Great idea, Katy! Here are my top 4.

1. Being a gardener and a summer traveler are mutually exclusive.
I had to be away for 5 weeks starting in early July. The result was that my garden was swamped with weeds and many plants didn't get staked, dead-headed, or even adequately watered.
2. Sometimes OK is Good Enough.
After being away, I actually enjoyed my messy garden more than I do in some years when I'm futzing with it all summer long.
3. If I watered more, my plants would grow much faster.
Well, DUH! Because we had a LOT of rain in May and June, young trees and shrubs (perennials, too!) put on amazing growth this year - at least double what I expect in normal years. It really hadn't occurred to me before that I could speed up the process of getting shade trees to useful size by consistent irrigation - I've always just given them enough to keep them going.
4. Some plants really ARE rare for a reason.
Yeah, that new and unusual hellebore (whose name escapes me, but the tag's around here ... somewhere) had nice flowers, and just about every stem had blooms on it. Sadly, the flowers and foliage were on the same stems, so the horribly ratty early spring foliage could not be removed without taking every darn flower too. No wonder nobody grows this plant...

Dtd
If I watered more, my plants would grow much faster
Lol I came to this very same conclusion after a well meaning comment from an acquaintance regarding my woodland so now I am considering asking Santa for more irrigation.
Thought I would share the difference in bloom time from Aristolochia gigantean in my garden. The first photo was taken in July 12, 2007 and the second photo shows the beginning of the first blooms September 2, 2008 in the same location. I am not sure if these blooms will have a chance to mature before the length of day becomes a factor.
Aristolochia gigantea "Pelican Flower" Â zone 10- 7/12/2007

Holy cow, that's one interesting flower. For lack of a better word!

I should have trimmed my plants back more, because it rained more. I should have at least trimmed my plants back more sometime before they flopped over. Now to that gardeners cheer, NEXT YEAR! Lol.

Lesson 1: My personal slugs cruise right past coffee grounds, foil, and every other natural slug repellant. They also hate beer and never oblige me by drowning. My new best friend: Bug Getta.

Lesson 2: Swear off dahlias forever. My personal bunny thinks stinky repellants are a condiment, and two frustrating summers are two too many. Life is too short.

Lesson 3: Mary cannot grow heuchera or dianthus. Period. Thank heaven for strawflowers and ageretum.

Holy cow, that's one interesting flower. For lack of a better word!
hmmm I am going to take that as testomony to my extraudinary good taste in flowering vines...I think!
evonne,
Now to that gardeners cheer, NEXT YEAR
Lol, I think this winter we need to work on an extended cheer/theme song for gardeners!
crabby or should I call you Mary?,
Very funny
My personal bunny thinks stinky repellants are a condiment,
Personally I would be a little worried about the bunnies in your yard if they consider bunny repellent sprays a condiment, I spilled some on my hand this summer and after washing my hands twenty or more times considered gnawing it off.
kt

1. Fox urine and my devout prayers are not enough to stop whatever the critters are who have devastated by beloved tomatoes. After taking down trees, tending tiny organic seedlings and creating the most perfect soil on earth, I have actually eaten exactly 1 tomato from the garden.

2. That the perfectly manicured yards all around me are not attended to by mothers toting babies but by dozens of gas powered tool wielding landscapers.

3. Patience. With only 2 years under my belt, I have a lot to learn before I should expect the lovely yard to which I aspire.

Deenoel,
If you havenÂt already read " The $64 Tomato" you might find comfort in knowing your not alone or at the very least enjoy a couple of laughs. Which reminds me of another lesson I learned this summer; Heirloom does not always mean better.

"The $64 Tomato" is a great book! I still laugh every time I see Chrisptoher Walken, lol!

:)
Dee

Personally I would be a little worried about the bunnies in your yard if they consider bunny repellent sprays a condiment, I spilled some on my hand this summer and after washing my hands twenty or more times considered gnawing it off.

You think I'm kidding ... I tell ya, I can drive out the entire neighborhood with repellants, and the next morning, the newest plant in my garden lovingly planted the day before is but a memory. I have bought a Scarecrow sprinkler thingy, and if that doesn't work next year ... I'm moving.

That the perfectly manicured yards all around me are not attended to by mothers toting babies but by dozens of gas powered tool wielding landscapers.

