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gardening for beginners

2025 - What are your gardening failures so far this year?

Catie George

gardener

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Location: Ontario - Zone 6a, 4b, or 3b, depending on the day

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posted 7 months ago

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The ground has barely thawed yet this year, and already, i've made mistakes in the garden.

But, well, i'm not a social media star, so mistakes are a normal part of my life!

For the sake of keeping us all humble (and because laughter as the best medicine)) please share what mistakes you've made, or unexpected failures you've experienced while gardening this year.

I'll start.

1. I had mice in my basement, who developed a love of microgreens (my baby seedlings)
2. I left the covers on the trays long past germination to protect them from mice... and more than half of my baby plants rotted, succumbed to fungus, or were eaten by mice. Including a lot of my very expensive perennial seeds.
3. I left my heat mat on long after germination for my asparagus seedlings, and fried even more baby plants.

And...
5. I barerooted and transplanted 4 apple trees... and realized i need to move them all 1-2 ft over, to actually be able to mow around them !!! Ugh! More digging!

What's gone wrong for you so far this year?

Thom Bri

pollinator

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Location: Illinois

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posted 7 months ago

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So far so good!
I did find a bag full of old seeds, who knows how old, and scattered them over my garden surface. It included lots of seeds that shouldn't be planted until May, like beans and okra. But it's old stuff so what the heck?
I am sure I will add plenty of errors as the season goes on.

Michelle Heath

gardener

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Location: WV

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posted 7 months ago

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Not so much failures as set-backs. Too many things happening at once combined with a bit of burn-out at the same time and some of my seeds got delayed. I also have a major vole problem and am hesitant to plant peas now. My mindset is back to garden mode but oh so much work to do this season!

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Catie George

gardener

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Location: Ontario - Zone 6a, 4b, or 3b, depending on the day

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posted 1 month ago

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I thought i'd update this thread.

We've had an extraordinary drought this year, so I'm counting everything that didnt die a success.

Still, it looks like i :
- Planted out my tiny baby seedlings at last frost, and lost a lot of them to the cold wet weather in the spring.
- killed almost all my willows, by planting them next to my black walnut
- Produced the world's smallest brussel sprouts, by planting them next to the same walnut
- Probably killed my new red currant and possibly a saskatoon from lack of water. If that's it, i'll be amazed.
- Had 2 out of the 3 hazenuts i planted eaten.
- Killed (no leaves) and revived the same 2 grape vines at least twice
- killed at least half of my rhubarb transplants, again, lack of water.
- let the ground get so dry, there were literal cracks by the rootballs of two newly planted trees, causing them to start to brown
- Fried a bunch of my softwood cuttings earlier this year, by putting them in the sun on a hot day.

I'm ending the year with a huge amount of progress on my garden, having learned a ton about plant propagation, and it's very much reminding me of a friend, who once asked how i had such a green thumb for houseplants. I told her that's because i kept so many, you couldn't notice the ones I killed!

So- how about the rest of you? What plants did you murder? What mistakes did you make?

Thom Bri

pollinator

Posts: 809

Location: Illinois

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posted 1 month ago

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Worst was the squash. It was all destroyed by bugs.

Mk Neal

pollinator

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Location: Chicago

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posted 1 month ago

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Not a great garden year for me. :( .

I think the land was telling me once and for all “This is not Europe, stop trying to grow European vegetables!” Carrots and celery and parsnips start out ok, then we get horrid June heat wave and they just sulk. Pawpaws also drop due to early hot dry spell.

Good old North American beans, sunflowers, and amaranths then grow gangbusters and shade out everything else. Looks to be a good year for beans anyway, until a windstorm breaks my bean trellis and uproots half the vines.

Tomatoes really get going in September only to be pecked at by birds and nibbled by rodents before the first blush of ripeness. I draped netting over some plants and hope to harvest at least some unspoiled.

Squash and cucumbers I started too late and probably won’t produce.

The three sisters garden I planted with community in local park did much better. Sky-high stalks of corn, some with three ears per stalk. Lots of tomatoes and amaranth.

Weeds are just plants with enough surplus will to live to withstand normal levels of gardening!--Alexandra Petri

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Mart Hale

pollinator

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posted 1 month ago

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My failures ( also known as learning what NOT to do ) ...

Tried growing okra in soil blocks, I put them out in hot sun dried out and died.

Did battle with aphids on my cabbage, learned there was an ant nest in my soil was unable to identify so lost the cabbage.

Found raccoons invading my grow bags, so I lost soil and the time spent making the soil, and planting... ( think I may of found a solution )

Found aphids destroyed my taro, next year plan on doing war on ants that farm the aphids on my plants.

