The Worst Garden of My Entire Life

I’ve had some pretty epic garden failures over the years, but nothing quite like this.

For those who missed it, I moved to a new property this spring. It’s not far from my old place, so I assumed the growing conditions would be somewhat similar: Same high plains. Same brutal wind. Same short growing season.

How different could it possibly be?

Well…. very, VERY different, apparently.

Before I show you the full extent of my current horticultural humiliation, let me preface this by saying:

I know how to garden.

At least, I thought I did.

I have grown gardens that ended up in magazines.

I have grown gardens that were screenshotted, reshared, and labeled with hashtags like #goals.

I have grown thousands of pounds of food over the years. I’ve preserved it, canned it, fermented it, cooked it, photographed it, and taught other people how to grow it.

This isn’t my first rodeo.

I didn’t intend to plant a monster garden this year. Not in the middle of moving and starting over.

But as I so poetically declared back in May, I was determined to plant my two flats of heirloom tomato starts and grow a small, humble garden for my mental health.

Ha.

HA.

What followed that innocent little photo was an absolute horticultural disaster.

Everything either died, stayed exactly the same, or disappeared overnight.

I know I’m not the only person whose garden has failed this year. So instead of pretending I have this figured out, I’m going to show you what I’m finding as I go in hopes it will help someone else who may also be wallowing in gardening woes.

Right now, it appears three separate problems have joined forces to create the worst garden of my entire life:

Problem No. 1: Herbicide Contamination

This one is keeping me up at night.

I have dealt with herbicide contamination before, thanks to contaminated hay mulch and manure. I’ve written about it extensively on my blog, and it is a growing problem for gardeners and small farmers.

Some broadleaf herbicides can pass through an animal’s digestive system and remain active in manure for a looong time. They can also stay in hay, compost, or potting soil for YEARS before they dissipate.

Tomatoes are usually the canary in the coal mine because they are so sensitive. Their leaves will curl, cup, and gnarl. They don’t always die, but instead persist in a strange state of deformity.

The problem is that I don’t know where the contamination came from.

I spoke with the previous owner of this property, and he said he never sprayed the garden area. He had only added bagged potting soil to the raised beds.

Now, can bagged soil or compost contain herbicide residue? Yes, but not always. It doesn’t seem to be the most likely explanation, but I can’t rule it out yet.

However, there’s another possibility that scares me more.

There is commercial farmland directly across the road from my house.

Herbicide drift (aka the movement of chemical droplets or particles away from the area where they were intended to be applied) can wipe out entire gardens or landscapes and it’s happening more and more.

However, the farmer across the road told me they didn’t spray this year, so I don’t think fresh drift from that field is the culprit.

But I do suspect a different kind of drift….

Southeastern Wyoming is experiencing Dust Bowl conditions this year. Thanks to our historic drought and continued tilling, massive clouds of dirt have been rolling across the road and onto my property.

And I don’t mean a light coating of dust. I’m talking about a thick layer of soil covering EVERYTHING.

There were days this summer when I’d be only a quarter-mile from my house and couldn’t even see it because it was enveloped in a cloud of brown.

My fear is herbicide residue could be traveling in that windblown soil. However, right now, that is only a theory. I’m still gathering information instead of jumping to conclusions.

Before I can make any real plan, I need to figure out two things:

Where is this contamination coming from?

And what chemical am I dealing with?

I’ve talked to the Wyoming Department of Ag and am looking into several testing options.

More to come on this soon…

Problem No. 2: Terrible Soil Fertility

At first, I blamed everything on herbicide damage, but then I noticed something else:

Even the plants that are less susceptible to broadleaf herbicides were not growing.

They weren’t twisted or distorted, but they weren’t changing or putting on new leaves.

I also noticed that the weeds were different here. At my old place, lamb’s quarters and pigweed (aka amaranth) grew in droves. Both of those are usually associated with fertile, nitrogen-rich soil.

Here, there were no lamb’s quarters. Or pigweed. Or purslane. Or mallow.

What I have instead is kochia.

ONLY kochia.

Kochia isn’t a perfect soil diagnostic, but it thrives in dry, disturbed ground and can live in conditions where other plants struggle. It was a clue that some major nutrients were lacking here. I suspected low nitrogen, so I grabbed one of my trusty Redmond’s home soil test kits to confirm.

The results were eye-opening, but not surprising:

Hardly any nitrogen. Nada. Which totally tracks with the lack of growth I’m seeing in my plants.

So yes, I need to add nitrogen, but I have to be careful as my phosphorus and potassium are also WAY too high…. and just dumping a typical fertilizer or even manure on the garden will further this imbalance. Plus, it’s harder and harder to find manure that’s not contaminated with herbicides.

This will NOT be a one-week fix. Rebuilding soil is a multi-year process.

I know this.

I have taught this.

I believe it.

And now, like it or not, I get to put everything I’ve learned into practice here.

Problem No. 3: Every Animal in the County

THERE ARE SO MANY RABBITS HERE.

Anything I plant outside the fenced garden is mowed down almost immediately.

I planted a young lilac bush, and it was gone overnight. Gone.

They’ve eaten my newly transplanted elderberries. They’ve eaten perennials. They’ve eaten EVERYTHING.

(I also realized my lovely dog has been systematically eating all the blossoms off my potted flowers. When I finally caught him doing it, I was actually relieved because I had been trying to figure out how the rabbits were climbing into my tall pots, haha.)

I’ve never dealt with this much rabbit pressure before. I don’t care to massacre them all, and I won’t use poison, BUT I would also like to have a few flowers and shrubs around my house…

There has to be a middle ground between “rabbit buffet” and “concertina-wire landscaping,” but I’m still trying to find it.

If anyone has ideas, please send them my way.

So What Now?

I wish this essay ended with a triumphant reveal, but there isn’t one yet.

This is not a before-and-after story. It’s just the before.

That’s why I wanted to share it now.

So much of the internet is built around completed transformations, but sometimes you’re still standing in the problem with more questions than answers.

I will NOT be harvesting bushels of tomatoes this year.

There will be ZERO magazine-worthy garden tours or even one respectable zucchini.

But I am collecting information.

The curled leaves are information. The missing weeds are information.

The dust, the rabbits, and the wind are all information.

And eventually, information becomes understanding, which will become a plan .

And a plan with enough time, compost, fencing, and stubbornness, just might become a garden.

Just not this year.

This year, I am growing something else.

Humility, apparently.

And kochia.

An absolutely exceptional crop of kochia.

—Jill

P.S. If you want to try the home soil test kit I used, you can shop it here. Use code HOMESTEAD for 15% off. I’ve found them to be extremely useful over the years when I’m troubleshooting garden stuff. Just keep in mind they won’t test for herbicides or pesticides— just soil nutrients.

More Fails in the Past:

• I Think I Poisoned My Garden
• The 5 Biggest Seed-Starting Mistakes Homesteaders Make
• How to Reset Your Homestead After a Disappointing Year
• The BIGGEST Homestead Mistakes We’ve Made (so far)