Growing your own food can be a deeply rewarding experience.
It allows you to connect with nature, enjoy the rich taste of homegrown produce, and boost your self-sufficiency.
When I first started getting into the groove of growing some of our food, I will admit that I was hooked by the dreaminess of it all.
The buying of colourful seed packets, planning the garden layout, working the soil (that always feels good for the soul), and shopping for annuals can make you a bit romantic about the whole thing, and sometimes those rose tinted glasses (helped along by a dash of the homesteader side of Instagram) can have you thinking that growing your own food is as simple as planting the seed and not looking at it again until the time comes to harvest.
In a perfect world, seeds would sprout and, with minimal effort from your part, they would grow into stunning plants that would feed you every meal time.
In the real world, and particularly in our harsh sub-tropical African climate, this is not the case, and if you are not fully armed with some knowledge, you could walk right into a garden nightmare, one that could dampen your enthusiasm.
Garden Challenges
Before we jump into the problems you might encounter during your gardening experience, I feel the need to say that each of these challenges is based on my own experiences with my own garden here in the Lowveld.
Your experiences might look totally different to mine, so if you don’t find your answer here, don’t think that your problem isn’t real or that it is unsolvable. Also, we gardeners are always learning, so if you have helpful information that I have not included, please leave it in a comment below.
Challenge #1 – Mother Nature’s Wrath
Every gardener has had a run in with Mother Nature.
One winter, in my second season of growing, we had a completely random hailstorm that ripped holes in all of my baby marrow plants. Some were completely annihilated and that winter the harvest took extra long. I’ve also dealt with some unusual flooding, with one summer being so wet that the ground became mush and my plants rotted.
Nature dances to her own tune, with droughts, floods and other weather patterns not only causing immense damage but also creating the perfect environment for pests and diseases. Hot and humid weather is a breeding ground for bugs while cool wet weather can also encourage powdery mildew to spread like wild fire.
The best way to combat Mother Nature’s mood swings is to adapt your garden.
You can grow in a green house or a tunnel, you can cover your garden with a shade net (something I have done) and you can try companion planting and watering your garden at the right time of the day, all to work with nature instead of against it.
Challenge #2 – Time
Dedicated homesteaders spend all the spring and summer seasons in the garden, working on weeds, managing pests and succession planting. We ordinary gardeners, however, generally have day jobs that limit our time spent tending to our crops.
Gardens benefit from effort although that effort will be dependent on your goals.
Certain tasks like watering, fertilising, weeding and making sure that the plants are generally happy and thriving means having to set aside some time each day, whether it is morning or evening, to tend to what needs tending.
Challenge #3 – Knowledge Gap
You would think that the gardening world is a peaceful place with shared knowledge, support and understanding. For the most part it is, but for us living in South Africa, and particularly here in the Lowveld, there is a bit of a knowledge gap.
I learned a lot about gardening from Roots and Refuge Farm’s Jessica Sowards. She was my go to for knowledge when I first started gardening. Her zone in the USA was very much similar to my own so her information was and remains invaluable, but the Lowveld has its own challenges and when it came to finding local information, it was hard to find.
I turned to old books and still, while the books do hold so much value they are also a little outdated as our climate has and continues to change.Â
For instance, the books I read said one has to stop planting seed, like tomatoes and peppers, by the end of Autumn. But I have learned through experience that in the Lowveld I can grow pretty much anything all year round, and that the heat of high summer is actually being my biggest challenge, rather than the short and sometimes icy winter.
When you are looking to bridge that knowledge gap, it might be helpful to go on social media, like YouTube, and to find your nearby garden tribe, through social groups, like seed and plant swapping events.Â
If your tribe is gardening in your sort of climate, chances are good that their advice is sound.Â
And although some books might be outdated, try to collect them anyway. The web these days is packed full of unreliable AI content that you have no clue whether or not has been fact-checked or tested (here I should say that you won’t find AI content on A Little Greenery & Blooms).
And you also need to understand that experience and patience will be the best teachers you could ask for.Â
Plant, experiment, and keep your garden notes up to date and regularly revisited. This way, you can rely on yourself while also developing a plan that works perfectly for your conditions.
Challenge #4 – Â Space Constraints
This issue was an awful one for me to accept.Â
My garden was small but my dreams were big and so I started too many seedlings and crammed them in the space, leading to overcrowding which stunted some plants.
I am not alone in the small space being a frustration.Â
Those who can only grow in containers on balconies or in small yard spaces will likely feel the whole endeavour is somewhat demotivating.
But there are some things you can do to maximise the small space, and I am not talking about the generic answer, which is to plant a vertical garden. I tried out a few things to help me make the most of my space, and here’s what you can try too:
- Plan your space well by making your favourite foods your priority. Love tomatoes? Plant the whole garden full! Only eat a few peppers each year? Limit your bushes to one or two plants.
- You can plant veggies between your flowers and your other perennials. This is a great way to not only optimise your space, but to also make it look more beautiful. Just be sure to plan the space well, as not every part of your garden will be optimal for veg.
Challenge #5 – The Unforeseen
Accept the inevitable.Â
Even the best grower has had a WTF moment and watch as their whole season turned upside down. It could be an unwanted critter (for me, it was the awful arrival of squash bugs, and a destructive mole) or a horrid plant disease that you just were not expecting, the fact is, nature happens.
The only way to prepare for such an unseen calamity is to go through it, tackle the problems as they arise, and learn for next time. The garden is a wonderful and sometimes frustrating teacher, but it will give you lessons that you can make great use of, both in life and the next time you are working in your garden.
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While growing your own food comes with its fair share of challenges, the rewards are undeniably abundant. When you are somewhat prepared for those unexpected hurdles, you’ll be well on your way to enjoying the satisfaction of a successful harvest.
Try to never be discouraged by the challenges, instead, see them as the opportunities they really are, to learn and grow (quite literally) as a gardener.
