30 Times People Attempted To Grow Their Own Food, But The Results Were Hilariously Disappointing
In times of the worldwide pandemic, many people turned to urban gardening, which, in times of crisis, became something that promotes fun, well-being, and environmental protection. People started buying plants in bulk while millennials saw it as a way to deal with their mental health and find some inner piece.
Some people didn’t just stop with plants. Growing something nutritious and tasty became another trend with more and more backyards and balconies turned into little lands for harvesting.
Tomatoes, peppers, apples… nothing seemed impossible. Until you actually started growing them. Turns out, the reality of what you harvest does not always meet the expectations that you planted and when it doesn't, it most likely ends up on this corner of Reddit known as “Mighty Harvest.”
Below we wrapped up some of the funniest gardening and harvesting fails!
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I Saved Watermelon Seeds From Last Year And Grew My Own Watermelons!
As a kid, I once planted a black bean from one of those 5-bean soup mixes. It grew, the vine climbed the indoor lighting thing we had at the time, and it sprouted a pod and gave me - 1 black bean.
Mind if I ‘accidentally’ carry away one? Perfectly hedgehog-sized! :D
it's not bad.... unless you get caught. (JK)
Load More Replies...You will need a Microscope to find next year's crop.
Load More Replies...My Corn (1) Is Doing Great
I've grown corn before and you need at least 16 plants in a grid 4 x 4 because they pollinate one another and if they're not close together, they cannot pollinate. Try it again next year.
Very Large Harvest. Very Small Dog
Wild strawberries are always tiny, lots of flavour but quite sharp, I have it in a pot because it looks beautiful when flowering! I leave the fruit for the birds - not that I have a choice, in this case the early birds really get the worm, or the strawberries!
Growing up, the wild strawberries were the absolute best.
Load More Replies...Strawberries grow like crazy. I don’t know how you didn’t succeed at growing more!! we just threw out some like strawberry tops in the garden, one time and had strawberries for years! They were never as big as the store bought ones though.
Oh my! I live in a place with inhospitable summers. At my old house I still have a strawberry patch going and it's over 30 years old. Over time the different varieties have commingled and are small to medium size and very sweet! At my current home I have a 20 year old strawberry patch. However I have less space and have hundreds of resident lizards and they get most of them. I don't mind, they keep the rest of my yard in decent shape. Raccoons, possums, mice and other creatures of the night snack on them too. Also have fig trees - so I have provided a buffet for them. My neighbors also grow various fruits and vegetables and we harvest what we can while sharing with the local wildlife.
If you have noticed more and more young people getting into gardening recently, you’re not the only one. In fact, savvy millennials who want to know where the food on their plate is coming from have set a new ‘grow your own’ trend.
In Ireland, for example, a study that looked into the trend of buying herbs, fruit and vegetables for planting found that the market boomed to €19 million in 2019. Meanwhile, the horticultural market in Ireland is worth €795m according to the 2018 figures, compared to €729m in 2016 and €516m in 2011.
My Pear Tree, One Yearly Perfect Pear, No Leaves And 4 Feet Tall. My Mom Made Sure To Send Me A Picture Because I’m Not Home This Fall
It put all it's energy into that one pear. I hope you appreciate it's effort
I had a little nut tree and nothing would it bear, but a silver nutmeg and a golden pear
I am not certain but the upper branches look a bit like fire blight. I have a wonderful pear tree I have been trying to save for several years that has blight and it's production has dropped off drastically. I have planted a replacement of a resistant variety as I fear I am going to leave sr the original but an infected tree can scrape along for a surprisingly long time.
But if there’s only one, is it still a pair? (“pear,”… see what I did there?)
We have a peach tree which started very tiny. It alternates in having lots of leaves and one or two peaches to having five or six peaches without many leaves. It does seem to be going in the direction of having a few more peaches each year. We need to water it more.
With These Peppers, I Shall Spice A Thousand Dishes!
Is it? I'm not sure how to identify the specific kinds of peppers and chilis, but these, as far as my knowledge carries, may very well be dwarfed bell peppers. But then again, when I had habaneros on my balcony, they looked like those, were about the same size and colour, and tasted wonderful. I didn't even buy seeds, but collected them from any chilis I bought fresh, got them mixed up by ... they were all in seperate little trays, that was in a box, I carried said box and then the cat is dropped into the equation by making me stumble and get them all mixed up. Bell peppers, Habaneros and some 3 to 7 other kinds ... I decided to have a mystery plant every year until they're all finished. Still aren't, but I skipped a few years due to working elsewhere and on the 2 days at home, just not being into gardening that much...
