As the first signs of spring emerge, many are inspired to start their own vegetable gardens. It’s a season filled with enthusiasm and the planting of a diverse range of vegetables—from carrots and green onions to peas, potatoes, peppers, green beans, and more.
However, the initial excitement can often lead to common gardening pitfalls, particularly for those new to the craft. It is very easy to quickly feel in over your head once the plants start growing.
Here are five key mistakes that every gardener should avoid to ensure a flourishing garden:
Mistake 1: Planting Your Garden in the Wrong Spot
The choice of where to plant is crucial and should be guided by the specific needs of each plant rather than mere preference. You may love tomatoes, but if where you want to plant your garden won't help them flourish, you may need to rethink your approach.
When shopping for plants, you need to consider:
- Does your plant need sunlight or shade?
- Does it prefer dry or moist soil?
- How much space does it need between it and other plants?
Each vegetable has its own set of environmental needs. Detailed plant care information is typically available on plant tags at nurseries, in seed catalogs, or online. Researching exactly what each plant requires to thrive will help you make informed decisions about plant placement.
Related Read: Tips for Planting an Amazing Emergency Food Supply
Mistake 2: Overwatering
Most people know that if a plant doesn't get enough water, it will die. This can often lead beginner gardeners to overwatering their plants. Unfortunately, this can be equally detrimental.
Excess water can cause root rot, which inhibits the plant's ability to absorb nutrients. All plants need water to metabolize nutrients and to help them grow, but every plant is unique in how much water it needs. Tomatoes, for example, are heavy drinkers and require more water. Beans, on the other hand, do not need as much.
For those unsure about how much water to use, investing in an irrigation system with a smart controller can be a worthwhile consideration. This system can adjust watering levels based on the moisture content of the soil.
If an irrigation system is a little too expensive or not a good fit, just give a little extra attention to the soil in your garden. Check it regularly and if it’s dry and crumbly, it needs watering. If you can form it into a loose ball, then it likely has enough moisture. Check out this chart from The Old Farmer’s Almanac to see how much water to give your plants and when.
Mistake 3: Not Giving Plants Enough Sun
Many gardeners underestimate the amount of sunlight needed for optimal growth. Certain plants, like squash, are sun worshippers and absolutely need full sunlight to thrive. Other plants, like green peas, can thrive and grow in shady areas.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that just because one plant can grow in partial sunlight, so can another. Most vegetables need at least six hours of direct sunlight.
It's always a good idea to plan your garden before you plant. Make sure you have enough space available in your garden to give enough sunlight to each plant. You can check the planting recommendations on seed packets or online to know which plants will need more sunlight. Give the sunniest spot in your yard to plants that require the greatest amount of sun.
Mistake 4: Planting Too Close Together
Although your plants may start out small in your beginner garden, perennials take up more space with each additional season. However, there’s more than one reason to avoid planting your vegetables—and other plants—too close together.
When too close together, plants will compete for the nutrients found in soil, water, and sunlight. If you follow the spatial recommendations found on seed packets, however, your plants will be able to thrive.
Some plants, like carrots and green onions, are okay planted close together when initially buried. The reason they can be close is because not all of them will sprout. After the viable seeds have sprouted, it’s important to thin them out and give them more room as they grow.
Don’t worry about wasting vegetables. Most the small vegetables you pull out to thin your row of carrots, green onions, or other veggies are edible, so you can start using them right away while the rest continue to grow.
Related Read: How to Get Started Seed Sprouting for Emergencies
Mistake 5: Letting Weeds Grow
Weeds grow quickly and can overrun a garden in no time. They basically become a virus in your garden and, if not contained, could force you to completely dig out all your plants to be able to remove all the weeds.
The best time to go out and weed your garden is when the first tiny weed pokes out of the soil. Catch them early in order to avoid more work later on. When weeds grow, their roots spread, making it more difficult for you to pull them out without damaging the roots of your plant. And the larger a weed gets, the more nutrients it will steal from your plants.
Unfortunately, there is no cure-all for making weeds disappear for good, but there are some methods you can use to help reduce the amount of weeds you find sprouting near your plants.
Iowa State University recommends several methods including:
- Mulching – By adding grass clippings, wood chips, straw, or even shredded leaves around your plants, you can help prevent the germination of weed seeds. Mulching can also help retain moisture in the soil and keep vegetables clean.
- Proper Plant Spacing – When you plant your vegetables with their ideal spacing, this can help shade the ground, slowing weed growth.
- Cover Crops – A cover crop is a fast-growing plant used to cover the soil that your vegetable plants won't be covering. This helps prevent weeds from germinating and also gives weeds some competition for nutrients and moisture.
Keep Growing
If your garden isn't thriving like you hoped, don't give up. Keep growing! Turn to these tips and watch your garden turn around.
13 comments
Seahawk77
I don´t see enough butterflies and bees pollinating the plants. There is a beautiful pink vine growing along the wall and that is where I see the most bees. But I am praying they will come and pollinate all of the plants that are flowering. The honeydew plants are sprawling all over the place, and so far I only see two honeydews that have already been growing for over a month and a half.
