- Overplanting
You’re going to have to referee those plants. They’re not going to do it on their own in the way you’d like. Make good choices, edit, and leave some open spaces. - Forgetting that gardens are for people as well as plants
You’re going to want to be outdoors and enjoy your garden, to sit and nap, relax and eat, because that’s what really brings the garden alive: people as well as plants. - Trying to solve every problem with plants
Because we’re gardeners and we love plants, we try to solve every problem with plants. If we need something tall, we immediately think of a statuesque plant, but sometimes a tall piece of art that stays unchanged throughout the year will be more effective than a plant.Another example is searching for drought-tolerant groundcover for a particular area when black Japanese stones would work beautifully.
- Forgetting to include hardscapes in the garden
Your plants will look very soft and beautiful set against a brick pathway or wooden building or metal sculpture that adds geometry and a hard edge to the garden. By concentrating your maintenance hours on fewer plants, you’ll enjoy your garden more. - Having too much lawn
Lawn is very maintenance-heavy, both in terms of resources and time, and it’s very hard to grow a lawn that looks good without using some chemicals.But on the other hand, I don’t want to make people feel guilty about having lawn, because sometimes they’re going to enjoy it tremendously. Kids and dogs love playing on a lawn. Behind my house, there’s a grassy alley that the neighbors share, and I open that gate and my dog goes out there and runs and runs. She just does loops up and down on that grass. She loves it! If I didn’t have that space for her to play in, I’d have to have some grass — just to give her that kind of fun.
So if you want a lawn but want to garden organically (as I do), just have less of it and be less perfectionistic about how it looks. Let it brown out in the summer if it’s dry; it’ll come back in the fall when the rains start. Don’t worry about having some weeds in the lawn. Just don’t look so closely at it. That’s an important rule of low-maintenance gardening!
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There are almost too many gardening mistakes to mention! But here are a few of the most memorable:
if u put a layers of newspaper between the rows and cover with soil u dont have as many weeds.
Thank you, ms. janet! I have a tiny piece of yard in the front of our house which I plan to cultivate. I’ll keep your advice to heart when I’m ready to plant the rows.
I have even used empty dog and cat food bags as mulch as well.
Thanks, Doe! Now if only you and ms. janet lived close by, we could help each other out in our gardens and I would learn so much!
My favorite type of garden is a raised garden..I use rocks for my border , cardboard or layers of newspaper for the bottom and then the soil..poof…a garden..
I,m making a shipwreck garden this spring…using old bricks from the ships of the past…and drift wood…sea glass and flowers like pot of gold..
I’m excited
Sounds lovely! Why not post a photo here when you’re finished for the rest of us to see and be inspired by? Making a raised vegetable garden is on my “to do” summer garden list this year, too, though I’ve never made one before. I’m waiting until school’s out to have uninterrupted weekend time to get started.
Oh, I have for sure over planted before. Another mistake I made is not taking care of ALL the weeds before planting. I never mulch enough either.
One thing I’m good at is mistakes! My mother was an excellent gardener. And my dad grows fantastic roses. I put out and put out but don’t get much results. Last year we tilled up our largest perenial garden because it had gotten so bad – so overgrown – that we just needed to start over. I put in a vegetable garden instead (for the first time). I’d like to say it was fantastically successful but that would NOT be true. A lot of the perenials refused to give up the ghost and kept coming back – and coming back – and coming back. I’m not giving up but it sure is a challenge! Some of my more notable mistakes:
* Planting too early.
* Planting too late!
* Not planning sufficiently for the angle of the sun in my yard.
* Expecting perfection
* Watering too much.
* Watering too little.
* Having too much lawn! (Still do. Thinking about that one…)
* Expecting a plant not native to our area to thrive without a lot of human intervention.
Oh and there are so many more! But we’ll stop here for now before I get depressed. It’s great to think about gardening right now, though, because it is so cold here and dreary and gray. So gloomy! Thanks for reminding me of spring and summer!
Yep if planting and watering were all it took to grow a garden I would have the best ones in the world, and all those promised hours of help from the family become, “well I tilled it didn’t I?” and that leaves me weeding, harvesting, weeding harvesting processing, weeding and oh, did I mentionon weeding! Still I love the taste of fresh veggies from the garden and my carrots and potatos graced several tables this year!
having a few of ur neighbors garden with u and then share the crops.
