Last year was my very first venture into having a REAL garden. I ordered all the seeds my heart desired and pretty much cleared out my local garden centre. I was eager and maybe a teensy bit impatient. We didn’t move into our new home till May which was too late to start sowing a lot of my seeds but I did it anyway out of sheer over excitement. Well…lets just say I definitely learned MANY lessons on what not to do but I also had success I’d like to continue this year. Here are all my lessons laid out in Do’s and Don’ts lists.

Me circa May 2019 with all the seeds I ordered.

Do

Sew seeds undercover when recommended for germination. I purchased a small pop up greenhouse that did the job perfectly.
Be diligent about watering on hot days. Sometimes twice a day if you can. The plant really suffers if it wilts or dries up and you can lose it entirely in just a couple days.
Use liquid or pellet fertilizers that are recommended for the type of plant you’re fertilizing. The frequency for fertilizing will be stated on the packaging. I got some gorgeous lettuce, beets, zucchini, kale and radishes this way.
Build mesh protection over any brassica plants (broccoli, kale, brussles, cabbage, radish, cauliflower,etc) the butterflies LOVE laying their eggs on these and I lost about 80% of my kale to out of control hungry caterpillars.
Label what you’ve planted because you might forget while the plants are too young to tell. I used popsicle sticks labeled with permanent marker.
Keep on top of weeds. Pull them while they’re still small so they don’t steal nutrients from your veggies.
Replant as you harvest. As soon as theres an empty lot, fill it with a new seeding or sew seeds directly if allowed. This will keep your garden producing for longer. Beets, lettuce and radishes are good for this.

Don’t

As stated above, plant anything beyond it’s season. It will not have enough time to fully develop in the weather it is supposed mature in. My tomatoes, corn, broccoli, cauliflower and squashes were a huge fail because they were sewn too late.
Plant too many tomatoes. I went tomato crazy and planted about 10 species times 5! Their vines went haywire and were impossible to keep trimmed.
Plant things that take up a lot of space for such a small yield. Of course if you have loads of space, go for it but I learned that peas, carrots, beans and cucumber only produced enough veg to enjoy a couple times but took up 1/3 of my space. Plus you can buy these veggies at the store for really cheap.
Get discouraged when a crop doesn’t work out. My squash and pumpkins got about half way to maturation before getting pecked on by birds or dying in bad weather. This year I am totally reconfiguring how I grow them and am even more determined to achieve success!

This is the type of greenhouse I used. Now I have two!

One of the little crazy caterpillars eating my wasabi!

My kale just before the caterpillar invasion.

Lettuce for days! They like a semi sunny spot and lots of water.

Beginner Gardening: Lessons Learned