Top ten bad garden habits

As I go through my garden thoroughly, I notice I have clung to bad habits that come back to haunt me again and again. Here are my top ten bad garden habits in no particular order:

Neglecting parts of the garden I don't see much. Nasty weeds like blackberries grow like gangbusters and I have to spend a lot of time getting rid of them.

Not applying mulch every year. My soil would be so much better to work with, which leads to number 3,

Swearing to myself, out loud, hoping the neighbors aren't around.

Not taking care of tools. Not buying high quality, sharpening, or cleaning. Leaving them in the rain. Accidentally burying them or throwing them into the garden waste barrel.

Not paying attention to edging. Some garden writer wrote about the edges of a garden are akin to the hem of a skirt. Mine is in tatters, small weeds and dirt clods abounding.

The pot ghetto. Waiting for inspiration to strike, while the plants languish and sometimes die.

Reluctance to throw away plants that aren't doing well or are just plain ugly. Good plants I'm okay giving away.

Plant greed. Need I say more.

Not applying sunscreen. Dirt doesn't count as sun screen.

Finally, not fertilizing. Just woke up to the idea of fertilizing my rhodies and giving awaking plants in spring a little something. Boy, does that make a difference.

Whew. Thanks for reading my confessional.

Guilty to the above. Yes, basically the whole list.

I'm working on getting better at #4. I've decided that I'm going to consciously choose tools with bright handles whenever possible going forward, to help with part of this. ;) And, I actually bought a decent tool this week! However, our shovels are an embarrassment, and I don't want to admit to how many times the Felcos have accidentally spent the night outside. :(

Edging isn't my area-that falls under "lawn", which is DH's thing, so at least I'm off the hook for one of these, lol!

Edited to add:
I should add: starting too many seeds and then having them languish because I don't have space for all of them as my contribution.

This message was edited May 14, 2011 9:35 AM

Our family doesn't do much in the way of gifts for each other, but this year my youngest son announced he got Dad the perfect gift for his 60th birthday -- it was a shovel. A very nice shovel.

Add to list: planting too closely or not paying attention to mature size (both height and width). I do this regularly, just cannot imagine that a 4" plant will eventually be 4'x4'.

ooh, Good addition, BH! Yes, me too! me too! sigh.....

....and congratulations on the very good shovel!

You mean none of you read the tools article I wrote for DG?!

http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1869/

You are hereby absolved of shovel sins & pruner peccadilloes.

Guilty of all the above. My best pruners have spent the winter buried in the compost pile. Thanks for the absolution Summerkid.

Guilty on all charges. My best pruners have spent the winter buried in the compost pile. Thanks for the absolution summer.

OMG Summerkid, we must have been separated at birth, although you have a lot more gardening tools than me. Perhaps I need to get multiples also...which I will of course leave outside.

Oh, too funny-the decent tool I just bought is a circle hoe!! Truly, an actual Circlehoe. http://www.circlehoe.com/

And, Summer, cute article. No idea if I read it originally or not, though. I might've, but I've mostly quit reading them now.

Oh, and should I admit that just this morning DH brought in one of my soil scoops that he found when getting ready to mow the back lawn?

I am wondering how many hand shovels and pruning shears the new owners of my house will find when I move. I have "misplaced" many in the 5+ years I have lived here.

Beahive, Is this speculative, or are you moving? I think I remember your saying you'd like to?? (Wouldn't that make a cute border edge? A whole row of rusted trowels, pruners, etc stuck end-on at the edge of a bed?)

My house sold 5/2. I am moving soon and get to start over with a new garden,pond and a new supply of hand shovels, pruners and what ever I need or can't find after I move.
Not looking forward to moving all the potted plants I have from my divisions last fall, but I am saving lots of $$ not starting from scratch this time. Waiting to hear if my offer was accepted on the new home. Taking some of my Koi with me (if I can catch them) but my frogs will have to stay. I will miss them . Keep ya all posted.

My number one problem is starting bizillions of tender annuals (not kidding I have 1500, yes one thousand five hundred) all transplanted now to 4 inch pots. I get tired of watering them indoors, move them out into the rain. Then I'm always caught by a surprise frost and lose a ton of work. I use lots of swearwords when this happens. It just happened s couple of days ago and wrote about it on summerkid's weather thread. I do it every year.

Fabulous article, summer!

OK, kosk, susy & i need to meet up for a mini-exchange!

I admit that I am guilty of many of the bad habits listed above, but must add:

Placing a plant (in the little black nursery pot) into a spot in the garden to check out how it will look there with the surrounding plant inhabitants of the bed, trotting off to get other things done while I think about it, then getting busy and forgetting to go back and actually plant the poor thing until it has rooted right into the ground through the holes in the pot.

I have two oddly healthy looking plants in this condition out in the garden right now and one other that is very unhappy with me.

Oh, yeah, all this happens on the east coast, too. I have no idea where my 'good' clippers are.

