ByAmanda Morris , Ph . D
misrepresented , dessicated , browned vines droop across their cage , all animation and vitality wrecked by powdery mildew , too much water system , not enough air , and failed planning .
These are my spaghetti squash , Honey Bear acorn mash , Jubilee Citrullus vulgaris , Sugar Baby Citrullus vulgaris , and honeydew plant ; a miserable display of seeminggardening ineptitude . A full bankruptcy .
And yet , because of these gardening flub I feel successful . I ’ve only own my home for two and a half years , and was a transient apartment - dweller for the previous 24 years , so gardening on this scale is newfangled to me . Do n’t get me wrong , the rest of my efforts are wildly successful in very visible way , such as the new spindle laced with Scarlet Runner and Italian Purple Pole Beans , the love apple and pepper forest growing in the main vegetable bed , and the perennials , zinnias , and blackberry bush acquire in the gist bed .
So why , when faced with such obvious and luxuriant marker of succeeder would I focus on my failure ? Because it is the failures that instruct .
Last year , I plant two rows of Indian corn with celestial pole beans , stand for them to farm together . What really happened was the bonce grew so tight that they sweep over the corn and drag it down , showing me I had much to learn about this planting compounding . In a freestanding spot last year , I found additional pole beans that were chomped incessantly by a irritating groundhog that reject to acknowledge my three - foot mellow volaille telegram fencing as a barrier to his munching needs . Both of these experience teach me to guard my vegetable easily and plant beans on sturdier construction such as the arbor I pieced together and installed , shown below .
This was a good idea in theory . What I learned is that when the skies open up and coldcock a measured ton of water week after week in the summertime , and your squash rackets bottom sit too broken and is too heavy for good melodic line rate of flow , powdery mold cursorily takes clutch and the end is soon nigh . Next year , I be after to construct a different type of fencing material that provide for perpendicular climb , but less bunching ( no circular cages ) , and I will plant less squash so as to give each plant more room .
in conclusion , watermelon vine . I love to eat on watermelon , but it has become my garden nemesis . I examine plant it in a gigantic pot last year and it died . This twelvemonth , I establish a Jubilee and a Sugar Baby in cages and because our summer was so cool for so long , the plants grew too slowly . Then the rains came and they yellow . The teeny melons rot on the bottom and fell off . I will try again next year , but I am now positive that watermelon can not be grown by the average backyard nurseryman .
find out and experimenting and planning new scheme are only possible when we fail . sluttish successes are marvellous , but do n’t teach us anything . I choose to comprehend the success and the possibility of bankruptcy in the garden , make love that beautiful and delicious effect are forthcoming with longanimity and planning .
Amanda Morris is an adjunct professor of writing and palaver at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania and retreats to her garden for passive zona - out time after oeuvre .