The biggest mistake I make is to get all excited in the beginning of the growing season (which is around December here in Florida, which is why I didn’t say “spring”) and I go out and plant all sorts of wonderful things. Then about mid-season I get distracted by other interests, and the poor garden withers away. I find if I just plant a few things that I really want, I’m more likely to continue to take care of them all the way through until harvest. Which is great, because I do love fresh vegetables!
My biggest mistake – one I’ve made more than once – is to buy too many bedding plants at one time! I was crawling to the door at the end of the day.
We have reduced the lawn for the last 2 years to expand the garden area for more vegetables front and back. The problem this past fall was in the front yard we planted lots of aquash. We wanted to let them mature on the vine but so many neighbors walking past thought we were not wanting them, neglecting them and wanted them. I am all for sharing but really they were for our family! I am hoping as more people vegeatable garden in their public front or side yards neighbors or passer-byes will respect their ownership even if it looks like they are neglected. We ended up picking the squash and letting them mature in the gargage and they turned out great.
My biggest mistake was not paying attention (until it was too late) to soil types. I had never realized what heavy clay soil can do to plants that aren’t suited to it (and most aren’t). I had a Muhgo pine that we planted and it did not grow more than 2 inches in 7 years, and then started to die out. I finally decided to put it out of its misery and yanked it. It wasn’t worth replanting… and I have lost a few perennials that way too. NOW, I amend and amend and amend to get something that will actually grow something. Unfortunately, we have a 103′ by 110′ lot and the deepest topsoil on it I have found is about 4′, so it is turning out to be a LONG process. And lots of sore muscles from hauling amendments!
Definitely overwatering!
me too, overwatering and underwatering. Especially houseplants. I mulch quite heavily in the summer and then I have a tendency to overwater.
But gardening is my passion in life so I will trowel ahead!
I see myself in some of the responses. I get all enthusiastic at first, and then, as time go by, I don’t fertilize or water or prune sufficiently to MAINTAIN what I’ve done.
Also, I have purchased plants that I end up not liking over time. I get overwhelmed with the choices at the gardening store, and perhaps don’t make the best choices for my lifestyle and location.
I too get overwhelmed by all the choices of plants.
I run out of enthusiasm. Here in Middle Tennessee, by July the heat is trying to kill everything I have planted. I have tried to be more selective about drought tolerant plants, but still have an awful time. I love all the beautiful gardens you see in nagazines, but mine have a lot to be desired. This year, I am going to back up and take a better look at what is coming back this year, and try to add carefully.
The best way to learn how to garden is by doing it. We learn from our mistakes.The right plant for the right place.
My first gardening experience lead to my learning one thing. Teach your children, no matter how young, to know what a vegetable looks like, including size, when it is ready to harvest. My three-year-old brought me a big bunch of fresh green, very green, peppers, about an inch in diameter.
I hope you took pictures! One year my 8-year-old niece came to visit, and I asked her to go out and pick some carrots for the salad. She did…….. ALL of them! I have a picture, which still makes me laugh 16 years later!
So funny. Reminds me of the time I asked my 8 year old grandaughter to help thin the carrots. I showed her how, but I guess I didn’t explain it correctly because when I came back later I found that she had pulled them all out. No carrots that year. She was so proud of herself, I didn’t have the heart to tell her otherwise.
One thing we have learned FINALLY over time is to save money and time you need to plant as many perennials as you can. Getting swept up in the trip to the nursery and buying flats of beautiful plants that will only bloom for one year is so very easy to do. We have learned to use annuals in areas easy to plant year after year (like in the front of the garden). I also love to use them in hanging baskets. I am also learning some tricks about the hanging baskets. If you want those really full baskets then you need alot of plants in them. Also those baskets they sell that already have plants that are hanging down were most likely started with seeds when the nursery started all the rest of their seeds. So you need to choose wisely.
Each year I plant a fairly large vegetable garden only to have the deer and rabbbits eat 90% of the produce.
