Depressed/disgusted with gardening

[mamadelbosque]

So, I'm getting pretty darn discouraged at this point. Like, half of my garden which looked just absolutely great a couple weeks ago.. is dead or dying

First, it was my watermelon plant which just up and wilted randomly. Then it was/is my peppers - at least half of them randomly up and wilted & died surviving I have: 6/6 red beautys, 0/8 bells, 3/3 habaneros, 2/12 jalapenos 4/12 hungarian hot wax, 5/5 pimientos, 3/6 red hot chilis, 0/6 rio grands. Its disgusting and extremely depressing. And now, randomly over 24 or so odd hours, 2-4 of my cucumbers have just totally wilted. And all of my squash appear to be getting powdery mildew again this year, despite us spraying them with stuff thats supposed to prevent it!!

My tomatoes still look OK, but almost all of them have yellow leaves on the bottom, and a couple have died. I'm worried/suspicious that they're all about to just up and wilt and die again.

Overall, its just soo frigging depressing & upsetting. My broccoil have done awful - out of 44 plants, we've eaten broccoil maybe 3 or 4 times thus far and I managed to get one quart bag frozen. Thats it. Out of 44 plants. I got as much/more from 6 plants last year. And all of them (along with the brussel sprouts look wilty and awful if they don't get waterd a TON every frigging day. And we just don't have enough water to oblige them!!!

The only things that have done decently OK this year are the peas - and even they didn't give me THAT many peas, considering. I had/have like a 15' bed of sugar & snow peas and managed to freeze like 5.5 quarts. And we ate them a couple times otherwise.

[tayndrewsmama]

Oh that totally sucks. I am so sorry. That's just awful. I'd be pretty upset too.

[Carley]

Oh I feel you! HUGE loss this year! I didn't really think my garden could end up more of a fiasco than it was last week - I was actually comming around to humor with my sh*tty garden... then... it dropped below 60 degrees on Sunday & hasn't let up.

Seriously????

OMG, I just reread your post! The only thing we've had this year are peas too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've had series of carrot/beet/radish/lettuce/greens plantings destroyed. Hillarious.

[Owen'nZoe]

Just wanted to offer hugs. I've had years where I was glad that my family's ability to eat did not actually depend on my gardening skills. Stick with it, though. Bad years teach you so much more about gardening than good years, you know?

[Talula Fairie]

I'm right there with you mama. It feels like gardening has been a series of disappointments for me this year

[lotus.blossom]

We have had a terrible time this year. I did all of my own seedlings this year and they are soo small I hardly think we will be able to harvest anything! My tomatoes were planted over a month ago and they haven't even doubled in size yet. We have had so much rain and NO sun.
One day I felt the urge to just rip everything out I was so frustrated. But I waited and now with a day or so of sun I feel better.

Hoping next year is better!

[Talula Fairie]

Originally Posted by Owen'nZoe

Just wanted to offer hugs. I've had years where I was glad that my family's ability to eat did not actually depend on my gardening skills. Stick with it, though. Bad years teach you so much more about gardening than good years, you know?

This is a comforting thought to me.

[Close2Me]

This past June was the 8th coldest June in history in the U.S..

[cristeen]

Originally Posted by mamadelbosque

Overall, its just soo frigging depressing & upsetting. My broccoil have done awful - out of 44 plants, we've eaten broccoil maybe 3 or 4 times thus far and I managed to get one quart bag frozen. Thats it. Out of 44 plants. I got as much/more from 6 plants last year. And all of them (along with the brussel sprouts look wilty and awful if they don't get waterd a TON every frigging day. And we just don't have enough water to oblige them!!!

Broccoli and brussel sprouts don't like hot weather. Really all of your cruciferous veggies prefer spring/fall growing seasons. If it's been at all warm, I'm not surprised that they're begging for water.

As for the rest - my BFF who is a fabulous gardener was just telling me the other day that she's having issues this year too. For her, it turns out that the place where they moved to has infected soil, and it seems to be killing off all her tomatoes. With those kinds of sudden losses, I'd suspect either disease or pest interference. A single infected plant purchase can infect the whole garden, as can a contaminated batch of compost.

[Greenmama2AJ]

That really sucks

If your whole garden is wilting and dying I'd really look into the cause. That's not just 'unlucky' gardening - somethings going on. Have you added anything to the soil? what fertilisers/pesticides are you using?

What a pita!

[Carley]

Chickens invaded the garden AGAIN. Carrots/beets/peppers/corn/cukes/lettuces - gone!

Go go garden fiasco!

[Talula Fairie]

I just went and watered my backyard garden. Tomato plant still not producing tomatoes. The blossoms just fall off.

Basil getting demolished.

Mint gone, totally. Nothing but stems now.

Entire cucumber plant taken out, most of the squash is gone too. Dr. Bronners did not help the massive pest problem I have going on.

Dill went to seed.

All I have back there is a few herbs that I don't even use.

[SuburbanHippie]

Bummer! June was really cool for us too so our garden isn't doing so hot either. My pepper plants flower and then the flowers dry up and fall off. My broccoli (which I didn't expect to even come up) actually DID come up, but that's about it. Now it's just sitting there about 1" tall for a month. My eggplant hasn't grown a bit since we transplanted it. It's starting to wilt now. It's infuriating! My tomato plants (that I finally did from seed) are doing well though as are my bean plants so at that redeems the whole experience somewhat.

