Garden Talk: Your Garden Mistakes

Thanks for the advise! I rpinted it out and will do it next spring! I will need a bulldozer to get those roots out!

I find it very interesting that no one has added Black Eyed Susan (rudbeckia) to this thread. One fall I had the fabulous notion to feed the birds for the winter and left my several clumps standing. Collosal error! I cannot spray enough Roundup or pull enough of it to get rid of it! The sad part is I really love it in bloom but not choking out my Meidiland Roses or coming up in the rockwalls, under the Chamecypharis, and every where else there is a stitch of soil to root in. I advise anyone who plants this stuff to putt it far away from a garden you do not want turned into a meadow.

Looks like I've made all of the mistakes listed here...artemesia, (except the globe kind which have the same lovely color but keep to themselves and only fall over in late fall, I pull the other kind all summer long. DH liked the little violets so he put them in a number of spots, and I went out the next day with super weed killer and assassinated every one of them.......the rudbeckia I stuck out in the far corner of the yard, and it can spread all over back there because nothing wants to grow there anyway. And this past summer some creepy looking grassy stuff has been coming up in the front gardens, and it has runners that spread all over. It's all covered with wood chips so it's really hard to get it all out. I don't know what it is or how it got started but it looks to be a a real challenge next spring. We are going to have to play Musical Plants with some of our hardy mums too as some of them have gotten so huge they are all out of proportion with their neighbors. Oh well, that's what we do, isn't it? Dig and move, weed and dig, dig some more. LOL

I don't really mind rudbeckia popping up as long as it's not the real tall kind in the middle of a shorter bed. They sure looked pretty when I took Emma's picture last summer, so for me they're welcome.

I grew mint basil last summer. It's a really cute little pale green plant, flowers, and then goes away. As far as bamboo - the only thing I know is to sink a barrier about 18" into the ground - they sell them at Garden stores. Bamboo is awful.

One good thing about those violets that have runners, they grow under huge walnut trees - when almost nothing else will, but you're right. You'll be digging forever to get them out if you don't want them. We just need to plant the right invasive in the right place!

My worse mistake was a change in grade level during a landscaping project around two big mimosa's. I had even discussed it with the contracter. But I didn't follow through and they got crown rot. I'm starting over with some "Crimson Frost" birches, but I don't know where are pair of hummers are going to nest. (Ours are territorial, they don't migrate, so you only have one type, in fact one pair in the garden.)

I've been gardening for a long time and that is definitely the worst ever. And I knew too! I don't know how I missed it. This is a picture of two of my baby birch trees in November - Think that it's going to take them awhile to catch up to the 30 foot Mimosas?

I am a newbie to this site and also to gardening. Just in the last couple of years I have found the love of plants. This site is the best for newbies like me. Don't know much about anything-lol.
Biggest mistake I ever made was planting hybrid poplar trees. Just had to plant a tree that would grow fast cause I am so impatient and didn't want to wait 5 years for the trees to reach 25ft. Well I got my 25ft trees by the 3rd year and was just so thrilled. When year 4 rolled around I had poplar trees coming up 50 ft away. Think they had under ground suckers and came up everywhere. They were especially good at finding those flower beds that had all that nice soil in them. Any where you watered they came up. Was still fighting them until we sold the place.

Did you know that planting Poplars is illegal in some states? It should be in all of them. And they thought that Bamboo was bad!!!

I finally ventured into the classic threads and started reading this! Great way to spend the morning. Misery loves company.
Yeah did the mint but started chemical warfare before it got full head of steam.
Tried both lily of valley and missouri primrose and I guess I was fortunate. They never grew.

* Thought I wanted the Chinese Lantern. Was sad when nothing grew. Was elated when I spotted what looked like a miniature orange bellpepper dangling in the back of a colonizing clump of 'Rude Beckies'. Then someone in the garden club told me how invasive. I've been at war since. Didn't know they run as well as seed.

