There are loads of reasons to grow your own food at home… You’re likely to save money, eat healthier, waste less, and help fight climate change. One study found that people who are able to successfully grow their own food can produce more than half of the vegetables and 20 per cent of the fruit they consume annually. The good news is that you don’t need a large plot of land to be able start a food garden. A balcony, or vertical garden will do just fine. The bad news is that it’s often easier said than done.
Farming fresh food takes some skill, patience, nurturing, and sometimes, a whole lot of trial and error. Mighty Harvest is a little corner of the internet dedicated to those who expected massive outcomes from their efforts to be sustainable, but received the exact opposite from the soil. It has 109 thousand members, supporting each other through the heartbreak of harvesting an epic homegrown food fail. “Feeding many villages and village idiots for 10s of days,” is how the community describes itself.
Keep scrolling for some hilarious posts from the page that might just leave you feeling a lot better about your own green finger struggles. And don’t miss the very interesting chat Bored Panda had with food garden expert Steven Biggs. He’s the founder of Food Garden Life Media, the host of The Food Garden Life Show and a qualified horticulturalist who teaches at Food Garden Life Learning.
#1 A Mighty Raspberry Harvest
Image credits: GM_Organism
#2 Mighty Super Hot Pepper Harvest
Image credits: Good_Food_918
#3 Behold, My Mightiest Citrus
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Growing your own fresh produce can be extremely rewarding. You’ve waited several weeks or months for the fruits of your labor to yield mighty results and mouthfuls of fresh goodness. You’ve already planned out what meal you’re going to make with the tomatoes, green peppers, lettuce, or carrots that you’ve been treating with the utmost care and love. You’ve saved some smoothie recipes, where your freshly picked fruit can be the star of the show. Their time to shine has finally arrived. Or so you thought…
If you’ve ever been the victim of an epic but hilarious harvest fail, you’re not alone. As many of the pics on this will attest to. Instead of laughing, or judging, we’ve enlisted the help of a food garden expert to give you some tips on how to go about growing a better harvest next time. Steven Biggs is the founder of Food Garden Life Media. He’s a qualified horticulturalist, a garden educator and a journalist. He has over three decades worth of professional dealings with plants, and offered to share some of his gems with Bored Panda.
We began by asking Biggs what the biggest mistakes are that he’s seen someone make while trying to grow their own food. “Perfectionism,” he replied. “Gardening is a great cure for perfectionism. I understand why people worry about holes in leafy greens, because we’re used to perfect food from the grocery store. Perfectionism is appropriate for full-time farmers that make a living selling perfect crops—it’s okay to have some blemishes on home-grown produce.”
The expert added that people often start too big. “It’s easy to get excited when starting a new garden, and then tackle too big a space—or buy too many plants or seeds. Then, people sometimes get overwhelmed and don’t know what to do. They freeze. So take baby steps,” he advised.
#4 Behold, My Mighty Pea Harvest
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#5 Entire 2023 Carrot Harvest. At Least It Didn’t Hit Any Stones On Its Journey Down Into The Earth
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#6 Behold The Bounty Of The Only Pepper I Successfully Ripened In 2023
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“My ‘shtick’ as a food-garden expert is to help home gardeners make sense of the many gardening ideas out there,” said Biggs during our interview. “To introduce them to the ideas I see in my work. And equip people to choose what fits their situation—because each garden is a bit different.”
Biggs says aspiring food growers should be realistic and should not overdo it. “Match the complexity and size of the garden to your gardening knowledge, and to how much time you have to spend on it. If you’ve never gardened before, start with three or four crops,” he suggested.
He adds that it helps to talk to other gardeners. “I love seeing what my neighbours are up to in their veg patches,” Biggs revealed. “I learn more this way than I’ll ever get from a blog or book.” But finally, and this one’s for you, “Mighty Harvesters”: “Don’t sweat failure. Failure in the garden is just an opportunity to compost.”
#7 Was Told To Post This Here!
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#8 Time For Lemonade!!
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#9 You vs. The Brussels Sprout She Told You Not To Worry About
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Biggs has a wealth of gardening experience. “I’m a horticulturist,” he tells us. “That just means I have a degree in horticulture—the science (and art!) of growing fruit, veg, and ornamental plants. I’ve worked in horticulture for over 30 years.” He says he’s made food gardens wherever he’s lived. “I just love it! And I love to cook, too. The two go hand in hand.”
