Lawanda's Garden

Every gardener makes mistakes, even the most experienced among us.  Here are some of the most common missteps.

• Planting in the wrong spot.  Plants have definite preferences for light, soil and moisture conditions.  Take the time to research the conditions each plant favors before adding it to your landscape or you’ll be set for failure.
• Underestimating how big a plant will get.  Perennial nursery plants usually come with information about how big a plant will become.  Often there is a range, say “2-3 feet tall and 4-5 feet wide.”  In that case, plan for three feet tall and five feet wide.  If that leaves a gap in your landscape, fill in with annual plants until the perennial reaches its mature size.  The same is true for annual plants.  Trust the tag stuck in the nursery pot that tells you how large the plant will get and how far apart to plant.  Otherwise faster growing plants will overtake the garden before the slow growers get a chance to shine. 
• Failing to look up, down and sideways.  Don’t plant a tree under powerlines.  It will eventually grow into the line and the utility company will come and prune it in a way that usually isn’t pretty.  Don’t plant trees or shrubs too close to your foundation.  Roots can damage even concrete foundations.  Don’t plant over a septic drain field.  Roots can play expensive havoc with what’s going on underground.  Don’t plant over electric wires, gas lines or cable wires.  Call Diggers Hotline at 800-242-8511 or visit www.diggershotline.com to request them to come and mark where underground utilities are located.  They will do so free of charge within three business days.  They do not mark private lines like propane lines, sewer and water laterals, and lines between buildings and yard lights.  Private companies will do this for you and an extensive list of them can be found on the Diggers Hotline website.
• Overestimating how much time and space you have to devote to gardening.  Unless you take a good hard look at your space and your schedule, you can get carried away and come home from the nursery with way too many plants, or till up a vegetable garden three times the size of what you can actually maintain.  You can always go back to the nursery if you underbuy and you can always add to the size of your vegetable garden the following year. 
• Planting in small containers.  A container plant’s survival is totally dependent on what is inside the pot.  It cannot spread its roots any further than the pot’s walls for water, soil and fertilizer.  You as the gardener have to provide those things, sometimes daily.  A larger pot will make for less work and happier plants.
• Taking failures personally.  You can’t expect success every time.  Sometimes the seeds just don’t germinate or a plant just won’t thrive even though you’ve done everything right.  Just try again!