I've proven once and for all I have a black thumb when it comes to growing anything from seed.

Remember those happy little seedlings a couple of months ago? Everything was looking good except the green beans for some reason. They never did come up.

At the end of April, when it was nearly time to plant them outside, they were getting pretty straggly. I diligently went through the "hardening off" process—hauling them all outside for a few hours the first day, a few more the next, etc., for a week. I lost a lot of them during the week—the howling winds we had then might have been a little more "hardening" than they could handle.

By the time I was ready to plant them in the beds a week ago, I discovered I didn't have much to plant: some corn plants, a cantaloupe, a broccoli, some zucchini, and a pumpkin vine. As of today, only two corn plants, one zucchini, and the broccoli are surviving, and they don't look very good.

Nearly complete failure

I have a couple of tomato plants to put into pots, but they are way too tiny to promise much fruit this year. Wasn't the idea of planting them from seed to get a head start? They're only 2 or 3 inches tall (long, actually, since they're not standing up), so I'm going to have to buy full-size plants at the nursery if I want to get any tomatoes. There's one, very little basil plant left, but none of the leeks or chamomile even survived long enough to be transplanted. (I do still have a few flowers I planted from seed at the same time.)

Who knows what I'm doing wrong? I bought Miraclo Gro potting soil, I planted the seeds at the right depths, I ran a ceiling fan continuously to prevent dry rot, I placed them where they got lots of indirect sunlight, I thinned the seedlings, and I tried to keep the soil moist but not too moist. It makes you wonder how plants ever manage to reproduce by themselves in nature.

One last chance

I've planted more seeds directly in the beds, so I haven't given up completely. Of the cool season veggies I planted a month ago, only the garlic is thriving, and I actually planted garlic cloves, not seeds, for that. I have some cute little pea plants and microscopic onions, scallions, beets, spinach, lettuce, and carrots. The quinoa I bragged about sprouting within 24 hours in a moist paper towel? It hasn't sprouted in the garden bed.

A few days ago I planted more squash, pumpkin, melon, corn, and green bean seeds in one of the raised beds. I'm also sprouting more quinoa in a paper towel with the intention of planting the sprouts. (I have a quarter pound of seeds to experiment with.)

Last year I thought everything failed because I planted seeds too late (May 31). So far, however, planting them earlier doesn't seem to be making any difference and I'm already losing hope that this year will be better. I'm starting to resign myself to buying plants at the nursery. I hope they still have some when I give up.