Enjoying this post for the laughs. With a peaceful heart I say - no mistakes. It was all good.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

me, too, except I am not sure prairie laura is laughing if 20% of her fingers have been lost and hedge trimmed...?

note to self: never buy electric hedge trimmers

I'm laughing along as well. *Except* for hedge-trimming the fingers. *winces* I certainly hope things are going well now, Prairie!

Didn't mean I laughed about the fingers. Wasn't quite sure what Laura meant and was kind of in denial about the possibilities. Pruners are dangerous enough for me, so absolutely no blades with power. Hope you're getting better, Laura.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Oh, geese, Laura, I assumed you meant you blistered your fingers badly by not wearing gloves. Please tell me you didn't lop your fingers off.

Nonono, Sherry! I didn't think you were. Only meant I was laughing at it all, too; just not that, either. (That sentence looks totally wrong, but I hope it makes sense.)

Oh man, sorry about the fingers! I have nightmares about cutting myself.

This weeks mistakes

Watering the roses-should have checked under the new thick layers of mulch first-they were wet.

This seasons mistake, not pulling the flowers out as they sprouted in all the wrong spots (mom enjoyed looking at them so they stayed) 6 trash cans full this week and now the ground is hard and it is work to dig them out.

Flowers in beds = weeds in walks.

Last years mistake

setting up a successful drip system for the veggie garden and mom not checking under the mulch (see this weeks mistake to see if I learned) and mom rewatering all the veggies. Double the water bill and more tomatoes that any street needs.

Next week I will have a new list.

.... the mistake that is annoying me the most, this month anyway, was planting some yews for a hedge. I only want the hedge to be 5 feet tall so that when seated behind it you are in privacy (we are on a knoll) , and when you stand up- you retain the vista.
So- being the silly cheapskate I was 4 years ago- I bought Brownii yews instead of Hicksii. Brownii Yews grow to about 6 to 8 feet high and 8 to 10 feet wide.
Hicksii are 10 feet tall and 3 feet wide.
I didn't want to have to buy 3 times more Hicksii yews to fill the length of space- especially since I didn't need such a tall hedge.

My poor thought process!! These browniis are going to take 10 years to get to 5 feet as they are spending all their time going sideways. And- this "hedge" wants to be 10 feet deep (somehow I imagined them being 8 feet high, 10 feet wide and 3 feet front to back-- DOH!)

I know I will have to yank them as I can't spend 10 years pruning them to 3 feet deep and 5 feet wide and hoping they stretch up eventually.
I believe I will be buying a lot of pretty mature hicksii next--- so my frugality hasn't really paid off!

My other annoying mistake on this hedge was planting 3 clematis too close to each other (scampering) . They take so much training and they always find each other before I do and ball up together. At one point it looked like I had a big beach ball of clematis hanging off the side of that hedge. One has been moved and another is looking for a new home too.

still bearing scars from my worst garden disaster. I remember posting about it at the time but several years on, am paying the price for being cheap.
Staking my dahlias, I used some ancient bamboo canes which had been lying around the allotment. Leaning heavily on one, it suddenly shattered. I threw myself sideways to avoid crashing into the dahlias, only to land face first against the concrete block cold frame. I ended up with 2 missing front teeth (and the beginning of the end for the rest of them) and a neat circular scar, just above my right breast, where the end of the cane planted itself in my flesh. At the time, I was thankful it wasn't my eye and was mostly annoyed that I was still conscious and feeling the pain instead of blissfully knocked out until rescue (which did not come). Barking dog in my ears and attempting to lick the blood was all I got.
I do not stake dahlias anymore and never, ever use bamboo, old or new. revealing cleavage is also a forgotten fashion moment.
As for other gardening mistakes, too many and too humiliating to recall (including the usual Roundup cock-up).

Ouch Camp! I'm feel so bad about what happened to you. Thank you for warning us about bamboo canes. I almost poke my eyes with staking plants before. Another time I got a sliver from staking tomatoes.

What is Roundup cock-up, Camp? Does that mean Roundup screw-up?