* I bought a couple of these variegated plants which I really liked. My only experience was with the Artemisia silver mound which I love and stays put. (I guess mound is the key word here). Well, those little plants tried to grow on the north side of the mailbox bed under a honeysuckle bush. They reached for sun. Next spring grass is greening up, things are breaking out - thats when I noticed a non-grass popping up and they were lined up. Hmmm? It was that variegated artemisia that had run under the sunken rock border and was coming up in the grass 4-5' away. Thermonuclear warfare was declared immediately and succumbed nicely.

* Centaurea Montana 'Mountain Bluet' is showing migratory tendencies to the point of making me very nervous. I thought it was just from seed and started deadheading religiously but now know they run as well.

* Fortune Blue Agastache! Aghhhh! Mail order several years ago and watched it on the north side of the house by the door. It started blooming and the bumblebees loved it. Looked like miniature lava lights going up-and-down-and-up-and-down... I think there was 100% germination for the thousands of seeds the bees ensured were pollinated. I thought I had them dug, yanked and sprayed into oblivion until last summer I discovered one had got started around the corner on the east side and was much happier. When I realized what it was it was already 3'x3' with bloom stalks that had already set seed so when I tried to carefully pull it, the seeds scattering sounded like quiet rain.. ssshhhhhhhh Buy stock in Round-UP this spring, it's sure to go up.

* the house was new construction, we closed on Halloween. After a couple of springs I realized the poor drainage on the west side of the driveway resulted in standing water after heavy rain. One day I had a brainstorm about the right plant in the right place. Went down to a subdivision retention pond and in the cold wet spring and grubbed out a few CATTAILS. I just didn't think things through far enough. Yeah it was neat the first and second years and visitors or drivebys would comment on how smart that was and they'd never seen anyone plant cattails. Yeah, well that area doesn't stay wet it just drains slow. In the summer it can actually get very dry if I'm not watering down there. So what'd the cattails do... start marching up along the driveway towards water. They don't kill very easy and their type of leaves resist herbicide without a wetting agent. I'm getting there but there's still a couple of pieces that got under the nectarines.

After having tried to grow garlic with no success (planted it too late), last year I finally had a decent stand of garlic. I babied it and kept it weed free, checking on it daily. Finally the day came to harvest. I dug up the 15 or 20 bulbs (they are called bulbs aren't they?) and layed them on the lawn to dry. They were small but larger than any I had ever grown before so I was excited and couldn't wait to make my first garlic braid. I went to the vegetable garden on the other side of the property to tie up the tomatoes and give them a side dressing of 10-10-10. The lady that mows our lawn came while I was tangled up in string and tomato vines. I finished with the tomatoes and ran the tiller over an area to put in another round of green beans where the lettuce had been. Afterwards I took the tiller back and noticed a very strong garlic smell in the area near the herb bed. Sure enough my babies that had been drying in the sun were now spread out over much of the back yard via the riding lawn mower. Fortunately there were a few bulbs left in tact but the garlic braid I had invisioned would have to wait till next year.

Bet you won't have any vermin wandering around your backyard this spring! lol

Another myth! I'd heard the bunnies didn't like garlic. Yeah, right. Last spring I discovered a shallow hole dug and lined with fur as a future bunny nest. Right in the middle of my garlic bed that's even enclosed with picket fence! Stupid rabbit. A bowl of mothballs set in the hole for a couple of days, and no evidence of more activity. Covered the hole and the Mrs. was gone.

lol Perhaps the bunnie was willing to live with the smell if it kept out HER predators! All I know is that garlic powder did end the digging around the roots of my daylilies. Don't know who was doing it, but they didn't like the smell/taste at all. :)

I just put this somewhere else on this website. Sorry if you're reading it twice (I'll figure it out eventually . . .)

I overacidified the soil around my beautiful, brand-new, Endless Summer Hydrangea. Can anyone help me with first aid? The small flowerheads have died (but, hey, they were turning blue) and the leaves are changing color and curling up.

I am heartsick. Is it too late?

