This was only my second year gardening, and first year with my own yard 😤 Everything is in containers. I struggled a lot with figuring out a good place to put containers that got enough sunlight. I was trying to avoid the front yard because I was worried about car exhaust and grossness getting onto veggies, but when I finally caved and moved everything to the front it started growing much much better. Lots of things also got chomped by deer and groundhogs in the backyard. I had hoped that big containers would keep the groundhogs out but I caught one climbing up onto the top and eating all the seedlings. Lots of failures, lots of dead plants. I tried to plant some native flowers in the backyard hoping to get them to spread to the empty lot behind us, but no success. A lot of seeds got eaten by birds.

I had better luck with both veggie and flower starts that I bought from the local farmer’s market. I was SO CLOSE to getting sunflowers, the flower heads were coming out but then we had a big windy thunderstorm that knocked them over and they got all crispy after :( My only harvest this year are a couple of jalapeno peppers. I didn’t start anything indoors this year, but I definitely see the value in it now and I’m hoping to get a rack with grow lights set up over the winter.

What about you guys??

  • This is my first year with an in-ground garden in Zone 6a! Here’s what I’ve got:

    -Plant more peppers, I eat a lot of peppers and could use more

    -Plant beans/peas earlier

    -Plant okra later

    -Only ONE cucumber plant!!! Just one! No one needs more than one!

    -More ground cherries, they did great and I love 'em

    -Wouldn’t bother with celery again, probably

    -Would give radishes another shot, they did okay. I’d do kohlrabi again too

    -Planted too many types of lettuce