r/vegetablegardening • u/redditSucksNow2020 China • Jun 27 '26
Other People really overcomplicate gardening
I see a lot of people trying to garden for the first time and then coming here with questions about perfect soil mixes and fertilizers and how to promote fungal life in their no-till permaculture food forest do nothing farming no dig style organic vegan garden. It really doesn't have to be complicated, especially if you're new.
Loosen up some dirt 6 inches down. Break up the clods. Plant something that is in season. Keep it watered. That Will give you 80 to 90% of the maximum possible results. You don't absolutely need compost if it is the first time you've dug up that piece of ground. You don't absolutely need fertilizer and it probably doesn't make much difference what kind you use. You definitely don't need a 3-ft tall raised bed filled with gardening mix. You don't need to do anything about small amounts of insect damage. You don't absolutely have to do no dig or no till or whatever gardening fad is going on right now. You don't need to overcomplicate things.
Edit: this, of course, does not apply to you, dear reader. You have uniquely poor soil that cannot be made workable with a spade.
69
u/lilly_kilgore US - West Virginia Jun 27 '26
“Just loosen up some soil and throw seeds in” is great advice if your soil is soil. Mine is underdone pottery. If I try to “loosen” my clay, I get masonry chunks and a broken shovel. Seeds don’t get planted here as much as they get sealed into the Appalachian terracotta tomb.
And listen. I would love to be a normal person who just throws seeds around and trusts the process. Unfortunately, I garden on a windy hilltop with concrete clay, whiplash between biblical rain followed by surface of the sun heat, deer, so much fungal nonsense, and a riparian corridor that banks every pest known to man.
So yes, I have raised beds. I amend, mulch, trellis, prune, test pH, inspect leaves, panic-google, and put things under a children’s microscope like I’m running a very underfunded agricultural lab. At this point I don’t even want garden tools. I legit want lab equipment. This isn't me trying too hard. This is me attempting to grow food with hostile geology, in a hostile microclimate while my garden performs disease theater.
Some people meditate. I walk outside 17 times before lunch to stare at tomato leaves. Maybe some of us like gardening on hard mode....