The really demoralizing thing is that while my garden has been a series of disasters, the 85 year old couple across the street have a magnificent, beautiful garden every year. I don't know how they do it. One year, they brought a muskmelon to me that was almost the size of a pumpkin and the flavor was the best thing in the world. That's the point when I knew some people "have it" and some people don't. I don't.

Consider plants have survived just fine for three hundred and fifty thousand million years. Even modern plants provide sustenance to our close relatives without any formal farming whatsoever.

If your crops are failing, there's something wrong with your environment. If you have too many aphids, you need more birds. If you have aphids and birds, you probably also have ants - which you should keep, but draw away from your crops, and so on.

Homocentricism doesn't work for sustainable farming, down that route lays only pesticides. You need to consider your whole environment - and accept a yield below 100%.

@lotoole That's kind of funny and it does make you wonder what they did so differently.
Green thumb, perhaps.

I think I have decided to make a very small garden and have used my trusty shovel to
start it today. It's about an 18 x 15. I think I will make the rows on the short side. I
can have a couple of rows of tomatoes and bell peppers and still have plenty of space
for other stuff. I am going to make another area, of a few hills for stuff like cantaloupe.

The larger I make it, the more work will be involved and the more hoeing I will need to
do. Also, I need to see how it does in the area I chose. There is a couple of trees I
thought about cutting down. Maybe I will do that come winter.