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.

"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."

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.

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."

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."

"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."

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're 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."

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."

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.

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!