1.Tomatoes don't catch up when there is too much rain in the first part of summer.
2. I can grow Japanese eggplant, but not Italian varieties of eggplant. I still don't know why.
3.Pole beans are so tastier than bush beans, take up less room and are prettier. (Now I wish someone would develop a pole bean that matures earlier like bush beans)
4. Fireblight will kill all the apple saplings regardless of what you do, organic or otherwise. Too much rain will bring fireblight no matter what you do to prevent it.
5. Calendula is the best all around annual...has several subtle color varieties, uniformly good blooms, reseeds prolifically, blooms early, all summer and way into the fall, doesn't freeze easily, and will re-bloom during winter thaws if the cold isn't too severe.
Calendula flowers are edible... great for winter salad.

Sy

1. Don't use red pen to write seedling labels. It washes right off.
2. If its raining forever, put on a raincoat and plant out the tomatoes in the rain,instead of waiting until they are leggy and blighted.
3. Spray pyola on the baby pepper fruit to keep the pepper maggots out.
4. Baking soda holds back blight.
5. Place giant spikes where the construction people next door are running over new and different bunches of peppers each day.
6. It's easy to find tossed away wooden pallets to place under the compost. They really speed it up.
7. I really need to win the lottery or something so I can get a house with more land and less shade around it.

l. Stepping on a 4 inch slug in your bare feet is much worse than coming home from vacation to the smell of the compost bucker you forgot to empty.

2. Don't leave mulch on beds over winter. Let freezing temps kill the slimy things.

3. There are many plants besides impatiens that will grow well in shade.

4. I need to plant more natives.

5. Many vegies will produce well in less than full sun if the soil is good.

6. Get more manure next year.

1. Turn the compost EVERY week or expect to find a mouse nest!

2. Divide daisies aggressively.

3. Drill holes in an old garden hose for an inexpensive soaker hose. Just don't drill more than one hole every 2 feet or you'll lose water pressure!

4. The best grub solution: Tear up all that turf grass and replace it with plants and woodchips. It makes a beautiful and natural looking garden. Besides, you hardly need to cut the grass.

1) Something is going to happen -- you're just going to be distracted sometime during the year! Take the time, steel yourself, and teach your plants to sink DEEP roots so they won't suffer so much when you can't pay so much attention to them.

2) Cold-weather peas will produce just as happily up hot-weather tomato cages, and in the same soil, too!

3) Slanted porches and surfaces are great: after the rains dry, all the leaves & stuff are in one place, ready to be picked up!

4) No, really, you DO need another bag of cocoa hulls. Really.

5) Maybe two.

6) If you want to save those heirloom maters for next year or friends, pick 'em when they're green...or the Squirrels will!

7) Cute corkscrews of wire, hooked up to the Pea teepee, are perfect for keeping cucumbers off the ground and saving space.

8) Good heavy drenches in CA flower beds makes for mass, screaming pillbug exoduses up the nearest wall. Heh heh.

9) Don't bother making plans for how to put the sugar snap peas in dinner. They won't make it past the door.

10) Plant something for someone you love.

I learned:

I like rutabagas! (even if I don't know how to spell them).

Don't rush ahead and make applesauce unless you are certain the apples are ripe.

A steam juicer is a must have. I juiced and canned all my fruit so I can make jelly this winter when it is too cold to be outside.

Make sure you have flower beds prepared BEFORE you start those 6 flats of perennial seeds.

Work in the flower beds in the woods right away in the spring before the mosquitoes are so thick I can't go back there.

Watch for ground hornet nests when weeding the raspberries.

I need to plant a lot more sweet basil next year so I can freeze pesto.

Marigolds and zinnias are easy to start by just throwing the seed where you want them. Next year I won't mess around with trying to start them early indoors.

I almost forgot, the most important thing I learned this year was how to identify poison ivy! Valuable lesson.

I learned that White Crowned sparrows love apples.

I learned that White Crowned sparrows love cherries.

I learned that White Crowned sparrows love strawberries.

I learned that White Crowned sparrows love Service Berries.

I learned that there is no good recipe for White Crowned sparrows.

cats probly like them.... a lot.

~ I've learned that plants, birds, butterflies, and all of nature make better company than some people.

~ I've learned that plants, just like people, need very little to survive, but, also like people, they'll thrive with extra care.

~ Most importantly, I've re-learned the same lesson I learn every year:

...That I've still got a helluva lot more to learn.

gardenz

1. I am in zone 9 or 11 or 12 well I know I am in Central Arizona
2. Best bet for gardening books is buying them second hand or thrift stores.
3. Best way to get pepper and other seeds is getting them second hand through the produce isle. Plus you still get to eat them
4. Next best way to get seeds is buy a plant with fruit already growing. You still get to use the fruit or veggie.
5. Even if your plant is doing great during spring and early summer doesn't mean it will do that during the rest of the summer especially if it doesn't get enough water. I really thought the tomato was going to make it.
6. Once a lettuce bolts the leaves do not taste as good or are as plentiful.
7. Birds love seeds and baby plants especially during the summer when their is nothing to eat.
8. Yes gardening is for the birds, though hamburger bbq covers that prevent flies make great meshing for protecting budding plants.
9. Gallon jugs and liter bottles will break down in the sun, but there should be enough uses.

Oh well enough for this year, high learning curve!

1. I can grow grapes, just ask the birds...Cover grapes with bird netting.

2. Don't plant seeds to early after turning under rye cover crop.

3. Mulch...Mulch...Mulch...

4. Get more high nitrogen material for compost, preferably fresh manure.

5. I'll never win the battle with the moles, but keep on fighting!!!!

6. Use on-line resources for getting hard to find seeds.

7. Use over head watering less.

8. Spray with milk and/or baking soda to help control powdery mildew.

9. Divide and replant hostas so small ones aren't hidden.

10. Just keep plug'n away, in spite of all the critters and pests.

what i've learned in the garden this year is no matter how much you prepare and plan and work, mother earth is still in charge. it was so hot in redlands, ca this year. i tried 3 new tomato varieties this year, plus 2 i've grown before. i got a whopping 3 tomatoes, 2 of the plants never fruited at all. oh well, there's always next year! also, i'm giving zinnias one more chance next year, then i'm waiting until we move back to civilization (orange co). and if those calendulas don't stop looking so pathetic, they're going to the compost pile. on the other hand, gauras and "blue daze" are my new best friends! they held up thru the heat, and are still alive after my inconsistent pot-watering. even the penstemons (in containers) are long dead! goddess bless.

Squash bug's can be dropped into a cup of soapy water,

Weed's make great compost material,

It is easy to plant too may cucumbers, and zucchini,..

Planting is easier than hoeing....

SAE
Zone 7 in East Central MS

1. Never mind what others say about paste tomatoes only for sauce. The best sauce comes from the best tasting tomatoes, no matter the type. As you cook it down, it just gets stronger in the flavor you love.
2. Celebrities also come in a bush type. What fun to see lots of gorgeous tomatoes on a teeny tiny plant.
3. Maybe beets are easy for some, but not for me. Every bug, worm, etc. think those little plants were planted just for them--and it doesn't even help to cover them with row covers.
4. You can never have too many tomatoes. I think I saw that somewhere