- Stupid garden mistakes -

[WaterGoat]

I killed it.


I have another one. Planted wormwood one year to make sachets for storage cloth..think winter coats boxed up, etc. It keeps moths away. So if you've ever grown wormwood from seed, you know how miniscule the seeds are, and how hard it is to germinate. Out of 1 new seed packet from Eden bros, I ended up with one plant to put in the garden. Not their fault, wormwood is tetchy. So it survived a year and came up the next spring, I was tickled pink! Then DH decides to weed my herb bed for me and pulled it up.

Oh no! My kid has done stuff like that....and you can't really get mad at them because they were trying to be helpful.

 

[Acre4Me]

I killed it.


I have another one. Planted wormwood one year to make sachets for storage cloth..think winter coats boxed up, etc. It keeps moths away. So if you've ever grown wormwood from seed, you know how miniscule the seeds are, and how hard it is to germinate. Out of 1 new seed packet from Eden bros, I ended up with one plant to put in the garden. Not their fault, wormwood is tetchy. So it survived a year and came up the next spring, I was tickled pink! Then DH decides to weed my herb bed for me and pulled it up.

oh no!

In a previous home, we had a volunteer Burr Oak that started to grow next to our house, which was not ideal. It was small enough that we were able to carefully dig it up (as we like Burr oaks), keeping the root intact, and planting it in the far corner of the yard in a mulched raised berm that was a separation between our yard and person behind us in this suburban area. We placed a few stakes around it to mark it off and it did well for a few months until the lawn service employed by the neighbor cut off the top many inches while mowing their yard....remember the part where I said "in a raised berm" and "marked with stakes"....umm yeah... So, what could have been a beautiful tree in years to come and could have provided much needed shade to that part of the yard had to be dug up and tossed.

 

[Acre4Me]

Fails, well, DH and I agreed to let the neighbor across the street and his buddy with a tractor, use some of our field for a 30'x40' garden one year. The guy across the street got a cancer diagnosis right after tilling, so we decided to help. Planted corn, tomatoes, peppers, runner beans, summer squash, cabbage, spinach, and bush beans. Broke our backs. After we planted everything, guy with the tractor showed up one day with a buddy, left the gate to the horse pasture open and was bragging to his buddy about his garden. He got chewed out for not closing the gate behind him and apparently his feelings were hurt. If you've ever tried to chase down horses that got loose on a main road, you know he got off easy. He never came back. So we continued to break our backs. Neighbor across the street's wife never even came over to pick when crops were ready. I picked a huge mess of runner beans, cause I heard her say they were her favorites, and brought them to her because her husband couldn't. She gave me a lecture about how I should have picked some for the guy with the tractor. Lots went to waste because it was a full time job for retired guys, which is what they were.

Needless to say, not opening our land up for neighbors anymore. Lesson learned.

Very neighborly of you to offer the space. Hard to believe wife didn't even say thanks. Not so surprising that the tractor friend bragged to his buddy as if he did all the work (I've certainly met my share of people who do this type of thing).

 

[Searsmom]

Very neighborly of you to offer the space. Hard to believe wife didn't even say thanks. Not so surprising that the tractor friend bragged to his buddy as if he did all the work (I've certainly met my share of people who do this type of thing).

She was/is a difficult neighbor, I used to visit to talk about gardening, and one day she gave me a talk about how she knew how difficult a time I was having with my daughter and how horrible my daughter was (oldest was 16 at the time) and I was stunned. My daughter and I have the best relationship and are more like friends. I think she sampled too much in the 60s. What do you even say to that?

I figured just different backgrounds and different stories, I just don't visit anymore because we can't find a level on which to actually communicate and I only walk away beingfrustrated.

Wow, sorry, turned into a Dear Abby huh?

 

[Acre4Me]

She was/is a difficult neighbor, I used to visit to talk about gardening, and one day she gave me a talk about how she knew how difficult a time I was having with my daughter and how horrible my daughter was (oldest was 16 at the time) and I was stunned. My daughter and I have the best relationship and are more like friends. I think she sampled too much in the 60s. What do you even say to that?

