Garden Talk: Your Garden Mistakes

darius, It sound like you have the nice Spring primroses. Believe me if you had Missouri Pink you would know. Any little bit of root you leave I swear grows!!!!

Planting really great stuff right next to the outside edge of my raised beds. The cold and wind exposure are magnified and that mistake was a costly one. (R.I.P.) I think I'll plant only annuals or Zone 3 perennials in those spots next year.

hi...well i'm a newbie here and to gardening. I started planting a garden last year. well it is still cold and the beginnings of my perennias are coming too life. Now, I am going to start digging up and getting rid of the Tick Seed and the mint before it continues this its second year. I'm so thankful that I just read these posts. Over in my bark mulch, there is a flower?, i still can't identify much of anything yet :-) I think it is a viola. it is about 20 feet away from the garden bed. of course were i planted the violas, i don't see any growth yet. LOL

thank you all for your posts. i know too in life that i learn from my mistakes and i've also learned to learn from others too. :-) thank god for the internet. i learned about the primrose prior to planting it. :-)

i'll be watching this thread for more info

Just a hint here for all of you that have mint. Ants DO NOT like the smell of mint so to any of you who has trouble with ants, plant some mint.A-Little-Dab-A-Do-A.
Have just moved out in the country so trying to get the ground ready for a nice flower garden,or two, or three. I have 1 full acre of land to cover so hopefully by next year I will have a yard of color. Thanks for all your tips and funny gardening experiences.

Welcome to DG, CoCo! So how do you convince the mint plant that "just a dab'll do ya"? hee hee......

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oh dear
better get that hay out of the beds and the mint in a pot...
thanks y'all

When instructions say 'plant in full sun', they didn't have TEXAS in mind! Now I plant most everything in part shade, except hard-core natives.

Another mistake: trying to grow azaleas. Just can't do it, no matter how many amendments I add.

Have finally learned to go with nature, instead of trying to fight her to have my way :-)

Bloomer

OK, so why is it I still live on a big ant hill? I have plenty of mint.

puttyrat

Bloomer here too! Azaleas, Gardenias, Hibiscus, Rhodadendrons(spelling it wrong I know) Acid loving, Tropical. I think these plants like milder climates too.The temps that drop 20 -40 degrees, so fast , like the desert does. Oh and Delphinium.
You can get away with Cannas, in shade, and lots of water.
What I want to know is why do nurseries, sell these in these kind of areas? They are so difficult to grow in our soil, and climate. You would have to have it in a greenhouse, and in a pot. I thinks azaleas are tempermental.
I really have only been gardening sereously for 5 years, so
I figure after I have mastered my skills, I may be able to try these again. Fail safe plants for Bloomer:
Lavendar, all kinds, Roses, Herbs, all kinds, Yarrow, (they have tons of colors besides, yellow, and white)Coneflower, Zinnias, Verbenia, Lantana, Cactus of course, Hollyhocks, Morning Glories, Lambs Ears, Santolina, Penstemon, Dusty Millers, Iris, Allysum, succulents, The list goes on. But I find only a few of these fails safe plants at my nursery.
And be on the lookout for your wildflowers.

Here's a new one!
A couple of years ago I went to the annual tree give-away from the forest service. I returned home with two very small plants of choke cherry. I figured that it would make some wonderful syrup (which it does).
Well, it spreads by roots...very very deep and strong roots! I dug ditches across my lawn when I tried to pull 6 foot plants out! I broke a shovel trying to cut throught the roots, and just when I think I've won,,,,well, it's been 6 years now.
I think it would be great in the back of a pasture! Not anywhere near a house or flowers.
I finally controlled my parsley by digging any two year plants (the ones beginning to seed) and then only allowing just a few seeds where I want them. They took over too!!
Larkspur is my annual spring challenge as well as Holly hock.
Also, on the idea of burning? Last year my husband and I decided to burn some dried weeds and yard debris. We made a controlled pile away from anything, we thought.
When we were finished we watered the ashes and left for a minute to run an errand. When we returned we discoverd that an ash had blown into the wood pile somehow during the process, and the whole thing was on fire right against our new wood fence!! I never knew my husband could move that fast!!
We quickly scattered the pile out and tried to put out the fire, but some of the wood was soft inside, and those dang things burned for two days until they dissapeared. The fence still wears the evidence!

