“Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.” – Denis Waitley.
For me, the worst danger isn’t failing but failing to change. That is always where trouble has come to me. My successes were always achieved on the other side of terror.
I caught some flak, of course, for my first bungled effort to plant Zinnia seeds before the final frost. First, the temporary greenhouse fell and spilled seeds. Secondly, it was too cold. I either watered too much or not enough.
The result was disastrous, so I am starting again, bloody but unbowed. Failure is inevitable; retreat is a choice.
Many gardeners rushed to tell me that you will stumble and fall again and again when you first start to the garden. Some ridiculed me, naturally, for my mistakes.
It always feels good for me to admit my mistakes. It’s just like flushing a toilet. I often forget my successes, I never forget my mistakes, and there are a lot more of the latter than the former.
Good to hear that most new gardeners stumble, too, and seasoned ones failed too many times to count. If you can’t handle it, go to the florists and buy many pots with flowers in them.
Failure has always been my greatest teacher.
I need my mistakes; I learn from them and give thanks to them. It’s almost pointless for me to undertake something new without failing; I learn nothing and am bored quickly.
There was one survivor from my earlier gardening disaster, one Zinnia, I saved her, and she is starting to look as if she’ll make it. She is in the picture above. with the garden bed soil.
I hope she’ll have company by Wednesday.
Today, I read the seeding instructions carefully; I raked the soil in the raised garden box. I used a fine spray mist to soften up the soil. I planted my six at least eight inches apart.
I put the seeds in a one-quarter inch of soil, pressed sprinkled, and pressed soil gently over them.
The temperature was well up in the 70’s today, so I misted them once in the late morning, and then again as it started to get dark, the soil was dry from the sun.
The package said this would take 4 to seven days before the seeds sprout.
So I have a good feeling about this round. The timing is right, the planting was careful, the soil is moist but not soggy. There is plenty of sun for much of the daył
I think this is going to work, but I’ll share it either way.
Thank you, for this important reminder that failure is a part of growth. ❤
Thanks, Renee, for getting the point.
Thank god pilots don’t need to fail before they learn. Hitch yourself up to someone who is skilled. The best way.
Don’t flood. They have to have moisture available but don’t flood.
Rich soil. That looks like wood chips in the foto. Tis not soil.
No thanks, I like learning myself. You have once again reminded me what I don’t like about social media. There are no wood chips in the soil, which is quite expensive and specially purchased for raised gardens. I don’t need lectures on what soil is, thanks. If I need to be told that, and that the plant needs moisture, not flooding, that I am dumber than you are even suggesting. Which is offensive. I’ve been watering and caring for gardens for a very long time. I don’t recall asking you for help Vy, if this is the kind of expert I need to hitch myself up with, I’ll pass and take my chances.
“Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.”
Winston Churchill
Love this quote!
I don’t know how many times I have “failed” with seeds or a plant, but thank goodness there’s always more dirt, sun, and water available! And I consider myself to have “green thumb.” Carry on …!
“There’s no success like failure, and failure’s no success at all.” – Bob Dylan
Hi Jon, your failures put you in good company. I have a beautiful book entitled “A Rich Spot of Earth, Thomas Jefferson’s Revolutionary Garden at Monticello”, by Peter J. Hatch. Jefferson kept a yearly “Kalendar” of his plantings in his Monticello garden. The Kalendar for 1809 “reveals another theme of the Jefferson horticultural experience: ‘The failure of one thing is repaired by the success of another.’ The word ‘failed’ is recorded twenty times under the column titled ‘transplantd.’ Few gardeners recorded their failures as often as Thomas Jefferson, and his unrelenting effort to overcome one catastrophe after another is a reflection of his experimental, scientific, and Enlightenment aesthetic.”
Thanks Elizabeth, seeds sprouting all over the place this morning!
I attempted to grow Holly Hocks last year. They didn’t do well, but a few survived. They came back this year, and I’m very satisified. They are beautiful and healthy. I find with growing perennials, patience is needed. It may take a couple years to see them fully develop. I am looking forward to seeing your zinnias in bloom. Think you have encouraged me to try growing them next year.
Jon,
I see someone has already told you the “you have to kill the plant 3 times before you’re really a gardener” thing. It’s not really the death toll but the learning curve. But the reminder that stuff dies isn’t a bad one. It’s a reminder to take your ego out of it. Ehh, some zinnias failed. No big deal. There’s plenty of other ways that plants can fail. I’m sure you will get some of those frustrations too. It’s just part of it.
There’s a lot of “moving parts” with growing living things. Lots of them you can’t completely control. Every location has different challenges. I’d fail a lot at first if I were to move from my gentle PNW to your much harsher climate and try to garden the way I do now. The difference would be that I’d expect it, I already know how to learn and understand the new challenges, and I know what I need to be most concerned with.
The real skills with gardening are observation, patience, willingness to try again, and ability to learn from your mistakes.
A caveat. If you get really into this- and, sorry, you really are a beginner-you will probably end up with some things you just can’t succeed with-I don’t know what they will be, but there will inevitably be something that you just can’t grow. That’s just the nature of it. It won’t be your fault, it’ll be some combination of your conditions that is too much to overcome to succeed with that particular plant in your particular spot. Then you just grow something else.
Keep in mind, there’s a reason there are so many garden writers, books (videos, podcasts, blogs) about how to grow stuff- and hundreds more every year. (You might check out Margaret Roach “A way to garden”- she’s kind of in your area.)
So, watch your plants, and learn. You’ve already had some great lessons. Enjoy the journey. The success will be more sweet.