What gardening mistakes-and correcting?

[ceresone]

I'd like to hear what gardening mistakes you made this year, and what do you plan on doing different next year?either on correcting the mistakes--or something entirely different you plan on doing next year.
myself, i can never remember my mistakes from one year to the next--so, whats the saying?i'm doomed to repeat them year after year.
i plan on constructing a hoop house over one of my raised beds( 3 concrete blocks high)and try to get broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, etc out extra early. :)

[Nemophila]

I planted my tomatoes a bit too close together, which made two of the rows impossible to walk between the last couple of months. It sure has not been a lot of fun picking the tomatoes from those rows!

[GreenZone]

Gardening mistakes....well since you ask....

This was my first year with an irrigated Ozark garden. I planted EVERYTHING according to the spacing that always worked for me in New Mexico at 6500 ft elevation. Well everything got a LOT bigger here and there are no paths left.
Also it seems like the crowding caused a lot of pest and disease problems, some of which I hope will go away next year when I allow a lot more space for everything.

Finally I plan to get more agressive dealing with pests, of all persuasions. They weren't too willing to leave anything for me, this year. Seems you can't just ignore 'em here!
--Randel

[lovetogarden]

This one is easy---ignoring "just those few japanese beetles" until they overtook my pole beans.

[redbrick]

Heh, Heh! I planted 10 foot pole beans on 5 foot bamboo teepees, what a mess! Next year I want to try a sort-of leaning roof panel affair for them. Hopefully, the pods will hang down where I can actually reach them!

[winter_unfazed]

I planted the okra vine too close to the squash. It was shaded out for a while.

[gottagardyn]

I didnt have a garden!!! :(:(:(:(
And my rottie dug up most of my back yard.
The first year in at least 20+ years I havent had a garden and it was HORRIBLE.

[ceresone]

Aww, if i had my rottie back, i'd gladly give up my garden

[Joan]

I didn't give my sugar peas enough support so they grew into each other and made it really hard to pick peas.
Also I would plant my tomatoes farther apart, use a BT powder on my cauliflower, cabbage, and amend the ground even morethan I did :)

[GrannieB]

:o Howdy everybody!
I make lots of mistakes but I think I need to plan my veggie garden out a little better.

Best thing I did was making raised beds....but in a bad location :eek:

[Pharmerphil]

I planted my tomatoes a bit too close together, which made two of the rows impossible to walk between the last couple of months. It sure has not been a lot of fun picking the tomatoes from those rows! :)
We did the same thing, ran the maters around the north and west side of a spot, new this year, and then tried to access the inside was a chore, who'd a thunk it, that soil was a whole lot better than it looked! I should have said new 'addition', the new spot made a 6,225 sq. ft. totalhttp://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/chobb/shake.gif

[scakya]

My big goofs were planting my rhubarb next to a stucco wall(cantelope liked it though) and not planting enough windbreaks. Am fixing the latter now and will move my ruhbarb to a new bed in the edible forest garden in April, where it will be much cooler.

scakya

[kabuti]

Hi, the biggest mistake was; 1. not paying attn. 2. planting too much. 3. not killing the gopher 4. creating too much Unnecessary labor, it should be enjoyable 5. creating too much Unnecessary labor!

[Nimrod]

Crowding seems to be the big one here.... Early Spring we tend to look over an empty garden space and we plant and seed till we are content... Like myself I try to use all the garden space I can However later in the growing season we can see our pretty rows growing into one another and cucumbers are are growing crazy(over night)... I think I will just have to break more land to garden..Get the Troybuilt Horse out and start making more planting space... Imlucky I can do that I suposse!

[flowerpower]

Biggest mistakes- planted some of the tomatoes too close and they sprawled everywhere. Also I planted my potatoes in a new spot and it was too wet.

[HillsideDigger]

My biggest mistake was not realizing sooner that gardening is easy with handtools and does not require rototillers and tractors or truckloads of chemicals.

My first post here, btw, and this seems like a real cool site.

;)

[Jim]

I christened a new 15 x 50 garden spot last spring in an area that had been cleared several years ago and left exposed. About late Jun, I decided to do a soil test. Several in fact with different test kits.

Absolutely no nitrogen, pottasium or phosphorus detected in the soil. Applied lots of chicken manure and compost but only got a few tomatos, some corn, and some potatos before the Japanese beetles cleared the place out.

Meanwhile the original garden plot produced a good crop and was largely untouched by the beetles

I've added 3 tons of rotted horse manure, a lot of leaves, and the whole plot is currently slumbering under a cover crop of rye and vetch. That should fix it. And I'll do the soil test EARLY.

[littlechickenfarmer]

Keeping my extra seeds in a basket, Well we got flooded and i lost all my seeds for this year. Now I plan on putting them all in waterproof containers

[hippiehillorganics]

I started my veggie garden this year. I got all the stable cleanings from the horse farm next door dumped into a giant pile all winter long. They scraped off the grass and spread my manure. The manure was mixed with raw wood shavings. I had no dirt, and over six inches of poop and shavings and planted in it anyways! Needless to say, I ended up putting in a lot of bloodmeal! Very low yields!

