I am pretty good at using coupons.
I’m not a bad cook.
I’m a marginal seamstress and a wannabe crafter.
But I am a terrible gardener.
Our little garden that started out with so much promise is having a few, er, issues. Granted, this is our learning year, but I don’t feel like I’m learning all that much because while I can see the problems happening, I’m not sure why they’re happening, and I certainly don’t know how to fix them.
We love our garden, problems and all.
Luckily I’m sure at least a few of you must know something about gardening, right?
So I thought today I’d ask you all for a little gardening advice. Please, please feel free to throw in your two cents! And believe me, you couldn’t possibly know less than I do on this subject, so any advice will be welcomed. If you’ve never commented before, this is your moment. (And just so you know, I LOVE getting your comments! I can’t always respond to them all, but I do read each and every one, and they always make my day!)
- What are these beetles that ate our sunflower, and how can we prevent them from coming back for the next one?
- What ate our cabbage? How do we stop that from happening?
- Why is all my sage turning brown and dying?
- What ate our corn? How do we prevent it from happening again?
- What is eating our potatoes? Also, how do you know when potatoes are ready to harvest?
- What the heck is this thing? We thought we were planting tomatoes!
How do you know when your carrots are ready?
So there you have it, our gardening woes. Hopefully some of you will be able to help us turn things around, or at least have more success on our next go-round.
Finally, if you are a blogger and have written any post at any time even remotely related to gardening, please link it up here! After seeing my sad snapshots I’m sure you’ll agree that we could use all the help we can get.
Affiliate links may be used in this post. Printing a coupon or ordering a product through this link may result in a commission, which helps pay for the cost of running this site and keeps the content free. Read my full disclosure policy here.
Deb May 17, 2011 at 4:07 pm
Hi Ruth! You are doing well in your garden, it’s growing! The little guys that keep eating your plants are probably these little itty bitty green catepillars, who when a butterfly lays their eggs, they do it on the leaves of the plants. Typically they are on the backside of the leave. I ran into this problem last year with my broccoli, I sprayed a organic spray I got at a nursery store and that worked wonders! Broccoli came right back!
As for potatoes and carrots.. typically you wait for the potato plants to die off before digging them up. The carrots are typically done when they “pop” up a little bit, which is when you start to see the carrot tops in the dirt. Some will be done before others, that’s normal. it also depends if you “thinned” your carrots out as they grew, I forgot last year and then mine were pretty all small becuase I didn’t thin them. Another note about cucumbers too.. I grow mine “up” which means I have them grow on plant stands, it was amazing last year! I had a good supply, they didn’t “take over” the garden or other plants because they grew up and the cucumbers didn’t lay in the dirt to get eaten by bugs, my dogs or rot if they got too wet.
You can do the same thing with Peas, which I’m considering this year.
I need to get into this blogging thing as it seems like alot of fun, I enjoy working my garden, I grew up with a 1/2 acre garden as a kid and I despised have to pick beans, peas, cucumbers etc. each year and now as an adult I miss it!
You are doing well Thanks so much for sharing your garden with us!
Ruth May 20, 2011 at 9:12 am
Thanks Deb, that helped answer a lot of questions!
Leslie May 17, 2011 at 4:38 pm
Ruth
You may want to see about getting some Seven dust to put on the potato and other plants to keep the hungry lil bugs off of them. I know around here everyone using the Seven dust on potatoes for sure but not sure what else. I think you might be able to put it on cabbage but I would check with a gardening place first.
Just a thought
Deb May 17, 2011 at 6:22 pm
Leslie, Yes that is the other thing I was thinking! Seven dust worked WONDERS for those little creepy crawlies! I think I had a spray but also had some dust. Just got to remember to continue to put it on there every so many days. The leaves all grew back very nicely and the plants produced some good broccoli. My cauliflower.. ehh no so much they went kaput even before the caterpillars started.
Ruth May 20, 2011 at 9:12 am
Thanks Leslie
Katie May 17, 2011 at 4:41 pm
So glad you asked some of these questions! While we don’t have the buggy problems, I was really curious about how to tell when my carrots are ready (and onions for that matter). Those darn root vegetables…they like to be mysterious! I hope that your commentors answers will help, because I certainly can’t! My husband has the green(ish) thumb in our family!
Good luck & let us know how it turns out!
Grandma Gail May 17, 2011 at 4:47 pm
Ruth, be sure to check out the master gardeners clinics that are held at the Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte library and at Home Depot. A quick call to those places should give you their schedule. If you want to take a leaf or part of a plant in, be sure to put in a sealed plastic bag. Also, if you have not been to ECHO yet (Fort Myers), they have their free gardening weekend of tours and work shops, June 10th and 11th. It is fantastic. You can take your pictures and get advice from the staff and educators there. You will also get some fantastic ideas for other ways of gardening. Plus the girls will love the farm. http://echonet.org/content/Get_Into_Gardening.
Ruth May 20, 2011 at 9:12 am
Thanks Gail. I have heard of ECHO but unfortunately we will be out of town that weekend in June.
