Can't help with your specific request but as to failures in garden growing ... In my experience something may grow very well one year and totally fail the next .... One example here being beetroot .... Amazing in year one.... In year two I sowed 3 times and nothing grew although a few germinated ... This year good again!
Beetroot are like that They aren't very good ast surviving not beig properly stored either .
Foil packed pre-germinated pelletd seed seem to work much better so long as they get the moisture need to grow out of the pellet of clay .
Anke, have a look on Amazon for The vegetable garden books etc by Dr D.G. Hessayn & have a short read if there is any sample content to read .
They make good Christmas presents if there is a Santa Claus in your life .
I seem to think there is a book about the soil by him as well .
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13 years or so back when I was really into discovering what my gardens held soil wise. For my birthday present Alison paid £24( ish ) for an six or more testing chemicals in tubes in a soil testing kit which had a delightful 20 page or so handbook included, it might have come from the RHS on line shop .