Here's a current mistake of mine that I'm itching to get over..lol. While digging out some old roots buried under the soil last week, I pulled and I dug and I finally got the buggers out. These roots were supposedly dead from 3 YEARS AGO, however, I found out the hard way 2 things: First, always wear garden gloves when doing soil/debris clearing and second, Poison Ivy roots live a long time underground, even if they never grow upward! Yes, I now have poison ivy over both of my arms, hands and chin-ugh:( Somebody, kick me..I should have known better..lol.
Trish

I've tried to grow larkspur for three years and what do I get nothing! I wish I knew what I was doing wrong! Maybe it's not to be. I grow some seeds but I'm still not to good at it.

Morning Glory,
If you'll sprinkle your seeds out in the fall and let the winter get them, they should come up like crazy in the spring. They don't like to be transplanted very well, but they re-seed readily.
Birdie

birdie, Thanks I guess I'll have to save the seeds I just got two weeks ago till fall.

What a fun thread-oh, can I relate! I started gardening 5 years ago and was Clueless (yes, with a capital "C"!) I have made so many mistakes, but here are the top 8:

#1 Not amending my heavy, clay soil before planting (as a newbie I thought dirt was dirt was dirt).

#2 After having planted my entire 1400 sq. ft. garden, deciding that I needed to amend the soil and ordering two dumptrucks full of compost. I had no idea how big a dumptruck was-you should have seen my face when these two monstrosities pulled up to my house and dumped a pile the size of Mt. Rushmore in my driveway. It took me a solid week from sun-up to sun-down with a wheelbarrow to clear it. At least the neighbors got a chuckle!

#3 Planting obedient (not!) plant in a very moist area (three 3 and 1/2 inch pots covered 30 sq feet the following spring).

#4 Ditto for Snow on the Mountain. Lovely in dry, poor soil, but a madman any place else.

#5 Growing Achillea Summer Pastels from seed. Not only did I wind up with 100+ plants, but yarrow spreads like mad. After I gave wheelbarrowfuls away (it was like giving away zuchinni-my friends and neighbors started ducking in doorways when they saw me coming), I finally yanked up the rest and composted it. Five years later I still get yarrow seedlings in the spring!

#6 Not diligently saving plant tags/keeping good records of what I've already got. I have re-bought the same plants 2 or 3 times (must be that swiss-cheese memory thing!), because I forget what I've got.

#7 Not marking bulbs in the spring so that I don't dig them up when I'm planting fall bulbs (I've sliced and diced too many tulip and hyacinth bulbs to count.)

#8 Composting all of my plants, including seeds, in the fall. I had no idea that there was such a thing as the Seed Exchange, and I could just kick myself for all the seeds I gave to the trash man!

bonnierh,

I bet Roseville has the prettiest landfill thanks to you! LOL!

Sharon

Well I definately agree about mint. Have 1/2 dozen different kinds in the herb garden and every February am out there pulling up all that decided to spread from its area. It's a job and am considering just pulling it all up.

No one has yet mentioned sweet woodruff. I didn't know it spread like it does. I loved it when I planted it (and still love the pretty shape/color of the leaves and little white flowers) but I only planted it last spring, and this spring it is coming up through silver mounds, and several other plants in the same bed. I spent a hour or so yesterday trying to pull up a bunch of the spreading runner roots. Am also considering yanking it all out before it gets out of control.

Can anyone shed light on planting Siberian Irises in a garden? Are they considered invasive..how hard are they to divide? I don't want these taking over my garden, if they are prone to doing so.
Trish

I Love Siberian Iris. I got a small pot of the deep Purple about 5 years ago. I have divided it a couple of times and put it in a few other spots around my yard. I don't think of it as invasive. It seems to spread in a round circle or patch but rather slowly, I just let it get about a foot or two across, and then divide it. Mine is blooming now and it is striking.

I love sweet woodruff, and want some that flower blue... a bit scarce. Yes, it spreads, but in my 6b climate, the spread is just the speed I want, and not too invasive to suit me. A friend here has some in a front bed and after 8-10 years, has only tripled in a small, somewhat contained bed, now to 3 feet by 4 feet. I suspect in another climate it could be rampant, but not here in the Blue Ridge.

I moved to rural GA after having grown up in the 'burbs. My previous "garden" had been a 2ft x 5ft planter box and a few rose bushes... I went to the feed store to pick up seed and a few tomato plants. The gentleman asked me what size garden I had. I said "small", thinking I'd just have a few rows out back (wasn't brave enough to plant the full 1/4 acre that our trailer sat on). He said what do you want to plant - I said corn, tomatoes, a little ocra and some squash. He gave me 14 tomatoe plants, several lbs of corn, a few lbs of ocra and a big sack full of yellow squash seeds. I was too embarrased to say I only needed a few *ounces* of each of the seeds, and maybe only 3 or 4 tomatoe plants. I took it home and planted it all (well, as much as I could fit)! The bright GA sun was quite accomodatin', and we ate squash and corn 'tll we were yellow - and gave away even more. The ladies next door helped me can the 'maters. Something kept eating my ocra as soos as they sprouted, so that's the only crop that didn't run me out of my yard!