Thanks for the advice! Maybe we can check it out another time!
Scarlet of Family Focus Blog May 17, 2011 at 6:02 pm
I see you already got some good advice.
My potato leaves are all eaten up too but I figure it is OK because I am not going to eat the leaves anyway!
Ruth May 20, 2011 at 9:10 am
Good point.
Jessica May 17, 2011 at 9:19 pm
I’m new to gardening too so I can’t be of much help to you except to say that I am seeing a few of the same probs you are. I did some reading when I first planted because I wanted to go organic. Several of the sources had mixtures of products that included dish soap among other things to spray on the leaves to keep the bugs from being able to eat them. I keep putting off trying this, but plan to soon as my cabbage is looking like yours. lol Also, I read somewhere not to water the garden too late at night because you want the water to have a chance to dry on the leaves before nightfall to discourage the pests. I have found with my garden that if I water too late at night, there are mushrooms waiting for me in the morning.
\ Also, that is definitely not a tomato. lol Did you start with seed or buy from the nursery?
Elizabeth May 17, 2011 at 10:59 pm
Hi Ruth,
I’m enjoying your website and videos, please keep up the good work. Sevin dust will do wonders for your potatoes or let the kiddos pick off the potato bugs and dispose of them. You can use a mixture of dish liquid and water to spray on your cabbage to get rid of the little green caterpillars that love cabbage and broccoli, etc. Your corn will also benefit from Sevin dust, and I always dab mineral oil on the ends of the ears when they start making silk to keep out those little worms that like to eat the ears. Your potatoes and carrots are ready to harvest when the foliage starts to die. I don’t know what’s eating your sunflowers, maybe Japanese beetles??? The thing that you thought was a tomato plant, we call “mole beans” in Tennessee. It’s just a weed, but it will reseed itself and come back every year, we usually leave some of them in the garden because the saying is that they repel moles…it probably took over your tomato cage when your tomato died, or it may have been in the tomato container to start with. Don’t get discouraged, your just learning and it does take a while to learn to garden, kind of like couponing
Ruth May 20, 2011 at 9:09 am
Thanks Elizabeth! That was super helpful!
Amy May 22, 2011 at 1:40 am
I have just started myself. It has been in the ground a month, but not growing very fast. So I haven’t posted many pics. I am going to try the dish soap on the cabbage. Thanks Elizabeth.
Abby May 18, 2011 at 12:28 am
Hi. I love your site! You make me laugh with this garden! Mine doesnt even have dirt in it yet; my husaband built me a raised bed but it is not quite gardening season yet up here in New England. I was going to get it started this week, but it has been raining like crazy. So, to make you feel better…at least your garden is doing better than mine! This will be my first garden as well. But I fondly remeber gardening with my mother when I was a child, so even if your veggies arn’t growing, at least you are spending time with your girls.
Ruth May 20, 2011 at 9:10 am
Yes hopefully someday we’ll figure it all out!
Jo May 18, 2011 at 3:12 pm
Ruth, I don’t have much advice (I’m a novice gardener, too, and my garden got overrun with weeds last year so badly I’m afraid to try again this year), but I just wanted to tell you I love your video and your blogs, and I really admire that you acknowledge that you are really good at some things and not so good at others! I love that quality in people — ability to ask for help and not being ashamed to show pictures of what the problem is. I would be mortified to show you my garden! LOL I am going to learn a few things from the replies in this thread, for sure, just like I’ve learned so much about ‘couponing for normal people’ from you.
Nicole May 18, 2011 at 9:12 pm
Hi Ruth,
I just recently stumbled upon your blog and your videos on YouTube
. I work full time and have 2 daughters about the same age as your adorable girls, so I totally understand how difficult it can be to go grocery shopping with them in tow! I am just starting to learn the art of couponing “for normal people” and love your philosophy of spending less on groceries in order to have more $$ to buy… shoes!! I’ve learned a lot from your website 
Not sure if you subscribe to Better Homes and Gardens magazine, but, I just received my new issue in the mail yesterday and in it there is an article all about growing Sunflowers! I read your post about your garden yesterday and after flipping thru my magazine I came across the article and immediately the picture of your poor sunflower popped in my head! They called the beetles “cucumber beetles” and although it did mention how to deter them and overall Sunflower care, I don’t have the article with me at the moment to share with you the details. If you can get your hands on this months issue of BH&G mag, I’m sure you will find some useful info!
Ruth May 20, 2011 at 9:05 am
Thanks Nicole! I will definitely check it out!
Stacie May 22, 2011 at 10:22 pm
Hi there! I’m not positive, but the leaves on the thing in your tomatoes looks like a castor bean plant (where they get castor oil). Weird!
Also, the holes in your cabbage could also be from flea beetles. The best way to prevent them (if that’s what it is) is to cover leafy things with row cover.
carol May 26, 2011 at 12:45 am
That oddball is a Castor Bean Plant. You need to get rid of it. It’s highly toxic and the source of Ricin. http://www.library.illinois.edu/vex/toxic/castor/castor.htm