Think Globally, Act Locally, Go Organic

October--Lessons Learned

Some things in the garden didn’t grow well. Some things in the garden did. For example the beets grew badly as did the broccoli, onions, beans, and corn. However the carrots, tomatoes, bell peppers, chili peppers, squash, gourds, and cilantro grew extremely well.

I’ve learned to space out certain plants so they can grow larger. I’ve also learned not to prop boards on the garden fence in storms because they usually fall down on your plants. I’ve learned not to plant carrots and beans in the stretch of soil in the back of the garden. This is because the soil there has more clay in it than soil.

Also, some good advice is not to keep a patch of old strawberries in your garden. The ones I had in mine died before fall.

Finally, if you grow a garden, take it that the first year is just a practice round. After this year I made a whole new map of where to plant my plants.

LOOKING FORWARD

When I first grew a garden I grew corn, beans, squash, radishes, carrots, gourds, tomatoes, cilantro, onions, cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, chili peppers, and bell peppers. That first garden was like a test to see which plants grew well in the garden. The beans, corn, cauliflower, one of the squashes, and broccoli either didn’t grow or died. Others, like the radishes, onions, and the carrots, grew but didn’t grow very well. Some of this happened because the soil in the back of the garden was too much like clay, and only some plants grew there. I made a list of plants that grew well, some plants that should grow well if improved, and any plant that I thought would grow well in the garden. After that I decided where the plants should be planted. These are what I think should grow in my garden and where they should grow.

Food	Improvement
cilantro	more of it
carrots	spread out more
squash\gourds	a lot more room
tomatoes	more room
potatoes	really spread out
chili peppers	already good
bell peppers	already good