Load More Replies...My Mighty Pineapple (Apple For Scale. I Was Out Of Bananas)
Banana does seem to be taking a lot of time of work recently... Does anyone know if bananas ok?
Looks like the economy in Bikini Bottom is suffering, also! SpongeBob had to downsize…
I am fully submitted to the notion that the banana 🍌 is simply and understanding between America and the rest of the world as far as measurements go. Yes, I'm American (both parents born and raised in Poland) and I fully support it.
The same tendency is observed in other countries around the globe. The 2021 National Gardening Association study showed that the Covid pandemic created 18.3 million new gardeners in the US, most of whom are millennials. Results found that gardening activities raised significantly at every garden experience level.
Experts believe that the millennial love for gardening is tied to movements of self-care and wellness. Since many young people don’t have access to an outdoor space as the majority of working millennials live in urban spaces, bringing plants, fruits and veggies inside seems like an appealing solution.
Would Anyone Like Some Lemon Water?
I love this so much. I laughed so much harder than I should have. Congrats to you for growing the ABSOLUTE CUTEST lemon in the world!!
Just In Time For Halloween, The Tiniest Jack O’lantern
please please PLEASE recreate this meme with that tiny pumpkin Screen-Sho...b0-png.jpg
That's not really a pumpkin.....it's called a Jack-Be-Little and it's a type of gourd.
Three And A Half Months Delivered This Beast Just In Time For Our Village’s Annual Easter Feast
Im not even being ironic when I say my new life mission is to live in a village that has Easter feasts...
This looks like something they would serve as a fancy Michelin star restaurant.
IKR!! How is it that the stem is BIG while the root itself it teeny?
Load More Replies...This happened to every carrot I planted last year. I was so disappointed. I made the mistake of planting them in a planter box that wasn't deep enough. This year I'll plant them directly into the ground.
But if you've ever tried indoor gardening yourself, you know it’s not as easy as it looks. The harvest comes down to the tiniest details–from sun to humidity and just the right amount of shade. So it’s best to start from growing something simple, like herbs.
The experts at MiracleGro remind gardening aficionados to harvest often to encourage bushy growth. For herbs like mint, basil, cilantro, and dill, snip a few inches from the top of each stem, cutting right above a set of leaves. You can also harvest full stems from the outside of the plant by cutting a half-inch above the plant’s base.
Meanwhile, for herbs like oregano, parsley, sage, and thyme, choose long stems with few leaves. Snip chives at the base of the plant, about an inch above the soil. With sage and mint, you can also skip the cutting and simply pinch off individual leaves.
I Am So Proud Of My Chili. She Did Her Best
How? Chillies are so easy to grow, I bet your next harvest will be good. Watch out for snails, they love them
These I can grow year round. I am partial to the peppers they use for tobasco sauce.
My Cart Will Definitely Feed A Whole Village!
This reminds me of the miniature cooking youtube videos. They are so amusing to watch.
What would be cute, is if there was a tiny donkey attached to the front of the cart
Load More Replies...Ready To Begin Harvesting. Need Advice On Canning
Hahaha that's the saddest tomato plant I've ever seen😥. I've seen happier ones growing in the cracks of footpaths, thriving ones in fact lol
Happened to me. 4 plants (with sunlight, fertilizers, water) gave a total of 12 tomatoes , size of cherries. And I find good size tomatoes in plants growing in garbage. It has become a joke in my family to take pictures of those plants and share them.
Load More Replies...If Charlie Brown grew tomatoes, he could put this by his Chirstmas tree...
Yep. Hornworms. They (it?) ate all the leaves.
Load More Replies...I think the problem came from the cover of the soil... It looks like pine's needles ans young branches which are known to acidify the soil. In small amount it is not a problem but layered like that ? A-Ouch..... I know tomatoes usually like acidic soil but even them have their limits. Also as the needles decompose reaaaaaally slowly, the ground beneath tends to lake nutriments...
LOL, growing up, we had this little patch to the side of our backyard patio. It was maybe 4'x2' and was literally just weeds, but somehow my mother had tomatoes every year. The woman basically threw seeds back there and they just kept growing every year. In 17 years I don't think I ever saw her actually tending to it.
