Learning from my mistakes...



It's the middle of January, and we are reaching close to 80 degrees every day, mostly sunny. Let's face it, we're not having winter this year. If we do, it'll be in February. Just in case we don't get winter, I'm getting started on the gardens. I wasted a lot of time last spring and didn't get anything in the ground until the beginning of May. My reward for that was a harvest of fifteen tomatoes and about a gazillion okra.
Speaking of mistakes made last year, I'm going to run down the mistakes I've made, to hopefully help you avoid them. And to help me avoid them again.
I bought three and a half yards of dirt from Living Earth in League City for a raised bed on the south side of our house. It was "enriched compost," described to me as the most fertile garden soil they have, "great for gardens." Horse hockey. That soil is completely dead- devoid of all nutritional value. The dirt is a mix of sand and two-inch pieces of wood considered "compost." I planted eight tomatoes, six broccolis, about fifty lettuces, three green beans, a strawberry, and two squashes. Nothing grew. At all. The seedlings I planted in that dirt stayed the exact size they were when I planted them before they rotted away to nothing. Needless to say, I'll be changing the soil game this time around.
Speaking of soil, the biggest mistake I've made in the last two years is ignoring the chemical makeup of my soil.  Soil truly is key to growing vegetables.  I've learned this the hard way,  and I'll be testing this spring.  Soil is a complex medium that has to have certain nutrients in it for the plants to absorb as they grow.  The first step in gardening needs to be testing your soil and improving it in the areas it is lacking in.  I haven't learned nearly enough about it to explain the whole process, but you can learn alot more, as well as get your soil tested, HERE. 
The only other significant mistake I can come up with right now is not pinching off my flowering stems on my broccoli and lettuce plants.  As SOON as you see lettuce or broccoli sprouting a flower, pinch that sucker off, or else you won't get any more of what you want (leaves on lettuce, green heads on broccoli.)
Since I've made a full-time job out of trying to get rid of a head cold, I'll leave the mistakes in their own post today, and start with what I've done right next time.  Get ready, spring is coming!  It may only last three days, but it's coming!  :)