[mamadelbosque]

Bah. I just got back home from being away all weekend (left thursday morning, early, got home today ~1ish), and all my cucumbers are definetly dead/dieing. And the zuchini look like they're succoming too (though it is possibly that they just are/were in desperate need of water since it never frigging rains around here anymore! But, I doubt it.). And my beans are now having yellow leaves. And the brussel sprouts have wilted/look awful. They all got a little water, but I really don't know if its going to help them that much. We have just had a VERY dry summer so far. Its totally ridiculous. Oh, and the stupid frigging ducks ate the pumpkins/butternut/acorn squash. And the tomatoes all have yellow leaves with black spots on the bottoms. And the potatoes look wilty/yellow too. And just. Yeah. I'm just utterly disgusted and discouraged and am extremely tempted to just say 'f it' and let the whole frigging thing die, spray/mix in massive amounts of pesticides/fungicides/etc and hope that whatever keeps killing our plants every frigging year gets killed. Cause its ridiculous. This area hasn't had plants in it in at LEAST 7+ years up till last year. Nothing. Just grass. Totally, completely, utterly fallow. And we just don't seem able to grow any frigging thing. And its just so completely disheartening to plant stuff, take care of it, have it look beatiful.. and then everything just frigging DIE!!!

[sapientia]

I've noticed A LOT of local gardens out here aren't doing so well. Mine looked fabulous, first round of veggies were awesome-then everything just weirded out and stopped producing...the corn was a joke. It was bizarre.

[catballou24]

it's so hot here that the tomatoes are not pollinating anymore, and the ones that did are ripening so slowly it's going to be forever before we get to eat them. the cukes are super slow and not all pollinating and the leaves are crispy even if i water them at the root early in the morning. the sun is just baking everything and pollin is all dying because of the heat, so nothing is producing anyway. borers got my pumpkins, but the new batch looks alright so i'm still holding out hope there. beans were a joke this year, both bush and pole. my pepper plants are growing beautiful, but not flowering. i've given them all extra phosphorus in hopes that they will produce...they certainly are healthy plants but we've had one jalapeno since they went into the ground weeks ago. i'm just about to give up and just focus on the pumpkins and tomatoes then plant everythign again in the fall. we have extended seasons so i can do that, summer sun in austin is just too damn hot for human or plant..

so i feel everyone's pain for sure!

[Carley]

"Gardening When It Counts" just came in from my library queue today. I've waited almost a year for it.

Oh the irony!


sapientia - I've noticed that around here too. I feel like a horrible person, but it really makes me feel better


mamadelbosque - I TOTALLY feel you on the "F IT ALL." I've already decided that what I need to do is rip out anything that's really pissing me off & so there's a nice clean slate for my fall crops this month.


Thank goodness for farmer's markets man. At least somebody can get it together! I cannot believe this!!!

[mamadelbosque]

yeah, I just got gardening when it counts from the library last week... So far, it seems very interesting and certainly worth a try next year - especially since we don't have much water to water intensively (shallow well). Everytime I think about my garden though, I just get SO disgusted and depressed!!!

[Carley]

I just skimmed through... I'm sorry, pee? Come on.

[Owen'nZoe]

Originally Posted by mamadelbosque

Bah. I just got back home from being away all weekend (left thursday morning, early, got home today ~1ish), and all my cucumbers are definetly dead/dieing. And the zuchini look like they're succoming too (though it is possibly that they just are/were in desperate need of water since it never frigging rains around here anymore! But, I doubt it.). And my beans are now having yellow leaves. And the brussel sprouts have wilted/look awful. They all got a little water, but I really don't know if its going to help them that much. We have just had a VERY dry summer so far. Its totally ridiculous. Oh, and the stupid frigging ducks ate the pumpkins/butternut/acorn squash. And the tomatoes all have yellow leaves with black spots on the bottoms. And the potatoes look wilty/yellow too. And just. Yeah. I'm just utterly disgusted and discouraged and am extremely tempted to just say 'f it' and let the whole frigging thing die, spray/mix in massive amounts of pesticides/fungicides/etc and hope that whatever keeps killing our plants every frigging year gets killed. Cause its ridiculous. This area hasn't had plants in it in at LEAST 7+ years up till last year. Nothing. Just grass. Totally, completely, utterly fallow. And we just don't seem able to grow any frigging thing. And its just so completely disheartening to plant stuff, take care of it, have it look beatiful.. and then everything just frigging DIE!!!

A couple ideas for you - First off, it sounds like water is an issue for you from what you've written. How often are you watering it? How long to you water it for? If you dig down in the garden right now, how far down is the soil moist? Ideally, I try to give my garden a total of 1 inch of water a week, and I try to do this with two really good soakings so the water has a chance to soak deep into the soil (rather than a little bit each day - with the exception of lettuce, which I find really needs water every day to keep from turning bitter). Now, I know you said you have well capacity issues, and can't invest a ton of water in your garden. Do you have it mulched to conserve water? Could you set up a rain barrel? (Obviously won't help much this year if your rainy season is over, but for next year.) Would you feel comfortable using grey water? For example, if I make pasta or boil eggs, that water goes straight in the garden (once it has cooled down). I know others who wash dishes in a tub with safe soap, and put that out. Others put a bucket in the shower while it is getting up to temp, and use that water in the garden.

My second question is, have you had a soil test done? If not, that would be my next step before moving on. A soil test will tell you whether there are nutrients missing, or the ph is off - basically if there is something 'wrong' with your soil. It could be that the soil was able to support grass, but isn't right for veggies. Anyway, a soil test with your local county extension should be inexpensive, and they'll give recommendations on how to fix what is wrong.