things we did wish we hadn't

Gardening mistakes.

I made plenty Jo Ann. What's the mistake in the photo? My mistakes include using small stones. Don't! For anything! Plant choice mistakes include chasmanthium (worst grass around), eupatorium 'Chocolate' - seeds everywhere. I am dealing with these two now for some seven or eight years after getting rid of the originals.

That was the dullist picture I could find.

My latest was putting too much bagged topsoil in with the potting soil,not draining well.
Ajuga was a plant I wish I had never seen.
It jumped the barrier and spread into the lawn, this was a garden I did for a friend, good thing she didn't realize it was a mistake.

Yes, containers need good drainage. No topsoil.

OK This is the plan for Fall.
Dump all containers 11 of them and remix with just potting soil. Should be cheap by then.
Waaah daaayaa think?

Are you planting them in the fall?

Oh yeah... small stones. Grrrr...

Let's see... planting too close to the fence... Planting where it gets trampled by dog and child... Grandpa Ott's Morning Glories... Using rocks as an edger... Buying so much that half of it dies before I have the chance to get it in the ground... Making a compost pile with no cage next to the garage (I got rats!)... Spending tons of money on a tulip bed, only to find out that they're not the kind of tulips that return each year... Using the red-dyed mulch (It glows!)...

Victor: I will only return the perennials to certain containers and plant lilies in one container.
My containers are planted with perennials and annuals.
Some have lilies and perens. aome only have annuals.
I want these lilies for a container Fata Morgana ,B&B's, I lost a yellow asiatic due to poor winter location.

Ever planting bronze fennel, allowing rose campion in my yard, planting oriental poppies that are taking over the daffodil bed!

I love Papvar but you'r right they do get out of controle.
They are so finnicky to transplant they might just be considered weeds.

Buying a dogwood tree from Farmer Seed and buying anything from Wayside. What a waste of $.

From a long time ago:

We used to plant these huge gardens up in Maine, and my father was constantly moving stuff around, partly to rotate the crops and partly to see what worked with what.

We planted a couple rows of pumpkins, a row of marigolds and then a couple rows of zucchini. All the squash flowered at once and the bees had a wonderful time. We spent the summer moving the pumpkin vines at first, but the it started to get difficult.

See, the pumpkins appeared to be growing at a rate that should not have happened. You could literally see the growth on some days, and a few of them split, they were growing so fast. On the other side of the marigolds, the same thing was happening to the zucchini, but that wasn't QUITE so bad, as we didn't have to move any vines.

The way we would test the zucchini was to let them get as big as they wanted, and when you had a hard time putting a thumbnail into the skin of one, it was time to harvest. So, we had one that we checked periodically, and it kept being nice and soft, in spite of getting to be about 3' long by about 12" around. We guessed that it must be some exceptional chicken manure or something because these things were HUGE and growing merrily.

Finally, we went out one day and tried the thumbnail trick and we could not put our nail in the skin. I ended up bending the nail (ouch!) on the skin of the zucchini. Curious, I grabbed a brad (yes, the small metal nail) and tried that. Nothing. Could barely dent it.

We harvested one of the zucchini and noticed that it had the weirdest mottling we had ever seen. On measure, it was 46" long and about 18" around. We tried to cut it with a really sharp knife and that didn't work very well. We tried a saw, and while better, it still was very difficult to cut. Finally, frustrated and aggravated (and at the point of "I am not letting a bloody squash make a fool out of me!"), I grabbed the axe that we used to chop wood and sliced it open. Yes, it took an axe.

We tried the flesh inside, and it was tender and tasted... kinda like pumpkin, actually. At that point, we knew that we had done something very, very, very stupid. We had cross bred the pumpkins and the zucchini.

We ended up with what felt like 8 million of the gourds, all of which needed an axe to get inside. They made some amazing bread and such, but there was no way on this planet that it was zucchini any more.

On a side note, the pumpkins had grown to epic size, as well, and all the neighborhood kids loved us that year at Halloween.

Oh! That's so funny!!

