If you are a 'set it and forget it' type of person, then yeah, it'll be hit or miss. Heck, even if you are active and engaged in your garden, the first few seasons can be hit or miss because you are learning your climate and how to adapt to fluctuations. Once you understand how to cope, it'll be hit after hit - at least for the majority of your crop.
You win some, you lose some. Weather every summer is different so what thrives in my garden changes every year. You can plant more heat resistant plants next year. My long beans went crazy in our higher humidity while my spinach struggled.
Hit and miss is probably a bit simplistic, but to some degree, yes, that's how things are.
I don't grow in your climate or even the same part of the world as you, but I live in an area of the USA (southeast) where warm season conditions from year to year are quite variable. You never really know what you're going to get, could be drought, could be exceptionally wet all summer, might be reasonably comfortable temps, might have extreme heat starting in April. Same with bugs and disease, good years with little issue, then a decade where each year brings one or more new scourge that had previously not been an issue.
This year was super weird for me as well. Much wetter, much cloudier than normal, but also repressively extreme heat for a good part of that. Even with raised beds, lots of things struggled to dry out. Things like tomatoes are showing signs of getting too much water, water-born diseases are rampant. And because all the plants are weakened, now the pests have moved in and are insatiable, unstoppable nightmares.
Professional farmers handle this with chemicals, so they're mostly all quite happy that we finally had a summer without a drought, first time in 5+ years. I would not be surprised to hear of near record crop yields locally this year.
But us random back yard hobby growers seem to all be unimpressed. Even the ones who were generally known for being exceptionally skilled seem to have given up on this year's crop. Having said that, not everything has suffered. A few things, like herbs and okra, did exceptionally well this year.
Couple of things to mention: Find out what tends to grow best in your climate and try to stick with that (at least until you get some experience under your belt). Find out what growing techniques work best in your climate and try to do that as best you can, but know that it won't always work out. Go for variety. Try a few different techniques, like do some things in pots, others in a raised bed. Plant a few things in a bit more shade (or a bit more sun) than normal, hedge against extreme heat and long dreary spells. Grow many different things with slightly different needs, shot gun approach, because some years are better than others for different things.
I'm in zone 7 US northeast. We also had a bad year. Last year was much better.
That's what I was afraid of lol, it's been on my mind if whether the weather has something to do with crops not growing. It does make sense that some years climates are different than others, what with climate change and all that.
It's totally weather dependent. It's the figuring out how to work with it that's the tricky part, and it is tricky!
Yeah! Gardening is tough man ๐ but I guess the reward and investment is worth it once you get the hang of it and I can't wait to reap what I showed no pun intended.
I think you have to find what does good in your area. This year my cucumbers, blueberries, sunflowers, and radishes did well. My tomatoes and peppers were a lot of work to protect and just did horribly.
Yeah, I need to research stuff, would there be a website that tells you what you can grow in your zone specifically? Or you just wing it?
i use burpee's website to find out planting windows, and you can check out the farmers almanac website, they have tons of info! But anything can affect your plants- the sun in your area, the soil, if theres big trees around shading more than you realize, certain bugs in your area, temps, even water hardness etc etc
it gets easier every year
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