I actually did kinda clear up my 'pot ghetto' this spring. operative word - kinda.

I also have trouble keeping on task, cuz I see other things that need doing, so skip off merrrily to do that. Then I wonder at the end of a day what I did. It's hard to check things off my list that way. Who am I kidding? I don't have a list. 8)

Glad we're all confessionalizing here - it's good for the soul right?

I am also guilty of many of drtdgr's ten deadlies. And the bad habits I don't share are only because my garden isn't big enough to have any areas to ignore. I have the opposite problem (perhaps the urban gardener's bad habit?) of obsessing over every little sprig and often doing way more harm than good by fussing over things rather than just letting them alone to do their thing.

Also, while I do occasionally swear at my plants, I also talk to them even when they're not being bad. Admonishments to be good, to grow, discussions about whether they like their site, etc. Adding the puppy to the mix has just extended my non-stop nonsense garden monologue - but perhaps I look less crazy to the neighbors if they think I'm talking just to the dog and not the garden in general?

"Not applying sunscreen. Dirt doesn't count as sun screen." - okay this one made me laugh out loud. Even with the terrible weather this year I'm already sporting my Seattle gardener tan. The spring version features a completely white body and reddish forehead and nose. The summer version adds tan arms up to the sleeve mark and tan feet (yes, occasionally I do garden in flip flops - is that wrong?)

I'll also cop to the planting things too close together, but hey I just call it PNW Cottage style and go with it!

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who swears and talks to her plants. I honestly thought it was a shameful secret. And yes, Kymmco, I obsess over my plants, especially my fuchsia cuttings, whom I coddled over the winter on my windowsill. They are a pathetic lot.

I've finally got rid of the white flies, but they've lost most of their leaves. I check every day for new growth.

Lost clippers, plants to close together, lol - I am guilty. I sing to my plants, seldom swear at them but have been known to swear at people and pets that are not careful around them. Mess with my babies and you will receive my wrath!
When it's hot and I am sweating in the garden I sometimes take off my glasses and lay them down. Eye glasses are even harder to find in the garden than clippers. I have partially solved both problems by always remembering to set stuff down in a pot. That way I just have to search the pots. Somewhere buried deep in my garden is a hoe that I haven't seen for two years.
I baby my brugs and fuchsias. Yes, I even cried once when a favorite brug died.
My pot ghetto….I had an ingenious idea a couple years ago. I put trap doors in my deck so that I could store pots underneath it. (clearance is about 2 ft) I still have the ghetto but at least I don’t have to look at it. Of course once a pot goes in there it has little chance of ever coming back out.
I am so glad my DH closes his eyes to my gardening addiction. He is such a wonderful enabler.

#1 garden addiction NO-NO. = Never have a few too many drinks in the dead of winter and go plant shopping on the internet.

These are pics from the web of clematis I have. Mine aren't blooming yet (cold weather) so I hi-jacked these pics and made a collage of what I have to look forward to this summer.

I will admit to most of these bad habits. I have one to add for places where we don't have the benefit of rain most of the time: forgetting to check that plants, especially potted ones, are getting enough water. The new $30 plant behind the garage dies because a 25¢ dripper fails and I didn't walk around there in the past 3 days to check on it.

A couple of years ago I bought some aluminum trowels that were on sale and they are my favorite hand tool. They have bright red handles and they never rust, even if I leave them in the dirt all winter.

Ditto, same bad habits. I still can't find my Hori Hori. I also can't say no to a plant sale, even if I have no idea where they will go. Yes, I always go overboard and buy way too much to plant in a reasonable time frame.

mtish, I had to laugh at your internet buying. I have been homebound lately, and have discovered that it is too easy to click, add to cart.

How about the evil ZONE DENIAL? As much as I would love to have a tropial garden, Palm Trees will not survive in my garden.

Yeah, and grocery-store jasmine is NOT hardy Zone 8 as advertised.

Oh yes, zone denial! I have a bunch of tropicals we haul in and out every year. They are heavy and every year when we move them my husband asks me if I'm getting tired of having to go to so much trouble for a few pretty blooms. Subtle as a brick.

Hey, here's a good trick to growing the best dandelions around:

1) Pull all the young plants out of the gravel driveway
2) Put in a bucket & leave out in the rain
3) Forget to take to the compost for, oh, 2 weeks
4) They will cheer each other on, bloom & go to seed right there in the bucket
5) The next breezy day you will amazed & delighted by the aerial show!

Oh, another of my favorite tricks you all will want to try:

This week I planted 6 things of seeds, didn't label 'em all, easy to remember what's in 6 measly flats, right? Three are beans, that's a no-brainer, one is marked "cucumber" ... and WHAT THE HECK ARE THESE OTHER 2 THAT ARE SPROUTING ALREADY

Yesterday was such a beautiful, sunny day and I only spent a few hours outside. Of course it's raining today. It really irks me that things like cooking, cleaning, getting the oil changed, and working (especially working) interferes with my garden time. If I didn't have these annoyances, a lot of work could be done.