Thank you for this!

Lots of good examples here of what not to do, lol!

I thought violets would make a great ground cover around my roses. NOT! They grew so fast and dense they were choking out the roses, stealing all the water and nutrients. Tried and tried to get rid of them and couldn't. We ended up digging out the whole bed and replacing the soil. That finally worked. That's why now when ever I see a post about companion plants I shudder a little. Never again!

I do like to experiment and try weird stuff so I've made tons of mistakes. I don't mind though. It's how I learn what will and won't work and it makes the garden interesting and ever changing.

Cock-up = screw-up....or (balls-up) - complete disaster.

Probably planting too many expensive plants that were not meant for Texas.

Love this post (barring the injuries!) I ordered a New Dawn rose after seeing a dreamy picture in Southern Living...just had to have that "look" at my horse barn.(had a built in paved seating area with anirondack chairs & ceiling fans). (previous house) In just a couple of years that beast was out of control! The canes were the size of small trees! Thorns were DEADLY! Oh well...after years of fighting it, we downsized. I bet the buyers are cursing me!

I always feel guilty when I say I hate New Dawn, but I guess I'm not the only one - who hates it, that is.

Strawberry, haven't you learned yet not to ask campanula questions like that? Let sleeping dogs lie is my motto. I'm better off not knowing.

Sorry about your hellish mishap, Suzy. I took a header two days ago. Lovely 5-point landing in the house on top of a dolly (mover's use them). Thought I would die. Stubbed both big toes and have been doing a double limp. It's awful being a klutz.

Kippy, great idea! A garden mistakes calendar.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

This post was edited by sherryocala on Fri, Apr 12, 13 at 1:21

LOL. This thread is hilarious. Well apart from yelling and screaming like a maniac when I dug up a frog.(Having lived in the UK and the Caribbean before moving to Texas where I had never seen frogs/toads whatever the horrible things are bury themselves into the soil.) I was so terrified I almost made the builders at my neighbor's property fall off of their ladders!
My other blather was trying to turn my west facing backyard ( hot as Hades in the summer) into a lush, green, English garden with blousy hydrangeas billowing in the breezes. Give me a break! Every last one burnt to a crisp!
Lessons learnt! Now I stick to earthkind roses, teas, chinas and Texas Superstar(C) perennials. Keep the mistakes rolling. I am in bed with a cold and this is a great cheer up!

One of my worst garden mistakes is just being a noob :P Also planting bands from heirloom straight into the ground and not potting them up first. Lost a couple last year in the hot summer.. never again! Learning all I can now to prevent future, needless beautiful roses dieing.

I planted a cl. Iceberg on an 8 ft trellis. Urg. Within one year the plant had pulled the trellis over because it was 12 ft tall and about 6 ft wide. I hacked it back and carted it over to my mother's house where she has room for it. I can't imagine what the neighbors must have thought as they watched me tackle that beast. :/

As a newbie, I planted my antiques in 30 foot raised beds by the barn, right next to the asparagus patch and my veggie garden so I could enjoy their bloom while working down there.

I was concerned about a lot of weed seeds blowing in from the mostly unmowed pasture which surrounded it, so I mulched.

Remember Ruth Stout? Well I mulched with old hay and maybe straw I got by asking my neighbors for any bad bales.

Those bales were FULL of seeds all of which mulched resulting in waist high weeds. I ended up simply abandoning the beds-- and all those roses-- just couldn't get it cleared out. And jeez I was only 30 then!

Giant Miscanthus and Lamiam(probably spelled wrong). I finally resorted to Round Up on the Giant Miscanthus. The Lamiam, which is the larger leafed variety has spread all over my shade garden. I'm afraid that it's with me for life.

Being too impatient to start planting, and not doing a better job removing bermuda grass and mint already growing in the beds. Lifelong battle.

Not starting out with gopher cages. Learned the hard way that when you have a property loaded with gopher mounds, when you plant - always cage first! Long lesson of digging up everything and planting a second time. Also very strange experience to watch a bulb plant disappear into the ground. Or horrifying experience to see a favorite rose laying on its side in the morning.

