Photos of Your Beginnings, Tales of Your Past Mistakes?
aimeekitty
13 years ago
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malibu_rose
13 years agolast modified: 9 years agovuwugarden
13 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
What have been some of your worst gardening mistakes?
Comments (65)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...See MoreDON'T make this mistake with your seedlings!
Comments (19)Jackie, I didn't think it was necessary to go into detail,but the points have been brought up,so I'll state my opinion in detail. Removing offsets from the mother plant,will increase it's chances of survival, slightly. Removeing the offsets will decrease their chances of survival, slightly. The reason I think it best to remove the offsets, is that there is a place where rot can hide, between the offsets and the mother bulb. Once rot starts ,for any reason, it needs to be cleaned up and treated.You can't do that with the offsets growing on the mother bulb. If ,for no better reason,seperate the bulbs,to save them from destroying each other. If, indeed, the mother bulb continues to decline,It will try to produce offsets,before it dies,if there are none present. Past a certain unknown point,it will rapidly decline as more energy is put into the offsets. On a healthy bulb,I believe it is best to leave offsets,until they are Quite large.It is rare that a bulb will not root ,as long as it has the most minute portion of a basal plate,and it's not overwatered. It all depends on what you want to happen,try to save the mother,grow the offsets on,or try to do both. The basal plate of hippeastrum bulbs is the most important part of all.The rest will all grow back. Good luck. Del...See MoreWhat are your watering restrictions & post your saddest drought photos
Comments (22)In my So. Maine town we are just starting to have water restrictions put into place. We have been in the extreme drought stage for quite a while. The Fire Dept. can no longer do training with fire hydrants. The water dept. will not be flushing out town pipes that they do in October of every year. No washing cars. Next week will tell if there will be a outdoor watering ban. The town has also tapped into a special pipeline set up a few years ago for surrounding communities to share when the water table gets low. We have let the grass go. Everyone's yard looks bad so I don't really mind that. We have rain barrel so I water my flower pots with that. The veggie and flower gardens are on timed soaker hoses and sprays. I don't really hold out much hope for the amount of rain we will need to get back to normal stage. Only hope is for a heavy snowfall this Winter to replenish what we need. Even though the Farmer's Almanac says it will be a good heavy snow...they said the same thing the previous year and we had no snow. Time will tell....See MoreOT.....things of the past which were a common part of your life
Comments (140)I was born in the mid-60s and grew up in small town mid-America. When I was little I shared a bedroom with my brother and sister. I only got my own room when everyone moved to college or moved out of my parents' house (I was the youngest). We didn't have air-conditioning. On hot summer nights, we slept with the windows open and a fan running. We didn't have cable tv. We had an antenna and could only tune in two stations (ABC and NBC) on a black & white Zenith. My parents didn't get a color tv until I was in college. My parents had a party telephone line that we shared with a neighbor. We owned a rotary phone. My mom sewed a lot of our clothes on a Pfaff sewing machine. I remember going to the fabric store to pick out patterns and materials. I learned to type on an old Royal Typewriter that was probably made in the 40s. My mom had a Christmas list and typed her letters to go in each card. I collected the Christmas cards we received and kept them in a special purse, and played with them. I also remember playing with vintage paper dolls and failing miserably to make new clothes for them. We had one of those old refrigerators that was difficult to open (what do they call those latches that old refrigerators had?). My mom got milk and eggs fresh from the farm until I was 6 or 7 years old. We rode in the car without seatbelts, and rode our bikes without helmets. We spent a great deal of time playing outdoors and roaming the neighborhood with no supervision. Everyone knew everyone in our small little town. We didn't always lock our doors. It wasn't really necessary. I remember listening to music on my brother's 8-track player. We had a car with an 8-track, too. Albums were around, of course, but then it was cassette tapes which were replaced by CDs. My husband and I still have many of our old cassettes. In the summer we went to the drive-in movie theatre. Before the digital age, I would buy maps whenever we went on a trip and kept them for future use or as keepsakes if it was a place we probably wouldn't visit again. It's been a long time since I've posted here. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!...See Moreaimeekitty
13 years agolast modified: 9 years agoelemire
13 years agolast modified: 9 years agomalibu_rose
13 years agolast modified: 9 years agoUser
13 years agolast modified: 9 years agoimagardener2
13 years agolast modified: 9 years agoingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
13 years agolast modified: 9 years agoingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
13 years agolast modified: 9 years agomelissa_thefarm
13 years agolast modified: 9 years agohoovb zone 9 sunset 23
13 years agolast modified: 9 years agoingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
13 years agolast modified: 9 years agomkrkmr
13 years agolast modified: 9 years agoingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
13 years agolast modified: 9 years agomelissa_thefarm
13 years agolast modified: 9 years agoaimeekitty
13 years agolast modified: 9 years agomelissa_thefarm
13 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
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