S4E166 Lessons I've Learned From My WORST Garden EVER!!

This year my garden has sucked.  Worst. Garden. Ever.  It's been one of those gardening seasons that could make you want to quit gardening.  Forever.

But, instead, I'm trying to learn some lessons.  Some lessons that I hope will help me be successful in years to come. Hopefully it will inspire you to keep gardening even if things haven't gone well for you either.

Enjoy!!
Brian

Transcript

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I'm your host, Brian Wells. And I'm a fourth generation homesteader. Since 2008, my family and I have been homesteading here. Beautiful upstate New York. In 2019, I launched the homestead journey podcast. To help people just like you. Get started and find success on their journey towards self-sufficiency. Self-reliance and sustainability. This is the homestead journey. And this is season four. Well, hello everyone. And welcome back to another episode of the homestead journey podcast. My name is Brian Wells. I am coming to you from a three beef ramen homestead here in. Beautiful upstate New York. This is season four, and this is episode 100. And 66. No one today's episode, we're going to be talking about some lessons I've learned from my worst garden ever. But before we do that, I did want to start by offering you an apology about last week's episode. I had promised you an episode last week, that was a recording of a chicken talk that I gave during the Southern Adirondack homesteading festival back in may. But when I went to edit that, uh, episode, I realized that I only had recorded half of the audio. While the file size said 60 minutes. And I thought that I had everything. At about the 30 minute market, it chopped off for some reason. And so I just had 30 minutes of dead air. So I opted not to release that. Uh, I actually tried to pull an audible and record an episode with my brother-in-law Al Wayman as he was up here. Uh, during the fair, um, but the audio quality just wasn't that great. We did it at a table using just the audio recorder on my phone and there was just too much background noise. And so I just decided not to release that either. And then by the end of the fair. I was just, I was, I was beat, I was bushed. And, uh, so it is what it is. As I said at the beginning of the season, I'm trying to have a little bit more grace with myself. And so thank you very much for having grace with me. As well, well, folks, it has been a busy last couple of weeks here on the homestead. And so let me go ahead and bring you up to speed with what we've been doing here. On three B farm and homestead. So the first thing I did want to do is just give you a brief, quick update with regards to Brian, Jay, he is off to college successfully seems to be settling in very well, making connections, making friends, getting involved in different clubs and activities. Hopefully he's not doing too much. Um, but he really does seem to be finding his way. And so for that, we're very thankful. He says he's enjoying his classes. Uh, he got connected up with their jazz ensemble. He's loving that. And so we're very, very happy about that now for Bonnie and I getting used to the whole empty nest thing. Well, really, to be honest with you, I was. I was bummed when I found out that the. Drop-off date for his college was the weekend before the Washington county fair, because I knew it was going to kind of cramp my style a little bit. And I know it's selfish on my part, but. I really love the fair. And so I was a little bit bummed that it was going to kind of get in the way of that. But folks, I was so, so thankful. That we had that week of distraction right after taking him. Where we dropped him off, came back and it was just a busy week at the fair to where we really didn't have much time to even think about the fact that he wasn't here. Now this week has been a bit of a different story in that. We've had a lot more time to think about it. We've been home a lot more. This past week. And so the reality, I think, is really finally starting to set in. Bonnie I think is feeling it a little bit more than me. Uh, but certainly I am feeling it as well. And, uh, here in the next couple of weeks, we are going to record one last episode with regards to empty nest homesteading. As we share some of the lessons that we have learned now that he is off to college and it's just her and I kicking around three B farm and homestead. But as I mentioned, we did have the wonderful, wonderful Washington county fair. Uh, last week too. Serve as a bit of a distraction for us. And I just love the Washington county fair. You know that folks I've mentioned it multiple times. Here on the podcast. And while it was a bit of a different fair this year, because we didn't have any livestock there, no chickens, no pigs, no rabbits, no geese. No anything. I still was able to keep my streak of being an exhibitor at the Washington county. Fair alive by entering jams, jellies, pickles, uh, canned goods of all shapes and sizes as well as some vegetables. And while I didn't do too horribly bad, uh, I got five blue, three red, two white and four didn't place in the canned goods. And I got four blue, six red, seven white and five didn't place in the veggies. Unfortunately for me, fortunately for my mom and dad, they both walked up on me this year, both getting purple ribbons. Now, if you aren't familiar with that purple ribbons means best in show. So what they will do is they will judge all of the entries in one particular category and then they will choose the best of the best and award it. The purple ribbon and my mom got a purple ribbon for her apple butter. And my dad got a purple ribbon for his honey products. And I got zero purple ribbons. So. I got skunked beat. Uh, I'm going to have to do better next