NEVER a truer word said.

Y'all can call me Mary OR Crabby. "Crabby" does rather amuse me. :-)

1. Asking Ma Nature for rain (because I can't always haul a hose around the yard for watering) can backfire. BUT - don't blame ME for all the rain we had this summer, I wasn't the only one asking. See prior threads for proof!

2. When one GETS the rain needed to maintain the gardens and not run up hundreds of dollars in a water bill - one gets fungi....lots and lots of fungi. Orange ones, brown ones, white ones, stinky ones, oddly shaped ones, cute toadstool looking ones, round ones that explode into a putrid looking greenish brown powder when you kick them.

3. Even though you haven't ever had slugs in your garden - not for 8 years - doesn't mean that you have some magical antislug karma thing going on. They'll find you - and tell all their little slug friends and they'll throw a huge bash in your yard and destroy nearly everything in their path.

3a. The best slug removal tool is a group of 6-10 year old kids!

4. Planting 3 or 4 kinds of morning glories on the arbor look as lovely as you envisioned. But seed collecting - well, that's going to be problem....if you want to keep the seeds from the BLUE plant separate from the seeds from the PINK. And NOW you have to explain to garden visitors why there are little pieces of colored ribbon tied all over the vines....

fgirl,
The best slug removal tool is a group of 6-10 year old kids!
To heck with mowing lawns this group could make a fortune ridding gardens of those slimey pests. All they would need is a couple of *Slug Buster* tee shirts and before you know it they will have plenty of cash socked away for college!

>I am going to take that as testimony to my extraordinary good taste in flowering vines... I think!

Yes, it's a beautiful, if unusual, flower! Vaguely and disturbingly anatomical, though, isn't it? Great color, I bet it starts a lot of conversations!

I'm in the middle of the $64 Tomato, and I'm dying to know what the heck Christopher Walken has to do with it. It is one funny book - really rings true, too.

I still swear by Sluggo for keeping slugs and snails under control. I ran out of it really early in the season, though, and some of my plants are munched to ribbons - no sense applying it now, I guess.

Kt, thanks for the insight on this year's non-blooming tropicals. Last year Mexican Bush Sage (Salvia leucantha) was so stunning that this year I bought 3. So far, nothing, and I doubt that there will be much to see before I leave in a couple of weeks. If there's any show at all, I'll miss it. Next year they'll go into a hot sunny microclimate area.

4. Planting 3 or 4 kinds of morning glories on the arbor look as lovely as you envisioned. But seed collecting - well, that's going to be problem....if you want to keep the seeds from the BLUE plant separate from the seeds from the PINK. And NOW you have to explain to garden visitors why there are little pieces of colored ribbon tied all over the vines....

Hear, hear. I use bread ties which are decidedly more "pokey" compared to ribbon. I'm sick of apologizing for everyone getting snagged. Now I suggest that they bypass the arbor and take the long way around.

Which leads me to:
1. Stop ignoring the sizes listed on plant labels and seed packs. If something says it will grow to 10ft, assume that it will and only plant one. Nobody needs 50ft of Morning Glorys to fill an arbor "nicely".

2. When you give extra plants away they then belong to the recipient who can do with them what they want.
They are allowed to plant them in unsuitable (and laughable) conditions, slowly kill them in any manner in which they are good at or even launch them into space if that's what they want to do.
Until someone creates the RSPCP (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Plants) you cannot take legal action against them and you should just relax.

3. Cut as many bouquets as possible and give them to everyone you know (including the cats).

4. Your garden may not be picture perfect.
You might have planted orange, blue and pinks together, caterpillars have eaten off half your flowers and there are yellow leaves and floppy plants everywhere, but you know what? All that mess is much more rewarding than having miles of perfectly green antiseptic grass with perfectly spaced cone shaped shrubs planted around an empty flagpole.

This is a great topic btw. :)

Until someone creates the RSPCP (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Plants) you cannot take legal action against them and you should just relax.
LOL LOL LOL
Do you think the RSPCP would need it's own formal organization or could it join forces with the RSPULD (Royal Society for the Prevention of Ugly Landscape Design)?

KT,
Just wanted to thank you for the book recommendation. I just got done reading The $64 Tomato and it actually made me laugh out loud several times.

And now I get the Christopher Walken reference, Dee!