That once the gopher's favorites - roses - are caged, they'll eat the non-rose plants too! The geraniums might be last on their palate list, but if they're the only ones not caged, they'll get eaten too. I wish they liked bermuda grass and mint.

Not having put in a drip or some sort of irrigation system yet. 4 years into gardening, and I'm still talking about it, while walking through the gardens daily with hoses. I forget during the winter rains. I remember very well now why I want one!

Taking too long to learn that when a plant won't grow in my env the first few times, that it's just futile trying another handful of the same plants. There is a reason there are so many hysterical posts about trying (and failing) to grow gardenias.

I got some free mulch with a two bad weeds in it and spread it everywhere. One was the yellow oxalis bulb and the other was an itty bitty bulb that sends up a never ending supply of green leaves like grass at first.

Kitty, I also got cursed with oxalis, but it's the one with the purple bloom. It's a never ending battle with that stuff, and if you ever give up, that's the beginning of the end for your garden. My mother has it also and can no longer keep up with it, and it has infested everything. They should make selling those bulbs illegal in warm weather states.

Kitty, I also got cursed with oxalis, but it's the one with the purple bloom. It's a never ending battle with that stuff, and if you ever give up, that's the beginning of the end for your garden. My mother has it also and can no longer keep up with it, and it has infested everything. They should make selling those bulbs illegal in warm weather states.

Not removing all the bermuda grass when starting a new planting bed. I'm about to do that again when I take a piece of lawn out to start another new bed in the fall. I still haven't figured out how to get of that cursed stuff.

Another big mistake was asking the local government for free mulch for the public garden we tended. One batch was infested with chiggers. You would be surprised how fast volunteers melt away after their first nasty case of chiggers. And the government never sprayed to get rid of them, saying it was because of legal liability - mothers would sue them because the mothers wouldn't want chemicals around their children. The mothers preferred chiggers? Eventually we learned when we needed to begin coating ourselves with "Off". I guess our exposure, and the exposure of the seasonal summer workers, to chemicals was no problem.

Cath

Ooh, so many mistakes!

Bought three really pathetic end of the season roses last year because I was desperate to have roses. One of them is fine, one is acceptable and the other one is one bad mood away from being shovel pruned. Planted them in a hurry in a group only to realize later that two of them were climbers. Fortunately, they're so stunted anyhow that they should be easy to relocate next time they go dormant.

Let's see, also bought TONS of clearance plants at the local Lowes/Home Depot type stores only to realize most of them couldn't survive in my area.

Ran out of dirt, spent budget on clearance plants, lost some good plants as I didn't have amendments to plant them.

Ooh yeah, and this was a winner. Bought an order of 10 heritage roses. Two of them, a Louis Phillipe and a Fairy were growing so vigorously I decided to replant them. Moved them around the side of the house so that I would repot them later. Completely forgot them! More unfortunately, forgot them under an overhang so they got no water all summer. Louis Phillipe is definitely dead, Fairy has some green stems but no leaves and is probably dead. Ugh! I literally spotted them last week.

Here's to less mistakes this year! :)

I see my worst have all been covered above-
-west facing garden-I didn't realize everything would bloom and lean to the west. It's like I'm always looking at the wrong side of the plants. I have to go way out to the end of the backyard and turn around to see the 'front' of my garden.
- not taking time to remove enough grass-constant battle.
-took me 10 years of moving things around to discover the basic principle- big stuff in back, small stuff in front.
-oh, yes, I fell in love with the pictures of New Dawn, too. That one should come with a warning label.
-I see Francois Jouranville was mentioned and I feel that's a mistake I am about to make. I have it in a pot. It needs to be planted. I want it close so I can see it, and I know better...

Not my mistake but whosoever planted English Ivy around here....grrrrr.... The fights with the oxalis reminded me--those of you with it have my sympathy. Wherever that danged ivy spreads, it smothers and kills every plant under it. We've been fighting a never-ending battle of attrition with it ever since we moved in 10 years ago, trying to keep it from smothering all the native plants in its path. If it gets anywhere near my Western or Sessile Trilliums, I will consider a flame-thrower next.

