Favorite gardening disasters

TootsieK

It might be fun to share some of the mistakes we've made in gardening.

 I'll start with my Walker's Low catmint.  I planted it in a bed several feet from other flowers, thinking I had given it plenty of room -- it had a different opinion and set out to devour the world.  In less than one year it has eaten several dianthus, choked a few bachelor button, set out to strangle a monarda, and is heading for the hydrangeas -- even after vigorous pruning.  Even the periwinkle flees in terror.  It has also become the neighborhood hang-out, especially for the neighbor's bully, who picks fights with my cats.  Its saving grace?  The lovely lavendar flowers.

Right now I have three cubic feet of clippings to foist off on friends with cats.

Magdala9

For me, it was regular mint where it invaded the lawn and kept going..  At least the grass smells very minty fresh when I mow.  It will be aromatically interesting when the mint that is invading the lawn on the east side meets the garlic chives that are invading my lawn on the west side (from my neighbor's garden).

~NB~

I'm thinking about using mint for my lawn. At least it will smell nice when I step on it or mow it. 

Bigwuhead

Not my mistake, but when we moved in, the former owners had let a lot go and one whole planting bed that takes up one side of the house is ALL mint.  And a few different varieties, which are probably all morphing at this point.  I've been working my but off last summer and this to get rid of it.  I've got about half the bed de-minted.

I've made some mistakes... putting plants too close together, over watering, under watering.  And the first year I grew herbs, I had no idea what to do with them, so I just let them grow.  I barely used any of them, and they looked awful because I didn't take care of them right.

FoxinFiji

When we first bought our house we were so eager get rid of the 4' tall weeds in what used to be a foundation bed that we dug everything out and put down fabric with rocks.  Big mistake.  We pain painstakingly removed every rock a year later and we're so glad we did.  Mulch is the way to go.

Also not too long after we bought the house we rescued a dog.  We quickly realized she was the kind of dog that needed a fenced in yard but our existing backyard wasn't a good option for many reasons.  So we decided to clear a spot in the woods (aka. remove brush) along the side of our yard and fence in the area for a dog yard.  The composite fence turned out great and the dog loves the space but I don't know why we thought we could tame nature by growing what we wanted in there.  Disturbing the soil means we had a massive garlic mustard infestation to deal with and not digging out every little piece of woody brush roots means there are more growing in their place.  We have a long battle left to fight in there but we're taking it one section at a time. 

dirtyred

It's really my husband's mistake, because he pays not attention to the "right plant in the right place" rule.

He wanted a climbing plant on the side of our garage.  It's full shade, clay soil.  I tell him that there's not much that will do well there; how about a climbing hydrangea?  He say no.  He wants lots of splashy flowers all summer.

He ends up buying a MANDEVILLA to put there.  I tell him it will die.  It's a tropical plant that needs full sun and well drained soil and it will get neither next the the garage.  He plants it, and within a couple of weeks it's dead.  Then he tries to make ME take it back to the nursery because they have an it-grows-or-your-money-back  guarantee.  I refuse, saying it's not the nursery's fault, it's YOUR fault, and they shouldn't have to take a financial hit for your mistake. 

We now have a climbing hydrangea in that spot.

Mrs.Lucy1230

1- my front garden at my house is... a special hot mess. I put it in before I had any clue about landscaping design and basically dumped any half dead plants in the ground while hoping for the best. Well, the best happend in most cases. The creeping phlox I got on sale has tripled in size, the $6 Lowe's rose has taken off, and I have thyme that was nothing more than three brown twigs when planted turn into a 2'x3' thriving patch of herbs. I kinda love it all though, so I have no inclination to tear anything out and start over.

2- Last year I got a large number of small extra tomato plant starters from a friend. It was late in the season and I didn't have much hope for anything growing so I crammed everything into the little-bitty gargen just to see what took off. They all did... The plants definately stunted from being so close together.

 

living_insanity

The previous owners planted bamboo, the kind that creeps and takes over the entire yard.  They tried to bury all sorts of stuff on top of it to contain it.  We've dug up bricks, concrete stepping stones etc.  My husband dug it all up root by root which stretched across the entire yard and tore up all the grass.  Bamboo is evil.

coloradogirl06

I've planted salvia and cone flowers in a bed on the corner of our house, and the first season all three of the salvia bloomed beautifully and then two turned brown and died, coneflowers, same thing, and then right before it bloomed this year, it turned brown and died.  I think my dog is bothered by the scent of them, and pees on them and it burns them to a crisp! 

I'm not having the same problem (so far) with the daisies in the same area. 

pdxmouse

Many times that I've started seeds in containers I forgot to water them after they sprouted. Usually after putting them out in the sun.

I put too many bulbs and perennials in the front bed without thinking how it would look in fall and winter. It's on my list of things to fix.