The Gardening Fails

I don't spend too much time on stuff that doesn't work, regardless of what I have attempted to remedy a situations.

So I thought I would give you an idea of stuff that hasn't worked out as planned.

Artichokes: I had a hard time finding seed. The seed I found did not germinate (for which I paid $3.95), not just poor germination-- no germination. I bought a solitary artichoke for $4.95,from which I hope to store the root and from which I hope to gather offsets for future plantings.

Tomatillos: The weather said ten days of warm weather. Instead, it froze two nights in a row. I thought the tomatillos were goners, but before I could yank them out, they regrew from the roots. The seeds were bonus seeds, so free with my Jung's purchase. If we get fruit, not a fail, but an unknown.

Sowing pea seeds in pots: I got zero germination. Did better outside, in freezing cold temperatures and over a foot of snow. I'm not sure why the poor germination.

Dividing my begonia 'Bonfire': I saw multiple eyes. I sliced the corm into 3 sections. With the warm weather I moved the sprouted corms outside. They froze. This is pretty typical we had multiple hard, late freezes. I have heat stress and frost damage on the same plants.

Triple Babies Cabbage: Virtually zero germination. Same thing with the sweetcorn variety 'Jubilee'.

Bok Choi: I don't know if this is considered a fail. I wanted to seed some bok choi, to transplant because of the cold weather. I have cut numerous leaves for salads, which have been great, but when I have tried to transplant they have bolted. The unopened flowering seed heads have a broccoli-like flavor, but this is not an easy salad green.

So far no major fails-- no potato crop failure, no broccoli failure, the sweet potatoes did not die, the berries, tomatoes, and other starts are looking good. I have no major bug infestations. The temperature extremes are worrying me.

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to moderate tomorrow, but it appears without rainfall in out area; which could be the beginning of the next extreme.

Our goals for the garden are:

100 pounds of broccoli,
400 pounds of potatoes,
100 pounds of tomatoes,
70 pounds of cucumbers,
50 pounds of sweet potatoes,
20 pounds of onions,
All we want of zucchini, eggplant, salad grens, cabbage, herbs, parsnips, carrots, melons, squash, and pumpkins.

An added note: the garden is approximately 2,000 square feet, not all of which is planted.