Not sure if this will help but if it were me I would pull the plant, put it in a temporary container and water copiously to clean the soil. I would then dig the soil out of the remaining hole going out well past the area where the plant inhabited and replace it with soil from elsewhere in the garden. Like I said not sure if this will help. You didn't say when and how you did the acidification. Was it last fall with lots of lime or something that was done recently?

hey all:
reading this thread is great!! but makes me want to write down every single thing i buy or do or think or accidentally do or think of thinking...i'm sure it'll all come back to haunt me someday. I am in my first spring of gardening so i am blissfully ignorant of everything i'm doing wrong - but i'm already a little nervous about how much English Ivy we have in the courtyard. Is it going to take over my life? Is it going to be the only thing that grows under the shade tree? Will there be a battle royale between that and the pachysandra, and will the innocent ferns be the bystanders caught in the crossfire? Time will tell - or you guys can just let me know now, so I can start planning for next year!
Also - already guilty of planting sunny plants (and optimistically warm zone plants) in our 5b shade, probably woodland-type garden
Also - how do you get rid of a bunch of scraggly, non-blooming lilacs who don't get any sun? I think azalea bushes will do better.

so far have avoided the mint, rudebeckia, bamboo, chinese lantern, compost, and creeping charlie debacles, but that makes me think - is there anything viney for shade that ISN'T an invasive nightmare? I'd give a lot to have a light pink or dark purple something-or-another growing on our fence.
Great stories all! A fantastic way to improve my gardening knowledge, with both a chuckle and a list of mental notes about what NOT to do....

Welcome to the garden, fiatluxury! One way to help you remember things you're reading/ thinking/doing now, is to write them in your Garden Diary. It's very easy to use, much like creating your own threads, and just continuing to post to them, depending on the subject. Dave is still fiddling around with them, tweaking them, but they're lots of fun, and my hope is that it will help me remember my mistakes so I don't make them again!

Just go to the top of the page, click on the Journals tab, and you can look at Diaries that other members have chosen to make "public", or you can start your own diary. Try it out, and good luck!!

Flatluxury - You get rid of scraggly lilacs by sending them to me!! There are some roses that grow in partial shade, which would add some color, as well as other plants like hostas, but I don't know too many of them, since not planting my partial east side yet. Have been concentrating more on roses in front (full sun) and back yard for now. Sides will be later.

As for my garden mistakes - most impt that I learned this year (so far, lol) is to WEAR GLOVES, esp when cleaning up the peony stalks left on the ground from last fall. April 6th - Got splinter into my rt index finger; pulled it out. Then, it got infected, doubled in size; dr appt; anitbiotics; dr appt and she explained how I now have an infected tendon! More antibiotics; swelling down considerably, but still noticeable; hand specialist appt; MRI in case something still in there; return to hand specialist (May 24th) - Thank goodness MRI showed nothing still in there, but IF not better in month, have to go back.

Have fun everyone! Learning lots as I make it through this thread. Later ~ Suzi :)

Anyone had fun with Leylandii (leyland cypress)? It's notorious in the UK for just growing and growing, incredibly quickly. 20 years ago, my parents bought a house with a few 'nice conifers' out the front, and then watched the trees grow to more than the height of the house (two storeys). Getting them out is incredibly hard; and better still, they don't regrow from brown wood, so if you trim back beyond the green foliage, then you have a dead spot (or a dead tree, depending on how much of it you decided to cut back). They also ignite if they so much as see a spark- one of ours went up like a bonfire two years ago. Luckily, although it was close to the house, it didn't set anything but its neighbouring leylandii chum on fire.

There are a few... the one I just learned I am making is growing black eyed susan's and.. Get this... I didn't even put it in the ground since DH put down a pre-emergent, for all the manure I used, but I started them in flats.. Hmm, maybe I will be sorry, but I like the way it looks..

