When it all goes wrong

[Pip]

Everybody learns from mistakes so how about we all learn from everyone elses too. Why don't we post things that have gone wrong (Limit it to gardening pls don't want to here about anyone's relationships!!!) We could all find out what not to do and possibly have a few laughs in the meantime!!

to start the ball rolling don't try germinating your sweet peas at too high a temperature.... they all rot. OOps

[WiZeR]

ok, what about building your raised beds 6inches on the wrong side of the boundary and being told to move them!

[Lesley Jay]

Don't rush to plant out your seed potatoes liked I did in our first year and then see all the growth destroyed by the late frosts.

[Dadnlad]

Ditto Lesley's post - learn from older locals who know your last frost times
Two years ago we had a hard frost on June 8th - toms,courgettes,sweetcorn etc all compost ! Then find out our plot is in a frost pocket and the old boys keep half their vulnerable stuff back till mid June !

[Geordie]

My first greenhouse was secondhand....I had to dismantle it and then reassemble it on the allotment.
Everything went well untill the last two panes of glass would not fit. My neighbour, at the time, was one of those rare experts, knowledgeble in every field from tea making to nuclear physics but only deem to share their knowledge after the point of no return has been reached!
"You should have measured the diagnols" came his pearl of wisom, "Would have saved you having to take all the glass out and start again!"
I always remember that as it was a funny day for weather...sunny one moment and then suddenly shrouded in a red mist. Resisting the urge to find a new use for my spade, I had a better idea. One trip to the glasiers later I now had two panes cut at strange angles which coincidently were an exact fit for the gaps left in the greenhouse.

Sadly this greenhouse was lost in a gale in Jan 2004, and have built 2 more since then....both after checking the diagnols!

[andrewo]

Lettuce/Mizuna

Planting mizuna underneath fleece, slug fest!

Andrewo

[Alice]

We do all make mistakes and I regret planting Prunella in the rockery about four years age. It appears as a weed all over the garden and is difficult to remove. On a lighter note my mother in law found a tray of seedlings in her greenhouse just after her father had died. She thought it was something he wanted to grow and looked after the seedlings lovingly. they thrived and grew beautifully. It was all chick weed !

[Nicos]

My worst mistake was to kill off a large area of my father's prize lawn! My parents used to have 4 huge apple trees and in my teens I seemed to spend most of the autumn stewing, freezing ,bottling and eating the apples. We had no compost in those days so it seemed such a waste to throw out the peelings,so I decided to have a go at making a bucket of cider. I followed the instructions to the letter, and stirred it every day....until I was distracted as teenagers often are(!)...and about 3 weeks later, suddenly remembered it. To my horror, it had turned into what appeared to be a solid lump of mould. Sadly, the only option was to chuck it . As the contents of the bucket were flung to the wind, I suddenly experienced a wonderful aroma....cider! Too late to rescue it, I had to admit defeat Having finally come to terms with my loss ,the final torture was in my father's face when he asked if I had poured anything onto the lawn recently.There was a huge swathe of dead grass, exactly where I had 'fed' the lawn! It took at least 2 years to repair.
And that is how I know what to do with the rhubarb schnapps if it doesn't work out...weedkiller!

[Shortie]

One of my (many) errors...

....When your sweet peppers start to fruit and you need to add liquid tomato feed to the soil, DON'T put it on neat.. I don't think I have ever killed anything quite as fast as that...

Also, personal note to myself to remember for future.. when seeing a climbing plant growing in new garden when new to gardening in general, don't be too keen to put up trellis to grow it up, to then realise you've lovingly cared for vine weed.. Oooo... shouldn't have admitted that one should I?

[nick the grief]

A weed is just a plant in the wrong place shortie If you like bindweed go for it, it's certainly easy to propagate - If you don't like it .... Good luck !!!

[Shortie]

Oops again

Very true... but bind weed really can be awful as it straggle everything in a bid to grow up it..

Does it also count as mistake that I lifted some bulbs last year and stored them... so well in fact that I forgot all about them until last month and opened a paper bag of earthy smelling moulded bulbs? I really doubt it'll be the last time I do that either...

[sewer rat]

Shortie

Re Bindweed - if you don't know what it is, it's white flowers and climbing tendencies can make it look quite attractive - easy mistake to make.

Re Bulbs stored in bags - Guilty as charged m'lud. Been there seen it, got the T shirt - has happened to me on more than one occasion - though the bulbs were never meant to be replanted in my own garden. I have hundreds of Grape Hyacinth - unfortunately it is the Muscari neglectum variety and over the last four years I have dug up and given away approx 20 carrier bags full to friends who have woodland gardens - at least I would have given away that number of bags if I hadn't forgotten some and discovered them much much later !

If anyone out there on the 'Vine would like some Muscari neglectum bulbs (come in shades of blue, white and occasionally pink) let me know - but beware thay don't take long to multiply.

Rat

[Shortie]

Hee hee... I'm on a roll now...

If you buy a cheap, light 'green house' (you know the ones with plastic covers and the dismantlable frame mad of hole metal?) take the advise given of securing it to a wall or somehting stable... I didn't last year and stuck it free standing, away from a wall and it got blown over by a cheeky gust of wind one day... the sad sight of my seedlings splatted up the front (the the bottom) door was a sad sight... (although I can giggle about it now)

Wow, I could write my own book couldn't I... what NOT to do in the garden..

Rat, muscari are quite free to multiply aren't they? I have quite a few growing in my new vege patch

[WiZeR]

2 more from me.

Do your research when planting fruit trees, digging them up and moving them is no fun!

Make sure your seed sowing conditions are right, or you'll end up with trays and trays of long shoots and nothing else.

[andrewo]

If you're growing tomatoes in pots, always tie them to wall or drive a cane right through the pot and into the ground. Even the hintest wind when the vines are full will cause them to go crashing down. It happened to me and I ended up with mush. I had a plastic greenhouse too that I didn't secure and it became a kite. Waterbutts, always put bricks in them to weigh them down, in the gales a few years back, a gust of wind picked up our waterbutt and slammed it through the fence, it was a dangerous mistake as the fence faces directly onto a road.

There was water and wood everywhere.