Jaspermints, the only way I was able to get rid of the Bermuda was to use Roundup unmercifully, then the lasagna method with cardboard on top.

Finally, our St Augustine grass took over, and that helped!

I soooo hate oxalis stricta and corniculata or what ever kinds of oxalis one can have! I think we pulled 2 trash cans worth this week.

This post was edited by Kippy-the-Hippy on Fri, Apr 12, 13 at 20:31

Bare root rose planted UPSIDE DOWN ...dead Perdita! Something just didn't look right...duh!

*** Bare root rose planted UPSIDE DOWN ...dead Perdita! Something just didn't look right...duh!

Really cool funny, Susan! Love it. I think you take the cake. You'd get MY vote anyway. Do you happen to be blonde?

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

ogrose, that is a beautiful yard you have. I hope you'll post more pix, I would love to see your roses!

Dear Kippy, you're gettin' real personal as I am kinda in-luv with the browny-red oxalis I have in my flower beds.

Actually, I know that some types can be really invasive; they give oxalis a bad name - but there are some that are really wonderful here. There is a purple called oxalis triangularis that has a pale pink bloom that I've planted and have trouble getting to come back. The browny red is in one of my beds really makes me happy to see in the summertime with pink roses. anyway, they're not *all* bad! :) Gean

Here's a pic of the oxalis that I'm crazy about -

{{gwi:226781}}

Kippy, be prepared to do it all over again, because I can just about guarantee you didn't get all of the little bulbs. I have been fighting it for probably 20 years, and it still keeps coming back.

I had it invade one of my large pots with a small climber in it and couldn't get the bulbs out w/o destroying rose roots. I wondered if I kept all the leaves pulled off as soon as they popped up, if the bulbs would die from lack of nutrition, and that does seem to be working.

Harbor, we have 2 types of oxalis we like, one that has a purple flower and one that has white. Both of those have a hard time surviving with out extra help.

It is the little yellow flower weed that matches the dichondra that I dislike so much. Zillions of little runners/leaves everywhere.

Pulling off all the new top growth of a pest, relentlessly, I've found over the years, is the best way to get rid of said pest after you initially dig out the plant. This is how I've dealt with Bishop's Weed, Trumpet Vine, and good old Dr Huey, which really responds to this treatment by dying away. Trying to chop roots or dig out possible remaining pieces of root (inevitably leaving a few pieces), just creates more plants and promotes suckering, in my opinion. Now if I can just convince my son in law of this when it comes to his da*m hop vine. Diane

I figured it was the yellow flowered one that was making you crazy; I have a couple of those aggressive spreaders myself. Two wheelbarrows full yesterday, so I sympathize.

Oxalis just gets a bad name because of its evil sibling - I think the purple triangularis isn't hardy here so that's why it won't come back. There is one called Royal Sunset, if I remember the name right, that is a buffy-salmon colored that I'd like to get, but it's prob not hardy either.

Florida's suggestion for getting rid of the leaves to starve the roots sounds good to me. I have a hard time keeping my nails clean during gardening time, even with gloves - how about you? Gean

I keep walking through the lower garden with a shovel to nip off the greens from the roots on the strangler vines-another I wish was gone.

I just came in from another round with my dear patient husband of shovel, pick, pruning and chain saw, digging up sword ferns to make a place to plant some larger roses. We took out three, there's easily another thirty ferns plus masses of blackberries and dead trees in this spot. But I keep thinking of what it will look like in a couple of years, if I don't cut off my hand, run the pick into my foot or break my neck. I love gardening :)

This post was edited by harborrose on Sun, Apr 14, 13 at 21:42

Gean, you're a frontier gardener pushing back the wilderness! Stay safe. It will be beautiful. At least you're not sweating too much.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

If you put a thick handcream under your nails before you put on gloves, it helps to keep the dirt from getting stuck there.

