| Friday Five: Gardening Mistakes |
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| Written by Heleigh Bostwick Friday, 22 February 2013 | |||
 Gardening mistakes. We all make them at one time or another. Avoid being disappointed by avoiding these common ones. 1. Not Educating Yourself About Plant Material There’s nothing worse than discovering and falling in love with a really cool plant, be it tree, shrub, flower, grass, or herb only to discover it doesn’t thrive where you planted it or it requires a lot more upkeep than you thought or worst of all, it overtakes the garden in one short season. 2. Not Checking The Amount of Sunlight Unless they are shade loving foliage groundcovers, most plants require at least 6 hours of full sunlight to achieve optimal growth--including flowering and fruiting. Avoid disappointment by checking the amount of sunlight before you plant, whether you time it yourself or use this handy SunCalc. 3. Out of Sight, Out of Mind When your flower, herb, or vegetable garden is beyond your sight lines, it’s often out of mind as well. Not because you are a neglectful person, but because it’s easy to forget about it when life gets busy, busy, busy! 4. Not Keeping it Simple If you have lots going on in your life, make sure you keep your garden simple. Container gardens, water gardening in containers, and small gardens with low and no maintenance plants with few watering requirements, for instance make your garden easier to care for and less frustrating in the long run, which will lead to success in your gardening life. 5. The Do It All Your Self Mistake The key word here is “all”. The exception of course is the avid do it yourselfer. Yes, most of us may do just fine in the digging, planting, and plant selection process (or not!), but adding lights along the garden path, laying brick work, or installing a fountain or pond often require some professional assistance. |
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