year, folks. It's so much fun. We have so much fun. Uh, just talking trash back and forth. And in a good way, people look forward to it every year. And so I got bested this year and I will have to do my best. Next year to bring my a game and get back in the purple ribbon category. Now while we didn't have, uh, any livestock there, I still was very active in the poultry barn this year. I helped, uh, do chores just about every morning, help tear down after the fair. But the thing that was, uh, so much fun is something that I've never done before. And that is, I had the opportunity to judge the youth poultry show. Uh, what happened is the youth poultry judge. I was not able to show up last minute due to illness. And so they were desperate. And if I'm judging the poultry contest and you know, they are very desperate. But I got called into action. They wondered if I could do it during the regularly scheduled poultry show time slot, which was 10 o'clock I believe on Wednesday morning. But I had to work. So we started judging, uh, the youth poultry show at nine 30 on Tuesday evening. And we wrapped up at 1230. Uh, on Wednesday morning, certainly it. It made for a long day. But it was just so much fun. And then they had the poultry awards for the youth show on Wednesday evening, just seeing the pictures of the kids made it all worthwhile because at the end of the day folks, that's what it's all about while I enjoy doing. the jams, jellies things with my mom and dad, and I enjoy. Uh, entering chickens in the open show. At the fair. At the end of the day, it's about the kids and making sure that they have a good time. And hopefully if they have a good time at youth level than they will grow up. To want to continue to exhibit at the open level. That's the only way we're going to be able to keep a fair going. And so being able to have a part in that certainly was a privilege and honor, it was so much fun. Glad to do it. Uh, and, uh, yeah, it was just a lot of fun. And then one other thing that I got to do this year at the fair was some canyon demonstration. So this was the first time we'd ever done anything like this at the Washington county fair. At least. Uh, that I'm aware of. What I ended up doing was canning some strawberry jam. I did that twice on Friday. And as I did that, I talked about Canon and the different styles of Canon and so on and so forth, and really had some very positive, uh, feedback and interaction with folks and just really, really enjoyed. Doing that. But this past week has been a recovery week. So I get to the end of the fair and folks. Well, I enjoy every minute of it. I'm there every day on Saturdays. Usually I'm there almost all day, Sunday, all day. Uh, I'm there every evening. I was there all day on Monday, helping getting things set up. By the time the end of the fair comes around, I am fared out and I don't want to smell or see another corn dog and other fritter I don't want to smell the smells. See the sites I am fared out and it's unfortunate because the last couple of weeks, and I think going into next week is the state fair over in Syracuse. And I'd like to go see that Sunday, but folks, I just am. Fared out. I am done. Fared out. Uh, so. I enjoy it. I love to see it come. And it usually in about June. I, I literally, if I start thinking about it, I like start getting shaky. Like I'm almost Jones and for some of that fair food and some of those fairs, sights and smells and all of the things. But boy, by the end of that week, I am so done. So done. And so this past week here, On the homestead certainly has been a week of recovery, both physically, emotionally, mentally, and then really trying to play catch-up with some of the things that kind of got pushed to the side. As we were ramping up, getting Brian, Jay, ready to go to college. And then while we were at fair week, During fair week, just the world stops and it is what it is. And so this week, I spent some time finally getting caught up in the garden. Doing some weeding, embarrassing to say that I brought out a wheelbarrow load of weeds, like heaped, heaped, heap up. Of weeds out of my gardens. a bit embarrassing to say, we'll talk about some more, later on how we got to that point. but that was something that I was able to get done this week. Pick some tomatoes. I wouldn't say it's all of my tomato harvest. But it's a lot of it and it's pretty slim Pickens. We'll just say it that way. Um, but it is what it is. Um, I picked what I could pick. We've got a few more up there, but it's certainly not going to be anything like I'm use to. Uh, harvesting. Today I finally was able to get our pullets moved. That's something else that has not gotten done. Like it normally did. Normally by now, my pullets would have been outside on grass, for weeks and just this year due to the rain and due to other obligations. I finally was able to get things moved around today. And make it so that they can get outside and enjoy some of the sun, the sunlight. I feel really bad about it. Um, but again, because of how rainy it's been this summer. Um, it's been the third rainiest summer in recorded history. So since they started keeping track of those statistics, uh, they've only had two other summers that were as rainy as this summer. And both of those were in the late 1800. So this has been the rainiest summer in over a hundred years. And that certainly has put a kink in my plans many times. Um, because either. Uh, I had time to do something and I couldn't because of the rain. And then when there was a break in the weather, I would have other obligations that I needed to fulfill. And so I wasn't able to do some of the things that I really needed to do. Uh, and that's just life on the homestead sometimes. Something else that was fun that happened this week. As I found a really cool kitchen gadget, I'm