Things I Have Learned About Gardening

We are going to call this year a gardening crash course. I did a decent amount of reading before any planting but it really does take doing it to figure things out. Here are some things I learned this year. 

1) put tomato cages on when they're still tiny. They don't grow for what feels like forever and then grow overnight.

2) Space is beautiful. Let there be space. We over planted and now the ginormous plants are overcrowded. It just looked so empty when the plants were bitty.

3) herbs really do try to take over the garden. Especially parsley and basil. Planters really are better. They don't lie.

4) variety is the spice of life. Plant one kind of each tomato plant, etc and label them.

5) not all varieties are good. Darn it.

6) cucumbers can't be by squash or cantaloupe 

7) cloves and oil will get rid of bugs but may burn the plant too

8) Japanese beetles love to eat corn.

9) corn has to be picked when its ripe. It doesn't stay fresh on the stalk for long.