glass then you get drunk. Green thumb? no way, I have two left hands as far as greens are concerned... lolols!

You have got healthy crops and these pictures are lovely. You did an amazing job for a not so professional farmer. Your farm is beautiful, thank you for sharing.

Yay, happy to hear you liked my pictures. I find joy taking them, and that I later can look back on how I did or what I had growing in my garden the previous years, you know. Year by year I am learning more and more things. I love it! :)

Amazing. Good luck.

So great photos of you 😍
Thanks for sharing :)

Thank you! Always happy to :)

The best life i think you can enjoy

That is true. Living from the land is one of my goals in life :)

That is so crazy. Wonderful and beautiful work friends. Greetings

Ahaha! Thanks! I am glad you enjoyed my post! Greetings to you too :)

Your farm is soo big and beautiful. 🌻

Thank you! :)


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You are such a talented photographer, and we were thrilled with the results of your work.

Thank you! I enjoy capturing beauty surrounding me and while gardening is a lot of hard work, I also find it a blessing.

Thanks for sharing all your lessons, @m31. I might use a trick or two of yours in my garden next year. You took some really awesome photos there as well!

What an inspiring read! You are a natural @m31. I love gardening but it doesn't come naturally. I love that what you said; "...garden even if I have only a single window to garden until I am grey!" My idea of gardens is mostly herbs. My focus on our homestead is my goats

@m31 your photo is really professional

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great post, great pictures, beautiful flowers

very nice jobs

very nice jobs

 2 years ago  

Wow! You have a big garden! Welcome to HIVE! Is it all organic?

It is good to be back where all the busy bees are at - Hive! ^^ Yep, all organic! No pesticides, no chemicals. Sometimes it is very difficult to keep the pests at bay and they manage to do a lot of damage, but I wouldn't want it any other way :)

 2 years ago  

I will teach you something about the pest!
Take 5 pieces of garlic and grind them finely! Mix in 3 glasses of water and soak for 2 hours. Filter the water with garlic and pour over the spray! You can now use this spray on the leaves of your plant! do it once a week! No insects will come near your plant! ^_^

Thank yo so much for the tip! I have tried garlic before, but I guess I did not filter it properly and killed all of my spray bottles I had on hand xD It also happened to be quite rainy summer and I did not see much of improvement since the rain just washed all my garlicy protection away, but I will try it again for sure :)

Pets the kitty How are you doing buddy?