Hi Val,
I am very much enjoying the posts. Gardeners love to share their experiences! I have been caring for a perennial garden for over 30 years now. It has grown and moved around the perimeter of of my back yard at times. Years ago I started a scrapbook, nothing fancy, in which I mapped out which plants were planted where and how they did over the years. It helped me to determine the course of where the garden would go. I note weather conditions, frost conditions, plants that friends have given me or cuttings I have tried to propagate and anything else that might assist me in the care of the garden. I don’t spent hours noting in my little log book because I also believe that sometimes successful gardening is serendipitous!
Over the years I have planted flowering bushes and vines. Added trellis for height and interest and in one corner a three foot high angel made from an old cedar fence sits and watches over all who enter the garden.
Soon I will pass it on to someone else to care for and enjoy hoping that they will spend as many hours with friends as I have, sitting by it’s generosity sipping a glass of wine or sharing some tea.
ps…my granddaughters have become gardeners as they have grown up helping me care for it.
Jan
I have resorted to container gardening. I have some large pots on my patio and I plant kitchen herbs in some and flowers in the others. My husband has a nice garden in the front yard. We live in Northern Minnesota with a very short growing season. I can get carried away with buying plants. But, I have learned over the years that nice gardens and plants take some time and care, and, well – that has been the best lesson of all – less is more manageable. Now that my children are grown and have left home, I take care of my plants and nurture them and they make me happy.
I solved the weeding/watering dilemma in the vegetable garden by placing soaker hoses throughout and covering the entire garden with landscape fabric. It’s a bit expensive at the outset, but by setting a timer to water for an hour a day, the plants are happy, and the landscape mulch keeps the water from evaporating and prevents weeds. With good soil conditions and adequate sunshine, this is a completely maintainance free garden.
Hi Cheryld – I too used soaker hoses and landscape fabric and had great results, however I couldn’t keep affording the landscape fabric. I started using grass cuttings between the rows of the vegetables. I never had enough because it broke down quite quickly. I had my neighbours donate their grass clippings too (pesticide free and herbicide free, or course). I managed to keep a 1″ to 3″ mat of grass mulch between the rows, protecting the hard baked Prairie soil. Carrots and parsnips came out of the ground easier. It also kept my shoes dirt free, suffocated the weeds (for the most part). Basically a maintainence free garden. THEN… I moved out to the West Coast. Don’t try that method out here. It might help keep the boots clean from the mud, but the soil out here in the rain-coast, needs to dry out more. besides, that extra moisture of a mat of grass just attracted those huge 5″ slugs that eat everything they can reach!
What is landscape fabric?
it’s a weed barrier that allows water to penetrate through it but stops weeds from growing.
It comes in black usually, but other colors too. After installation, cut x’s in it where you want to plant and then mulch heavily.
Sorry to be a bit dense about this . . . So do you put this down as you would newspaper, i.e. between the rows of plants? If so, is it more effective than newspaper? Obviously, it must be more expensive.
i too rely on timed watering and lots of mulch to ease the watering/weeding maintenance needed for gardening. with a busy workday, i find this increases the time i have to actually enjoy time in the garden. after harvest i dig the mulch in to amend the soil. herbs seem foolproof and add so much to salads and cooking. i have a seperate calendar for gardening details to remind myself when i planted, when to fertilize as different plants need it, and when to expect the veggies to mature. i’ve found otherwise i can’t always keep track of things.
Thank you for posting such an informative article. I, too, am very excited about planting in the early spring but fizzle out by mid summer. I try every year – maybe this year I’ll get it right!
My biggest mistake is absolutely believing that deer would not eat my salsa garden….. I mean, deer don’t eat garlic and chili, right?? Wrong. They do. Every last bit of it. So this year, the vegetable garden is going inside a fence that’s inside the backyard fence with the dogs! In the front I’ll plant things with fuzzy leaves and hopefully I’ll have some landscaping this year.
I complain, but to be honest, I kind of like seeing the deer outside–however, it would be better if they weren’t right up by the deck.
I love gardening…. just having my hands in the soil brings such peace. I usually envision a lovely cottage garden when I plant every year, but I’m always happy with my less-than-perfect results.
not labeling my seedlings, thinking it would be easy to figure out once they sprout
yeah, right. I couldn’t find my popsicle sticks. This year I’m going to find them and make labels before I plant. Oh, and trying to remain organic even after the colorado potato beetles arrived. any ideas if they return this year?
