This has been a very difficult end of the summer growing season. Torrential rains, multiple hurricanes, possums and raccoons have badly damaged my garden, and I’m in the biggest gardening slump of my life. In this video, I am desperately trying to reignite my love for gardening again. I have an idea that I hope sparks inspiration, because honestly, I feel like quitting gardening right now.
35 Crops To Plant In October: https://youtu.be/dFzh4EvGrbk?si=3ixFKEw92d_1ENid
How To Grow Basil: https://youtu.be/mBQXgLKFnL4?si=5TnYBtYe6I7ZmSxb
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
0:00 Everything That Went Wrong This Year
4:03 I Want To Quit Gardening After This
5:56 How I’m Reigniting My Love For Gardening
8:17 Exciting New Warm Weather Crops
13:13 Exciting New Cool Weather Crops
17:33 Keeping Gardeners Excited To Garden
20:31 Adventures With Dale
If you have any questions about how to kickstart gardening motivation and reignite your gardening passion, want to know about the things I grow in my raised bed vegetable garden and edible landscaping food forest, are looking for more gardening tips and tricks and garden hacks, have questions about vegetable gardening and organic gardening in general, or want to share some DIY and “how to” garden tips and gardening hacks of your own, please ask in the Comments below!
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ABOUT MY GARDEN
Location: Southeastern NC, Brunswick County (Wilmington area)
34.1°N Latitude
Zone 8B
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© The Millennial Gardener
#gardening #garden #gardeningtips #motivation #passion
35 Comments
If you enjoyed this video, please "Like" it and share it to help spread its reach across YouTube. Thank you for watching!🙂TIMESTAMPS here:
0:00 Everything That Went Wrong This Year
4:03 I Want To Quit Gardening After This
5:56 How I'm Reigniting My Love For Gardening
8:17 Exciting New Warm Weather Crops
13:13 Exciting New Cool Weather Crops
17:33 Keeping Gardeners Excited To Garden
20:31 Adventures With Dale
I'm on Team Take-A-Break-Till-January.
Rutabega one of my husband's favorite vegetables. wonderful roasted as you described but also cut in cubes and boil. then mash like mashed potatoes in usually don't use more than a splash of milk but use more butter. yummy- always part of our Thanksgiving dinner
Every year is different. I follow your videos anyway. 😊. Had some disappointments too. Still was able to harvest and process a lot. Your teachings regardless are very informative. Critters…. Unfortunately…. Happen. Keep your traps going.
Hang in there. If your millions of viewers can give back just a fraction of the support and motivation you’ve provided them, you’ll be just fine.
Sending prayers and love to you and your family during these horrible hurricanes and storm that you are safe!!
Burned out myself too. We are gonna take a break during the fall and winter. We also want to redo the garden and move some of the beds. Question!! We have raised beds. Is it okay for put the soil back in the compost bin and add compost and save until spring? Thanks!
i've been watching you for a while now. i really admire your enthusiasm and willingness to teach. i have no experience gardening but have wanted to get started for a while. i began composting a few weeks back and when my budget is no longer is zero, i plan to start growing. i say all this to explain that probably everyone in these comments has more gardening knowledge and experience than i do. Since i haven't really even started, i have a strong fire in my belly and i hope that a small flame comes your way. You're doing great work! Maybe try to focus on what you've learned this season so you can teach others. i know it's very easy for me to say that sitting in the desert typing on my keyboard, but past experience have taught me that sometimes being able to teach others makes loss less painful. Hope you'll continue and i wish you well.
Anne of all trades has a garden that is able to weather through the swings of flood and drought. This is rather climate adaptive soil.
The possums food reserves must be damaged to desperately pounce on your leftover bounty. Critters, bugs need to survive; so its a fight.
This year hasnt been easy in the north. There are a few unexpected wins. I'm just grateful and continue to grow in other ways. Collecting wild seeds to share rather than to hoard. Perrenial & strawberry gardens to be mulched and cardboard to minimize the weeds. Share comfrey roots to promote organic fertilizer. Do what you have available. Our equiptment and more were inoperable throughout the season on the farm. My overworked hand was too swelled that i could not hold a pen to write. So i need to re-evaluate and make each system easier to handle. Not coming with a farming experience, i am making alot of mistakes & wandering on the net & dreaming of possible solutions. I look forward to your videos to improve my knowledge. With an healed hand, i strive to work smarter eventhough i can be a workaholic. If you want some comfrey root MG, let me know & include a mailing address.
Move!
I've had that end of year slump a few times in the past for various reasons. Get an electric fence! I installed one this year and haven't had a critter in the garden since. I hate the idea of them getting shocked, but once they get shocked they don't bother to try getting in again. I used to rely on chicken wire until groundhogs broke into it. The most important thing you said here: "enjoy life!".
May be time for a motion-activated sprinkler to help with the thieving critters
Don't give up, it always gets better. Good luck with all your now seeds.
Same here. Summer garden was a failure for me. So much aphids, ants, and very hot. Barely got any hot peppers to dry for chili powder this winter.
But today I was back in the garden amending soil. Receiving my seed garlic got me excited about getting back in the garden.
