Name your three worst garden mishaps/tragedies/accidents

[Rio_Lindo_AZ]

I remember one day, My mom and were gardening and I accediently bumped into her and all the seeds in my hands fell into the camofloge soil. I picked up as many as I can but eventually, some of the seeds I couldn't see grew and ruined the season's crop. It was my fault and I hope to be careful next time

 

[greenmulberry]

I had the same thing as the mown blueberry bushes happen with my dad, a lawnmower, and a small japanese maple.

I haven't seen much in the way of injury type accidents listed.

One time, I was trying to move the lawnmower through the back gate. The gate was just about the width of the lawnmower, so it had to be lined up just perfect. I was wearing open toed sport sandals.

I gave the handle of the lawnmower a jerk to line it up, and the big rear wheel jammed into my big toe, ripping the toenail. I looked down and my toenail was standing straight up in the air, with blood pooling up around it.

Really, really #$%& hurt.

 

[silkiechicken]

Next mistake... catnip

I was about 10 and wanted to grow catnip for my cat... got a packet.. grew one plant but for the life of me could not get it to thrive... Tossed the plant and the rest of the packet outside... to this day I am battling 3-5 feet tall bushes of cat nip that stink to high heaven when you cut them down... turns out my cat is part of that 20% of cats that lack the receptor for catnip too so she could care less....

The cat nip bushes really are cat nip too... as tested by a receptive cat belonging to a friend.

 

[ridgefire]

Being the typical man that I am. Being told for millionth time to mow the lawn. On my only day off mind you. I started up the old rider and off I went. Tractor in high gear, blades spinning. gravel driveway, wife's new car parked in said driveway. Did you know that the blades spin really really fast on a rider, and create quite the suction for rocks. One window later on a new car, now she doesn't seem to ask me to mow the lawn that often.

 

[hsm5grls]

#1 Thinking that I could have a lush cottage garden here in the desert, And trying year after year despite continued failures.
#2 Not researching my growing zone and learning how to grow here for 8 years, despite continued failure.
#3 Spending $100.00's of dollars on plants that eventually died, because I had no clue how to care for the in my zone. Or they were plants not appropriate for my zone.

see where I am going with this. I am stubborn LOL. But I finally learned my lesson and now am having wonderful success. And all it took was a little research and a good neighbor to figure it out.

 

[Presto]

1) Planting Sunflowers outside my fence & some one coming by decapating them. un

2) Planting Hosta along the outside of the fence trying to hide the trail my dog made barking at the stray cats & Someone coming by & stealing them in the middle of the night.

3) Making a Small Garden & my Bunny (RIP) going into the garden & Mowing everything down.:bun

But wait there is more!
4) going on a 5 day vacation to having lettuce 3ft high. :dance

5) Just learning now what Zone I am in.

6) the old owner really loved Green Onions & she planted with no reason & I have tryed my hardest removing all the onions so decided to make a compost, now I have Onions, & More Onions, & so on....

 

[2468Gardeningisgr8]

#one.....Using treated wood to surrond an above ground veggie garden ! We were young and were just starting our family..new home..Nice fresh dirt......Alot of work...Alot of $$$$ for newbie's.....I will never forget the gardeners face at my work when i told him how proud i was of my hubby and his work!!....As a new mom I freaked !!

#Two.....Same house had morning glories climbing the telepone wire leading into the house ..and the old owners had strung fishing wire under the roof line so they grew all along the back of the house.....beautiful purple fowers !.....But every fall the seeds would fall and land all along the flower garden and for YEARS!I would have morning glory vines growing all over the flower garden .......if I didnt weed it.....Visited an old neighbour this past summer and Checked out thee old yard and the new owners have them still !!!

#Three......Preying that the hosta's and other perrenials (transplants)that I still have in white pails at the side of my house made it through the winter because i forgot to bury them in the veggie garden last fall ....Like i did the fall before....in the process of makiing new garden.s.......

 

[miss_thenorth]

#1 Suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, i had a bad flare up directly after buying herbs. One of the herbs I bought was mint which I had intended to plant in a CONTAINER. long story short--I'm cheap--didn't want to lose the plant and didn't have the gumption to haul out potting soil, container, etc, and figuring the flare up wouldn't last long............. I planted it in the garden . turns out flare up lasted two months, garden was a bust, but I wasz kept busy digging out mint shooters for a very long time....

# 2 Hubby planned vacation to coincide with harvest time.

#3 will probably happen this year, and it will go like this--those new 'wild 'bantams that I got? i can'tcontain them in my barn the way it is now, They can FLY!! so they are free range. So it will probably go like this--- those darn bantams flew over my garden fence and ruined everything I planted!!!!

 

[MeanQueenNadine]

Where, oh where to begin....

1.) Buying too much all at once.

2.) Not having a plan....planting wrong thing in wrong spot....to close to the house, sidewalk.....

3.) Forgetting plants that are outside "hardening" off....death due to frost (left out overnight) or scorched (forgot to water).

4.) Taking indoor tropical plants outside without hardening off and getting fried....

5.) Preparing too big an area (the entire back yard) to be grass free. Not going a section at a time. Thinking I could have massive planting of strawberries & having crab grass continually invade the bed.

6.) Not labeling plants after planting mass plantings...

7.) Not researching enough on companion plantings & water needs. Just focused on lighting requirements & color...

8.) Never planting enough sunflowers for the native bird population. Let alone for me & mine....

9.) Not getting chickens before starting beds.....they do nice work...

10.) Buying plants & seeds when I still have more then enough....

Sorry for the lack of andetotes, but as you can see I would be typing for days.

 

[SewingDiva]

A few years ago my husband discovered that he could use leaves to mulch our flower beds, and so the first year he laid down a nice layer about 4 inches thick. It worked great, so the following year, he thought more must be better right? So he laid down twice a much.

Yes - he found out that spring that he had created the perfect winter home for voles, who burrowd into the leaf mulch and helped themsleves to our perennials all winter!

We lost a ton pf plants.

~phyllis