Here in the west we use 5 drops of dish soap in a pint of water and spray the underside of the leaves. also check each day for damage.
Finally having the time and $$ after retirement to create my “magic” garden which has proven to be too large after 12 years and too expensive to maintain on a limited budget. I should have started small and moved out from there. Now I spend a lot of my time trying to find affordable help. Trying to figure out which part of the gardens I can do without and getting frustrated when it overwhelms me.
We are teaching the kindergarten children in my class how to plant native gardens! The are enjoying it and our school garden is improving but we can always use more advice for plants, ideas and good caretaking tips!
The only mistake is the one that you don’t learn from. Learn to ask questions about a plant before you buy it, or if you see something in a neighbour’s garden, find out from that person what it is.
top 5 mistakes:
fighting mother nature – i plant enough for critters and my family – i just plant the critter food on the other side of the yard. hose water is just not the same as rainwater from a rain barrel. mother nature provides more than enough rain from my roof and my water bill looks much nicer to me!
planting before easter – i’ve seen TOO many gardeners buying plants the week before easter only to see them wilt with a late frost! waiting a week or two will not destroy my gardening plans!
buying only plants – seeds are a much less expensive and fun way to try new plants. it’s a blast to see the first little sprouts poke out of the dirt, then to plant them in the garden, watch them grow and harvest wonderful flavors!
thinking dirt is dirt – i amend and work my garden soil ad nauseum every year. after four years it still needs work and i’m happy to do it for the results i get! and it’s SO much easier to get plants into good soil than to fight with neglected soil.
that i’m in charge! my garden teaches me and mother nature never lets me forget that as much as i’ve learned and as hard as i work, she still rules! and that’s fine by me. i just start over or try again next year!
I want to reply to any comments on northern gardening. I live in a valley on the Bow River in Alberta. I found that plenty of perrenials started my Spring agarden off well. We have a shorter and cooler growing season, but June through September can be very warm and the results for the garden are amazing. I compost and that seems to give some of my plants a lift when mixed with the native soil. The island we live on has had centuries of tree growth and the natural compost of the soil gives a lift to seeds as well as root plants. I have to remember to pull out and cut down the unwanted varieties, as nature’s produce is very strong here, and it can overcome the best efforts I make to keep it in control. Even raspberries (non-native) can take over if not contained. I plant new lilies every year or so because the varieties that most compare with wild ones will provide a colourful and strong background for the smaller plants. I have a three tiered pond that a friend put in for me. It is done in natural stone and at levels that I can get to to keep it clean. I put iris and lilies there, as well as waterloving ground covers, and I am very good at keeping moss in control since it is an ever spreading problem. The path around the pools is done with seasoned wood chips and it keeps the smaller weeds in control. The seasonal birds (finches, robins, woodpeckers and other small tits just love the levels and most shower under the top waterfall on warm days. Like the previous writer, I make changes every year, usually to accomodate the birds and small animals that visit. I am poring over seed catalogues now so that wwhen I open my green house (husband built to contain my gardening!) I will start the right plants for the area of the garden that I am working on. Most years I sort out those that didn’t work the year before, and I add fvorites of friends who exchange plants with me all season. Some people spend the warm season here for the golfing priviledges. While I like golf, pardening is my passion, and it is fun to get friends hooked on the same hobbies. More people doing it means more plants to share and experiment with. I love hearing from VB members who garden for the fun, as well as the beauty. Carole
I definately belong to the overenthusiatic club! Overplanting, overwatering, over everything! I really need to do some studying before I plant a garden this year. I need to learn what to do and when. I love gardening despite my attempts to have a green thumb!
Where does a non-gardener begin? I have several areas available for planting, and I want to enjoy them rather than constantly maintaining them.
Do you start with a grid, scan books and magazine for ideas, or rely on a landscaper?
I did lots of my own gardening ..you need a garden fence with posts ie 9 or 12 pending on size of your garden .a shovel to turn it over in april and again just day before you plant and a rake to rake your garden and a hoe to make the 2 inch long trenches ~~ plant seeds and cover .~ then water your garden Della may
I always ask “what is your intension with your area?” Some say vegetable gardening, low maintenence gardening etc. If you want a low maintenence garden, pick out evergreens, trees, and perennials that are self cleaning and watch the show.