Okay, the garlic reminded me.. I had a tick problem and my poor dog was covered in them unbeknownst to me when she went in for her grooming. Of course we treated her, but then I found one on my 2 year old son and another one climbing toward me in my bed, I freaked out. I went online and did a search for products and found out that both ticks and mosquitoes hate the smell of garlic and the products out there contain garlic. Well, being the Martha Stewart type that I am, I decided to make my own. I got out my stand alone pressure cooker and filled the pot with water and threw in 2 entire heads of garlic and let in go at high pressure for 30 minutes. My home didn't even have that nice "Italian" cooking smell.. I really like garlic, but it was AWFUL!! One of my friends said she could smell it pulling into my driveway, and the windows were closed. Another said it reminded her of this gross garlic tea her mom use to make her drink when she was sick. My pressure cooker still reeks of garlic, as well as the cabinet were it is kept. Also, since I didn't strain the yucky garlic juice, my sprayer soon got clogged with tiny garlic pieces. I didn't have a strainer handy so I got so fed up with it, I just poured it down an embankment where nothing was growing, and I don't think anything will anytime soon. My husband had to use the air compressor to free all the garlic out of my sprayer. Yuck! I haven't seen any ticks though!! I may do it again, but I'll put the pressure cooker outside and strain the water. :)

Okay, here's a good one I just remembered.....

I wanted a "cheap" greenhouse so I begged my husband to build me the hoop house from plans at [HYPERLINK@www.littlegreenhouse.com] I figured that since my husband gets PVC through our family business, that it would be very economical..

Well, the clamps are special fittings and had to be special ordered. There were not counted when received and the invoice wasn't kept.. Long story short, it took lots of time and cutting to get the PVC up. We finished putting up three walls of plastic only to realize we were short 20 fittings and we weren't sure if it was our fault or the companies so we had to reorder. I don't know exactly how much my husband paid, but they aren't real cheap.

Well, like the novices we were, we left the three walls of plastic up and the front door side was wide open and uncovered. One day we had a particularly terrible wind storm and the entire thing picked up and flipped over like a parachute and went flying down the yard. We did have it staked, but not well enough for the wind resistance. I watched the whole thing from my kitchen window and I didn't know if I should laugh or cry. I had just planted some arborvitae trees real near and I was afraid they would get crushed. I could not right the greenhouse alone with the weight and the wind and I had to leave it rocking in the wind upside down and all the plastic was destroyed. My baby trees thankfully were untouched.

We did get the fittings in, but DH lost steam on the project after all that, and asked if we could please tear it down and he would pay for one that I order online :) So we did, and I will. :)

I am also guilty of letting things in pots die :( But I continue on...

Susan


This message was edited May 28, 2007 2:51 PM

With nearly 20 years of gardening I've made so many mistakes it's hard to choose. Three years ago we moved to a house on six acres with a pond and overgrown flower beds all around the house. It took me a year to realize that intermixed in the plants was a ton of garlic mustard, which I've been battling ever since. My sweetheart is a lawn guy, and he takes care of the pond. He loves blue and purple flowers, so last year I put in a bunch of baptisia around the pond. I checked it this spring, and most of it was coming up nicely. The mistake was that I planted it as a surprise. He dumped left over gravel from a fire pit project on one patch. He killed another patch with Rodeo, trying to kill off the invasive grasses next to it, and he dumped sand on the patch by the beach. Of over 30 plants, 2 survived. He also weedwhacked a bunch of iris once. This spring I bought a bundle of the little neon green plastic flags that surveyers use, and they are now on every single plant that he is not supposed to kill by the pond. They blend in from a distance but he can see them when he's close up. On the up side, he didn't kill the milkweed, he fixed the sprinkler system for me, and the lawn looks great. Bless his heart.

sstateham,

You're not alone! I have been trying to grow an aster in my memory garden, but DH manages to get it with the weed trimmer every time (except this year!) Last year I planted some beautiful heirloom squash and I had left tomatoe cages over it, so I would know where it was, hoping it would reseed. This spring it was quite large before the garden was tilled. Imagine the look on my face when DH finished tilling the garden and my beautiful squash was gone. I had forgotten to mention it to him, and he just moved the cages and tilled everything.

P.S. - I grew up in Rockford!

