Sometimes I feel so stupid

[Headfry]

Claire, the best part for me is the learning, it would be so boring if I knew all there was to know.
I have been doing it years, and learn new bits all the time, fab! and most of it from the lovely folks here on the forum!

Please don't feel sad, and don't aspire to be like us, be like you!
Claire, I know you will do just fine, and like me some things will grow one year and for no reason they wont the next....then there are things that never seem to grow any year and all of a sudden you get a fantastic crop......thats the fun bit!
Just keep popping in those seeds! You will do just fine!
love HF
xx

[Flummery]

Gojiberry and Norm have it right - the day you stop learning things is a sad one. No-one knows it all (and the worst people to ask for advice are those who think they do!) There are so many different weather conditions, parts of the country, soil types etc that what works for me might not work for you so I try not to say "You need to do so and so" but "I usually do so and so". - NB this also works as a get-out clause when I'm wrong!

Asking a question doesn't prove you're stupid, it proves you're bright enough to notice there might be a problem!

The good thing about gardening is that you can (usually) compost your mistakes!

And the reason many of us can give you an answer is because we've all done it ourselves - successes AND failures! Keep it up kid, it's a learning curve worth persisting with.

[shirlthegirl43]

Don't do yourself down Claire. I have learned so much from this forum. I have loads more failures than successes but that just makes the achievement better. So far my greatest success has been spuds in buckets though I lost my entire crop last year. It is all swings and roundabouts and the learning is great fun. Before long you will be answering problems like an old hand (even about things you have never grown)

[Curvy Vixen]

P.S.; there is a thread on here that gets resurrected every now and then in which we detail all our mistakes - mine was tending to a strawberry for months only to discover it was a nettle. Ouch indeed!

I think that this place in invaluable for new gardeners! I spend half my life on here when I should really be working () sorting out what to do when I get home!

I also spent 9 months growing cauliflowers and when they got to the size of beachballs with no sign of anything white in the middle had to ask my mum what was going on! She diagnosed the problem for me....they were actually cabbages I thought that the plant grew and then the white cauliflower bit appeared in the middle

[Winged one]

Um, Curvy vixen, can you please enlighten me on that one - I thought the same and my caulis don't seem to have a white bit in the middle (and they are caulis cos 2 DID get white middles - cabbages are beside em but visibly different). If I burrow into the middle and DON't see a white bit tonight, should I just pull them up (plug plants planted last Sept)????

Claire - ya see - everyone is always learning (and I really didn't ask that to make a point - I am now in a muddle).

[Rich75]

oddly enough, my first year of growing stuff, when i had no idea what i was doing at all, was the best year i had....and great fun as well, half the time i didnt know whether my seed were coming up or if they were weeds, so i just left the lot until i could vaguely identify them. This year i confidently struck out , safe in the knowledge that I knew what I was doing, and as a result pulled up half my crops .. a little knowledge as they say...!

[HeyWayne]

Every day's a school day!

You stop learning, you stop growing - if you follow me?

I've only been growing anything for the past year and a bit and the dude and dudettes on here have been my most valuable source of info (little round of appluase to you all). They will give you pointers and tips that will help along the way.

I will often say that the best way to learn is to do it wrong (similar to the old adage that the best way to remember your wife's birthday is to forget it once), but then who's to say what's right and wrong - there are practised methods of course, but I would wager no two people on here do things the exact same way.

Take everything as a guide and you'll find your way.

Good luck.

p.s. if you want stupid just look up most of my posts - they may not be helpful but I'll hopefully raise a smile.

[shirlthegirl43]

Um, Curvy vixen, can you please enlighten me on that one - I thought the same and my caulis don't seem to have a white bit in the middle (and they are caulis cos 2 DID get white middles - cabbages are beside em but visibly different). If I burrow into the middle and DON't see a white bit tonight, should I just pull them up (plug plants planted last Sept)????

Claire - ya see - everyone is always learning (and I really didn't ask that to make a point - I am now in a muddle).

How do you mean they are visibly different? My young cabbage and cauli plants look identical and as far as I remember, last time I grew them they looked much the same the whole way along. I would think you could eat the greens even if they don't grow curds though.

[bluemoon]

Clare, we tend to answer posts and say things like; 'This is how I do it.........' We rarely, if ever, answer one by saying; 'Sorry, I'm clueless.' We've all been confused, we've all had (and continue to have) failures. My first year of growing potatoes I read all the books and all said; 'Earth them up'. Not a single one explained what earthing up actually meant. I had to ask one of the old boys on our lotties and felt such a fool. But he presumably had been told by someone else, who in turn had also learned from someone. I don't think anyone is actually born with a complete store of gardening knowledge, otherwise there wouldn't be so many books on the subject. The internet just means that we can find answers to our questions from a wider population, but it's only the same as finding this stuff out from neighbours or grandparents as people did in the past.

[Lavenderblue]

I feel the same Clare - don't really have a clue what I am doing most of the time. I ask or guess or read a book and then ask or guess anyway. Its fun to see what works and what doesn't and to just experiment.

I think the most important thing is to enjoy growing things and for it not to become a chore.

[Winged one]

Shirl, they are not young anymore (in the ground now about 7 months or more) and the cabbages have visible tight heads with much "flatter" and rounder leaves around the stalk/vein up the middle, while the caulis are much looser heads with leaves that are much more wrinkly, longer and with indentations into the sides of them.

I can't tell the caulis and cabbages apart in the seed trays from what I ctually sowed myself this spring - but the winter ones came all helpfully labelled from the seed company in seperate bags and are very differnt now that they are grown big.

Soz about typing - dashing out

[shirlthegirl43]

Shirl, they are not young anymore (in the ground now about 7 months or more) and the cabbages have visible tight heads with much "flatter" and rounder leaves around the stalk/vein up the middle, while the caulis are much looser heads with leaves that are much more wrinkly, longer and with indentations into the sides of them.

I can't tell the caulis and cabbages apart in the seed trays from what I ctually sowed myself this spring - but the winter ones came all helpfully labelled from the seed company in seperate bags and are very differnt now that they are grown big.

Soz about typing - dashing out

You should be okay to eat the cauli leaves anyway. I usually cook the brighter green ones (personal preference, I don't like dark green leafy veg) I guess they would be the same as spring greens or brocolli greens. Enjoy what you can from them. Maybe someone pinched the middles when you weren't watching

[Demeter]

Claire - just to echo everyone else really - hope you are feeling more positive now because it's true that even those of us who talk a good game don't necessarily play one if you know what I mean! Saying and doing are two different things, and we only offer advice where we think we have some to give, right? I for one am quite quick to jump in with suggestions or information based on something I read on here or elsewhere (google rocks! sometimes I google the answer to other people's questions just cos I'm interested - nerdy, yes) - but in real life I'm feeling my way the same as everyone else. So far I seem to have beginners luck as there have been no big disasters yet, despite my *many* mistakes, but I'm sure I'll be a better gardener once I've learned a few things the hard way!

PS there's a reason why my signature line says what it does!

[Claire72]

Thanks everyone, feeling a lot brighter today, think I was just a little too much under the weather yesterday.
Thanks for all the advice, good to see that I am not alone

[snohare]

Of course you realise that everything they just said might be wrong...?
(Or then again, I may be... )