Not putting the sprinkler system in before the lawn and plant beds! this was not my issue! I recommended to the owner of the property that they put the sprinkler system in first, at least the major lines of it and to not put in a lawn. I was thinking combinations of rock gardens and mulched areas ( i hate mowing and they thought that they would have some how have more time to do it). So the lawn went in first, they didn't buy guaranteed weed free seed, and spent two years trying to get the weeds and moss out only to realize that it just wasn't going to happen, I spent almost three years trying to water everything by hand and portable sprinklers, needless to say... that had issues. Then they didn't hire a person whose job is sprinkler systems to put it in. they just hired an "odd job" type character who was a real idiot and 7 years later I'm still dealing with the consequences of that. Can you believe he only put the pipes 5" below the surface?!!! I didn't know this until the first time I tried to plant something and hit a line really hard with a shovel and cracked the pipe. It makes it really hard to make or redo beds when the lines are that close, never mind the issue of freezing pipes. Oh holy cow----it's hard to stop on this subject when I get going!!

This message was edited May 13, 2008 1:17 PM

I planted everything up to the side of the house and wondered why it leaned out from under the dripline, speaking of a drip I also lost an entire row of morning glories when it rained and washed them all away.They were planted under the eves, gutters overflowed and you can guess the rest.

I think I've fixed all my small mistakes by now. I did plant shrubs that didn't have the room to grow in my back bed - most of them had to be removed later.

I haven't made any. ☺

lol

I learned to hard way that plant tags are not always true. I love the colorful blooms of african daisy's and some garden center had two flats of them for $35.00, which I though was ok and I had a large area that I wanted to plant something like that. The tags said perennial and hardy to zone 8 (i'm 7--but wanted to try). I even asked the lady there if they were truly a perennial because I hadn't seen many growing outdoors here (that should've been a clue and apparently I should have said a perennail "here") and she said that they were. So, I took them home, planted all 32 of the suckers, and was proud of the spot. Whithin a day or two it bothered me more about not having seen many outside. So, I looked it up, and sure enough they are a perennial .....but only down to zone 10 or something like that. I was so upset at myself and the garden center! Not for the amount of money, but for the amount of time and labor. Every last one of them died after the first hard frost. Never made that mistake since!!!

I planted the raspberrys. I love the raspberrys but they have begun to wander quite vigorously. I don't want to chop too many canes out, because I love the raspberrys, but many have to go.
Sigh. Why can't I have the raspberrys and eat them too?
Martha

Hastur ~ From Maine to Texas huh? Certainly went to the opposite extreme weather wise ! I can so picture what you said about the nail bending in the skin and the chicken manure. My hubby grew a 9lb. Cauliflower in old chicken manure.....stuffs amazing!!

yanking out my clematis vine while I was weeding, and leaf vac shredding from the perilla bed and dumping it in my flower beds. I now have perilla all over the place after two years of finally finding somewhere to contain it and still grow it.

pumpkinis?
Zuchinkins?
Hastur - that was a great story!

not being diligent about eradicating (hand-pulling) dandelion seed heads.
or thistles. hmmm - thistles. Freaky little buggers popping up everywhere.
Perilla - oh my, it's been a cover crop in one of the vegetable beds - what was i thinking???
The worst was the miscanthus ordeal: had to move/divide one that I had neglected - too much work for a mediocre grass. Now there are great-grandchildren...

Almost always putting the cart before the horse. I buy a bunch of things, they sit in pots, I water them and nurture them, THEN, I make the bed and plant it. I've been doing that for over 13 years, should have learned my lesson by now.

Good morning, glad I started this thread.
I never realized I would get so much advise on rogue plants .
New house gardens are three times as much space as I ever had in the city, and run the gammut of part sun part shade to part shade full shade, sum full sun, I'm having a ball with plants I was never able to have in the small city garden,now I know what to avoid .
Doubt I will get into chickenpoop fed cuqumbers and pumpkins but it's good information.
Thanks everyone and
KEEP ON VENTING and sharing.

Is the problem with small stones that weeds grow through them? I have an area I have approx 1" stones in. And, I am planning to edge the area for my new rock waterfall fountain with large stones, why don't you like stones for edges?
The fountain isn't actually as nice as I had hoped. I am going to adjust the water flow to see if I like it better. The cardinals love it though.