This message was edited Jun 7, 2005 10:02 AM

Found out through the identification forum what the ugly little evergreen looking stuff is that is coming up all over the top tier of our flower bed..........it's called field horsetail and it is a prehistoric plant which explains why Roundup, applied liberally does nothing to it. Now we are investing in super killer and black plastic and destroying everything in that area to get rid of it. DH dug up some mums and thinks he can save them but I'll bet anything their root systems have runners in them from the horsetail. He put them in pots, so if I see any of those devils coming up, those plants are goners too.

Our mistake was in not identifying them earlier, and digging them out before they got established. Sigh. For a photo, go to members, put in my DG name, and look for a thread I started called what is this and how do you kill it. I dumped the photo from my pictures after I found out what it was so it wouldn't start growing in my hard drive.

Can some one please tell me if this is creeping charlie?? I can't get rid of, it grows under my siding, throiugh my concrete steps, is pushing the steps away from the house, sends runners all through my flower beds, you get the picture. I have been fighting it for almost 4 years, and have even resorted to Round Up Heavy Brush and Weed killer this year. Some of it died off, but killed my azalea in the process :(
Any help would be appreciated
Janis

jasmerr

Great area! I hated the midwest when I moved here as a teenager, but it would be tough to get me to move away now. Being in Rockford, we're right in the middle of beautiful county, close to Chicago, Madison, and Milwaukee, and have reasonable real estate prices compared to most places. What moved you north?

I grow my veggies in pots, so he's no danger to them. So far the little flags have helped - he went around my foxglove babies when he mowed the back berm. I'm hoping that when he knows what's what and where it is I can remove the flags and just use them for new plantings. I ordered more baptisia from Bluestone - I'll be more careful to mark them and show him where they are this time. He's so great about helping me when the big projects come up, and he takes such good care of all the non-garden realated things that it's hard to be ticked at him when he kills my plants. As my mom puts it, plants are replaceable but a good man is hard to find (Dad kills her stuff, too).

Speaking of good men being hard to find....Another of my great mistakes, and probably my first whopper, was over twenty years ago with my ex-hubby we moved into our first house. I loved mint, so I put some in my vegetable garden. My ex still lives in that house, and my daughter tells me there's still mint out there that they can't get rid of.

Oh my goodness. This reminds me of my worst gardening mistake, ever. I had moved into a new area. I was thrilled with this giant vegetable garden that I had lovingly planted was thriving. Unfortunately the weeds were thriving also. One day while complaining about the continual weeding, my new friend, a wheat farmers wife, told me to just use round up between each row and the weeds would be deader than a doornail in 7-10 days. So I went and bought the roundup and applied it. She was right! All the weeds were dying like crazy. So were all of my vegetables! She didn't think to tell me that if there was the slightest wind, the roundup would get on every plant and kill them as well. I was left with nothing. She now swears that she NEVER told me that! oh yeah, what a bummer.
--
The other bad mistake I made was also in a newly moved to area. It was real early in the spring and had been warm and georgous for about 2 weeks. So I went into town and bought all of my annual flowers and spent the next 2 days getting them all lovingly planted around the yard. They looked great. The very next moring I woke up to about 7 inches of snow!!! Needless to say, most of the flowers froze to death and had to all be replaced. (Not for almost another two months though when I was sure that they'd be safe!)

I left the cordless phone out in the rain this weekend. Ooops. Now the fool thing is deader than a doornail and I have to figure out how to tell hubby what happened to it. He's just going to sigh and shake his head.

Maybe it will work when it dries out! If he is a little like my ex, he will take it apart, dry it out and see. Good luck! ~ Suzi :)

This is my third year gardening ... my biggest mistake was not preparing the soil for the perennials the first two years (although most seemed to do well anyway ...) The second biggest mistake was not feeding anything! I figured plants grew in dirt so why did I have to feed them???? Anyway, I'm now paying attention to my roses and tomatoes especially ... I covered the tea roses with leaves this winter and although the canes still died back they look a lot healthier since I also fed them last year! Hope to get more tomatoes faster this year too (Brandywines) ...

