...I'm not sure where it went wrong, really.

The tutorial gave you a basic outline of the controls, but only a hint at the competitive aspect, and no real clarification about the "specials". Despite this, it's still very intuitive, I just don't understand why there was a spider eating everything I tried to grow. Even when I had something picked, that little...irritant ate the vine right out of my hands. I can see the effort, and it IS a decent idea, it just needs more polishing on the controls and the interactions of the functions.

If this is your first game, you're off to a good start. Just remember: Newgrounds is the house of hard knocks with submission reviews - we call it like we see it for the clean-cut benefit of relaying that first impression. We aren't the enemy, we're giving the honest input without sugar coating.

5 stars for originality, 0 stars for everything else. Like one reviewer posted, the instructions are 'vague', and he can't go into detail because if he could tell you what to fix, he wouldn't need the instructions in the first place. The instructions give you a partial idea of what to do, but The controls are lacking; when I try to drag anything, it drops off and I have to click and drag it again.

Not very high quality. Very ambiguous intentions. And the designer seems to be hostile, defensive, unskilled generally and not particularly mature. Keep trying, though. Everyone has a first game.

the icons twitched instead of dragged, I read the instructions, but it was an interesting idea

The controls are buggy. I did read and attempt the tutorial and it quickly went into unplayable mode. The pieces twitched when clicked instead of being able to drag them.
You may also get better replies if you were less aggressive and abrasive. This game is poorly created at best, unplayable in my opinion. And puzzle type games ARE my cup of tea before you get on that.