Under what conditions outdoors do you consider you 'have a brown thumb'?

Indoors you walk by every day and can check for water, food, light, 'climate' and fix it to suit the plant.

You have to do the same in the garden - and find out what's needed in your piece of land for the plants you want to grow.

And find out about the plants themselves so you get to be confident about just where to plant them and what they need to reach peak performance.

Yes, some people have a 'natural feel' for plants - but the rest of us make do with getting lots of experience and learning from it.

I have killed so many plants it's not funny - because when I started gardening outdoors I didn't know how important soil quality is. I looked around and thought look at all the stuff growing in the woods and fields -I'll just dig a hole and plunk those plants anywhere in the yard! But all those woods and fields hadn't had all the topsoil bulldozed off!(I was so ignorant I didn't know what topsoil was). It takes a lot of work to properly prepare the soil for outdoor planting - but it's the most critical element (assuming you plant in the appropriate place for the plant's sun/shade needs). I don't know if this is your problem but it sure was mine!!!

Yup, I agree with previous post about soil. That was my mistake in the beginning. I learned real fast about improving the soil. Once you've got good soil, everything else falls into pace.

One of the hardest lessons I had to learn, for outdoor (veggies) versus indoor (in-pot) growing, was to forget "dont over-water your plants."

While it was good advice for stuff in pots, to keep them from drowning in their little cubicles, garden vegetables grown in a raised bed environment need a constant supply of adequate moisture to thrive.

There are some similarities between "pot growing" and container raised beds or in-soil growing, but letting the soil dry out between waterings is a problem I had to resolve. Vegetables need a constant supply of moisture to produce well.

Also I had to fertilize more in the vegetable garden with additional phosphorus and potassium to make better flowers and fruiting.

Of course, learning about "special" needs of the vegetables helped a lot. Some preferred more potassium, phosphorus or nitrogen than others.

Learning/tending/protecting them with daily visits helped a lot. Many wild critters and bugs prefer "eating plants" to flowering/ornamental plants.

Of importance, staying tuned to these informative posts every day to find out about other folks with their successes/failures, with similar interests can be of real value.

Bejay