Introduction

I’m a retired jack-of-all-trades with 30 years of yard work under my belt — the last six or eight of which have been a deep dive into vegetable gardening. While I don’t have a formal horticulture degree, I did make it through the State University Master Gardener program — certificate and all. I even came out with more questions than I went in with.

That’s not a bad thing. My philosophy is simple: the more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know. Once I do figure something out though, I like to send it on down the row so somebody else can benefit. I’m perfectly fine being the one who makes the mistake first.

I’ll admit it — I’m as stubborn as an old pickax. Once something gets in my craw, it tends to stay there until I sort it out. Some days that helps. Some days it just makes the dirt fight back harder.

Most of what I write comes from doing, watching, and trying things. Occasionally convincing myself something “should work this time,” and then finding out nature had other plans.

I’m not really a “pretty flower” kind of gardener. I’m more of a dirt, grit, and “what on earth is that doing now?” type. If something behaves strangely in the yard, that gets my attention long before anything that’s following the instructions properly.

Over time, this blog shifted away from plant-specific information and turned into a running record of real-world problems — pests, soil issues, plant failures, odd behaviors, and the gap between what we’re told should happen and what actually happens once the plants are left alone.

I like experiments. I like odd results even more. Mostly because they usually come with a lesson I didn’t ask for.

Nature doesn’t really care about our plans, but she does seem to have a sense of humor about them — a wry one at that.

I aim for accuracy, but I’m human and I get things wrong sometimes. If something looks off, I’m always open to digging back into it.

Happy gardening. 🌱