a sucker for cool. Old vintage kitchen gadgets. And I, I found one, it's a rival. Uh, P shucker and bean cutter. So one side of it, as you. Turn the crank and you feed the peas or the beans into it. It actually pops open the pod and the beans or the peas are released. And then the other side, as you feed the beans through it, it cuts them into long. Strips kind of that French cut style, green bean. And so I brought that home yesterday because I have a lot of Lima beans that I need to process as well as some shell beans that I needed to process. And I wasn't sure if this was going to work. It's billed as a P shocker, but I thought I'm, this might work. And so it did seem to work pretty well. Uh, as I ran both some shell beans through it. As well as some Lima beans through it. And, uh, then when I ran some of those flat Roman style pole beans, That I I've discovered that I really, really like through it. It seemed to cut those up into nice little strips. And so I think I'm going to really like this a little gadget. Uh, it's going to be more than just a novelty to have around, but it does seem like it's going to work well for me. As I kind of wrap up this year's garden. The last thing I wanted to share with you is that yesterday, Bonnie and I spent quite a few hours washing our camper. We have a small fiberglass, camper from 1977 that, uh, we absolutely love it. It's perfect for the two of us. And we can pull it with our vehicle. But, uh, we had some lichen that was starting to grow on the outside of that. And so we gave it a good bath yesterday in preparation for next weekend's event, over in Greenfield, New Hampshire next weekend is going to be the fall gathering to the homesteaders of new England. And you are not going to want to miss that. I am so excited about it because I'm going to have the opportunity to meet some people that I've talked with online. I've actually had on the podcast. Um, but I've never met them in real life. Troy McClung from the pasture pig podcast is going to be there. I'm going to get to meet Al alumna from lamina acres. I'm going to get to see Don Bradner from little mountain life. Again, going to get the hangout with Jack and Jackie from, uh, the mindful homestead again. And, uh, I'm just so excited about that. Going to get to see rich Giordano. He is such a hoot, such a great guy. Looking forward to seeing him. But beyond all of that, what I'm so excited about? Focus on. Excited about seeing you again. I got to meet so many of you last year at that event. And I'm just excited to be able to see some of you again this year. And to make new connections with others that maybe I've not had the pleasure of meeting. In real life. And the good news. I kind of give you the bad news. The bad news is that the, the ticket prices did go up as of September 1st. So they're now$35 for the weekend. But folks what a steal of a deal, what a great opportunity for you to get together and spend time with other like-minded individuals and learn some great information along the way. And for$35. I mean, that's a cheap ticket to be able to meet me. Right. No folks. I really, really am so excited about this event. I look for, I've been looking forward to it since, since last year's event. Ended. The other thing that's really, really great about it is if you have a camper, if you got a 10 or whatever, There's a campground right across the road from the park Oak park where this event is held. So it's just a really convenient way for you to be able to spend a weekend. And, and enjoy great fellowship, make community learn some wonderful things. So folks tickets are still available. So head on over to new England homesteaders.com. New England homesteaders.com. To buy your ticket. You're not going to want to miss this event. It's going to be great. I'm looking forward to it. I hope to see you there. All right. All of that said, let's jump on over to this. Week's charting the course. So as I went out to pick vegetables, to put them in the fair this year, it really confirmed to me what I had suspected, what I really knew in my heart of hearts. And that is that this is probably my worst gardening season. Ever. My first couple of years of gardening. We're far better than this year. Of gardening this year. For many, many reasons. But it has not been up to the level of production that I have been used to in the past. And when you have a gardening season, like I've had this year where it seems like your entire tomato harvest is going to fit into two stainless steel bowls. Uh, that's very disheartening. And when other things that you've been used to growing almost with, with little effort, I didn't grow at all. That's very, very discouraging. And when you look at a situation like we've had this year, a gardening season, like this year season, You can very easily become discouraged. Disheartened, disillusioned. I guess I could throw, I don't know what other word you want to throw in there. But to the point to where you just want to throw your hands up and say, screw it. I'm done. I'm not going to garden anymore. It's not worth the time. Effort, energy, the money. Uh, It's just not worth it. Um, and it, you could easily just throw your hands up and quit. But even with a bad gardening season, like I've had this year. I've actually learned some very helpful lessons. And I think these are some lessons that will help me. As I move forward in my gardening career. Call it career, but whatever. As I gardened into the future. These I think are lessons that will help me be more successful. Um, as I learned from what took place this year, So the first lesson that I learned is perhaps a very simple and obvious one, but that is that you can have too much of a good thing. Namely, you can have too much water now. In the past I've had, I've struggled with a bit of