It seemed like a good idea...

I know that I am not the only silly one here. I hope you will add your goof-ups to mine and we can learn and maybe also get a laugh.

I wanted to plant a couple large planters. I needed fill in the bottom that would drain off excess water, yet be light, as we are still having frost here at night sometimes and need to bring the large planter to safety.

I read about the packing peanut thing and had some Styrofoam, about a half inch thick in small sheets that I received in a package with an order.

I grew my little plants from seed and when they were ready to pot, half filled the pot with broken pieces of foam and then filled with nice new dirt and set my precious babies into the soil.

I carefully brought them into the garage on the cold nights and watered and cared for them the last couple weeks. All is well.

Then it rained. Oh boy, it really rained. I came home from work to see the pots full of water. I thought "I need drain the excess".

I changed my clothes and came outside to see that the foam actually floated to the top of the planter! What a mess!
You have to laugh, or cry.

Anyway, needless to say. I had to re pot the little guys. Luckily they had been planted into peet pellets and were still intact. But they had quite the ride!

So OK, fess up. What "good idea" have you had that turned into a learning experience????

4 years ago I purchased a lilac bush for my DH. He loved them from his childhood and I thought it would be nice for him to have one. I brought the baby home and, since, I didn't have a place for it yet, plopped it in a big pot we had.

Where to keep it? I decided that at the end of the porch where water run-off would water it so I wouldn't have to. Well...

The next day we had a micro burst and it rained super hard for about 10 minutes. I went out to check on my plants and discovered the lilac overflowing with water!!! I had forgotten to put drainage holes in the bottom!!!

Thank goodness I had someone who could help me empty the poor thing out and repot it!

The lilac survived and we had flowers this year.

Spent years watching all those gardening shows getting great advice on how and what to plant. When we moved here in January 2007 It was a clean slate....they had put in some small shrbs in front of the porch to sell it but that was all. I knew those were coming out.

So come spring I did what all those shows tell you to do. I went and got my garden fabric and we spent a weekend laying and cutting and putting in the staple to hold it down. Then I went around and cut those little X's and planted the lily bulbs I had brought with me. Kept adding more plants thru that spring. Boy I felt good knowing I did it the right way, just like the pros tell you to do. WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a mess!!! The bulbs struggled so hard to come up and were missing the holes...poor things. The weeds still came thru the fabric too so didn't even help with that. My liltte dwarf Iris's rooted to the fabric. Ugh!!!

I spent last spring ripping it all out...of course I had to work around all the plants that I had in the beds now....Worst gardening advice EVER!!

We pulled out all our fabric, too. It does NOT let the plants expand as they should.

Yup, both sounded like good ideas. That is too bad about the fabric. Sheesh what a mess. At least mine was just a quick repot job.

Ladies, wet newspapers replaces that garden cloth and is a lot cheaper. I haven't bought garden cloth since I found out that 10 pages of wet newspapers will do the same thing.

Ohhhh....I just love rocks and like to have them scattered about in my beds. Back in April a really nice rock appeared out of the blue by the mailbox of a house for sale. I was like 'dang that is a nice size rock'....hmmmm

I asked DH if he thought it wrong for me to bring it home..and he said YES!
Well, that was one the weekend come monday morning I drove down the street to fetch me that rock! It was not super big, but good size and VERY VERY HEAVY! I barely got it in the car.

Got back to my house...oh my, I liked to have never gotten that thing out of the car. Trying to pick it up off the car floor was almost impossible for me. I am only 5 feet tall. But I knew I had ot get it out and where I wanted it by my self or DH would give me that look & roll his eyes...LOL!

Finally got it out...fetched an old sheet rolled it on there and then dragged it around to the other side of the house and got it where I wanted it! DH just finally asked me about it tonight.....*sigh*

It was kind of like a "LUCY" moment.....

But Desiiiiiiiii I can hear you now. lol

That was one of the greatest movies, timeless and still funny if you see it today.

I love to watch the old original I LOVE LUCY show...that and THE DICK VAN DYKE show...two of the best ever made...still make me laugh!

