Hope & Discouragement

Gardeners are a tenacious lot. We do get discouraged, but there's always next year, a renewing of hope and plans for the future. We know that everyone can't grow everything. It's just not possible to grow everything!

I can't seem to grow peppers. I so want lots of those big, colorful bell peppers - red, yellow, orange, green and ivory - but I just can't get any! I start them indoors, as needed for such a short growing season, but I still don't get much in the way of fruit. My plants didn't get more than about 6″ tall last year. It was a cold year I guess. This spring I am going to install a cold frame, so maybe, if time and heat are the problem, that might help. Maybe I'll just never be able to grow peppers. I bartered all over the internet to get just 5 Bianca Pepper seeds. I really pampered those babies! They didn't have any fruit yet when the frost took them and I'll probably never find any more of those seeds.

I started 2 doz luffah plants from seed, early on the window sill last spring. I babied those plants until they were hardened off and transplanted in the back field. They got about 4″ long and never did anything else all summer long. I had such great plans for those too!

I'm growing them again this year, but on the south deck railing with chicken manure. That chicken manure is great stuff! I learned the hard way that, yes, carrots do have to 
be thinned…

Last year I planted about 2 doz jack-o-lantern pumpkin seeds in the wild pasture for Halloween. They got no bigger than about 6″ long. I guess these things need feed and attention? Who knew! I'm planting them again in the front garden next to the road for people to see this year, with chicken manure and marigolds to attract bees - and maybe some attention from me, like vine pruning and hand pollination (prayer, music, fanning in the heat…)

Do you think it would help if I posted pictures nearby of what a great pumpkin should look like? Take this one, for instance. Well, not necessarily THAT big, just big, you know, for Halloween jack-o-lanterns. If I wanted pumpkins for pie, I'd plant buttercup squash. (Wait, I do plant buttercup squash, and for pie too!)

I did get a lot of great sugar snap peas, but not nearly enough. We've eaten them all already! Lots more going in next year, ditto for the yellow wax beans - all gone already!

In life, as in gardening, there is always next time. Never get discouraged! Lots of things did well for me, just not those. All people and all gardeners have disappointments! Life goes on.

I grew a few great acorn squash, peas, beans and way too many potatoes. I got some great asparagus from the old bed, rejuvinated by me with mulch and chicken manure :) That chicken manure is great stuff!

Many exciting things were planted last year, for the future, that will do well, I think. I planted 50 asparagus from seed, everbearing strawberries, raspberries and a whole row of perennial hibiscus to sell - maybe, I like hibiscus too. I may sell some, but I do like hibiscus!

I'm growing many exciting new things this year, like my own chicken feed, if I can save it from the wild birds. I am planning to include sunflowers, amaranthus, millet, flax, poppy seed and a few other wild things. It will be loads of fun to grow and make!


We gardeners are a hopeful and tenacious lot and that chicken manure is realy, really great suff! It's my very own. I grew it too.