the opposite, uh, situation where we've had some very, very dry gardening seasons. But what I found is that it's much easier to add water. Than it is to take water. You can go out and you can do a lot of things in your garden to either, um, a put moisture into the soil, to hold moisture in the soil with, with a mulch and so forth. But again, to take that moisture out of the soil is very difficult, but more than that, To be able to get out into work in your garden when it is rainy and nasty, and it's a downpour and it's a monsoon and it's like, you don't really want to be out there. And there's certain things that you really shouldn't be touching when they're wet. For example, beans, you really shouldn't mess with those when they're wet. It really does put you in a bit of a bind. And then when you have other things that are going on in your life, Then you find yourself in a situation where, as I mentioned before, you might have a window of opportunity to work in the garden and the weather isn't cooperative. And then when the weather is cooperative, you don't have that window of opportunity. And so I discovered this year that it certainly is possible to have too much of a good thing. Irrigated the garden, a handful of times at the beginning of the season. I didn't have to pull hoses out there. Uh, from probably mid June on. Uh, I have not watered my garden one time haven't needed to, um, because we've had so much water. The second thing that I learned is that perspective is. Important. It's important to understand. The reason why the garden season. Has been so poor. Now, some of that certainly has been because I didn't do some of the things that I could have done or should have done in order to be as successful as I possibly could have. But then there were reasons why I didn't and there were reasons why I couldn't do those things. And so having that perspective also, it's not making excuses. It's just being real and honest and understanding. Okay. Yes. Maybe these things didn't do as well as, as they should have, but there were reasons why that happened. Uh, one of those was. That I had a late start. You might remember that. Back in early April, I went to a. Alaska to visit my brother. And so that just put me behind and it felt like I was behind from day one in the garden. And. I never felt like I really ever caught up. Do I regret going on vacation up there? No, it was the right decision. Was it poor timing. Yeah. But it was a timing that we could do it. So it is what it is, but that certainly was a contributing factor. The rainy weather, as I mentioned, another huge contributing factor, probably the biggest contributing factor. Because I couldn't get up there and we'd like, I should have, I couldn't get up there and prune tomatoes, like I should have, I, I couldn't get up there and harvest things in a timely fashion. Like maybe I should have. And I had things that ended up rotting on the vine and things that got too big on the vine because I couldn't harvest them. I couldn't get to them. Because again, the way the rain. Um, was falling and the windows of opportunity that opened up. My schedule just didn't necessarily. Sync up. But the other thing that I found as I got to the fair and I was starting to put my entries in. I wasn't the only one that had a difficult time this year with gardening. And in fact, there are a number of people that I know who are very experienced gardeners, people that have been doing this for longer than I've been alive. And they, this year have had a hard time with a lot of the same crops that I've had a hard time with this year. At the fair, we probably had the least number of tomatoes ever entered. At least since I've been putting. Uh, vegetables and cucumbers were way down zucchini. Was way down. People were having a hard time growing those things, just because of how wet and rainy it has been this year. And it's not that misery loves company, but it's also one of those things. Again, giving you that proper perspective to understand. Hey, wait a minute. I'm not the only one in this boat. Other people are struggling too. And there are just certain things that are outside our control. And, you know, what. We'll give things a try next year. But not everything was bad. I had some things that did very well this year. I tried a couple of new pole bean varieties. I've mentioned this before on the podcast. That have been wonderful for me. They've been very prolific. They are very tasty. And they're very versatile. And so I have been very, very happy with those pole bean varieties. My root vegetables have done surprisingly well. In the past, I've had problems with my root veggies, rotting on me. Turnips. Uh, in particular have rotted on me and folks. They just absolutely wreak when they rot, but my turnips have done very well. Cauliflower did well for me. I've struggled to grow cauliflower in the past this year. I've grown several good heads of cauliflower. I grew a wonderful head. Of broccoli this year, my cabbages have all done very well. Although some of them are split because I didn't harvest them in time, but they still did produce very, very well. Um, and so there have been a lot of things that have, uh, produced. Much better this year than they ever have another great example of that on my line will beans. I'm going to have a bumper crop of Lima beans this year. Totally shocking to me. Um, but they have produced. Very very well. Another thing I discovered this year is that pelleted carrot seed. Is worth it, at least to me. I actually did a bit of an experiment. I planted some Malcolm M. Oh, K U M carrots. As both non pelleted and pelleted side-by-side. And the pelleted did far better. Not only were they easier to plant, but they seem to have germinated much better. And so definitely for me, that's. A positive