And it’s a little cooler. Mid 80s.
Hopefully a better season this fall.
Thanks for sharing. It's comforting that you have challenges also. We have had a wonderful season in Wisconsin and our tomatoes, peppers, onions and cucumbers have been wonderfully productive. I still struggle with basil, cabbage and squash. Glad to see you initiated a burst of enthusiasm for new seeds.
Hey Friend. I also suffer from seasonal depression. I bought a grow tent and grew tropical plants in it. I check on them every morning and the light from the grow light helps my mood. Something to try. I'd say you should grow medicinal plants, but I'm not sure you are allowed to grow in your state.
This was my absolute worst gardening yr ever. I hear ya!
Cover crops. Get that green manure going in places you won't occupy.
Work on any project you haven't had time to get to. If you've wanted to tweak a bed, or change some things around it's good for the mind to accomplish, and sets you up for next year.
If you could develop a quick way to get some type of material over the growing area to block off the rain, or use an ag fabric that will let through the light but slow down the water and buffer those heavy destructive storms.
Knowing what CAN go wrong and working to mitigate those issues is a big deal when you have a lot of money invested in something.
One could say uve "grown out of it" hehe I couldn't help myself.
I get it sometimes the failures can compound, I've had some pretty bad summers in the garden.
haha good to see im not the only one who struggles with rodents
Good for you for keepin' going man. Keep going.
I had a really bad year. I got two tiny squashes out of like 10 plants. I had 6 pumpkins planted and got zero female flowers on them. I had two watermelons that got started and then something happened to the vines and they died. Same happened with cantaloupe. I got 2 eggplants total from my 4 plants. I had so many bush beans fail, I can’t even count. I had every single insect pest you can imagine. I thought I was going to make it without getting squash vine borer and I started getting them last month! The only thing that seemed to really thrive was the marigolds I planted as a companion plant in all my beds. My pole beans did pretty well and my tomatoes did decent until we got the storm from Helene. I feel like something in that rain killed what was left of my garden because the very next day everything started dying off. Maybe saltwater? I’m in Kentucky but we had a heck of a storm from the hurricane come through. IDK just venting but I’m still excited to try it all again next year. Learn from my mistakes and make changes that will hopefully fix some of the issues I’ve had. I’m always learning from my garden and always trying to improve it. I get more out of the actual work than the food it produces and I’m okay with that.
It's OK to rest, take a break but never give up
Oh those opossums were so destructive- Im so sorry. I spent a great deal of time mending and reinforcing fences around my back property to keep the ground hog and rabbits out. I may have finally got them to stay out! I totally get the burnt out phase. I am feeling it too and I didnt even have the storms you have had. Absolutely love those Smith figs. My father was a fig tree farmer out in Az and loved his homemade fig treats (my favorite -fig newtons) when I was home on visits. I am growing that exact escarole in a raised barrel bed. My Italian bf loves having this for homemade soups. Thank you for the videos.
You don’t need another fig tree or citrus tree or packet of seed. You need Jesus in your life.
Seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness. Give thanks to God in good times (during abundance) and in bad. Everything is a Gift from Him. Blessed be God's Holy Name!
Samsies. July hit hit here (CA zone 9b) and the heat dial went to extra flamin'. Tomatoes, zuccs and cucs shut down even with shade cloth. Even landscape plants got scorched it was so intense for so many days. Peppers did okayish but minimal production.
Mid Oct now and just getting into the mid to high 80s but my first lettuce crops couldn't handle it even under shade cloth so they were a loss too. Third year gardener so it's a bit disheartening. I keep thinking "next year"…
Does that make me a serial plant killer? 😮
It's DEFINITELY been a different summer!! I find that for me, the more elaborate and extensive I get, the more depressed I feel when extreme weather knocks me sideways! I mentally take time off, regroup, and go back to the basics, making it simple until I am fully back into "gardening mode" once again!!
Thanks for sharing your experience! I could so relate to what you were saying. This year has been the worst gardening year for me. We had a boat load of rain in the spring and hot temps in the summer and into the fall. The Bermuda grass is having a hay day in the flowerbed. Timing on planting seedlings that we started was challenging. Quite a bit of failures, but I continue to learn from those. Even in the midst of a challenging gardening year, there were some successes. Plants that were beautiful and that did well. Always enjoy the birds, bunnies, beneficial bugs and toads in our yard. Hope that next years gardening will go smoother and I will be able to put to use what I've learned.
I don’t get gardening success due to extreme heat n critters getting to my fruit. There’s only so much time & $$ I can spend on being proactive.
Your channel gives hope for what is possible if we don’t give up
So disappointed in what my garden didn’t do this summer I have decided grow my favorites inside 🤞🏻
Yea I am not feeling it either. Too much clean up from the hurricane. No time. No energy. lol
Endless possums!? Jeeze, I thought the one racoon that raided our plum tree every night was bad!
My weather has been good for me, but I had some personal trials that knocked me down. My garden pulled me thru. I am SO sorry for your trials. Gardens are hope. Sometimes we start all over, there is no way around it. Gardens are hope. Good luck. God bless.
I try to grow something new every year