Yes, Deb - mainly weeds and grass growing in them. Animals and mowers kick them around. I have them as larger areas - surrounding my pool deck, my veggie boxes and as a patio. Weed fabric didn't help. Preen didn't help. Total disaster. Now I'm paying to remove them to make way for a paver patio.

I had a "dry stacked "stone wall in front of my old house.
Front yard was so close to the sidewalk it seemed useless to mow so relandscaping filled the area with creeping juniper and perennials behind the 3 foot stone wall. there was 2 feet from the wall to the side walk I filled with pesgravel.
That was 30 years ago, the barrier failed some time about ten years ago and the peagravel migrated down into soil.
There was such a small amount of PG that I decided to put in rockgarden sedums and stone crops as well as dwarf iris. It's impossible to dig for planting in this spot.Toomuch PG under the surface.
This view shows the wall w/ perens above it and some plants at the base.Looked great but a hassle to plant in.

ge1836, that sure looks lovely though. I once replanted beds that formerly were solid lava rock mulch. I dug out as much as possible but alot remained mixed into the soil. It made it hard to plant, but the added drainage in our clay soil seemed to really benefit the plants. Hostaholic, I know what you mean... I have a potted clematis rubromarginata I am still debating where to put....

I have rocks collected from digging in my rocky soil. I didn't know what to do with them, so I'd put them around the mulch line around my beds. They only prevented the mower from getting up to the mulch line, so I'd have tall grass and weeds growing through them. Then, sometimes DH wouldn't see that there's rocks in there, go to mow it, and hit rocks. No, the rocks were a disaster. My collection is still growing... at some point I'll figure out what to do with them.

Harper

your soil looks like ours at the new place.
Clay and rocks.
I try to dig a little fine mulch into each hole when I plant anything.

Yup. I add compost to the soil. I leave a few rocks in there too, especially the ones I chipped while digging. I figure they'll add good minerals to the soil.

I am not sure if I am correct with this diagnosis but I had the most beautiful montana clematis covering our stonewall and showering us with gorgeous dogwood like blush blooms in the spring. This year it was coming back with a vengence (3rd year in) and I top dressed it with some horse manure. It has slowly died back to only new growth. I fear for that too. Odd that the other clematis, Henrii and Dutchess of Edinburgh (I think that's her name) are going gangbusters and I top dressed them too. The manure was well aged. Perhaps too much acidity? Could it be something else that caused this wilt and eventual die off? This is a photo of the clematis in question the first year I planted her. Now it is just a couple new shoots, last year it covered the wall so densely you could not see the rocks. Boo Hoo.

This message was edited May 14, 2008 1:35 PM

Looks like clems to me. Maybe someone else knows the reason for the flopp.
different Varieties need different care. I always thought Clems. loved fertalizer.

oh I am so glad for this thread... I have made so many mistakes that I don't even know where to begin... lol... how about planting seeds and forgetting to label?
and since I don't know many perenials last year I let a bunch of plants grow to later discover they were weeds... and how about transplanting weeds thinking they were black eye susans??? and killing the black eye susans????!!!!

also I let something grow that I could swear it were morning glories!!! just to discover it was not... another weed...

Kassia! You had me laughing with the black-eyed susans.

I had the same thing with happen to me with the "morning glories". I had moved into my new place and had planted many MG seeds and couldn't remember planting some in this one area by the fence, but they were coming up all over the place there, so I staked them, trained them up over the fence, la, la, la... come to find out later, it was field bindweed! Ugh! That stuff is relentless!!

I too have transplanted weeds that I thought were plants that came back from the previous year!
I really felt silly! And right now I have agastache that looks similar to a weed, and I'm not sure which is which...

Every spring brings that fun guessing game. Does this look like something I planted??

ooohhh toooo many mistakes...
This year I have to recognize that I have an allium problem- I have let them seed, and its just a terrible situation- I could open a bulb business.... for a couple of years it was fun having more and more- but now its really a problem- and they are not easy to dig!-
Never never again will i let those seed heads dry for winter decorations... BAD BAD BAD,.....
sarah