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Garden mistakes/regrets/lessons

lovegardening77lovegardening77 Posts: 332
in The potting shed
I wish I had put in a bigger wildlife pond- mine is quite small and preformed but I'm on heavy clay and my partner and I struggled to dig!! Also I have a fear of deep water.

I should've made deeper beds under the east facing fence.

I shouldn't have listened to the assistant in a well known garden centre when he said the blue sharp spreads like a thud grass "doesn't spread"!!!

Oh well, you live and learn.

What are your garden mistakes/lessons you have learned?

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Posts

  • PurplerainPurplerain Posts: 1,053
    edited April 2018
    My main lesson is soil. Spend time on it and everything falls into place. It is not attractive, but it's like putting expensive decorating into a house that needs a new roof if you don't.
    SW Scotland
  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    Trying to grow delphiniums in clay soil with a big tree the other side of the hedge.
    Thinking I'm stronger than I really am and trying to lift bags of compost/dig big holes/dig out big roots etc, etc. 
    Planting small shrubs which I really know will grow into big ones ad then regretting it.
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • Allotment BoyAllotment Boy Posts: 6,774
    edited April 2018
    How true @Purplerain if any of you have seen my posts on the "anyone done any gardening today" thread you will know I have been bemoaning my schoolboy error. I spread and rotavated in  a large load of (well rotted but very wet) horse manure on my allotment plots this spring. Then we had another 3 weeks of cold & rain & my soil was like uncooked Christmas pudding -completely unworkable. It's only just dry enough to work now but I had to rotavate it a second time as it had developed a hard crust as soon as the sun finally came out. In a normal year it would have been the right thing to do, just not this year!
    AB Still learning

  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    I think I mistakes any time I make decisions in a hurry or under pressure. I put in the 'wrong rose' last year. In a fourth tired phone call to a rose supplier, I agreed to buy a rose for an arch, just to get it out of the way and plant something. It's an ugly arch and I wanted to get on and cover it. Fair enough, but it's the wrong plant; not vigorous enough for good cover and a double (I'm not keen on doubles). I'm now trying to decide if I should just see what happens or move it and find a better fit for the space. Any time I have cut the wrong clematis stem (and nearly killed the plant), destroyed an orchid or broken fragile new growth, it's because I'm in too much of a hurry.

    Also, I think there's nothing particularly 'intuitive' about gardening. It's a subject to study like any other. I have wasted sooo much money in the past assuming I could put a plant in somewhere and it would be pretty likely to grow. I wish I could get all that money back and start again. :)
  • autumngloryautumnglory Posts: 255
    I've made the same mistake I read about in a gardening magazine a few weeks ago: our garden is tiny and I fell into the trap of thinking all of the plants should be small too. I've planted lots of dwarf plant varieties so the result is it looks a bit like a miniature garden. 
  • Johnny CrosbyJohnny Crosby Posts: 54
    Being seduced by programmes like Groundforce. 18 years ago I moved into a new house, new garden, and built a pergola, decking, gravel paths, fancy water feature etc. Now, as my 70s beckon, I have removed the rotten pergola posts, got rid of the decking which encouraged mice into the house, changed the water feature for a simple 7 x 5ft pond, and sown a lawn with flower beds on the perimeter. It is much easier to maintain, looks just as good in full bloom, and doesn’t date the garden to a particular decade.
  • josusa47josusa47 Posts: 3,530
    Purplerain, your answer is very evocative.  It reminded me of Rambling Sid Rumpo, a character voiced by Kenneth Williams on the radio comedy "Round the Horne".  No matter what question was put to Sid, his reply always began: "Well, Oi think the aaaanswer lois in the soil." (West country yokel accent)
  • Mary370Mary370 Posts: 2,003
    My lesson should be to give up wasting money, time and effort only to face the annual disappointment of failing yet again to growing delphiniums from seed.
  • Blue OnionBlue Onion Posts: 2,995
    I was just thinking about that this afternoon.. I regret mistakenly putting spent mint flowers in my compost two years ago.. the seeds germinated and grew up among my veg in the raised garden beds.  I kept pulling, but couldn't dig on account of veg roots.. and now I am battling the mint in addition to my normal foes (bindweed and crab grass).   
    Utah, USA.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Don't put ornamental grasses under anything that sheds petals or leaves. :#

    Don't let that pretty self-seeded set seed until you know exactly what it is.

    Don't lend your shredder.

    Don't let ivy get out of control

    Don't bother trying to dig up Spanish bluebells - hoe off the leaves and forget them til next year.

    In London. Keen but lazy.
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