This was a *lot* of work for someone who never "really" gardened before!

My nexted years endevours were somewhat scaled back ;-) And instead of so much of one variety, I tried a few different types - for example, I had TWO zucchini plants and 10 yellow squash (instead of 10 rows!) I had 5 tomatoe plants - all different varieties.

I learned two things - 1) start small 2) tell the feedstore person *exactly* what you need

Can't wait to move East and South again!
Karla

I am so glad that I finally found this web site! I never laughed so loud, in all my life, reading all these mistakes that fellow gardeners have made. I can honestly say that I am right there with you guys. We have all made some really horrible mistakes while learning how to garden. Some of us have to even contend with other peoples mistakes, or maybe they weren't mistakes at all. My hubby and I got married 7 years ago and when I moved into his house I realized that after 20 years of him living in this house, with his ex, that there had hardly been anything planted in his yard. He said that they could never agree on what should be planted so they pretty much left it alone. Well after we were married we walked the property line and decided how we were going to landscape the whole 5 acres here. We now have 16 beautiful flower gardens and a large vegetable garden that we are very proud of, but after the first year I noticed some little blue flowers that seemed to be spreading all over the front yard, and asked him what they were. He told me that all his ex wife wanted to plant some wild flowers in the front yard, and that was all she wanted in the yard. Well these little blue flowers turned out to be wild violets and now they have spread all over our 5 acres. They are starting to invade all my beautiful flower beds that we have worked on these past 7 years, and I can't get rid of them! Sometimes it seems that "exs" have a way of paying you back for any happiness that you might find in your life! Well we are still trying to destory these plants and hopefully in the next 7 years they will be gone! I guess with all the happiness we have in our lives now, I really can't complain about these wild violets very much, a small price to pay. Every time I go out in the yard though, I think that there should to be a place that all vendictive exs should be forced to live, and it should include gardens full of wild violets! LOL Hopefully we have all learned by our mistakes while gardening and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading all of yours. Keep up the good work of informing us all of mistakes to avoid in the future!

Hi Diamondwife...it was interesting to read your story about the wild violets, for I had those on my mind just this day! I was turning over more grass(yeah!) to make way for more flower beds and lo and behold, all I dug up were tons(well, lots) of the wild violets today! They are pretty but wow, are they invasive. I am moving many of them, though, to the "Hell Strip", where abuse abounds. If anything can make it on that strip, I sure the wild violets can..he he :)
Trish

Four years ago, one of my daugters brought me 3 or 4 spider wort plants. They had such a lovely purple bloom and kind of remined her of irises, she said. She also brought me a couple of lemon balm plants.

First the spider wort choked out the love-in-a-mist. Last thing to go in that bed was the yarrow. By the end of summer the only surviving plants in that bed were spider wort, lemon balm and 1 plant each of yarrow and sea lavender.

I think this past hard winter may have finally gotten rid of the spider wort. The lemon balm seems to still be thriving. (We refer to it as the Pledge plant because it always smells like furniture polish.)

Thank you diamondwife for the best laugh I've had in a long time! Your comments about the "ex's" had me laughing so hard that I almost peed in my pants!!! ROFL!!!

Terri

I stiffed the paperboy one year at Christmas time, so he kicked my strawberry pot full of Hens & Chicks off the front porch, so I made the mistake of planting them in between the rocks that border all my flowerbeds, now every time I weed wack I cut-up my hens & chicks (gooey wet mess that hits you in the shins). Most of my hens & chicks are currently living in a cracked V8 engine block (Chrysler 440) by the corner of the garage, I told him that if he left it there long enough that I would plant something in it. Funny thing is I HATE those inside-out tire planters, but I kinda like this thing. When we bought our house the prior owners had put a strip of stones down the property line 4 ft wide 4ft deep, I'm sure that it looked nice for the first 5 years. How do you keep the weeds out of the rocks & stay organic? This year (9TH year) I'm going to put down a black plastic rubber sheeting that a friend gave to me and try to cook the weeds out. Can prior owners go to live with the ex-spouses? Also I planted a wisteria on the fence between my house and my neighbors house, our houses are only about 6 feet away from the fence, so far it has repetedly pulled the gutters from BOTH houses, & climbs onto the roof and into the downspouts, I was going to cut it down but my neighbor LIKES it and tells me that if I cut it down then she will not have anybody to maintain her gutters for her for free, LOL. Also when we discovered that our darling new puppy would not stay out of the vegtable garden ( we didn't even have to tell the old dog to stay out , he just knew ) we decided to put a chainlink fence around it, oh I have to add that it is a raised-bed garden with railroad ties stacked 2 high, well this combination is a weed haven, I now have 112ft of a 3in strip of weeds that I cann't get at, & we will not spray it because we are organic and we cann't just move the fence out because in our infinate wisdom we concreted the poles in. ROTFLOL it's good to laugh at these dumb mistakes.

