Okay, so I'm new and becoming a pest already. But it's just too good, to have local gardeners to ask questions of (Craigs' List Gardeners' forum was my old haunt, but California is just NOT the same environment!). Thought I'd do a reverse of "don't ask, don't tell" and I'd ask AND tell about gardening goofs. My worst gardening error, definitely, was planting Labrador violets. Invasive, and uncontrollable, to say the least. We'll spend tomorrow trying to eradicate them. We have other invasives, but they're controllable--I don't mind Chameleon plant, for example--so far it's contained. And the Arum italicum is just plain dead right now. Haven't been able to make this invasive plant grow at all. Not that we decided, "Hey, we'll plant invasive stuff." We were GIVEN these plants, mostly, except for one, my DH's favorite, Lysimacchia numularia, (sp?) or Creeping Jenny. He STILL loves it, though it's taken over one of our shade "islands." Anyhoo, we've made so many other errors of judgment, but these are our worst, all related to invasive plants. I would love to learn from others' mistakes. Care to share your worst stories?
Worst gardening error
This year I have two mistakes. Not "worst mistake ever" but still annoying.
The first is an overly ammended area. It's small 2x2 but even gallaridia died in it! The soil won't hold water now. So I have to wait until it rains, dig out that soil and replace it with better soil. Just annoying. Whoever thought you could get TOO good of drainage in clay soil? Not me.
The 2nd annoyance is soaker hoses. Year 1 they were just "ok", year two, not the best. Drying up and not doing a very good job. Year three? Usless hunks of plastic. Complete waste of money in my full-sun garden. They just get fried. They don't provide water for the length of hose or emit enough through the hose...so next winter I think we are going to try a drip irrigation system.
GGG
Are you sure your Arum is dead? It does go dormant in the summer.
My worst mistake was planting the Archangel Lamium. That stuff takes over!!
pins - Okay, I meant dormant on the arum. It does come back, but never really thrives. I have about 20 plants, but only two or three get to the "fruit" stage. This year I decided to water and fertilizer more, and it didn't help a bit. They are a few feet away from a huge pine--maybe that's it? Oh, well. By the by, I have somehow killed Lamium maculatum. Guess I got lucky on that one, from your experience.
girlgroupgirl - thanks for the info on soaker hoses. I'm always so tempted.