I'm with soil - everything that has gone wrong this year (or other years) is an opportunity to learn. My garden is not perfect this year but has given us a lot of good food to eat.
I grew some different varieties of tomatoes and the harvest is not like last year. Some of the tomatoes are not as stated. For example, I bought some Stupice seeds this year and the tomatoes are the right size - just orange. On the other hand, they have a taste very similiar to Sungold cherry tomatoes - the silver lining in that problem.
I thought the beets would never take off and we are enjoying them now. The broccoli may not produce much but that may be my fault for not feeding it more.
My tomatoes are all mislabeled and while I have figured out what some of them are, more than half remain a mystery. Still, they have produced well and the flavor doesn't change just because they are labeled wrong.
Every morning, I go out to the garden and I wonder what I will find. Suddenly, a new flush of tomatoes on a plant I thought we would lose. Beet greens that got beyond the onslaught of some small "bug." The rosemary cuttings growing prolifically. A surprise moonflower blooming in July. Lots of mini melons when there was only one yesterday (must have missed them, huh?). And the bees - after spraying Sevin (in the evening with calm wind) to get rid of the cucumber beetles, I am grateful that the bees are in abundance and hang out while I water.
My neighbor came over while I was watering this morning and was so admiring of the garden - both for the growth and the way it is layed out with raised beds and containers. He keeps asking me how I do it. So, when I think the garden isn't quite up to par, it is nice to hear someone else tell me how amazing it is.
A bit of gratitude will ease the dismay/disappointment of a less than perfect gardening year.