“If Only I’d Known…”

December 14th, 2010

   Penn State Extension’s Steve Bogash and I are almost done deciphering a 1,300-person online survey we conducted of new vegetable gardeners.

Weeds, weeds and more weeds.

   Tons of new folks have been giving home vegetable gardening a shot in the last two years. It’s been gardening’s hottest trend.

   Mainly, Steve and I were trying to find out 1.) How all of the newbie veggie gardeners are making out (especially after this summer’s brutal heat), and 2.) Whether they’re going to keep trying or throw in trowel.

   Basically, I was shocked at how many said they not only plan to keep growing but are actually going to expand their gardens. Forty-two percent of the people who took the survey say they’re expanding their garden size next year, while another 49 percent are keeping the same size. Only 8 percent are scaling back, and less than 1 percent is giving up.

   I’ll be writing in detail about the survey in my Patriot-News column the next two Thursdays (Dec. 16 and 23). If you don’t get the paper, check online at http://connect.pennlive.com/user/gweigel/posts.html.

   Meanwhile, one question that drew some particularly interesting comments was, “What do you wish you had known about vegetable gardening before you got started?”

   Here’s some newbie wisdom I found fascinating…

   “That it is not as easy as I remember from my parents.”

   “How much can go wrong!”

   “It is a lot of work but it is good for the soul!”

   “That the satisfaction I feel when I eat something I have grown myself would be so great. I would have started gardening long ago if I had known that.”

   “That plants grow no matter what you do. All the fancy techniques just help things along, but the seed, soil, rain and sun do most of the work. I was very intimidated at first, and this lesson helped me breathe deeply and take baby steps into gardening.”

   “I wish I had known I would like it so much. When I was growing up, watering plants and weeding was a chore, but those now seem like minor irritations in order to get really good-tasting vegetables.”

   “Shoot, if I had known what I was in for (re: labor and time and cash outlay — $100 tomato), I would never have started. Better to live in ignorance until seduced by the magic of the garden.”

   “How important getting the soil ready before planting is.”

   “How awful the critters are. They attack everything!”

   “What to do about pests. My single largest gardening problem has been waking up in the morning only to find that a seedling has vanished overnight.”

   “When to pick things! This year I kept thinking my lettuce/basil/spinach/beans would keep growing and then they went to seed or went brown.”

   “That I live in the land of SLUGS.”

   “That you can plant a second season in the fall.”

   “That vegetables will break your heart.”

   “That my kids wouldn’t help me when they said they would!”

   “That it was WAY more work than I ever thought it would be, that weeds will grow when nothing else seems to, and that heat is debilitating to both the gardener and her plants.”

   “Less is more. Concentrate on keeping fewer plants healthy.”

   “That raised beds take more water, bugs can devastate in a day, don’t ever wait until tomorrow for anything, you can have too many tomatoes, chipmunks are pests, birds eat tomatoes, bird netting is difficult to use and the birds sometimes still get to the food, sun can burn plants even when they are watered, and maybe I should learn to cook some of this stuff first!”

   “Where my neighbor was planning on planting her @*$%# willow tree!”

   “Start small and get comfortable with the amount of work it is, don’t get overambitious because the weeds and work are discouraging come August. You will lose some to blights and pests, that’s part of it, and if you’re committed to growing with fewer chemicals, just grow enough that the loss is acceptable for the effort.”

   “How awesome raised beds are. Years ago, when I first tried, I just planted in the ground. It worked OK, but nothing like the ease and success of raised beds. Also, I wish I’d known 2 years ago to put a rabbit fence around the garden right away. Darn rabbits.”

   “That it was so addicting!”