What Garden Failures Teach Us About Plant Selection

Man holding cluster of red cherry tomatoes (Priscilla Du Preez) unsplash

​By Teri Silver

Nothing beats picking a fully-ripened tomato from your garden and popping it into your mouth — talk about tasty and fresh! But if your garden isn’t thriving as it should, one reason may be the way it’s planted. “Happy” gardens depend on plant selection, climate, soil pH, moisture, and direct sunlight.

But even garden failures can teach us what not to do during the growing season.

Companion Planting
Planting flowers, fruits, and vegetables in a garden or greenery bed is not something to do randomly. Companion planting pairs vegetables, herbs, flowers, and other plants with varieties that won’t pull nutrients away — helping them all to thrive in their environment.

Basic garden vegetables, flowers, herbs, and fruits that grow well together include the following:
●      Beans — corn, sunflowers, rosemary, nasturtium.
●      Broccoli — cabbage, dill, marigolds, sage, oregano, thyme.
●      Corn — peas, potatoes, beans, dill, squash, sunflowers.
●      Cucumbers — corn, peas, beans, radish, sunflowers.
●      Lettuce — onions, garlic, strawberries, chives.
●      Peppers — carrots, onions, oregano, basil.
●      Tomatoes — peppers, onions, parsley, celery, carrots.

Planting the wrong kinds of fruits and veggies together can have them competing for food. Choosing like-varieties will help gardens to thrive in spring.

Climate Change?
Climate change – is it real? That depends on who you ask, but in any case, learning more about this concept might be helpful. Climate change is defined as “a long-term shift in the Earth’s average temperatures and weather conditions,” according to Pennsylvania State University (PSU) Extension. 
 
PSU’s research claims droughts, extreme rainfall, warmer temperatures, and changing ecosystems are the result of climate change. What climate change means to the home gardener remains to be seen. But while warmer winter temperatures may prompt us to start our gardens earlier in spring, mid to late frosts are always possible.  Saving plants after a freeze is hit or miss.

Soil Luv
Soil matters. Vegetables, flowers, herbs, and shrubbery have different nutritional needs.

Gardens may fail if the ground soil is overly acidic or “blandly” alkaline. Soil pH is a scale where 7.0 is neutral — below that is acidic.  Above 7.0 is alkaline. Ideally, the soil in your garden should range anywhere from 6.8 to 7.2. Testing at least once every 3 years is recommended. (Testing kits are available at your local garden or hardware store).

Amending soil’s pH depends on the dirt itself.  Adding limestone to acidic soil provides magnesium and calcium as it neutralizes the “spiciness.”  Sulfur lowers soil pH. The amount of sulfur or limestone to use depends on whether soil is mostly made up of sand, clay, silt, organic matter, or something else. Water, oxygen, and temperature play a part, too. And changing soil pH is a long-term battle.

Nurturing soil with the right nutrients will help the garden thrive.

Sunlight
Let there be light ... it’s a basic and necessary element for growing (almost) everything. Gardens and greenery need at least 6 hours of direct sunlight per day. If your property has large shade trees (like oaks, pines, and maples), their canopies can spread over the bed, blocking out the sunshine.

Move the garden to another part of the yard if it is affected by landscaping. (It’s easier to dig a new plot than to tear out the trees).

Planting Mistakes
​When planting your garden, here are a few things NOT to do.

1. Don’t ignore the soil. Soil preparation, testing, improvements and amendments, structure, and supplying natural nutrients are imperative for garden health. Microorganisms provide the environment for plant food. Soil’s actual structure lets the dirt absorb or drain water.
2. Don’t place plants too close together. They need room for roots to spread, foliage to grow without covering nearby plants, and not fight each other for sunlight and water. Thin out the herd when plants start overcrowding each other.  
3. Don’t use the wrong kind of pesticides (or ignore package directions). Timing is everything when it comes to killing bugs. Spraying to interrupt insects’ life cycles helps to stop infestations.
4. Don’t use the wrong kind of fertilizer (or ignore package directions). When used improperly, organic and chemical fertilizers, fungicides, weed killers, and insecticides can damage plants, groundwater, and surrounding ecosystems. Whether organic or synthetic, some insecticides kill off beneficial insects like lacewings, lady beetles, and damsel bugs. Beneficial insects feed on eggs and larvae of plant-damaging insects.
5. Don’t skip the mulch. Covering open soil with shredded leaves, straw, grass clippings, or wood chips keeps moisture in, feeds the soil, and controls water runoff and erosion. 
6. Don’t skip the watering. But don’t overwater, either. Rainfall isn’t always reliable, especially during hot, dry summers. Watering the garden may be necessary but too much moisture will damage root systems, overflow into other areas of the yard, and break down the soil. Water-logged plants are prone to various diseases.

Learn From Your Failures in the Garden
Life’s occasional failures teach us what to do and what not to do — gardening is no different. What may not have worked then will surely work now if we accept the lesson with grace, determination, and a willingness to try, try again.

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Teri Silver is a journalist and outdoor enthusiast. She and her husband live on 5 acres with a vast lawn, three gardens, a farm pond, many trees, and a lot of yard work! The best parts of the year are summer and fall when home-grown veggies are on the dinner table.