Garden Blunders!

We all do it.. (though some of us may deny it!).. we all make garden blunders. Is there a better way to learn than by making mistakes? I've made some doozies over the years and though I may look back fondly on them now, at the time, they weren't so funny!

One of my favourites is when I decided to add a bit more colour to a newly planted perennial border (a 4 foot by 20 foot garden) and planted 4 packets of nasturtium seed.. not just any nasturtiums, but the vining types.. That's well over 100 vining nasturtium plants winding their way through my baby perennials.. their rampant vines also spilled out onto the pathways and eventually created a 4 x 20 foot mound of nasturtiums!! By the time I yanked them all out in mid-summer, the perennials were not impressed and I had a 5 1/2-foot tall pile of discarded nasturtium vines - it was bigger than me! (I can't believe I never got a photo of that pile!) At least it was a 'composting opportunity'! (In the worlds of Canadian garden personality Mark Cullen).

Another was when I allowed a few annual chamomile plants to go to seed in the vegetable garden.. that was 5 years ago, and I'm still digging out those darn seedlings every year! They took over an entire swath of the garden (along with the cosmos seed that I also tossed in the garden - what was I thinking?!) I do love chamomile tea and the blooms certainly attract both pollinators and beneficial insects, but a sea of chamomile will choke out a tomato in the blink of an eye! Ooooppppssss!

Of course, my biggest gardening blunder was starting my very first veggie garden in the shade!! Brilliant, eh? It was under the protective branches of a mature maple tree and although we only harvested one measly tomato, we did have a bumper crop of mid-summer greens that seemed to appreciate the respite from the heat.. 

What are some of the garden blunders that you've made..? Can you top mine?! I dare you.. :)

Happy Gardening!