Took Me Hours To Slice This Baby Up. Hopefully This Should End Global Hunger. Hand And Chinese Chef Knife For Reference
omg thats actually so cool... its split up into all the little parts and everything
omg it is! (on mobile so I can't get the picture here, anyone who wants to see it just click AubynKen above the upvote button, it takes you to reddit then just scroll to the second picture there)
Load More Replies...Tonight We Feast On Potatoes!
Grow them in a tub and when the plant gets a couple of feet high add another bottomless tub on top, fill with soil until about 30cm of the plant is above. Repeat for a while and when you harvest you'll have a potato rope
We had something like those too. I could proudly say that "in my garden strawberries grow to same size as potatoes." But those tiny-toes were great in soup, just wash them properly and drop them in whole.
That's my favorite hip-hop duo... Lil' Mac and Small Fry!
Load More Replies...Two Years Of Waiting For Our One And Only Lemon
Takes decades to get a good citrus tree. This is why a lot of stock is grown from root stock that is already years old
Aw, it's like the VW my wife had when I met her: a tiny, useless lemon.
I have a lemon tree in my house (its my dads, hes... not.... great... at gardening) the leaves are shedding constantly, the floor is always covered in leaves. (idk why he bought a lemon tree when we live in maryland when the whether changes so much.) it had a couple lemons that looked like that, but now there is like 2.
Hey that's impressive! We've got 2 grown trees with zero lemons! But the caterpillars like them!
A new fruit tree takes a few years to get established. You'll get mini fruit, but each year after the fruit will get bigger. Maybe if you got a tree of the opposite sex, you might get larger fruit with them together. Check with you nursery.
In Six Months I Was Able To Turn One Clove Of Garlic Into One Clove Of Garlic With A Stem
I was going to plant garlic a while back. Then I found out how long it takes & how much work is involved and decided I’ll just continue to buy it from the store lol
This Is My Harvest From 3 Different Potato Plants. Don’t Worry, They Tasted Terrible Too
This Should Sustain Us Through The Winter
They look like yellow ticks don't they? urgh!!
Load More Replies...Pollination problems. Corn needs to be grown in clumps, rather than rows. It's pollinated by wind, so you have to make sure the spot isn't too sheltered as well.
Can also be hand pollinated, as thousands of former Iowa teenagers can attest.
Load More Replies...It Only Cost Me $200 To Grow These
Whatever they are, they're gourd-geous.
Load More Replies...The problem is you grew a type of gourd called a Jack-Be-Little.
at my house we accidentally made a bunch of pumpkins. my brother kinda threw some into our garden after mashing them up
I misread that as your brother threw some up in your garden...
Load More Replies...JFC! What seeds cost that much? Many people in end up with those when they just let a jack o lantern 🎃 rot and forget about it in the yard and get surprise pumpkins the next year, because a seed or ten are always missed. The rotting pumpkin actually becomes the rich compost for the seeds, so they grow without effort.
Time To Make Strawberry Jam For My Neighbours
Not gonna lie. That will prob be the best strawberry you ll ever eat.
Such A Plentiful Harvest I Shall Have To Gift Some To Family & Friends
When Life Gives You Lemons…
It will still hurt if you throw it in someone's eye, don't worry
A Year's Worth Of Hard Work
Yes!! All of those things would be great sautèed and added to some pasta and green sauce!!
Load More Replies...Ah, I see the issue with the zucchinis. They haven't been pollinated properly. It's something one can do themselves, the plants has got male flowers as well as female flowers. Just get some pollen with a Q-tip from a male flower (flower is on a thin stem, will only bloom on one morning for several hours) and rub it on the inside of a female flowers (they have mini zucchinis as a stem, like the harvest on the pictures). Once properly pollinated, they grow and grow. My heaviest was about 1,7kg.
Yes, I was going to say it looks like a pollination problem.
Load More Replies...I was thinking...if we were to live only from farming, like our grand-grandparents, we'd probably starve :)
Lol there is so much to learn!! I feel like of we all had continued to have to live only from farming.. the knowledge would have been past down instead of forgotten:(
Load More Replies...Not bad. Especially considering that half of us barely have the patiences to grow plants anyway.
I've had a few years like this with a 3 acre garden. Don't give up. Each year you get better and better at it. Like parenting. You learn as you go.
If you're not getting like one zucchini every day or so, you should give up gardening. They're pretty much the easiest thing to grow in the world and produce through disease, poor soil, lack of nutrients/water, and most other neglect. And green bell peppers are a waste of time and space if you don't have a big garden considering they take 9 months to grow and are 99 cents at the store.