I guess some of this was my fault, not knowing how to work with God's insects / plants.

With my failures, I have also had break thru with heading toward my goal of growing more calories..

Had an electrician friend who used to say, "if you are not breaking anything, then you are not doing anything"...

I do find it good to make a journal of what went wrong, and fail differently next year, as why be insane and repeat the same mistakes? ;-)

Life on a farm is a school of patience; you can't hurry the crops or make an ox in two days.
Henri Alain

Mart Hale

pollinator

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posted 1 month ago

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Duplicate message.. See I fail here as well ;-)

Life on a farm is a school of patience; you can't hurry the crops or make an ox in two days.
Henri Alain

Nancy Reading

steward and tree herder

Posts: 11456

Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year

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posted 1 month ago

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I'm starting to get the hang of gardening outside and I've had a pretty good year in the vegetable garden. Failures include the peas which I was experimenting with not providing a climbing frame: they ended up on the ground of course and the mice and slugs had a good meal! Also the root crops I sowed slightly close together which meant I was unable to mulch in between the rows.
As usual I had complete failure of some seeds (which are still in their packets!
Birds (and possibly rats) had all the apples of one of my apple trees, which had looked like it was going to drop fairly well. One day, you think 'those look good, I must think about harvesting soon' and the next time you look all the apples are gone!
The same goes for the cherry trees and Aronia berries. The local blackbirds and thrushes have now worked out that Aronia berries are good to eat. The first year I got a pretty good harvest, but not many berries. by the third year the birds get them well before they are ripe enough for me.

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Tyler Grace

Posts: 28

Location: Colorado Springs, CO [Zone: 5B/6A]

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posted 1 month ago

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1. Not using loamy soil in the pots of the plants that I plan to propagate.

2. Using inert mediums to propagate with. I made the mistake of watching too many YouTube videos that claimed you have to use inert materials like sand or coco coir to avoid bacterial infection in young rooting plants. While this may be true, it's not necessary and is a pain once the plant becomes reliant on nutrients within the soil. I now use amended native soil and (dare I say it) bagged topsoil, usually Happy Frog.

3. Trying to propagate fruit shrubs at the incorrect time of year when they are low on sap content.

There's definitely more propagation related mistakes I made this year that I can't think of ATM. I'm glad I made the mistakes though, so I can learn from them. So far I have been having the best results from stool layering and taking cuttings from plants that are already grounded in my hugel berms.

"Irrigation is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes."

Timothy Norton

Steward of piddlers

Posts: 6603

Location: Upstate NY, Zone 5, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall

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posted 1 month ago

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1. Squirrels got to all of my peaches this year. I'm planning on increasing the amount of peach trees on my property to compensate.

2. This year was not a great year for tomatillos. I'm unsure if it's due to the drought in my area or not. Tomatoes did okay.

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Thom Bri

pollinator

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Location: Illinois

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posted 1 month ago

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Tyler Grace wrote:1
2. Using inert mediums to propagate with. I made the mistake of watching too many YouTube videos that claimed you have to use inert materials like sand or coco coir to avoid bacterial infection in young rooting plants. While this may be true, it's not necessary and is a pain once the plant becomes reliant on nutrients within the soil. I now use amended native soil and (dare I say it) bagged topsoil, usually Happy Frog.

One method I have used for seeds susceptible to mold is to pour boiling water over the potting soil. I use store bought and also home made potting soil and both sometimes get moldy. The boiling water resets the soil to nearly sterile, but keeps the organic matter intact. It also cuts the insect population way back. Seeds grow very well in this and get a good start.

I flood the soil with boiling water, then wait until it is just warm, then plant the seeds.

Tyler Grace

Posts: 28

Location: Colorado Springs, CO [Zone: 5B/6A]

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posted 1 month ago

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Thom Bri wrote: I flood the soil with boiling water, then wait until it is just warm, then plant the seeds.

Seems like a decent idea, I do that for substrate that I use in mushroom tubs.

The only thing is, I don't want to kill the beneficial bacteria/fungi in the soil. There is more risk the cuttings will get infected right after planting them, but if you cut them right and do it neatly with sterilized instruments you should be good. At least, I've been fine doing it this way so far.

"Irrigation is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes."

Craig Weiser

Posts: 21

posted 1 month ago

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My failure is not doing it this year.

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1262

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

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posted 1 month ago

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I planted lettuce, spinich, snap peas and radishes for an autumn harvest. But only one spindly radish survived the squirrel that has been coming to my yard and digging holes and eating things. I think what this means is that things I plant for autumn harvest need netting over them for a while so they don't get eaten by planning creatures who know winter will eventually come and so stock up.

