10 Vegetable Gardening Mistakes That Will Ruin Your Harvests

Gardening is all about progress, not perfection, and every grower makes a few mistakes from time to time. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve been gardening for years or just started your first garden— little “whoopsies” are part of the gardening process. However, if you want to make your garden run as smoothly as possible and keep your plants productive, here are some of the most common garden mistakes that growers make and effective ways to avoid them.

1. Gardening in the Wrong Location

Whether you’re growing vegetables in raised beds, in-ground gardens, or grow bags, it’s essential to locate your garden in the right location for the types of plants you want to grow. Most vegetables are full sun plants that require six to eight hours of bright light daily to be productive, and they won’t thrive in shady spots or poorly draining areas where the ground stays soggy. If your yard is waterlogged or super shady, keep your plants in raised beds and focus on vegetables that tolerate low light, like leafy greens and beets.

2. Growing in Poor Soil

Beyond drainage issues, soils that are rocky, heavy with clay, overly sandy, or low in nutrients make it much harder to grow vegetables. Conducting a soil test is the best way to find out if your garden is suitable for plants or if you need to improve your soil with amendments, like compost or pH adjusters. Once you have the soil health figured out, apply a 1 to 2-inch layer of compost, aged manure, or worm castings over your garden beds every spring or fall to ensure the soil stays in tip-top shape.

3. Choosing the Wrong Plants

While you may dream of growing massive pumpkins or long-season loofah sponges, not all vegetables are suitable for every garden. Large plants like squash, melons, and corn can quickly overwhelm small gardens, while ginger and other plants that take a long time to grow may not have enough time to mature if you live in an area with a short growing season. Selecting plants that are appropriately sized for your space and that can reach a harvestable size before fall frosts are expected in your area can help you avoid a lot of headaches.

4. Overcrowding Beds

It’s tempting to squeeze as many plants into garden beds as possible, but this doesn’t work and can lead to stunted plants and mildew issues that spread rapidly when plants are overcrowded. Ensuring your plants have plenty of breathing room by following recommended spacing requirements is sometimes the best way to make small gardens more productive.

5. Planting at the Wrong Time

Most gardeners can’t wait to get seeds or transplants in the ground in spring. However, if you plant vegetables too early or too late, your plants can be damaged by cold spring weather or not have enough time to mature before fall. Following the planting instructions on the seed packets and starting slow-growing seeds indoors in spring can help you avoid cold-damaged plants and make sure your vegetables have enough time to grow before fall.

6. Not Hardening Off

Plants purchased from garden centers have usually been hardened off already, but any seeds you start indoors should be slowly acclimated to outdoor living before you move them outside for good. Slowly exposing plants to outdoor temperatures and brighter light levels is the best way to prevent common transplanting issues, like sunscald and transplant shock.

7. Watering Too Much or Too Little

Next to insufficient lighting, overwatering and underwatering are the most common reasons vegetable crops fail. Most veggies require about 1 inch of water per week, so you should water them when the top 1 inch of soil feels dry. If possible, use drip irrigation or soaker hoses, or direct your garden hose at the soil line to keep the plant leaves dry and prevent fungal issues.

8. Underfertilizing or Overfertilizing

Some plants need more fertilizer than others, so it’s important to do a bit of research to determine precisely how much fertilizer your plants need. Most vegetables do well if you amend the soil with compost before planting and then apply a balanced liquid or granular fertilizer throughout the season. However, heavy-feeding crops like melons often need more fertilizer. Don’t overdo it, though. Too much fertilizer can burn plant roots.

9. Letting Weeds Creep In

There is no such thing as a truly weed-free garden, and vegetable beds need to be weeded regularly to keep weeds from taking over. You can reduce weedy issues and make gardens more manageable by practicing no-till gardening methods and keeping your soil covered with a 1- to 3-inch layer of mulch at all times. If weeds find their way in, use a hori-hori to dig out dandelions and other deep-rooted plants.

10. Neglecting Pest Control

Having some insects around helps gardens grow better, so you don’t need to go overboard with pest control. However, taking some pest control precautions from the moment you start planting in spring can help you avoid a lot of pest issues and keep your plants healthier overall. For starters, rotate crops such as tomatoes around the garden every growing season, use companion plants to naturally deter pests, and consider installing row covers over brassicas to keep cabbage worms from invading.