Better than mine. My BIL thought is was weeds and removed it. I got 0....
Just Harvested An Entire Bag Of Lays Chips Worth Of Potato!
Time To Make Some Scallion Pancakes
I used to get them at a Korean restaurant. They're delicious!
Load More Replies...You didn't let this grow long enough. You need to wait until it's big to harvest it. Lol.
The Rains Have Blessed Us With Some Sweet Mangos
Well I would still do anything for mangoes, even if they were that size
What if they asked you to carry out an assassination attempt?
Load More Replies...Jumping On The Tiny Chilli Pepper Bandwagon With The Only Carolina Reaper I Managed To Grow This Year
Just wash hands 5 times and don't touch an eye for the next week. They'll be fine...
Load More Replies...Guess What I Will Have For My Salad
Uh.... that's not a failure; you just plucked it way too soon. (Now I'm regretting mentioning my friend who complained about having tiny tomatores....)
It's not the size of your cucumbers it's how you grow them that matters lol
the flower is still there, you should've let it grow longer, but none the less it is cute
I know! I mean, is it s Barbie hand? How can we tell sans banana?
Load More Replies...Pepper Growing Expert Here — Ama!
That bush is gonna struggle lol although I can see a couple of buds. If you cut the chilli off the leaves will grow (maybe, chillies are pretty hardy) cut any flowers off so the bush puts all its energy into growing branches and leaves. And water properly, make sure all the soil is soaked not just the surface or that the water is just running down the side of the pot instead of soaking in.
Yeah, doesn't look like it's been watered properly - the soil looks dry - and in this corner it probably doesn't get much sun, either. Chilies need tons of both! Water daily and put into full sunlight and it'll thrive. Don't and... well, it'll be like this. Plants have preferred environments, just like animals. You wouldn't put a cat into an aquarium and expect it to thrive, would you?
Load More Replies...Yes exactly, the plant won't waste energy growing the fruit. You get the chilli to bush out a bit then let flower once it's a bit healthier
Load More Replies...idkw but this made me think jack and the beanstalk. jack and the pepper stalk :)
Months Of Labour Have Finally Paid Off
Um, no, that's actually not true. "Baby" carrots are simply cut and peeled regular sized carrots that are not perfect in appearance. Nobody wants to buy the bent and twisted carrots because they're too hard to peel.
Load More Replies...Test your soil. It might be all wrong for what you are trying to grow.
My Bountiful Beet Harvest
I Had My First Ever Corn Harvest Today
What if these are all really ominous foreshadowing of what's coming with climate change? I've never seen this many garden fails.
It's not as easy to grow things as many people seem to think it is. A lot can go wrong. Improper growing environments can cause most of this. Things like soil, the size of the growing area, light, water, insects, and even humidity (or lack thereof) all contribute. Also, if you're trying to grow fruits and vegetables using seeds out of most store-bought produce and expecting it to do well at all, you're setting up for a let-down. Quite a bit of our produce is grown using parented seeds and growing techniques. Much of it is sterile, so it won't ever grow for you. Commercial growers want us to keep buying these items from them, not growing them at home. You're much better off spending a little bit or making a gardening buddy to trade seeds and plants with.
Load More Replies...No, this is what happens when people with black thumbs try to grow a garden. Trust me, I should know.
*hugs* I learned the hard way myself. And my family had enormous gardens for generations. They made it look easier than it is, especially if you're trying to grow things out of season or in the wrong climate
Load More Replies...I was going to post the same thing. Like...apparently they're super magician wizards or something.
Load More Replies...This is why those "just grow your own food, it's easy" people make my skin crawl. Especially when they suggest that people living in apartments can grow their way out of food poverty.
Yes! Exactly what I was thinking. Should save this post and use it as a reply to those, lol.
Load More Replies...Growing up as a kid, we had strawberry plants and tons of rabbits. That meant tons of strawberry-seed-laden bunny turds all over the yard (tiny and dry, so not messy). That meant strawberry plants trying to grow among the regularly mown grass. We'd get these tiny little strawberries... no bigger than grains of rice. So tiny you COULDN'T try to eat them if you tried. Like the abundant clover, they'd attract big fat bumblebees which meant you'd have to wear shoes so you didn't get stung if you stepped on one. But I liked petting the bees, too.
PETTING. THE. BEES. Now there's a phrase I've never heard before...