I just couldn't believe DH waited until now to ask me HOW I got it here!!! LOL

take a pic, let us see.

Well..okay

not a 'fancy rock'...but I like it!! Now I am 53, out of shape, 5', heart patient! I hate to imagine what that thing weighs...it is solid!

WOW! be still my heart, I would have gotten it too! Is that the shadow of the leaves or is that fool's gold running through it? I have a thing about rocks. lol
when I get a chance, I will take a pic of some 'special' rocks my uncle gave me years ago.

Fools gold running thru it...that's what caught my eye!!

Then that is even a better rock! I say you did good.

Last winter I was watching the neighbors for more leaf bags for my compost. (it stays pretty mild here thru December and lots of folks continue to bag leaves.) Round about January one house tenants left and the owner had some guys clean up the yard and leave bags. Had to have some. During SuperBowl I took the mutt for a walk down there, picked out a nice bag (hm, heavier than I thought) and started dragging it home. Great plan cuz everybody else is inside watching the game right? Almost home, I realize I am starting to leave bits..then clumps....the bag has worn a hole through! Oh my gosh, I can NOT leave somebody else's broken leaf bag on the street in front of my neighbor's house! I struggled home and ran back with something to clean up my leavings. Best part was next morning when I saw a nice brown slimy trail leading up to my house from halfway home, when it started leaking. What idiot...?? me that's who. All for some rotten leaves.....

Yup, that seemed like a good idea too. LOL

that's very funny sallyg!!!
Great Rock! I love rocks too!! Never collected one that big and I'm kinda envious.

I have lots of "good ideas" for gardening! LOL Last year I planted tomato seeds in pots. We had just moved here so I wasn't prepared but wanted to grow a few things anyway... Well I did not stake the tomatoes until after they started producing nice sized fruit and ended up breaking the fruit branches off the plant. I almost cried because they were the best looking tomatoes ever! yeah, I'll admit it, I even tried sticking the fruit laden branches in the pot but they died. So sad.

So this year I am growing tomatoes again. They are propped up real good. But it's my homeade rig job, so we will see how it works out?

And I still have seeds of various kinds in cups that never sprouted!!
I know it's because it was still too cold when I started planting them. Guess I should give up on them because I am still watering the soil with nothing growing there!!

Glad to know about the peanut foam!! because I have heard of them as "pot fillers" and was considering using some for large pots that will need winter shelter.

Oh, that's sad about your tomatoes, Allwild. These are good stories. Here's one of mine. When I started my garden I was in my 30's and very artsy-craftsy. I read in some magazine about making garden borders with empty beer bottles, necks sunk in the ground. It was recycling and sounded very attractive. Well, it wasn't. Some of the bottles sank deep in to the ground. Some broke. Some became lovely homes for spiders. The bottles took up a good bit of space, too. It took me a couple of years to find them all and dig them out. It was quite a mess.

My sister (Jeannie63) lives in a rental town house. She has a beautiful garden area left by the previous tenant. It was bordered by rock. When she moved in she was not a gardener but quickly became one. We dug up a BUNCH of daisies to make room for a butterfly garden. We found a lot of boulders as we dug. We pulled every one out and over time she would roll each rock out away from the garden and slip another one or two into the border. Her land lady asked her DH this spring if it was her imagination or if that garden was getting bigger!! LOL

My point was, I can sympathize with you for dragging that rock home!!!!

Again I involve rotting material. I found a source for manure- "Come to our driveway, we dump it down in the woods" Well, I decided to back my van in for easier access...not noticing a small tree branch stubb pointed right at my back window..........
That free manure was worth exactly $217.88 to the auto glass place, and another $500 of my self esteem.

You just can't pass up a good rock!!

LOL on the "Free" manure!!

I kept saying I wanted manure to put in my beds...next door neighbors parents have horses...light bul goes off and he obliges me and brings me some and I put it all over last fall. Problem is this stuff was not composted as good as I thought. Boy do I have a mess in the beds now with all sorts of stuff sprouting in there!!!

People, I have a million of these stories!! LOL :)

You will have a nice wild flower garden now!