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The Beginner's Garden with Jill McSheehy

443 - What I learned... from the failures of this season

The Beginner's Garden with Jill McSheehy

Jill McSheehy

How To, Education, Home & Garden, Leisure

4.7 • 830 Ratings

🗓️ 14 October 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Feeling discouraged by garden failures? You're not alone. In this episode, I walk through four issues I faced this year and how I'm troubleshooting each one so you can apply the same practical steps in your garden. You'll learn simple ways to read plant stress, reduce disease and pest pressure, and plan smarter for next season.

free download: Garlic Planting Cheat Sheet
Your first (or best) garlic crop—timing, spacing, curing.
http://journeywithjill.net/garliccheatsheet

Key Takeaways

  • Why peppers sometimes need light shade in hot summers and when to add it

  • What root-knot nematodes look like and how cover crops can help

  • Signs of southern blight on peppers and prevention options

  • Bitter vs. diseased cucumbers: what to change next season

  • A gentle reminder to list your wins before planning fixes

Chapters

  • 00:00 – Why failure grows better gardeners

  • 02:18 – Reframe: successes you might be missing

  • 04:12 – Failure #1: Bell peppers + full-sun stress

  • 08:53 – Failure #2: Okra + root-knot nematodes

  • 19:35 – Sponsor break: Organic Rev + garlic routine

  • 21:28 – Time-sensitive: Greenstalk warehouse sale

  • 23:06 – Failure #3: Jalapeños + southern blight clues

  • 30:22 – Failure #4: Cucumbers—bitterness vs. downy mildew

  • 34:36 – Reflect, note, and plan next steps

Resource Links

Sponsor(s) for this Episode

  • Organic Rev – I soak garlic cloves 50/50 Rev-to-water before planting and often water in at ~1 oz/gal during cool-season transplants. Use code JILL10 for 10% off: http://journeywithjill.net/organicrev. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

  • Greenstalk Vertical Planter – Warehouse sale through October 21. Grab closeout colors while supplies last. Use code JILL10 for $10 off $75+: https://journeywithjill.net/greenstalk. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Soft Paid Mention
Complete Garden Planner – Plan and track your season simply: https://shop.journeywithjill.net/

Disclaimer
Gardening advice shared in this podcast is based on my own experience in Zone 8a (Arkansas) and from the feedback I receive from others in different gardening contexts. Your results may differ depending on your location, climate, and growing conditions. Always check your local extension service or trusted resources for region-specific guidance. Some links mentioned may be affiliate links, which means I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you if you make a purchase. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Well, hey there, and welcome to the Beginners Garden podcast. If there's one thing that I want to tell

0:05.5

any beginning gardener, it's that I don't want you to fear failure. Failure is not the enemy,

0:13.2

and in many ways it is a huge learning opportunity. And it's not something that we grow out of

0:19.5

the more experience we get.

0:25.2

Just this year, my jalapeno plants wilted suddenly.

0:26.5

I had to take them out early.

0:29.4

I also had to pull out my okra early.

0:34.6

My cucumbers were bitter in the beginning and in the late ones had all sorts of disease.

0:40.2

And my bell peppers barely produced all season. These are just a few of the failures that I have experienced this year. And yes, while I am disappointed, I'm taking these

0:46.6

failures just like they are as learning opportunities. Here's what this means for you. I don't want you to go into any garden season

0:57.8

fearing failure. You learn so much more from failures than you do successes, whether that's a

1:04.9

failure due to your error, the weather, disease, pest, or something else entirely. I'm convinced that we all become better

1:13.8

gardeners when we name our failures instead of just brushing past them and pretending they didn't happen.

1:20.4

I have a tendency to do that sometimes. So we name them instead. We try to figure out what happened

1:26.3

to the best of our ability, and then we try again.

1:30.8

With that in mind, I'm going to share with you some of my failures this season. Sure, a beginning

1:36.2

gardener may look at my 13 years of experience and assume that failures are way back in my rearview

1:42.1

mirror, but any veteran gardener will tell you that failures are not something that we ever fully get

1:48.9

away from, especially if we continue to try new things year after year, and we continue to

1:56.1

test and we continue to learn.

1:58.4

And honestly, I don't know that I would have a garden without trying

2:01.6

new things and testing new things and learning new things because that's part of the fun of it.

...

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