In his work as a garden educator and journalist, Biggs visits inspiring farms and food gardens. “I see great ways to use space, great techniques, and cool crops. There are so many fun ideas that can also be used in home gardens,” he told us. “But I also meet a lot of people who’ve tried a veg patch… and were disappointed. That’s why I specialize in food gardens.”
According to the National Gardening Association, over 43% of Americans are growing some kind of food to eat at home. Lots of them joined the food farming revolution during Covid. “It was a matter of resilience. Wanting to know where their food was coming from, wanting to have access to fresh food at home. Other people were just simply looking for something to do,” said Erin Hostetler who also runs a business teaching people to farm food on their patios.
#10 My Great And Astounding Bigger Than Ever Before Record-Winning Orange! My Blood Orange Tree Has About Half A Dozen Of These Effort-Filled Tiny Oranges On It
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#11 Hopefully Some Friends Will Help Me Take All These Bell Peppers Off My Hands
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#12 Peach Cobbler Anyone?
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Biggs says the list of benefits to growing your own fruit and vegetables is endless. Firstly, you can’t get fresher food than straight from the soil. “When you pick produce fresh, at the right time, you get great flavour, texture, and, for some things, sweetness.”
He adds that farming your own food is also an amazing creative outlet. “The creative side of gardening is easy to overlook. Especially food gardening. But I get a real kick out of mixing colours, texture, and height as I put together my garden,” he told Bored Panda.
The expert says cultivating your own produce can lead to meeting new people, and forming a community. “I met lots of neighbors the year the I took out my front lawn and made a veg garden,” said Biggs. “People stopped to chat, ask questions—or ask about getting seed. Can’t beat gardens as a way to connect with people.”
And if you need some balance in life, Biggs suggest you look no further than your own backyard or patio. “After an intense day at work, a garden is a place to disconnect. Turn off phone notifications. Get your hands dirty as you pull a few weeds. I get some of my best ideas when I’m in the garden.”
#13 Sweet Potato Mighty Harvest
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#14 Almost The Size Of A Quarter
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#15 Planted 60 Seeds. Got 1 Harvest
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So what other tips does the expert have when it comes to what works and what doesn’t in a food garden? “Sometimes two different crops work really well planted together. For example, carrots and radishes seeded at the same time in the same bed. The radishes come up quickly, and as you harvest them, it makes space for the slower carrot seedling. And pulling out the radish—which has a long root below the part we eat—also lets air into the soil,” he revealed, adding that radishes work well with beets too. Biggs says some plants are better off in their own space. “Zucchini is a good example. It grows to be a big plant. Big leaves shade the nearby ground. And it just elbows out its neighbours.”
#16 First Harvest Of 2024 From Our Balcony. ?
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#17 Jack Really Do Be Little
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#18 Mojito, Anyone?
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“Something that often gets overlooked with food gardening is the creative side of it,” said Biggs as during our enlightening chat. “I encourage students to be wildly creative, and have fun with form, texture, height, and colour in the food garden. For example, a couple of corn plants is a great way to add a focal point to a bed—or a great way to bookend a long, narrow one.”
#19 Finally Grew One(1) Bell Pepper After 3 Years Of Trying. It Tasted Disgusting ??
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#20 Mighty Onions From Harvest
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#21 The Only Pepper My Plant Grew, Luckily Its Massive
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Bored Panda asked Biggs whether it’s really possible for a household to be fully sustainable and grow everything they need. “Probably,” he replied. “But I don’t grow everything. I do grow a lot. And most days of the week we eating something I’ve grown—whether it’s fresh, frozen, dried, or preserved. But I don’t grow all our produce. The reason? I’m not a full-time farmer. I have a garden communications business. Gardening is my hobby.”
#22 The Largest Of Oranges
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#23 My Prepper Husband Wasn’t Thrilled With My Plants Contribution To Our Survival Garden
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#24 Tonight We Feast!
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Biggs says while it might be possible to grow everything you need, you shouldn’t put too much pressure on yourself to do so. “Sometimes when people think of homesteading and self-sufficiency, there’s a desire to grow everything. That’s fine if it’s what you want, and your situation makes it possible. But homesteading can also be about carving out a bit more self-sufficiency. It’s not an all-or-nothing proposition.”