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Mac Johnson

Posts: 7

Location: Prairie Coteau South Dakota

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posted 1 month ago

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My mistake was putting all my root vegetables in one basket, or raised garden so to speak. I planted most of them last fall and then this spring my dogs decided that was the best place to dig holes. I only got 3 parsnips and 4 onions after that. Carrots, Garlic, Beets, and a Watermelon plant all got completely wiped out. Luckily, I seem to be the only one here that had such bad luck. I was able to purchase from other gardeners to get my preservation done. I'm now fencing off my raised gardens as well.

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Dave Bross

pollinator

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Location: North FL, in the high sandhills

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Biting off more than I can chew.

As I get older (70s) I don't have the energy to keep up with things the way I used to.

What I learned is that I need to start thinking about more permanent lower input food crops like fruit trees and not to try to push and do everything, taking the enjoyment out of what I'm doing.

Another good one was realizing the Bidens Alba weeds that almost overwhelmed everything make a great cover crop. They were 6 feet tall.
After getting them cut down before they set too many of their seeds ( that stick to you with little barbs ) I realized they made a LOT of biomass and I didn't even have to plant or buy anything.

Joylynn Hardesty

master pollinator

Posts: 5260

Location: Due to winter mortality, I stubbornly state, zone 7a Tennessee

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posted 1 week ago

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It is to be expected. My sweet potatos failed. I can't seem to grow them. I shallowly planted 4 halves of sweet potatos, just a bit peeking out of the soil. I got several slips growing from each of them. I chose to leave them in place. A new to me method. Take a look at my harvest!

Ummm.... Yes. Those are what is left the original two sweet potatoes. Skins with roots attached. Sigh.

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Eric Hanson

Steward and Man of Many Mushrooms

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Location: Southern Illinois

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posted 1 week ago

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Not getting my garden started!

Eric

Some places need to be wild

thomas rubino

master rocket scientist

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Location: latitude 47 N.W. montana zone 6A

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posted 1 week ago

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Over 14 beautiful tomato plants were infested with stink bugs.
Every tomato, no matter how good-looking, was ruined under the skin.
They touched nothing else, just the tomatoes.

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Dave Bross

pollinator

Posts: 258

Location: North FL, in the high sandhills

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posted 1 week ago

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Those stink bugs are a major curse here also.

They arrive first day of June like clockwork.
One common fix is to get the tomatoes in the ground early enough, but then they're at high risk for a frost.

I can save a number of tomatoes after stinkbug arrival by patrolling the plants with a spray bottle of isopropyl alcohol, preferably the 90% version,
This has to happen twice a day, so somewhat time consuming.
Giving them a little alcohol bath definitely terminates them and their hundreds of offspring created daily.

Mostly I raise my tomatoes in a greenhouse now, which happens over the winter.
I have a lot of tree frogs living in the greenhouse so they do a pretty good job of keeping the pests down....until the army worms arrive...a horror story for another day.

May Lotito

gardener

Posts: 2084

Location: Zone 6b

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posted 12 hours ago

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I started a few nectarine and plum seeds this year. They germinated well on paper towels but immediately stunted when planted in ground. I was able to rescue the nectarine but failed to make it work on the plum. It has tip die back and becomes bushy with very small leaves. I will grow it to be a bonsai.

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Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

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Doug P

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Location: USA, SouthEast

posted 8 hours ago

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South Louisiana here.

1. Evangeline sweet potatoes really hate heavy clay. Whole harvest was pinky size tubers 🙄

2. Plastic lined + raised garden beds are a great way to bake all your plants in a drought (zero access to deeper moisture).

3. Outdoor mushroom growing doesn't work down here. Innoculated willow, white oak, and red oak with oyster and shitake mushrooms only to have them taken over by native non-edibles and ants. I'll just stick with foraging oysters from now on in the swamp

4. Heavy hay mulching attracts fire ants to build their nests directly underneath the hay, making seedling planting a potentially unpleasant process.

5. Horse manure can be chockful of rhizome grass, leading to extra time weeding

6. Planting on hugel mounds before they have "settled" doesn't leave enough carbon for young plants, and cave-ins consume whole seedlings.

Can I throw in a few unexpected wins?

1. Ginger and turmeric I discarded in an unused heavy shade bed not only grew but probably 5x the original plugs I threw aside.

2. If your soil stays wet and holds water, hilling your rows is vital to success. Also gives you foundation for flood irrigation

3. A healthy dose of cayenne pepper powder on your plants seems to deter the deer. Maybe I should just make a pepper spray and use that next?

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