Need some gardening advice (flowers, growing, bugs, manure)

[chattypatty]

First off I must admit, my husband and I are crappy gardeners. We have never had stellar success but this year was a complete disaster. Usually we get nice tomatoes, cucumbers and squash and beans. We live in the country near Portland, Oregon and have a lot of land to have a huge vegetable garden.

Okay so I'm trying to figure out what happened. We have never had our soil analyzed so I don't really know what it needs. We have a horse ranch next to us and they give us their manure. We let the manure sit a full year and compost before we took it and tilled it into the garden soil.

We planted in early May. We had unseasonably warm weather the month of May. Everyone was talking about it. Then, mid June, we had a couple of weeks of bitter, bitter cold. I think one night even hit freezing or just above freezing (maybe 34 degrees). Now maybe this is the whole entire problem, but since our neighbors seemed to get some crops, I'm thinking we have some other problems we need to look at.

Here is what we planted and the outcome:

Potatoes - these actually did reasonably well. They were fairly small for Russets but we got a whole bunch. Some of them had brown spots in the middle when you cut them open, but most did not and were okay.

Tomatoes -- only got a few fruits and the skins were tough, basically inedible, and this is out of 3 regular plants and 1 cherry tomato plant.

Basil -- died straight away

Bell peppers (green, red, yellow) -- died straight away

Eggplant -- looked straggly and produce one small shriveled scary looking eggplant.

Carrots -- got a few, were too small, even though we had thinned them

Radishes -- got a decent crop of nice looking radishes

Lettuce -- came up late and grew slowly and got eaten by critters

Kale and Swiss Chard -- never came up at all.

Squash and pumpkins -- never came up, which is odd because last year, we had a bumper crop.

Broccoli and cauliflower -- plants emerged but did not produce fruit

Cabbage -- got a few nice looking, albeit small, heads

Corn -- came up but appeared to stop growing at about 8 inches tall

Onions -- did pretty well, got a decent amount

Green beans and green peas -- a few plants emerged from the ground but didn't do anything after that, while last year, we got quite a few string beans and snow peas

Cucumbers -- we mounded them, only two came up but never really grew past the 2 leaf stage.

Canteloupe and watermelon -- never even came up

Strawberries (in their own containers) -- gorgeous green plants with maybe 5 strawberries total.


We spent a lot of money building raised planter beds, into which we put some of the plants, whereas the other plants were just planted directly in ground. As you can see, it was a large garden (there are some other vegetables I know I'm forgetting but that we also planted, and they didn't come up). Obviously we were horribly discouraged, wasted a lot of money and effort, and are not sure if the strange weather pattern is to blame, or if there is something wrong with our soil, or yet some other thing we are doing wrong.

I have never been able to get basil or bell peppers to grow, never.

We also had an inordinate amount of weeds in the ground area (not so much in the planter beds) and though I tried to keep on top of them, it was just impossible. I feel this is related to the horse manure but my husband disagrees.


Would anyone hazard a guess as to what went wrong or give me some advice on how to plant differently next year?

[AnnieA]

I felt really bad after reading your post. It sounds like you put in a lot of effort for almost no return. I have had years like that though I mostly garden in pots. I am in Central Fl. Bell peppers have never done well for me. Some cukes this past year but some years, like you, two leaf stage and thats it.

I do hope some can offer you more help. Good luck.

[wit-nit]

Horse manure is generally high in weed content. Mixing your soil to the right ph balance and correct watering plus the required amount of sunlight are the basics to successful gardening.
Have you tried googling various garden web sites for your area. That would be helpful for answering each of your questions.

[azoria]

That is one sad discouraging garden story.

The horse manure may indeed be part of your problem. It certainly may responsible for the overabundance of weeds.

Cow manure is the most commonly used animal fertilizer. Although it too will contain weed seeds, cows are ruminant animals (two stomachs) and more finely digest their food than do horses. Still the manure needs to be composted before use.

The near freezing temps in June were bad news for summer vegetables.

But if I were you I would quit using the horse manure completely, and dig out a bunch of the soil in the planter boxes and replace it with good quality compost.

I think your problems were:

critters
unfortunate weather
poor soil

You can't change the weather but you can change the soil. You can also take measures against bugs and critters.

Try again next year. Do things differently. No more horse manure.

