Health knowledge made personal
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1) I started with seedlings, which seemed to be doing very well. Unfortunately, I failed to "harden off" the seedlings before planting them outdoors (who knew?! Now I know.) 2) Using all organic soil. I don't know why this would be an issue exactly, but the year previous I used conventional soil, and all was well. 4) Using organic compost. Again, not sure if/why this would be an issue, but the year prior I didn't use compost at all and had a better turn out, though, admittedly, also a smaller variety of "crops" (if you can call container gardening "crops"). 5) The ratio of compost to soil. Pretty sure there is an ideal ratio of compost to soil, and pre-tay sure I ignored it. My 'throw caution to the wind' gardening approach may have been my downfall. 5) The monsoon we experienced for 10 days immediately after I planted said seedlings. That one weekend of heat was deceptive, and enticed me to move the seedlings outside prematurely. I thought summer had arrived, but I was sorely mistaken. The rains ensued for 10 days straight, like I have never seen before in Cow town. I covered the seedlings with garbage bags to protect them from drowning (though, they were exposed for a while before I covered them). Come to think of it - poor things also went without light for days too! I'm starting to think this garden was DEA summer (dead on arrival of summer). So which one (or combination) of these items doomed my produce, I ask you expert gardeners? Could there be something I missed, or (better yet) some mysterious virus that caused fatality to my plants that resulted from no fault of my own? I know, unlikely. . |
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I realize summer ended long ago (at least here in Calgary), but I'm still pondering over WHY my garden failed miserably this year. Yes, the garden FAILED (you can see the very sad picture of our lone tomato, hanging in defeat on the vine. That was the only one that ever appeared *tear*). There is nothing so heart-breaking to an amateur gardener as slaving over and pampering a garden all spring and summer long, only to be rewarded with wilted, stunted plants and not enough veggies to make but one salad. I have finally come to terms with my lost investment and am ready to delve into what I did wrong. I need to solve this mystery so I can ensure I don't have the same result next year.