Our Gardening Failures

There's been a hitch in my goal to become a home canning master. Despite my best efforts, I have nothing to can except three lonely jalapenos.

One of the very first things I did when Brian and I moved into our new house was plot out my vegetable garden. I've wanted homegrown veggies for 4 years and I finally had the space. 

We hauled in new dirt, borrowed a rototiller, and proceeded to plant three varieties of tomato, green, yellow & jalapeno peppers, green beans, zucchini, sweet corn, radishes, and cucumbers. A canner's garden in truth. 

Only a few days after the seeds began to sprout we lost the corn to a doe and two fawns. Later they ate the beans and radishes, gnawed the new growth off the zucchini and snapped the cucumbers off at dirt level.

But the tomatoes & peppers seemed safe; untouched. Until the day I looked out my bathroom window and watched a groundhog sit up on his hind legs and pluck only the lower leaves off my peppers. He apparently thought they would look better as topiaries.


Later that same week a trip down the hill revealed the new growth of all the tomato plants had also fallen prey to hungry white-tailed deer. Not to be discouraged, we used a deer-repellent spray to try and salvage the tomato crop (which we planted from nursery plants, not seed, and had been pretty costly). Brian was skeptical, as the spray is just infused with essential oils of plants deer seem to dislike, like peppermint. But it worked! As long as we keep it sprayed every week, the deer leave them alone.

But we won't be bothering to spray it again. Why? Our tomato & pepper crop has succumbed to rot, worms & birds. The first vine-ripened tomato I plucked and cut into had a curious black moldy-looking growth inside. The rest are eaten or rot before they even turn red. 

So the grand total of our harvest this year is three jalapenos. 

We're making plans for a smaller, better maintained garden next year. Among our solutions are raised beds, deer fencing, cover crops, fertilizer and manual worm-plucking. Anyone whose every dealt with these issues is welcome to chime in with what worked for you. 

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