My Vegetable Garden Sucks!!!

[Javamama]

I finally put down a thick straw mulch. In addition to battling weeds I am seeing early blight and/or bacterial speck on the tomatoes already - I fight this every year but have never mulched until this year. If I had done it a few weeks ago I probably could have prevented it. that is slows down the disease. I am clipping infected stems and spraying with neem.
On a positive note - at least it isn't late blight

Gardening is all about facing challenges. At least I have good company

 

[noobiechickenlady]

I just want to note here that I hate, loathe, despise squash bugs.
They don't like zucchini. Yeah right. I must have a new breed of zucchini loving squash bugs. Soapy water & squish squish squish.
Goats ate the tops of my sweet potatoes, what's growing back has holes eaten in the leaves. Ants are farming the aphids that are attacking my okra. ALL my tomatoes are keeling over & I've have picked off more horn worms this year than I have ever noticed. At least the chickens get some happiness from that.
Beans are growing so slowly I can't stand it.
Yard helper mowed down my onions, the slugs are eating what is growing back. Garlic never did come up. Second planting of swiss chard did squat. Corn did squat. Broccoli formed teeny tiny heads & bolted. Spinach bolted. Mustard bolted.

The only upside is that I have a little strawberry that could. This thing was given to me during the winter months still in the peat pot. It was the only one not mulched enough so it froze. Well, since it froze I left it alone. I get out there one morning and there is green! What?! Okay, let's get you planted. Once I did, the thing took OFF! It's put on 2 runners, which are already rooted & quadrupled in size. Now I just hope the berries next year are tasty, because I have found the most hardy strawberry plant ever, frost, drought, heat, flood, nothing can seem to kill this thing

 

[Woodland Woman]

It probably would be best to trim some branches to get you more sun. I had to do this because I had the same problem with areas of my garden last year. Now those areas are producing well. We also had to cut down a big tree in our yard because all our grass was dying. My garden is doing well except for my zucchini which starts producing and then rot. My pepper plants are small this year too.

 

[Blackbird]

Last year our peppers did NOTHING. They were planted in what I suspect was quite poor soil, but it has high acidity, so that could be why. Not sure. This year they're looking a bit better, but I'll definitely have to try the epsom salt method, thanks Java!!

Ever since we've been laying a nice thick mulch of grass clipping or straw around the plants the last couple of years, we haven't had many bugs ruining plants. We haven't had ANY potato bugs in about five years with this method.

K0xxx, that has to be VERY painful. Wowzers. I think if we HAD to depend on ourselves to produce our own food, I think many of us would have to resort to wild edibles and that sort of thing.
Here in MN we have to plant as soon as possible after the last frost, so sometimes it's as late as mid May, then it by late August to mid September it starts getting cold and everything dies. I can't imagine having spring and winter gardens like some of you have!

 

[k0xxx]

Oh well, live and learn. If we were truly dependent on the garden as our source of food, we'd have us a couple of outside hounds to keep the deer away. Or at the very least we would be eating a lot more venison.

Hmmm, I could put a long rope on the garden gate, and once the deer get in, pull the gate closed and raise deer instead of the veggies... Our local wildlife agent would LOVE that.

 

[Farmfresh]

Well here it is much to my shame, my pathetic corn patch for this year. I just wanted to show the newbies that even experienced growers have crops that fail.

This is what happens when all good intentions get set aside for the flu and basically just ignoring your duty. The corn is stunted from weeds and pretty pathetic. We will probably get a few ears, but nothing like last year.

At least SOME of the weeds are useful. Some of the oats that were used as green manure crop last fall spouted. I will be harvesting that for chicken treats.

Compare to last years corn crop. This is what happens if you actually weed your corn!

We got lots of nice ears last year! Then again last years potato harvest was almost a total failure. It is always something!

 

[reinbeau]

Peppers and eggplants, in particular, like it hot. They're warm weather veggies and won't grow and set fruit until it's good and warm out. Tomatoes also like it warm, but they'll quit setting fruit if it gets too hot. It isn't worthwhile to put peppers and eggplants out before early summer, unless you use wall-o-waters or something to keep them nice and cozy warm. They'll just sit there and sulk until everything is warm enough.

Keep a good layer of mulch down under tomatoes, it keeps the splashing down, which is what spreads the blights. Pull off any blighted foliage and dispose of it - don't compost it! I use the red plastic mulch and I really believe it makes a difference. You can save it from year to year.

 

[TanksHill]

Very good Reinbeau!! Thank you!

 

[paul wheaton]

Put down lots of diatomaceous earth at the base of your plants. That kills the ants without killing the bugs that like to eat aphids.

 

[ducks4you]

The first year I put it in, I had an enormous amount of veggies. So much in fact, that I had to give away some of it because it was more than we could use. Every since, I've had a steady decline in the performance of the garden I add lots of homemade compost and use a natural fertilizer every few weeks.

It could be that you are over-fertilizing. Compost is a constant-feed fertilizer. Plants need a break from eating, too. Maybe you are burning out your crops?!? :/ Is the "natural" fertilizer Miracle-Gro? That's made in the lab by mixing chemicals and it doesn't last more than a few months, anyway--you DON'T need it if your using compost. Maybe your natural fertilizer is killing off beneficial soil microbes?
Maybe this will help (regarding soil biota.)
http://www.composterconnection.com/site/garden-soil.html#adds-microbes