Still getting the stuff from the stables, but it is now going way back in the yard to compost FIRSTalong with chicken poop! Maybe I'll be able to use it next fall.

[Sprocket]

Well this is from my first planting year about 30 years ago. My parents had just moved us from the city to our farm. That first year I was thrilled because we planted our first garden and I got to plant my personal favorite zucchini. Since I absolutely love this veggie I planted 15 hills of the stuff in order to be certain to have enough to last through winter. Let's just say I know better now and I do believe that my mom just used up the last package from that year. :eek:

[deb65802]

a good japanese beetle fix is four oclocks. they when ground up and strained through water to make a spray are toxic to japanese beetles. Death to all japanese beetle and squash bugs......

[deb65802]

one mistake i made was not having enough mulch during the drought conditions we had last summer. It was so hot and dry nothing did very well until the end of august. then tomaotes and beans and squash exploded. it was worth the wait but i had to plant three times to get a good crop. lesson: buy more seed that you think you will use, and get more mulch than you think you would ever use.

[deb65802]

the biggest mistake i have made already this year---is I didn't get the bed ready intime for the arrival of my blueberry seedlings. I did not prepare the soil and acidfy it enough. in other words they died. I am going to buy more and next time will do better. Prepare before I buy.

[leelanau_ferg]

My biggest mistake last year was planting way too much of everything!! It was my first garden and I was afraid none of my little seeds or seedlings would make it!! Well, they did and I had veggies/flowers/herbs and fruit spilling out of my little raised beds!! I will be more choosy this year-only things I can eat or give away fast enough, or things that I can put up.

[deb65802]

what is too much squash??? heheheh I would ahve been very happy to take that squash off your hands. My problem is having enough.

I shred and freeze almost a 100 pints of zuchinni a year. I use several dozen bushels when I am making Spaghetti sauce 50 quarts, not to mention all we eat. I put up a 50 or so pints of zuchinni and pineapple jam. I do the same thing when I make apple butter, tomato preserves and fig srawberry jam, the list goes on too.......no such thing as too much squash. we love it...

[hippiehillorganics]

Zucchini and Pineapple Jam? Please post your recipe! I really could have used that last year! I put zucchini into everything we ate, sold a bunch, froze a bunch and gave away all I could. Towards the end, my chickens were gorging themselves on it and I still had MORE! This year only one or two zucc plants, but I will plant lemon and french scallop squashes!

[PhilosopherStorm]

Mine is simple.. traveled for work rather than work on the garden.. sadly it is a mistake I have to repeat again this year.. That said, I intend to start gardens in three different zones for three different people while traveling just to keep my hands in it.. I don't get to reap the long term rewards, but at least I will be able to garden to some degree.

[Sprocket]

Hey I was wondering if anyone had some tips for starting celery and onions. I have never done celery before and last year my onions got all thin and scragly on me. I am in zone 6 so I need to start a lot of things early. thanks

[StoneDiceman]

My rottweiller dug up the top of an Asparagus plant that wasn't producing due to being covered with grass. He also took out a groundhog.

[louanne]

most of my mistakes were in the hot house..last year was the second year I did everything from seed and a few things just didnt want to grow for me....
this year I am playing cat and mouse with spring..ha...I didnt get to have a full garden of my own last year cause we relocated in may...so I am totally stir crazy....
plus a new buddy from work dug out all her mom's old seeds and gave them to me...so of course...I want to try and grow everything...told my self that I wasnt gonna do that this year....oops...

[Rockhound]

Hmmm...gardening mistakes? I guess I have made them all, probably. I even laugh at myself when I think now about that first garden. Too much shade, too many varieties, too close together. Too much water, fert. and bugs, way too many bugs! That was a long time ago but I still kill a few seedlings every year, mostly neglect or forgetfulness (or is it just for old times' sake?) LOL.

[JackiP]

You can also make zucchini-peach jam along with several other fruits. An on-line search will give you so many recipes. My hubby is addicted to the zucchini peach jam now. I still planted too many zucchini and crook necks! Our mistake was in not mulching also and that will be corrected this year.

[FlipTX]

I planted a lot of things too late. Last year was my first real attempt at a garden all on my own (I'd had some as a kid) but I unwittingly followed the directions on the seed packets. The snap bean packets said I should plant any time from March to August. In my climate, if you plant beans past early April, chances are it'll get too hot and the flowers just fall off without fertilizing any bean babies. So this year, I'm planting earlier, trying a few more heat tolerant varieties, and past April I'll plant yardlong beans and cowpeas which like the hot weather.

I made the mistake of not pruning my Brandywine plant. I was afraid it wouldn't grow enough leaves or branches so I let them ALL grow. I ended up with something that looked like a woolly mammoth made of leaves. Thing was HUGE and outgrew its stakes. Delicious tomatoes, though. :) But this year, I'll prune a bit more. I also won't try to keep any tomato plants going through the summer; that way lies madness. It's too hot and you get diminishing returns for all the work.