It has been quite the rough start to the garden this year. I have had multiple rounds of failures and things getting eaten when they do succeed. This was a year I was hoping my garden would help supplement my food supplies with the way inflation has been going.

As always the plan starts with wanting to grow from seed. I usually save up a few plastic containers with lids that I’ll place the seeds into for geminating in. With a little bit of moisture on a paper towel, it gets stored in the back of a closet with a towel around it ensuring total darkness. It really should not be that hard to get something to start growing.

I’ll also check at least once or twice depending on how long the seed needs to germinate in the dead of night that the container still has enough moisture. I would then spray a little bit of water into the container if I was not satisfied.

I even went out of my way this year and even used index cards taped onto the containers saying what they were, when I put them in, and how long they should take. They were also arranged in a manner I could just pull out the next container when the seeds were ready in order.

This year I had plans to grow, tomatoes, bell peppers (several different types), parsley, bunching onion, cucumbers, radish, basil, beans (server different types), cilantro, Brussel sprouts, carrots, jalapeno, mint, and sunflower. Some things are new this year while others I’ve grown a couple of times now.

I have also collected quite a fair amount of leftover seeds from whatever was left unused from the prevue years. While I always go out and buy new seeds every year. I do hang onto the old ones just In case it tends to be a bad seed year. Many seeds tend to have a couple of years' shelf life.

This year I decided I was not going to take a bunch of photos. Mostly because the little camera I use for photos takes batteries and it takes a few photos to even get one that is not half bad. The other half was I did not know if I was even going to write about my garden this year.

I started pulling the first round of seeds out every couple of days when they should be ready. Last year I was getting between an 80-100% success rate in germinating the same way to the point I had way too much to deal with depending on what it was. This year it was 0 to 30% depending on the seed type.

Form what survived I then planted it into a smaller container for the time being. My entire garden is a bucket and planter garden. So I grow things in stages. If things would have survived from this stage they would have gone into their final container for the season. Only one of the plants survived.

The first round was mostly the same high failure rates across the board. It was a total disaster. After growing a garden for a few years now this was unexpected. At least here the growing season is quite early.

I repeated the entire process over again with the newer seeds. Same results from the germinating process of low returns. At this point, I’m wondering if it’s the seeds since many people around me reported having a bad start as well.

I took what survived and this time around they made it to being planted into their final containers. Then I had multiple late hard frosts. Since they are in containers I was able to protect them by moving them.

I however had a lot less than I wanted growing so I put in the third round of seeds. I decided to start using leftover seeds from prevue years. This year seeds were just not cutting it. I was counting on having at least a few beans, tomatoes, and peppers this year.

I woke up one day and noticed a lot of what was planted in their final containers was gone. Something got into the protected area I keep plants in and had a feast on my garden. I have since captured and removed quite a few caterpillars, lizards, and other things that keep eyeing my garden.

Thankfully the third round of germinating seeds was a bigger success than my older seeds. Most of what I had germinating had at least a 50% success rate. I however did put in quite a few seeds. So now the garden could end up being bigger than I had plans for.

Next, things went into a smaller container for the time being. I would have preferred to keep them in the house for a few weeks. However, that area no longer gets enough sunlight so they would have to survive outside, and hopefully, nothing would destroy this round.

Things like the beans have been going mostly strong for several weeks now to the point I’m about to have my first harvest of beans. I tend to just sock bean seeds for a day in water before planting them into their final planter. Every year they tend to have the highest success rate.

This year like all the other seeds they were underperforming. At least it is something. I just need to find what is eating the leaves on them. This was the fullest container of beans. I have a couple of others that only one or two plants have survived in.

It looks like I have some things I’ll be attempting a fourth round of growing from seed. While at this point it is tempting to buy started plants in the store. The prices are so much higher than last year I’d rather keep trying seeds.

Final Thoughts

At least now things are starting to look on the up and up for the garden. In a week or two I’ll be transplanting a lot of plants into their final containers for the season. Hopefully, I’ll also be having some beans soon!

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Photos were taken and content was written by @Enjar.