What is one gardening mistake you made and won’t do again?

[CherishedFowlGuardian]

Hi everyone,

I keep hearing that cacti and succulents are easy to grow. But I don’t get it—I’ve lost every cactus I tried to grow. Some rotted, some dried out.

I guess my mistake was thinking they would be easy.

What about you? What is one gardening mistake you made and won’t do again? It could be about a plant, a tool, or anything else.

I’d love to hear your stories. Also, if you have any tips to help me keep my cacti alive, please share!

 

[flowerbug]

Hi everyone,

I keep hearing that cacti and succulents are easy to grow. But I don’t get it—I’ve lost every cactus I tried to grow. Some rotted, some dried out.

I guess my mistake was thinking they would be easy.

some of them can be harder than others.

the spikes are rather dangerous on some of them.

can you describe what you did with them? did you water them once in a while? did they get enough light? did you repot them once in a while? is your water salty? did you ever fertilize? did they freeze? etc. the more details you provide the better it is for us to help or figure out what is going on.

it sounds like (from your words) that you perhaps treated all of them the same when some may need a bit different treatment than others. taking time to observe and if needed keeping notes about each one might help.

What about you? What is one gardening mistake you made and won’t do again? It could be about a plant, a tool, or anything else.

using a blue wildflower seed mix which contained some speedwells and forget-me-nots. those are rather not what some people would want in more formal gardens and they're very hard to get rid of once spread around and established.

a few other plants i regret (Creeping Jenny where i have them now). some i have managed to eradicate (ground ivy and another few mints, some grasses, etc.). some i have not (poison ivy and wild grape vines).

I’d love to hear your stories. Also, if you have any tips to help me keep my cacti alive, please share!

sometimes it just takes learning and experience... i started with houseplants that were easy to take care of (spider plants, snake plants, english ivy, etc.) and a few cactus.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

Filling our home made raised beds (4') with other stuff like potting soil, and junk. I shoulda ordered plain old dirt.

 

[ducks4you]

In my war against burdock, I rented this machine that mowed them down.
Great!
I didn't clean them up and created a small Forest of them the next year!!!