The article I’m linking to here in this post is entitled 7 Common Vegetable Garden Mistakes. I bristled when I considered using this as a title for my post. I wanted something positive. I even consulted my writer friend and wordsmith, Elizabeth Marro for a more optimistic title. She had a few suggestions but nothing clicked.

Admittedly, I’ve made countless mistakes in my decades of gardening—some out of naiveté and ignorance and some from not following sound advice from seasoned gardeners or forgetting lessons learned. There was my first vegetable garden when I planted 24 tomato plants on stakes. After all, I had all these seed-grown plants. Just this year I ruined my broccoli crop which you can read about here. I forgot some very basic garden practices.

This week I listened to an interview with Ron Finley, the Gangster Gardener in South Central Los Angeles. It was inspiring and I did a post Ron Finley On Growing A Garden and linked to his MasterClass. Unwittingly, Ron gave me the title for my post. He said, “There are no mistakes. There are only lessons.” Beginning gardeners should take heart. Growing your food is about practice, observation and humility. Veteran gardeners like me need that reminder too.

Learn from Barbara Pleasant at GrowVeg. She’s my online garden mentor. I’ll stick with her title, 7 Common Vegetable Garden Mistakes but I’ll think of them as lessons.

7 Common Garden Vegetable Mistakes