Can you turn a brown thumb green?

[MyTwoAs]

Hi, I'm Melissa and I have a brown thumb. The only thing I've managed to keep alive is four rose bushes in my backyard. However, they're on a sprinkler drip system so I credit that with their survival.

My kids really want to grow a small vegetable garden. I've been looking into container gardening and I think that will be a good start (the soil where I live in Arizona is really weird). I've been doing a lot of reading on local sites about what to plant (tomatoes and carrots are the kids' requests) but now I'm wondering if I'm just getting in over my head.

Has anyone else gone from brown thumb to green thumb? My son wants to chronicle our veggie gardening journey for my blog and I really want to ensure that we end up with vegetables at the end of the journey, instead of a plant burial.

Advice, encouragement, etc? :

[kathymuggle]

Yes! You can do this.....

1. Start small. This is crucial Big gardens can be overwhelming.

2. Start with something easy

3. I do not like containers - too little room - but I know nothing about Arizona's growing conditions.

4. Add compost or manure to the soil when you seed.

5. If you end up doing rows - mark where you have planted - so you do not end up weeding produce (like me and the beans)

[MyTwoAs]

Thanks Kathy - I have to admit I giggled when you posted about weeding produce. This is definitely something I'd do.

Both of my grandmothers had gardens growing up and I loved being able to go outside and pick fresh strawberries or pull a carrot from the ground for my afternoon snacks. My daughter loves tomatoes and my son loves carrots and so that's why we've chosen those.

I'm definitely starting small. Although I'd love to plant a whole bevy of veggies, I know that the bigger my garden, the bigger the chance of total and utter failure on my part hehe.

[laohaire]

Great thread! I'm interested.

I used to consider myself to have a green thumb. I didn't direct any gardens or anything but I tended houseplants and even saved a fair number of plants from abuse. One potted palm tree was stored in a light-less basement with zero water or attention for two years before I discovered it and nursed it back to health (the main plant died but amazingly it sprouted a new plant from its roots).

But now? Every single botanical project I have undertaken, large or small, has failed miserably. I have attempted numerous times, for example, to plant basil and peppers and even flowers into pots. Absolutely none have ever even sprouted. I bought tomato starts the last weekend in May and now that it's September 2, they are the SAME SIZE as when I bought them (they bore a total of 3 cherry-sized tomatoes - and, no, they weren't cherry tomatoes). My MIL kindly gave me 5 of her beautiful and lush hostas, and two weeks later they were completely gone (eaten by slugs). Oh, and I planted radishes, and they actually sprouted, except they didn't grow radishes. They grew something that looks like peas of some sort except the peas are microscopic and inedible. (And it's not a maturity problem, many are starting to dry out, they already passed their peak). I mean, come on!!

I haven't even recounted ALL of my failures, but trust me, I've tried lots of things and they all failed.

I think my shift from green thumb to brown thumb occured when I gave birth to DD. I think I pour all my lifegiving energy into her, and have none left for the plants.

[Owen'nZoe]

You certainly can do it! To the advice to start small, I'd add start in a location where you already love to hang out. My veggie garden is in my side yard, right outside my kitchen window, nestled next to my favorite flower garden. I can't help but notice it every day, and have my breakfast sitting in a chair looking out the window and kind of surveying it. If something is going wrong with it, I notice right away. This wouldn't be possible had I tucked it in the backyard where it 'should' have gone.

[kathymuggle]

Originally Posted by Owen'nZoe

You certainly can do it! To the advice to start small, I'd add start in a location where you already love to hang out. My veggie garden is in my side yard, right outside my kitchen window, nestled next to my favorite flower garden. I can't help but notice it every day, and have my breakfast sitting in a chair looking out the window and kind of surveying it. If something is going wrong with it, I notice right away. This wouldn't be possible had I tucked it in the backyard where it 'should' have gone.

Yeah, that!

I have a neglected garden at the back of my property (about 75 feet away) - neglected because I never pass by it - and out of sight is out of mind.

My 2 year old kitchen garden is 15 feet from my back door - I go by it all the time and I can see it from where the car is parked. It is (relatively) well tended!

[BAU3]

Another brown thumb here!

But you know what I realized this spring when I spent an afternoon preparing my garden and building a cute bean teepee with twine and sticks from the woods? That even if absolutely nothing grew in my garden I had already enjoyed the afternoon and was so satisfied with what I done, that it didn't matter. Glean what enjoyment you can !!(cuz if its a lush garden I'd be bitterly disappointed time and again.

So this year I got a couple of hanfuls of bean and peas, a tomato plant that may or may not give me a tomato, some carrots that I didn't thin out afterthe kids planted them (although I may get a few now that I've thinned them).. 4 corn stalks, two sunflowers that loked AWESOME till the deer ate them...and a whole bunch of weeds. I mean I grow the best weeds in the county!

So anway... be sure to enjoy the process!

[lmonter]

Start small.

Some ideas?

Pick half a dozen things your family will actually eat, and go with that the first year. Don't get a cherry tomato plant just because if no one eats cherry tomatoes or a tomatillo plant even if you have no idea what to do with tomatillos..

Go to your library and check out the Lasagna Gardening books by Patricia Lanza. Easy-ish way to build up your soil from what I've heard, especially if you're starting from scratch. Plus you can get the kids all involved in scouting for leaves and such long before it's close to planting time in the spring (or, I guess, winter in your case).


Containers. Well, if you're in one of the warmer spots of AZ and are spazzy about watering, that may not be the best idea unless you get drip irrigation set up for 'em. I may be a queen of spazzy watering, and oh baby, was getting drip irrigation in the garden a smart idea. Especially as we keep planting more and more of our yard with goodies.

I do prefer getting plants that are semi-easy to grow. Like the grape vine that we sorta ignored, but totally took off last year (got 3 gallons of grapes, it's like 6-7yo this year though). I have some rosebushes in the front yard that we've unintentionally tried to kill, yet they're still going. I have chives and thyme and daylilies up front as well, and man, they just won't die and almost multiply like bunnies. I started off with one little 4" pot of thyme years ago, now I have 2 bushes that are at least 14" in diameter (and I've divided and given away the divisions a few times!). Tomatoes and peppers and broccoli/cauliflower are a bit fussy for me, but par for the course where I live (a bit north of you).

[MyTwoAs]

Yay, thanks for the great ideas and for my fellow brown thumbers coming out with support hehe.

Watering is definitely one of my issues, so perhaps container gardening won't be a good choice. Must...research!