#25 Quite Possibly The Entirety Of My Snow Pea Harvest
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#26 Who Needs Potatoes?
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#27 Tomato Feast For The King
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Biggs used his own household as an example of how to strike a balance between the garden and the grocery store. “I think of it as grazing. For every meal, I scout out something in the garden. But the whole meal isn’t necessarily from the garden,” he told us.
And we hope his words of wisdom have inspired you to do a bit of grazing of your own. And not to beat yourself up if you face a little failure. As Biggs says, all’s not lost. You’ve just created some great compost!
#28 Behold The Carrot I Didn’t Know I Was Growing
Image credits: Serplantprotector
#29 The First Harvest From My Indoor Plant!
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#30 Smol Harvest Makes Smol Caprese
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#31 Just In Time For A Lemon Spritz
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#32 Tsp Stands For Tons Of Strawberry Produce
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#33 I’m Going To Feed My Family For Weeks With This Harvest
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#34 I Let The Shishito Crop Dry Out A Bit To Enhance The Flavor, Stretch It A Bit Further…
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#35 Prepare The Cauldrons, Onion Soup For All!
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#36 Tried Potatoes One Last Time Before It Finally Froze…. At Least They’re Normal Size This Time?
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#37 The Full Harvest Of Oranges This Year. I’m Going To Make So Much Marmalade!
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#38 First And Only Harvest Of My Indoor Grown Cucumbers
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#39 Behold The Majestic Tiny Garlic!
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#40 My Potato Harvest Last Year
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#41 Mighty Cauliflower
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#42 Mighty Grapes
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#43 Potatoes Are In
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#44 My Mighty Jalapeños
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#45 Mightiest Of Corn
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#46 I’m Going To Set Up A Lemonade Stand!
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#47 First Lemon Grown On Our Little Tree
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#48 About To Make The Best Tomato Sauce You Guys
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#49 Tropical <3
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#50 This Carrot I Just Pulled Out Of The Patch Is Almost The Size Of My Forearm ?
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#51 My Oranges Are Finally Getting Ripe. Can’t Wait To Share My Bounty With The Whole Neighborhood
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#52 My Biggest One Yet!!
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#53 Not A Vegetable, But It Is Part Of My Daily Harvest. Going To Have The Biggest Breakfast!
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#54 Strawberry Jam Or Shortcake?
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#55 First Attempt At Potatoes, Ended Up With A Mighty Harvest!
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#56 My Mum’s Mighty Pepper Harvest From Last Year, Carefully Dried In The Pocket Where She Forgot Them
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#57 Checked A Pot I Had Sweet Potatoes In Last Year, Found This Impressive Specimen!
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#58 My Tomato Harvest, Soon And Garlic For Scale
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#59 Only One Green Onion Stalk Survived, But Damn It Is Girthy
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#60 Plant One Potato, Grow Two. Do Farmers Know About This Trick?
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#61 Abundance!
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#62 Months Of Growing Finally Paid Off!
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#63 This Should Be Enough For Dinner, Right?
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#64 I Have Accomplished My Goal Of Growing Blackberries This Year. Behold My Bounty
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#65 Last Year’s Bell Peppers That Gave All They Had To Give
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#66 Can’t Wait To Make Preserves From The Bounty Of My Blueberry Bush
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#67 My Serrano Bush Is Recovering From Some Sort Of Disease And Is Finally Producing Delicious Peppers Once Again. Time To Look Through My Recipes And Decide What To Make!
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#68 Asparagus For Everyone!
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#69 Finally Some Fruit! My Family No Longer Has To Starve ?
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#70 Water Melon ?
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#71 I Am The Queen On Tiny Fruit
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#72 Such A Plentiful Harvest I Shall Have To Gift Some To Family & Friends
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#73 I Hope You All Have A Corntastic Day! ♥️
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#74 First Tomato Of The Season In South Florida. Banana For Scale
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#75 Carrot Soup For Dinner
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#76 I Thought These Were Pomegranate Seeds. Then I Realized They Were Potatoes And Made Potato Wedges
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#77 My Cup Runneth Over
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#78 Planted This Bad Boy In The Fall, Five Months Of Toil Later Coleslaw For All
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#79 My Asparagus Haul This Morning ?
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