If you need any help, I am here.
Noticed the term self cleaning. Can you elaborate please?
Try your local County Extension office. They have people knowledgable in what will grow in your area. Many give Master Gardener classes, too. We have Home and Garden shows thruout the cooler parts of the year. The Master Gardeners often have a booth there with mini classes covering the most common problems in your area, as well as a q&a area with handouts.
I agree…start small. Go to a local, independent nursery and look at what you like…flowers, vegetables… and ask questions. Just go to look and talk to the people there. If you see something you like, ask about it and get some info about what it needs to survive, where to plant it and how to care for it. A few successes will get you on the road to a beautiful yard and a new hobby!
A good place for the non-gardener to begin in my opinion is container planting….these can be so much fun and so very rewarding as well…sometimes I put a tiny tim tomato plant in with my marigolds and reap a harvest right at the deck table….planter cucumbers are great as well..this is a way to learn about plants and what they need and require….you can move them if they seem unhappy…or too little sun I have collected over fifty different containers so far….and they look amazing now and every season I purchase one or two more containers to add to my collection…you can bundle them up like in the magazines..they look amazing and when the compliments come in…you too will be able to join the over enthusiastic club..have fun
I cannot begin to identify all the mistakes. I decided years ago that I have a brown thumb – if I put a plant in the ground or in a pot, it will turn brown and die. I have all but given up. Oddly the only thing I have been able to grow is Chain of Hearts, which is supposed to be very difficult to grow. I keep it in a kitchen window in a small pot and it grows long chains which I simply lift back up into the pot. My mother started it for me about 40 years ago. If I try to grow additional pots of it, they die. Hmmmm….
I cannot begin to identify all the mistakes. I decided years ago that I have a brown thumb – if I put a plant in the ground or in a pot, it will turn brown and die. I have all but given up. Oddly the only thing I have been able to grow is Chain of Hearts, which is supposed to be very difficult to grow. I keep it in a kitchen window in a small pot and it grows long chains which I simply lift back up into the pot. My mother started it for me about 40 years ago. If I try to grow additional pots of it, they die. Hmmmm….
Mistakes I have learned from:
1) Not thinning seedlings as recommended. I hate to Kill a new plant, but you’ved got to save a few of the best plants and space them wisely
2) trying too many new things at once. I had only had a vegetable garden and annual flowers when I decided to plant bushes and trees; bought a whole bunch at once; didn’t plant them well, apparently, and lost them all. Now I learn by doing..onenew variety or technique at a time.
Drum roll please….
1. Planting exotic plants that are NOT native to one’s environment. Plant what belongs there – both environment wise (shade, sun, combo, wet or dry) and zone wise (3,4,5 etc.). If you live on the high prairie then plant high prairie species such as: tall grasses, aster/sunflower species, achillias, salvias, penstemons, liatrus, veronicas, asclepias (milk weed). If you live in the mountains plant alpine species, etc. etc. Not only do they belong there but the animal species will benefit – ie the milk weed and the butterfly. A few exotics can be fun and interesting but often they take up too much time and fretting - such as hybrid tea roses that need pruning, insect controls, heavy mulching. Plant the wild rose species.
Over-optimism is my bugaboo — in all of its manifestations. I used to live in a yard that had every level of sun: unrelenting and intense to full shade and everything in between. It was fun because I could dabble in every kind of plant. Now, I live in a heavily wooded area and my sunlight is very restricted. Yet, I have been unwilling to give up on some of my favorite sun-loving plants. I keep thinking — somehow — that if I love them enough, they’ll forget that they want more sun than I can deliver. Simply not true.
My other important lesson is to never underestimate the fiendishness of a Portuguese Water Dog. Two years ago, my entire tomato crop consisted of three tomatoes (see first paragraph). I did not get to eat a single one of them. The first two were stolen off a table where I’d set them by the dog. The last one he took off the vine, carried it in to me to show me what he had (at first I thought it was a ball), then — just as I realized what he had and told him to drop it — he looked at me — and I swear he smiled — and swallowed it whole. Then licked his lips. Stinker.
I heard that Barack Obama commented that his Portie also like tomatoes — who knew?