Load More Replies...I tried growing my own veg in South Africa (read: sunny) and with lots of water, lots of space, and lots of good soil, and got similar results to the above (not quite as bad). Result: I now really really respect farmers.
I teach horticulture/Bush tuckers in a school. I have made a few of these mistakes at one stage lol growing stuff and pottering about your garden is one of life's joys, I hope all these people didn't get discouraged and still enjoy growing their own food.
Look, I've given up on tomatoes and chillies (even though they should be easy to grow in the climate I live in). Beans and basil seem to be my forte.
Load More Replies...last year I planted carrots, cougettes, fennel, corn, basil and sunflowers, properly, by growing it in a greenhouse until big enough to plant outside, got new growing bags, compost, even netting to protect from birds. I harvested one courgette and a couple of sunflowers actually flowered but died so quickly there was no change to get the seeds. Everything else died. I blame the summer drought.
This brings back some memories when I used to grow plenty of veggies, fruits and flowers on the big balcony of my first flat. It looked so awesome, people came by to take pictures. Sometimes I would share some veggies when I had too much. I loved getting up early to enjoy the bees that were gathering in the lavender. My favourite memory is of a blackbird. I was hanging up some clothes in the sun to dry. It was just next to the table where I grew strawberries which I wanted to harvest after it. When I was done, I heard some bird sounds next to me. There he was. A blackbird with a beak with red juices dripping down. We stared at each other in surprise for a couple of seconds until he flew off. Needless to say, there were no strawberries to harvest anymore 😂😂😂 Now I have a big garden. But instead of growing stuff, I just enjoy sitting in the sun and watch the birds, butterflies, mice, hedgehogs and bees. BTW, it can really hurt if a hedgehog decides to bite your toe 😳
Beautiful visual you've created ...right down to the hedgehog!
Load More Replies...I was going to post the same thing. Like...apparently they're super magician wizards or something.
Load More Replies...This is why those "just grow your own food, it's easy" people make my skin crawl. Especially when they suggest that people living in apartments can grow their way out of food poverty.
Yes! Exactly what I was thinking. Should save this post and use it as a reply to those, lol.
Load More Replies...Growing up as a kid, we had strawberry plants and tons of rabbits. That meant tons of strawberry-seed-laden bunny turds all over the yard (tiny and dry, so not messy). That meant strawberry plants trying to grow among the regularly mown grass. We'd get these tiny little strawberries... no bigger than grains of rice. So tiny you COULDN'T try to eat them if you tried. Like the abundant clover, they'd attract big fat bumblebees which meant you'd have to wear shoes so you didn't get stung if you stepped on one. But I liked petting the bees, too.
PETTING. THE. BEES. Now there's a phrase I've never heard before...
Load More Replies...I tried growing my own veg in South Africa (read: sunny) and with lots of water, lots of space, and lots of good soil, and got similar results to the above (not quite as bad). Result: I now really really respect farmers.
I teach horticulture/Bush tuckers in a school. I have made a few of these mistakes at one stage lol growing stuff and pottering about your garden is one of life's joys, I hope all these people didn't get discouraged and still enjoy growing their own food.
Look, I've given up on tomatoes and chillies (even though they should be easy to grow in the climate I live in). Beans and basil seem to be my forte.
Load More Replies...last year I planted carrots, cougettes, fennel, corn, basil and sunflowers, properly, by growing it in a greenhouse until big enough to plant outside, got new growing bags, compost, even netting to protect from birds. I harvested one courgette and a couple of sunflowers actually flowered but died so quickly there was no change to get the seeds. Everything else died. I blame the summer drought.
This brings back some memories when I used to grow plenty of veggies, fruits and flowers on the big balcony of my first flat. It looked so awesome, people came by to take pictures. Sometimes I would share some veggies when I had too much. I loved getting up early to enjoy the bees that were gathering in the lavender. My favourite memory is of a blackbird. I was hanging up some clothes in the sun to dry. It was just next to the table where I grew strawberries which I wanted to harvest after it. When I was done, I heard some bird sounds next to me. There he was. A blackbird with a beak with red juices dripping down. We stared at each other in surprise for a couple of seconds until he flew off. Needless to say, there were no strawberries to harvest anymore 😂😂😂 Now I have a big garden. But instead of growing stuff, I just enjoy sitting in the sun and watch the birds, butterflies, mice, hedgehogs and bees. BTW, it can really hurt if a hedgehog decides to bite your toe 😳
Beautiful visual you've created ...right down to the hedgehog!
Load More Replies...