I figured just different backgrounds and different stories, I just don't visit anymore because we can't find a level on which to actually communicate and I only walk away beingfrustrated.

Wow, sorry, turned into a Dear Abby huh?

That’s too bad about the neighbor, it is difficult to maintain any kind of relationship when there is such a difference in thought/understanding/perception. Your description did remind me of someone I’ve known, so I laughed at the memory. We have current neighbors that love to garden, and it’s nice to be able to chat about that with them!

 

[Marmalade25]

Gardening mistake #2: there were some miniature and full size roses on the property when we bought our house. I have never grown roses in my life so I did my best to read up on proper pruning. They seemed healthy enough the first year, but I didn't get the memo about mulching around them and now they are basically mounds of grass which I cannot weed because they are so thorny. Also they seem to get demolished by Japanese beetles or something. I'm already a bit mad at these thjbth because a thorn prick last year turned into an infection that took some time to remediate. I am almost at the point where I see them as a menace rather than an asset. Any rose lovers have some good advice for this jaded rose gardener? I'd love to love them, but I'm at a loss for lack of experience.

 

[WaterGoat]

Gardening mistake #2: there were some miniature and full size roses on the property when we bought our house. I have never grown roses in my life so I did my best to read up on proper pruning. They seemed healthy enough the first year, but I didn't get the memo about mulching around them and now they are basically mounds of grass which I cannot weed because they are so thorny. Also they seem to get demolished by Japanese beetles or something. I'm already a bit mad at these thjbth because a thorn prick last year turned into an infection that took some time to remediate. I am almost at the point where I see them as a menace rather than an asset. Any rose lovers have some good advice for this jaded rose gardener? I'd love to love them, but I'm at a loss for lack of experience.

All I can recommend is getting in there with some heavy gloves to rip out the grass, mulch a ton, give them a feed and a heavy prune, and hope for the best. Roses are one of those weird plants that seem both delicate and hardy. In my area they are plagued with black spot and aphids, but also thrive/survive while being completely ignored or hacked back to a stump. There have been several times where my husband thought I'd killed my plants because I did a heavy prune, but they came back very happy.

 

[Acre4Me]

Gardening mistake #2: there were some miniature and full size roses on the property when we bought our house. I have never grown roses in my life so I did my best to read up on proper pruning. They seemed healthy enough the first year, but I didn't get the memo about mulching around them and now they are basically mounds of grass which I cannot weed because they are so thorny. Also they seem to get demolished by Japanese beetles or something. I'm already a bit mad at these thjbth because a thorn prick last year turned into an infection that took some time to remediate. I am almost at the point where I see them as a menace rather than an asset. Any rose lovers have some good advice for this jaded rose gardener? I'd love to love them, but I'm at a loss for lack of experience.

Heavy gloves - leather ones. I had some “Rose gloves” that were leather with a cuff that went halfway up my lower arm...worth their cost. I don’t have roses now, but when I did it was a learning curve. So, I would recommend at least trying to figure out the type (wild, tea, climber, ?), and then research some more - often a local group with have some kind of landscape seminars, etc so look to see if you can get advice there. Or go to local garden center or call county ag extension office -someone with local experience should be able to help you. A local person is more familiar with the bugs and diseases and with the common varieties.

 

[chickengr]

Gardening mistake #2: there were some miniature and full size roses on the property when we bought our house. I have never grown roses in my life so I did my best to read up on proper pruning. They seemed healthy enough the first year, but I didn't get the memo about mulching around them and now they are basically mounds of grass which I cannot weed because they are so thorny. Also they seem to get demolished by Japanese beetles or something. I'm already a bit mad at these thjbth because a thorn prick last year turned into an infection that took some time to remediate. I am almost at the point where I see them as a menace rather than an asset. Any rose lovers have some good advice for this jaded rose gardener? I'd love to love them, but I'm at a loss for lack of experience.

prune them and start over. if you just cut them low and let it dry it will be easier to pick up the pruned part. then you can weed and mulch. new roses will come out of the root.

 

[Searsmom]

Welding gloves work great for trimming roses, and for cleaning out woodstoves.