Thank you Marcella. Even the plants they didn’t eat didn’t do well, hence the lack of a green thumb. :-)
I like the idea of fertilizer stakes and the row covers. I did buy grow lights but I started plants too early. I’ll start a bit later next year.
Yep, next year....sigh......
I think it was maybe last March when Johnny talked me into getting on the gardening thread and learning how to grow food plants and I've never grown anything. Every plant either got murdered or the sun burned them to bits because I thought ground dirt was where one planted plants and that full sun meant full sun. I found none of that is true.
Growing where and what is an individual decision based on one’s own individual location, one’s physical limitations, and what murderers around you are waiting to devour what you plant. An evaluation of all those factors has to be made to come up with a working plan for the individual.
Johnny has no squirrels around him (pretty sure he ate them all), he hasn't complained about birds (he probably ate those too), I know for sure he ate an ugly dog as he called it (it was really a pig), and there are no deer to bother his plants.
Some here have deer problems and other animal problems. I saw a young possum in my garden a few weeks ago, and nearly had a heart attack, like I need another freaking animal?
Anyway, all have to make an individual plan that works for him/her, so I did. In my opinion in order to grow food plants, ground dirt is to walk on, not plant in if I'm going to grow food plants. You have to do the same thing - find solutions to the problems you have right there in your growing space.
Since I have dumped ground dirt for growing smaller plants, I could plant a fruit tree in that dirt garden space. I've read about putting netting over a whole fruit tree before the fruit is on there so animals can't get the fruit when the fruit is there. Netting is cheap. Even dwarf fruit trees grow to eight or ten feet. Most fruit trees are approved for growing in my region. I can have a dwarf fruit tree.
See what you can come up with to solve your particular problems and help guarantee your plants will live and produce. See, I think a green thumb comes from knowledge, it's not something you were born with or not.
Guess I need to write a short book on the philosophy of green thumbs.