[sunsprit]

Sounds like you had a less than satisfactory result for all your work. Some of the problems were the result of adverse weather, which is beyond your immediate control for an outdoor garden.

For next time, however ... you need to do your due diligence in planning your garden long before your planting season begins. That time is now.

First of all, you need to know what soil conditions exist in your garden planting area ... pH, and N/P/K analysis ... and how that relates to the varied items you wish to grow. You need to take soil samples and have them analyzed so you know what's going on.

Secondly, you need to know what varieties of your crops will likely grow best in your local conditions. Buying from a box store as opposed to a local, knowledgeable nursery can lead to poor results. Buying from seed catalogues without knowing the optimum varieties for your area can lead to poor results, too.

I'd urge you to seek out your local county extension office for local knowledge. They may have a horticulturist on staff, who can answer many of your questions about what, when, and how to plant and maintain your crops to harvest. This is a public service program through the University and the local county, and is no charge to you except your time to visit with them.

If you've got a good extension office, you may even have a local "master gardener" training program. That gives you the option of taking their classes and learning for yourself, or perhaps they have an active master gardener consulting program where trained folk ... volunteers interested in gardening ... will come out and assess your garden plan/goals in light of what you've got to work with. Folks involved in these programs are typically more than happy to take the time to help plan your garden and advise you as to what you need to do during the entire process ... from planning to selection to planting to growing to harvesting. Take advantage of these resources and you'll be on your way to a successful gardening experience.

[chattypatty]

Thank you all for your thoughtful comments. I wasn't sure if anyone would bother reading my long post but I'm so appreciative. I have always sensed that the horse manure is the problem. Now I wonder, if I leave the ground as it is through the winter until next planting season, will my issues with that particular horse manure be over, or have I ruined the soil in that area permanently? I will take the soil to be analyzed and so some additives as needed, but just wondering if another year of laying there will be enough to inactivate the weed potential of the horse manure that I put in this year.

[lilypad]

I am by no means an experienced garderner. I also live in PNW and have talked with several gardeners, who agree it was just an off year, especially weatherwise, for crops. Went to several UPick places and they all said the same things, fruit crops down and not as good as years past. I also planted a few tomatoes and peppers, got several very small tomatoes only and one okay looking pepper, that's it! The herbs did well, even though grown in same amended soil as the vegetables. My flowers did well also. Would of course be good to have the soil sampled. Not sure in my area where to go for that either.

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by chattypatty

Thank you all for your thoughtful comments. I wasn't sure if anyone would bother reading my long post but I'm so appreciative. I have always sensed that the horse manure is the problem. Now I wonder, if I leave the ground as it is through the winter until next planting season, will my issues with that particular horse manure be over, or have I ruined the soil in that area permanently? I will take the soil to be analyzed and so some additives as needed, but just wondering if another year of laying there will be enough to inactivate the weed potential of the horse manure that I put in this year.

Unlikely that you have "ruined the soil permanently" with the horse manure.

The problem is that you probably used raw manure instead of composted product, which normally is heated to a temperature to destroy the invasive seeds by the composting process. Even then, it's not a perfect process and you can still have problems with compost, especially in an organic garden.

Again, you need to contact your local county extension office for the best source of information available. They'll be able to guide you to a soil analysis outfit, too.

[azoria]

Originally Posted by sunsprit

If you've got a good extension office, you may even have a local "master gardener" training program. That gives you the option of taking their classes and learning for yourself, or perhaps they have an active master gardener consulting program where trained folk ..

Master gardener training.....bwahahaha. I worked for a guy last summer who had master gardener certificates from two different states. Not only was he a complete dunderhead, but he couldn't garden his way out of a wet paper bag.

Certificates are not necessarily an indication of expertise nor competence. Piece of paper that says you paid the fee and passed the class. Means nothing.

[chattypatty]

Originally Posted by sunsprit

Unlikely that you have "ruined the soil permanently" with the horse manure.

The problem is that you probably used raw manure instead of composted product, which normally is heated to a temperature to destroy the invasive seeds by the composting process. Even then, it's not a perfect process and you can still have problems with compost, especially in an organic garden.

Again, you need to contact your local county extension office for the best source of information available. They'll be able to guide you to a soil analysis outfit, too.

Hi Sunsprit, we did leave it to sit for an entire year before we used it. I thought that would be long enough as that is what we were told by someone we thought knew these things. But apparently not as we still got tons of weeds.