Holly Nolting
Cheryl, I am starting to give up this second year as well. We have raised beds, fancy bagged organic soil, and a little sheep and peat to help it get started, organic fertilizer, enough water and sun, but not too much of the water (I’ve learned that part). And yet the plants I planted for a second year in a row have not grown a centimeter. It’s depressing isn’t it?
Penelope Smith
This is some really good information about plant growth. It is good to know that it would be smart to think about not putting plants close together. Also, it might be smart to get an expert to help with planting a nurse. https://tree-theory.com/tree-growth-regulator
Dan
We have a VERY short growing season where I live. June 1 through about mid-September. Three years in a row now I’ve planted my squash seeds only to have it rain continuously for a week! I work crazy hours and can only plant on my days off so on “that day” it’s all or nothing. Apparently, squash seeds suffer from being too wet. That is all I can figure. After the week deluge it got nice and hot. I’m thinking this was a bad combo. The week they were soaked it was also cool, so I’m thinking they all must have gotten moldy. Than it was hot causing the rot to accelerate. I dug into my squash hills and could not find a single seed!!! There was no evidence that birds or critters got them. Usually I can tell when this happens because there is a small hole from the birds or a much bigger hole from a critter. Nothing. Nada. However, wouldn’t you think I’d at least find a couple of moldy seeds? Can seeds literally turn to compost in two weeks? I have replanted my squash seeds now but run the risk that even if they do grow, they might not have enough time to produce squash before the first killing freeze. Squash DO benefit from a killing frost (if it didn’t get TOO cold) but they have to be really close to maturity for that to work. Something to do with when the vine freeze the squash benefit from all the extra water not going to the leaves making them ‘sweeter." I have tried starting my squash indoors but squash really hate being transplanted it seems. It all depends on the rest of the summer how my squash will do. Any other far north gardeners(zone 3, kind of zone 2.5-ish) have any thoughts? Or just like any northern gardener, gardening is a major gamble: you either get a bumper crop if conditions are right or nothing if things aren’t perfect.
J B
Be careful using straw around your plants. Evidently some growers are using herbicides to control weeds in their fields which the straw takes up and it will adversely effect your garden plants. I lost several fruit trees due to herbicide laden straw.
beprepared
Bruce,
Thanks for your comment. I’m not much of a gardener myself (and I didn’t write this post). For those who don’t know what a soil test is, do you mind explaining?
Angela
bruce
a good idea is to get a soil test it will do wonders.
beprepared
Steve,
Thanks for the tip! Can you tell us how/when you discovered that compost is a miracle worker when it comes to gardening?
Angela
Steve
Compost! The key is compost. You cannot garden until you know how to make and use your own compost.
Michael
I have found that if you lay down a reasonably thick layer of plain newspaper topped with common hardwood mulch at the outset of the garden the weed problem is very much controlled. It’s a bit of a time investment, but it pays dividends later in the summer (plus I hate weeding).
I generally use a thickness of 4 sheets of newspaper and enough mulch to cover it completely. Even when using heavier layers of newspaper, I’ve found that the paper has completely biodegraded when I rototill the garden the following spring.
The newspaper prevents the weeds from rooting into the soil underneath for the summer and the mulch/newspaper helps keep the soil from losing moisture during hot spells. During wet weather, the mulch prevents your garden from becoming a muddy mess. Plus the newspaper/mulch add organic content to the soil that results in higher quality soil and garden production in later years.
I can see the abrupt transition from good black garden soil to orange clay (central Ohio soil) about 8" below the ground surface (the depth of the rototiller blades). When I originally planted the garden about ten years ago the spot was essentially pure clay with a sod overlay (I mean PURE clay – I was digging up 8" blocks of clay and smashing them down to break up the soil).
Hope this tip works as well for you. Happy gardening. :)
Debbie
I agree with most of this but would like to add a couple of comments. Over-watering is actually much worse than under-watering. Root rot is nearly impossible to fix while a little wilt is usually easily fixed with some water. Secondly, nothing is written in stone when it comes to gardening and different crops perform differently in everyone’s yard. Where I might get 7-10 pumpkins from one pumpkin plant, my neighbor might get 1-2. It takes experimentation to get things right in your own garden so I hope people will keep persisting. Trying one or two crops to begin with and mastering those before adding others will help, although one may want to plant 5-10 the first year and see which do the best so they know what to try to master first. I have a degree in horticulture and it still takes some doing to get certain crops to do well in our garden….
Also, for those living in arid climates, straw put around your plants will help keep water in the soil and reduce how much water is needed. If you grow potatoes, it will also keep many of the pests away. Not to mention it is great for building better soil!
Howard Hulsebus
There many mistakes a new gardener can make but the most important is the PH of your soil and do the plants need. Number two is the soil temperature for planting for each type of plant. As a thirteen year Mastergardener there is a lot to learn before wating your efforts an dollars.
cheryl
Nothing I’ve ever planted in my vegetable patch ever grew. Given up. Stuff was planted and never seen again. The soil had a huge tub of compost dug into it too, and isn’t in shade. Same goes for the greenhouse – you name it, I’ve tried it – nothing even started to grow.