My worst gardening mistake was when I was just starting, and had inherited an old, mature garden. The mistake was to get a lot of books on roses, and read them, and believe what they said! It took me a while to learn that only LOCAL advice re the size, habit, health, & pruning needs of roses was of any use (most of the books I got were written in England or the US East Coast - both equally useless as to facts about how roses grow here, but gorgeous pictures, etc.). The books were so authoritative, and stated things as facts, period, without any qualifications (except for Graham Thomas, bless him, who always said that this is what this rose does where I garden, but I have heard that it behaves differently elsewhere...) that I was intimidated into believing them. Only after years of having some of my ancient roses identified by wonderful people on this forum did I realize that they were not freaks of nature, but behaved exactly as you would expect such a rose to behave in our climate...

Knowing how ignorant I was, and wanting so much to take good care of the garden I had inherited, I also unfortunately took the advice of the ARS and others about the need for spraying constantly, but only for one or two years - it was just too silly, and too much work, and I gave up. Then all of the bees and butterflies, etc came back, and the roses were still happy. So, the main lesson turned out to be to trust your own eyes about what is going on in your garden, what grows & doesn't grow, and what you like & don't like, and don't take any advice unless it is LOCAL!

Jackie

That's a good idea, Kitty. I have been running my nails over a bar of soap and using a nail brush after the damage is done. Your idea sounds better, I'm going to try it.

Lol, Sherry. I can sweat at 50 degrees when there are a pick and shovel involved. I probably sound like a wild-eyed amazon-godzilla woman with filthy nails. Just the lengths we go to for a garden and to make Baltimore Belle happy ...

Gean

I didn't do this, but I will forever curse the Japanese Quince I inherited. It's much too close to the rest of the beds and invades EVERYTHING with it's suckers. I am snipping volunteers in the beds every week. At least the hummingbirds like it in the spring.

I think one of my main "boo-boos" was to start a bed with freebies, and splits but not really fully create it. Which meant spending HOURS hand turning and trying to remove grass rather than just illing it the easy way.

I have a feeling I've got some pretty agressive spreaders in my beds, but I guess time will tell. I know yarrow is, and I know I have it. Oh, and lily of the valley. I spent hours last year trying to clear it from a small bed-it was planted by a previous owner as well. Probably the same person that planted the wisteria too close to another garden bed. I get volunteers all the time-and I cut the wisteria down to the ground (it was WAYYYY too close to the driveway, you couldn't even drive past it).

Planting a big oak leaf hydrangea up by the road where it's windy and dry-I have to find a new home for it this spring if it made it through the winter.

Planting a rhodie too close to where my dog could reach it when on her chain-she beheaded it.

Buying ONE beach plum form a nursery that's a 5 hour round trip...now I have to either find another closer by luck or mail order one, since apparently they aren't self pollenating.

Twelve years ago, I plants an acre of land with 3000 unique varieties, and convinced myself that it could be sustained indefinitely. Dreaming too big ruined my appreciation for the collection as it gradually became unmanageable. Don't make my mistake.

" Dreaming too big ruined my appreciation for the collection as it gradually became unmanageable..."

Well, you know, my small dream of roses on this patch of forest is manageable now, but in coming years will also show itself to be unmanageable by my rapidly failing flesh. I turned 60 this year so I see the end of my life coming (picks and shovels notwithstanding).

I love a person who dreams big, but we all, in the end, are humbled and broken by the realities of our own mortality and crumbling bodies. Who we become and what we learn in the process of fleshing out dreams and living our humdrum lives is what is most important, I think. That and remembering to live humbly before God.

And, Paul, I am very much looking forward to the cuttings of Fed lav 08; it will be a lot of fun to see what it is that you've created. Your roses have brought a lot of joy to many people, judging from what I've read over the years. I hated to hear you'd given up breeding roses, but you know best, I'm sure.

My garden brings me a lot of happiness, but I also know that what you've said is true. Too many roses, like too much good red wine, will lead nowhere good. But how many is "too many" is what we all have to find out for ourselves.

Gean