I too planted the rampant artemesia the first year and pulled it up as weeds that year and the next ... seems to be gone now ... the mint hasn't been a problem except for moving around a bit ... maybe the harsh winters keep it in line ...

I inherited a previous owners mistake -- a very large stand of greek oregano that smells great and bees love it but is a tenacious weed in all the garden beds I made ... I've smothered out the large stand inside the 40 x 90 fence but it has escaped out into the field and will probably never be entirely gotten rid of ... mowing keeps it out of the lawn pretty much ...

The other big mistake is my boyfriend's ... he created a rock wall outside the 90' part of the fence where it sloped but left the top 1.5 feet to grow up in weeds which creep into all the beds (lots of creeping clover and grass on runners and stuff I can't name -- horsetail too!) It also made good cover and housing for voles which are eating tons of plants (my poor clematis which was going to bloom this year!) ... he claims he will smother this soon ... (the weeds, not the voles, although I wouldn't object) ...

Aside from that I've planted too-tall rudbeckia in front of a small tree peony ... so had to move that stuff and lots of other stuff that turned out to be taller -- wider -- spreading-er -- than expected from pictures! Nothing like experience ...

Also in the first year I had a beautiful stand of butterfly weed that was covered in aphids so I pulled the whole thing thinking they were annuals! That hurts ...

Learning more every day ...

Sharron

--Expensive mistake.. I was getting great free manure from a horse farm and dumping it all over the places I wanted to creat beds. The stuff growing there is wonderful..

I let a very great gardener tell me how wonderful the soil was that is sold nearby and I paid $28 a cubic yard for 10 yards and $50 delivery.. The stuff growing in there is not nearly as great as my manure beds... My tomatoes are yellowing and not super healthy at all. The tomatoes poping up by themselves that we in last years compost and dumped on top of old manure are growing like gangbusters... but they are right in the middle of my daylillies :)

Susan

I like the mint anyway. The following is taken from my June DG dairy.
Summer Pet Plant - Mint
Summer has come, and I am in an attempt to use something cool and fresh on body to drive heat off. Yes, I have got it - mint!
Mint is a herbaceous perennial which gives off pleasant fragrance all over. There are two kinds of stems: the aboveground stems are square, straight, upward and hairy; and the underground stems are snow-white, soft and slender. Right on the aboveground stems grow oval leaves and at the bases of them bloom rings after rings of pale pink and purplish flowers in fall.
Clip a leaf and crumble it in your hand, and then smell before your nose, and you will feel a cool and fresh feeling. That is because there is oil in it (methol).
The oil extracted from the plant has many practical uses. Many daily products, usch as toothpaste, shampoo, green oil and prickly-heat powder, contain the oil. In hot summer, often using the mint products will be surely good for our health.
Here we also make the mint leaves into a fried food: Pluck the fresh leaves and wash clean, dip into watery starch, and then put in boiling table oil for a second or two. Scope out for eating. Crisp and fresh.
For me, I just like to smell the cool foliage.(Other fragrant leaves which I like to smell is a Chinese rose, a fragrant weed, camphor). I think smelling fragrant leaves is wonderful.
Wonder if other persons are of such an eccentric?
.

I love the smell of mint, Jianhua. I'm willing to put up with some invasiveness just so I can enjoy the plant, but I did plant my mint in a container! I grow several herbs just because I like the smell.

Jody

Yes, maybe the mint is vigorously disobeydient in the garden, but it does not mean that this is an evil plant. And in fact from the herbal point it is a rather practical one. As I know it is a necessary ingredient in some food, gum, sauce, and more.

This message was edited Jun 23, 2005 11:22 PM

I keep my mint in containers, too, but I agree with Jianhua - it has a ton of great uses. Mint tea for an upset stomach, mint leaves down the garbage disposal to get rid of bad smells, added to lemonade for flavor, etc is just the start of the list of ways it's used around our house.