lesson that I've learned. That it seems like pelleted carrot seeds. Are worth it for me and are something that I'm going to, uh, continue to buy. In the future now. In the past I've experimented with pelleted tomato seeds versus non pelleted tomato seeds. I didn't find a whole lot of difference there. I felt like my germination rates were just as, just as well with the non pelted as the pelleted variety. But it seems to me like, at least with carrots and maybe it was just this year, I don't know, but I planted the same variety, Malcolm. Right next to each other. And my germination rates were much better with the pelleted versus the non pelleted. And certainly it was way easier to plant the pelleted varieties. Another thing that I've learned is that not having, uh, things to, uh, preserve. He's actually been a good thing for me. Maybe I'm looking for the silver lining in the cloud, but not having to stress about canning up a bunch of things. Um, has, is certainly been nice with the exception of the one night where I was Kenyan up green beans and I was turning off canners at two 30 in the morning. I have not had. Anything like that. This canning season. Now I did have several days in a row. I was canning up jams and jellies and I did beats and a whole bunch of things. It was one weekend. And seen canning. But it hasn't been that pressure. That I've experienced in other years where my garden was producing so much that I had to do something with that crop and I had to do it right then. In fact, there have been some years where during the fair. I would go over to the fair and then I would get home at nine o'clock at night, and then I would start preserving things and I wouldn't turn canters off till two, three o'clock in the morning. Um, which is crazy. I don't think I'd be able to do that now. Uh, I was much younger when I used to do stupid stuff like that. but certainly not having the pressure of having to preserve a bunch of things all at once. Has been, uh, a blessing in disguise, we'll say. The last thing I would say is this. Uh, prioritizing. Other things over the garden this year certainly was the right thing for me to do this year. As I mentioned, there were times when I would have a window of opportunity to go up to the garden to do things like weed, like harvest, like. Uh, prune my tomato plants, whatever. And. I had all the things that I needed to do, whether it was helping Brian, Jay with certain tasks to get ready to go to college, or just all the things that were going on during the summer. And I prioritize those things over the garden. I don't regret that. I don't regret that at all. No. I understand that I come at this from a bit of a place of blessing and privilege and, and I, I hesitate to use the term privilege because I feel like that word has been almost weaponized. Um, to guilt trip people. And I don't, I don't want to do that at all. Um, but I also understand. That I don't have to rely on the food out of my garden in order to be able to survive. I'm very blessed in that regard. I know there are some people that, that is the case. And I don't take that for granted at all. Uh, But I I'm in a spot. Where if. I don't have a tomato harvest. Number one, I've got a lot of tomatoes still in the basement from last year. So I'll be all right. Be able to eat those. And probably it's a good thing. I'll be able to kind of get some of the old stuff out. And then bring in some new stuff next year. Hopefully. But if I don't have it in the basement, I'm blessed enough that I can go get it. You know, it's, it's readily available. I've even thought about maybe going and buying some canning tomatoes from some of the pick, your own farms that we have around us. And, and canyon up some stewed tomatoes and canyon up some sauce. And. I'm not sure if I'll do that or if I won't, I haven't made up my mind. But again, I am very, very fortunate in that. I don't have to rely on my garden to keep body and soul together. And so I keep that in perspective as well. I would certainly have approach things a lot differently if that were the case this year. And so I want to just kind of keep that. Um, in mind as well. Understanding that I am very, very blessed. I'm very privileged in that regard. And so I had. I had the opportunity. To make those kinds of decisions whereby. Uh, other people might not be able to do that. And, and I want to. Just be cognizant of that.'cause, I don't want anybody else to feel like you have to make the same decisions that I did. Um, because your situation might be different. And, and I, and I realized that. So anyhow, those are some of the things that I did learn this year from having probably the worst garden that I've ever had in my years of gardening now, going on, I don't know, 15, 16 years of gardening. Um, Not, not a good one. Um, but there's always next year and we'll see. What, what takes place? I certainly hope your garden has performed much better than mine has, but if it hasn't. You know, there's always next year. Don't lose hope. Try to learn. What you can, the best you can from what went wrong and what things you can correct. Try to correct them. And what things were outside of your control? I'll give them to God. There's nothing you can do about it. Anyhow. All right folks, that's it for this episode. I hope you found it helpful. If you've got any questions, reach out to me, Brian, at the homestead journey.net. Or you can reach us on all of the socials. The links are in the description. Don't forget about the fall gathering of the home setters of new England happening this coming weekend. In Greenfield, New Hampshire. You're not going to want to miss that new England homesteaders.com is where you can find more information. And buy your I definitely don't miss out on it. Until next time, everyone. Keep up the good work.