oh, it gets worse... how about when I mowed the lawn and left clippings behind? little did I know I was spreading clover ... oh so bad at some areas...
another mistake is planting taller plants in front and short ones in the back... I did it with irises last fall... what do I know???
Mistakes can be made with own plant creations. this morning I was happily discarding yellow iris seedlings when I pulled one I shouldn't have. It had 3 buds instead of two (SDB plant) and was very fragrant--found out by bringing it up to my nose instead of going down to it. So--first made a cross with it in case it wasn't saved and then replanted in another bed away from others.Getting started hybridizing was another mistake, but one does like one's own creations.
Pulling up almost every gazania seedling i grew last year thinking they were weeds.
O heavens, i don't even want to admit this, but thinking - "o that is a kind of pretty weed, i'll let it be" last year. Galinsoga is the evil invader of my world. i have never seen that much of anything. In every size. All the time.
Not getting some grub poison last year and eliminating the little #*@s immediately, but trying to be "green" about it. No, really. i wish i'd killed every bloody one of them at first sight.
amy
*
haha. I'm laughing with you, really! I feel the same ....uh..... darn way.!!!
your gazania are the reason i can not direct sow seeds.... I always pull them too
debilu: I have agastache too, new plants from BS. The reason they are still in the ground is cause I just planted them, looks like mint. I mark every perennial w/ white plastic spoon where its planted so summer growth coveres spoon but spring shows me emerging plants.Memory is awful.
Kassia: that looks like a dwarf iris. Is that a problem?
I am suddenly reminded of another bone-headed maneuver:
We were kind of starting out as gardeners, having lots of experience with container gardens but none in the wild, had moved from Boston to Maine and were planting our first real garden on this plot that my father had had tilled up. We put a LOT of work into the land, and one of the things we had planted was corn.
The corn came in, mostly, but it was a little bit sickly. Dad did some reading and found that the Maine Native Americans had often put fish in with their plants to fertilize and make them grow. Great!
We went to the lake and caught about a billion perch, catfish, and a few bass and trout over the course of a day (it felt like a billion anyway). Cleaned and froze the bass and trout and cut the perch and catfish up and spent the next day planting a piece of slimy, smelly, starting-to-go-bad fish in between each hill of corn. That night, we went to sleep happy (after some major hosing down and cleaning up - that fish was nasty!).
The next day I was the first to get up and went out to check the garden, and gather some wild strawberries for breakfast. I looked out at our.... wait a second.... I could have sworn we had corn in that section?
The entire section of corn had been uprooted. There was not a single bit of it left in the soil, and all the areas between had been dug up. A closer look revealed the tell-tale "handprints" of raccoons large and small who had come round in the night to eat the lovely, tasty treat that we had left them.
Edited to clarify a minor point.
This message was edited May 15, 2008 6:47 AM
I actually keep a little section in the back of my garden journal called, Things I Learned NOT To Do This Year. Which should give you some idea of the number and variety of mistakes I make. :) Among the winners: 1) never buy a tree unless you already have a hole dug for it (a couple of hundred dollar mistakes there...ouch...), 2) if a plant needs good drainage, DON'T plant it in clay soil, 3) never ever leave tender seedlings exposed without protection for any length of time in the yard because the varmints will come from miles around.
Oh, I could go on...and on and on and onandonandonandonandon...
Thank you everyone for contributing to this thread, it makes me feel less alone! :)
pam
BUMMMMMER :(
LOVE the racoon and pumpkinis stories...tee hee... :)
A friend of mine once described Life Experiences as either being a good time or a good story--I thought that was good advice to live by. :)
pam
This message was edited May 15, 2008 8:10 AM
How do you suppose the Indians managed to grow a crop?
Must be they hunted all the small critters and there wasn't a problem.
My cousin in Rockland gets her gardening done in early April. Black flies eat her alive.
Well, here in WV varmints are a much bigger problem in town than in the hollers because the discharge of firearms is prohibited within city limits. Maybe the native americans had a kid with a stick watch the gardens. :)
GE, I didn't get the significance of the mulch picture??
pam
Because mistakes leave us with a blank feeling, I used the dullest picture I could find
Jo Ann
Oh, OK! This is what I usually feel like:
LOL Thats IT :)
Phuggins: Good philosophy. It would definitely explain why I have so many stories.....
Oooooh, Sherrie.......those stepping stones are adorable! Where is the auction? (I promise not to bid on anything you want!) LOL
It was only two stepping stones just yesterday...
LOL Victor you are toooo funny.
LOL, Victor!!
The Indians had bows and arrows and wouldn't be afraid to eat squirrel for dinner.
So just eat the other half...
Filet mignon.
I prefer rodents.
eeeewwwww
oh you guys are hillarious...
I love irises... all sizes and colors... no problems in the irises... I am the problem!!!!
Good morning everyone :)
I'm sitting down to a nice breakfast of rodent varmint. Care to join me?
The Breakfast of Champions,
pam
Good morning Pam...no thank you I'll stick to the bacon & eggs.
It's a great way to start your vacation, Pam!
I've had beer milkshakes before.
pam
Faculty meetings??
Ha, I wish, it probably would have made everyone more mellow. No, beer milkshakes are the traditional way to celebrate Doc Rickett's birthday.
pam