Right, plant mint in pots or (tomato) boxes or gallon cans, and that will solve the problem of invasiveness.
Talking about invasive plants, one of the most invasive is Canada Golden Rod which Lantana calls it Gold Baby (Solidago canadensis). Here I have some info about it.
In 1935, Shanghai and Nanjing inported the Golden Rod as an ornamental. And since the 1980's, the plants can be seen growing along river banks, waysides, crop fields and parks,etc. They invade wildly into new colonies that many indigenous species have died out. Now the government calls on the local multitudes to take action to get rid of the 'live but not let live' plants.

This was painful...
One fine fall about 4 years ago I took the day off and was home canning salsa. Maters, peppers, onions, lemon grass, nasturtiums, garlic... a bumper crop year.
I was in the middle of mixing up a habanero batch and had to relieve myself.

I'm not in the habit of washing hands BEFORE using the toilet but it would've been a good thing this day. Shortly after returning to the kitchen, my uh, crotch was on fire!! Chopping and cleaning habanero, chile and jalapeno peppers all morning didn't bother the hands but other body parts are just as sensitive as if I'd rubbed my eyes.

ROFLMAO!

ROTF!! Yes, gotta keep your wits about you when working with peppers!

Jianhua, I agree about the mint. I have several different kinds, all in containers. (I love the smell of camphor, too. I have a Copper Canyon Daisy, Tagetes lemonnii, the leaves smell like a mix of lemon & camphor.)

I remembered earlier today about a mistake I made when I first started building my beds, about a yr and half ago.

The first bed, I used nothing but the best, really great organic soil. It flattened out quite a bit in no time flat. So the next bed, I saved some money and solved the problem of a prematurely flattened bed, by using top soil. I planted wildflowers in the rich-but-flat bed, only to find out most wildflowers prefer poor soil (they get leggy in rich soil), and they really need good drainage (but the whole bed is now prone to flooding when we get a good rain.) I planted roses in the well-draining but pretty nutient-lacking top-soil bed. !!!

Well, the wildflowers are still pretty, but I'll be working to correct that bed this fall. The roses have miraculously survived in spite of me (good thing I picked tough antiques!) I've been constantly adding good organic compost to that bed, and the roses have thanked me for it.

When I was a little child, there was a persimon tree in our yard. And every year in late fall I would have quite a few of the sweet fruit to eat. 'If I contribute my urinate to the tree constantly, it will be sure to bear alot more fruit for me', I thought. So each day when I got up from bed the first thing for me to do was to water my fresh and warm nutrient water to the tree.
As you can imagine it, the tree had in the end gone to west.
Anyway, this is my earliest and memory-worthy garden experience.

Not really a gardening mistake but a vege-misidentification mistake.

When I was 7 I had my first bell pepper. I loved them instantly. A week or so later we stopped by a little roadside veggie stand and I saw the cutest little bitty bell peppers there. I though that nobody would notice if I had just one. I bit into what was probably a jalepeno and my mouth was on fire. Of course I couldn't tell my mother or she would know I stole the pepper. That was probably the longest 3 mile ride home I ever experienced. I burned the entire time and for some time after the many glasses of water I downed once I got home. I was just sure God was punishing me for stealing. Needless to say I learned that a life of crime was not for me.

Once I read of a remedy in an old plant book, saying fluid out of the hosta of a kind is a good herbal medicine that pulls up one's bad teeth without pain. I took this as a treasure and sought opportunity to put it into practice.
Chance came finally. One day one of my neighboring uncles got a severe pain in his teeth. He said one tooth was broken and he was eager to have it pulled up by a doctor. 'No need to see the doctor. Ask for me.' So I immediately began to work: pulled up one of my hostas and squeeced out the fluid from the roots and got ready for use. Then I took a cotton ball and dipped it into the fluid. "Tell me where the yet to be removed tooth of yours, It is no joke and i must make sure.' 'Right this one, yes, yes, that's it'. So I put the cotton ball right on the tooth carefully, waiting and waiting, but the tooth was still there as before. Later occasionally I learned from a book that the hosta did have the medicinal function, but had to be mixed up with two other herbs.
Trusting in books without doubt sometimes is even worse than having no books at all.