The only thing left to do is go to that neighborhood plant sale. I really need some ferns. There might be something else of interest, who knows. It's almost my civic duty to go.

I appreciate your comments. They are laugh out loud funny and all so true.

Well, plant greed paid off. Not only did I support the Westgate Gardening Club, I got plants originally from Heronswood. Blechum chilense, omphalodes 'Alba', and geranium 'Sandovar'. I didn't know there was a white form of omphalodes.

Oh, I am such a flower floozy. (My more blunt friends say plant slut, but I like floozy much better). To heck with it. I'm going to garden in the drizzle.

Instead of losing a pricy hori-hori, pick up some 69-cent knives from Goodwill or Salvation Army, and lose enoguh of them that one is always near you when you see a weed.

Not cleaning tools - mea maxima culpa. I keep a wire brush right near the tool parking spot, but on weekends I usually garden until I'm exhausted, and stagger into the house instead of using it.

I've read some great ideas, like keeping one bucket of wtaer handy to swish dirty tools in, and a bucket of gravel or coarse sand with some used oil in it: plunge a tool a few times, and it comes out clean and oiled.

I don't do that, either.

But I do oil and wax wooden tool handles several times per year, so they don't crack and splinter. Parafin and mineral oil, usually.

>> Reluctance to throw away plants that aren't doing well or ...

Guilty! I don't even like to pull weeds, unless they are so prolific that I recognize that particular type as a pushy encrocher.

>> Not applying mulch every year.

Guilty again.

I'm certainly guilty of several of the others ... but are they even sins?

Corey

Here are a few of my worst habits:

1. Buying a plant without having a place to put it - which usually means it will end up in a pot which then means I have to buy another pot. And more potting soil. And another bag of drip irrigation emitters.
2. Falling prey to the "one of everything" sickness. I discover a plant that seems like it would be awesome so I buy it but it doesn't really fit with my scheme . . . after a while my "scheme" started to look like the Island of Misfit Toys though so I guess I can scratch this one off my list.
3. Thinking too big or too small. Like others have mentioned, I fail to envision what a 4x4 plant will actually look like and I end up overcrowding plants. Then again, when I buy stone or other materials for hardscaping it looks big enough at the store but when I get it home it almost always seems too small.
4. Not planning ahead. There's nothing worse than digging up a newly planted bed because you forgot to run irrigation pipe or conduit for landscaping lighting first.
5. Not taking the time to actually just sit and be present in my garden.

Number 5 precisely. We probably all are guilty! There is always another weed to pull or plant that needs deadheading! Great list! I love #1 on the list, too. Funny!

And those emitters keep getting more and more expensive every year. What's with that?

All my tool handles are now painted hot glow pink because if I am distracted while doing a task, the tool will be left there until I get distracted in that direction again. I really like green and brown tool colors but those always get buried for a yr or so before I find them again. Corey, Im going to get me a bucket with oiled sand right away. I like that.

I think the "oiled sand bucket" idea came from "The Complete Book of Garden Magic" ... 1940's? 1930's? Great book.

He suggested "used crankcase oil" to save money, which we now dignify with names like "re-purposing". If too dirty, filter it througgh cheescloth and/or coffee filters first.

He also suggested using the filtered crankcase oil to keep wooden handles from drying out and cracking. Today, we might worry about breakdown products in the oil being toxic ... and that might even be reasonable ... but mineral oil is cheap and works on wooden handles. I like to wax them, too, when I find time.

Corey

I have (had?) that book also Corey! I think it belonged to my mother or perhaps grandmother. It was one of my first instruction manuals to gardening when I caught the bug. Fond memories.

>> "The Complete Book of Garden Magic"

It seems to me that 80% or maybe even 90% of all the good gardening advice I've ever heard can be found there, except for two things.

Many good new flower varieties have been developed in the last 70 years.

And "liberally applying arsenic", copper, nicotene sulphate, DDT and the like MIGHT not be a very good idea!

I suppose it makes sense, since we've had agriculture for around 10,000 years. Most of the good ideas probably occured to someone during the first 99% of that period of time!

Corey

I miss that nicotine stuff. Liquid death in a bottle for scale insects. I'd forgotten all about it.

Reminds me of another bad habit I've yet to shake: Poorly labeled spray bottles of mystery solution. When I was a very, very beginning gardener & very naive ("they SAID use this stuff on the aphids") I mixed up the Malathion bottle & the foliar feed & sprayed my entire city patio with the poisonous stuff. Didn't see a single insect the rest of the year. That launched me quickly into organic gardening.

Sometimes a really graphic lesson is best. Kind of sticks with you.

I got to work in a biochemistry lab one summer. One of the instructors gave us a great lesson.

She would periodically go through the cold room, and THROW OUT anything that did not have a clear & explicit label.

"If it isn't labelled, you don't know what's in it."


Corey