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I could have written the original post. It is indeed becoming more difficult every year. I'm reduced to container gardening now. I look at old photos of my robust gardens from the 80's and 90's and say, HOW DID I DO THAT?!
I buy healthy plants from a local Mennonite nursery. And still an army of insects show up to feast. Don't buy Bonnie's plants from the big box stores; they come pre-loaded with late blight!
I only grow small cherry tomatoes now because the squirrels will pick off the biggest, ripest beefsteak tomato, take a bite or two and toss it on the lawn!
Interesting thread. Any other more recent comments since 2017, especially those who posted here when the thread began?
Coincidentally, 2017 was probably my hardest gardening year ever, I'll never forget it. Started out with a record amount of rain, turning the garden into a mud pit and then the rest of the summer was the worst fire season I've ever seen - smoke blocking the sunlight and ash falling from the sky and blanketing my plants and greenhouses for weeks. Out of all that I had a bumper crop of cucumbers, far more than I could sell or give away, and many ended up in the compost.
I don't think pests or disease have gotten worse, unless you live in an area where your neighbors feed the squirrels and increase the squirrel population
Something which has gotten to be a serious gardening problem just in the last couple of years is not getting what you order. You order seeds and they are labeled as what you ordered, but when they grow, they are not what you thought you were buying. Sometimes it is a different variety and sometimes it is a completely different plant. Your "roma" tomatoes grow up and they are actually eggplant.
Plants ordered online arrive nearly dead and damaged and are sometimes a different variety than what you ordered, and sometimes you don't even know for years that you received the wrong plant. The forums are full of inquiries "Does anyone know what this is? It isn't what I ordered. I ordered a red rose and this one is yellow."
Gardening got easier for me because we left Florida and now live in Charlotte NC.
Gardening in Florida beat me down due to excessive heat, excessive bugs (whitefly especially), and diseases because I did NOT want to use pesticide or herbicide. Husband is allergic to herbicide, not sure about pesticide.
This is the best state I've lived in for growing food plants and flowers in 35 years even though I was worried about clay soil.
No worries now after 4.5 years here.
Had not planned to garden again (gave it up in Florida) but staying home for Covid made me start and success made me continue.
There have been some failures, quit pumpkins and winter squash because the bugs love them way too much and my organic pesticide could not prevail, also don't grow summer squash or cukes. Carrots and radish not worth it IMO.
I understand those who feel like quitting gardening because I did for several years.
Half my garden is large containers (veggies and herbs) and half is in-ground (flowers). Last year made a self-watering container which worked great so next project is to make other containers into self-watering.
About 1% of my neighbors are gardeners, only retired people have the time now.
I've always said gardening in Montana is a contact sport. We just had a winter storm warning and snow yesterday, this weekend looks like upper 60's. We're always battling mother nature. One thing that has gotten worse are grasshoppers. The past 3-4 years has been a bumper crop for hoppers. The best defense that we have found is to not mow the front acreage of our property- it's all dryland natural grasses (and weeds). If we let it go the hoppers tend to stay there. If we mow it they will migrate to the garden.
However if the fire season is bad- we have to mow that seasoned grass to mitigate risks. Like I said- a contact sport here in the Last Best Place.
I've always said gardening in Montana is a contact sport. We just had a winter storm warning and snow yesterday, this weekend looks like upper 60's. We're always battling mother nature. One thing that has gotten worse are grasshoppers. The past 3-4 years has been a bumper crop for hoppers. The best defense that we have found is to not mow the front acreage of our property- it's all dryland natural grasses (and weeds). If we let it go the hoppers tend to stay there. If we mow it they will migrate to the garden.
However if the fire season is bad- we have to mow that seasoned grass to mitigate risks. Like I said- a contact sport here in the Last Best Place.
WOW! Snow end of May!?!
I thought the weather here in Southern New England was challenging enough.
Quote:
Originally Posted by heavymind
Interesting thread. Any other more recent comments since 2017, especially those who posted here when the thread began?
Weather will be one of everyones challenges whether its the humidity or the cold.
But I find gardening got harder since my last post in here because there are more insects and diseases around now. I contribute that to the tons of rain we've gotten and the city spraying commercial weed killer chemicals in the air
After years of summer drought, this year will not stop with the rain. We had more than half an inch again today. This is bad because we have clay soil, and no matter how you amend it, go down far enough and it's still clay. This means it's waterlogged and there are spots where you can't stand still or you'll start to sink. Two rosebushes drowned in standing water, and I can't weed because I'd have to wear a rubber suit and all I manage to pull up is chunks of mud. It's almost June and the only things doing well are doing it in containers because I barely managed to plant anything in between rainy days and work days.
I've just got a small raised bed with tomatoes and cucumbers. The tomatoes are looking really good this year. I have given up on zucchini here after four years of trying; never got the first one. In Florida in the sandy soil we were pleading with people to take some of our crop. Have also given up on peppers and radishes of all things; I mean radishes are what little kids grow because they are so easy. But cucumbers and tomatoes do just fine so we will have those for salads and BLTs.
Young whipper-snappers may not realize there are cycles in Nature. You need to live long enough to have experienced more than one turn of that irregular clock to appreciate it. Drought/excessive rain, hot/ cold cycles exist on several time scales. Weather has cycles of 5, 11 and 60 hrs. How those interplay affects what we get in any single year.....
Plants and animals also have population cycles. The 17 yr cicada is an extreme and obvious one. Others are less obvious unless you really pay attention.
BTW-- the real value of crop rotation is to discourage a build up of class specific pests in the soil. Legumes don't actually build up N in the soil. They just use less than other plants thanks to their Rhyzobium buddies.
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