Michele..so sorry but I just had to laugh at the vision of airborne hens and chicks..lol. Thanks for the remark about the wisteria, since I'm getting ready to plant my baby vines. Someone also suggested not having them grow near siding, since they can get up under it..so glad to read these things here :)
Trish

Okay, tonight I have figured out DAVE'S BIGGEST GARDENING MISTAKE of 2001. Nothing will be worse than this for me, this year.

When we moved into this farm last fall, I was delighted to find a massive 20'x20' compost pile sitting in the corner of the farm. The rich black soil tempted and enticed me, until finally, with the help of my pickup truck, I moved tons of the stuff into my cool-weather garden and perennial flower beds.

Well...

2 months later, the weeds are CHOKING out everything else. I spent 2 hours yesterday weeding out my carrot patch, which is 5'x40'. This compost has been sitting for so long, the weeds had taken over it. By taking it in the fall, I didn't know all those weeds were in there. Spring came, the weeds germinated, and took over my garden like you would never believe.

Well, lesson learned. I'll never use compost that I didn't make myself ever again.

Dave

This is a great thread. I've made the Missouri Primrose mistake. I'm still trying to get rid of it. It is beautiful and when it blooms everyone wants some. I encourage them to take all they want and give it with a warning. I like the evening primrose that is taller and yellow. It does spread but is easy to pull out. I have some obedient plant that I think I'm going to pull out after this season after reading this thread. I also made the achillia the pearl mistake. Still pulling it out of the lawn and everywhere else for three years.

I think the biggest mistake I made was buying something that didn't have the growth marked on the tag. It was pussy willow (bush I thought). I had no idea it made a 25 foot tree! It's a good thing I planted it in the back corner of the yard. After chopping at it diligently for the first three years I decided to let it have it's way and be a tree. I never buy anything now that isn't clearly labeled.

I also make the mistake of not allowing enough room for plants. Even though the label tells me how big it's going to be I never believe them. ::grin I am working on this though.

I never made the mint mistake. I just bought my first orange and chocolate mint this year. I planted them inside an old pickle crock so I hope they stay put. I'll keep an eye on them.

Since there are so many new members, I thought I would post to this thread and bring it back to the top of the list. It might be fun to see if anyone else has more to add to this thread!

Sharon

That's a good idea Sharon, as I'm still trying to learn to do things right in the garden!
Trish

I'm in the PNW - Vancouver BC. What is mildly vigorous elsewhere is wildly invasive here because of the temperate climate. My very trusted garden centre person said to rethink Petasites japonica. Wanted it anyway. This thing is fabulous looking - coming up through walkways, through granite walls, even through the bedrock granite. It just shakes it's head and laughs at Roundup.
Liz

I just read this thread and wonder how you guys can grow mint. I've tried at least 5 different times and they die every time--and I love mint. Maybe for those of you with invasive mint problems, I can come over and touch your mints with my kiss of death...

LOL@pukegreen...and how much would you charge for this service? LOL

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kht,
I wasn't charging her, I was asking her how much would she charge for giving mints her kiss of death.

If the price is right, my mother would love her to run through her yard and kiss every all her mints.

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Thankfully I was prewarned about mint and mine is happily growing in a barrel. But since we are sharing gardening mistakes, I have a duzy that I pulled off this year.
In Feb. I received some Italian White sunflower seeds that I have wanting for a while now.
When April came, I spent an entire day planting different seeds and carefully jotting down where I planted each.
I have one bed that I wanted to be strictly yellow, white and orange, so that's where the Italian Whites went. I had just planted the last seed and DD started crying from around the corner. Of course I ran to check on her and an hour later finally got back to my planting. I totally forgot about the sunflowers, so last month (May) I started weeding all my flower beds and noticed some of those 'darn' sunflowers coming up from seeds that had obviously made their way from the other flower bed. I pulled each and every one. Well, a couple weeks later, I remembered that I had some italian white sunflower seeds that I needed to get planted. After searching for them, it dawned on me what I had done with them. OOPS!!!
The good news is, there are a couple that germinated late so atleast I'll have them to save seed from and plant next year.

my biggest mistake is planting a garden in South Louisiana swamps...*sigh* Lisa