Biggest gardening mistakes

We asked our Facebook community to share their biggest gardening mistake to help each other learn and have a laugh!

Planting lettuce seeds on a windy day. Iceberg lettuces popped up over lawn, puzzling the other half! - Amanda

Naming my seedlings with pencil on ice block sticks then laying them beside each plant. Pencil fades and the wind blows sticks away. - Vidette

Being impatient and wanting the seeds to grow the minute I plant them. And planting seeds way too early. - Janine

Thinking I had planted sugar snaps, but they were regular peas. The shells were a bit tough to eat. - Serena

Not covering the plum tree with netting and deciding to pick the fruit after a weekend away. Came back to a bare tree and, I’m guessing, happy birds! - Donna

I didn’t actually plant it, but carefully nurtured a fascinating little plant for ages. Turned out to be gorse. - Colleen

Sowing seeds in pots thinking I will remember what they are. Actually, sowing seeds in the ground and remembering where they are. Need to start doing labels. - Kath

Not tying down my greenhouse was my newbie mistake. Had no idea what all my seedlings were after that. Had to plant and guess. - Zoe

Agreeing to let your four-year-old open the seed packets. I thought she was waving a snack packet around while I was busy weeding and now who knows what's growing where. - Hollie

Planting bulbs the wrong way and up and wondering why nothing happened. - Bron

Over pruning my apricot trees. Couldn't work out why the crop was so poor until I backed off with the pruners and had a large crop this year. Also not letting things go to seed. I now have all sorts of crops such as celery without having to buy any new plants. - Wendy

Don't leave seedlings where the kids can get them. Don't forget to take your frost cloth off before the winds come or your neighbours will end up with a weird looking ghost in their tree. - Kat

Putting in TWO PACKETS of tomato seeds. Yes, they all came up and yes, there are only two of us! - Krista

I've had many, but shaking some lettuce plants that had gone to seed over the veggie patch was up there. Several thousand plants that crowded everything else out later. - Erin

Planted potatoes and tomatoes in the same place, couldn't dig up the potatoes when they were ready. - Michelle

Had never grown aubergines. Thought they might be, plant-wise, like corn. So got a few plants. Harvest was insane. Dozens and dozens of aubergines. The neighbourhood was fed, my extended family was fed, work colleagues fed, and the plants produced for a good couple of months. My husband has been put off them! - Isabel

Purchased broad spectrum weed killer instead of broadleaf weed killer. Goodbye lawn. - Hamish

Asking my very young niece and nephew to pick parsley leaves. They came into the house with the whole plant in their hands. - Sue

Planting raspberry canes and mint straight into my garden. They should have stayed in pots. - Myra

Letting my veggie garden become a bed of weeds and not knowing where to start to get it back to its former glory! - Helen

Planted tomatoes too early and they all died after a late season snowfall! - Grace

Planted two kamokamo, two pumpkin, two squash and three zucchini seedlings in my small backyard under my washing line. My yard ended up covered in greenery from these beautiful veges so had to tread carefully through it all to hang my washing. - Joleisha

Getting new chickens without protecting winter garden from them. They demolished the lot. Now chicken safe and started replanting. - Jolene

Waited a long time for tomatoes to ripen and then found they were a yellow variety! - Ann

Not really getting into growing veges until my kids left home. - Susan

Planting parsnip seed and nurturing them carefully to discover I’d been nurturing inkweed plants - nice straight row too! - Janet

Just married and had a beautiful chrysanthemum, my husband tool a flower down to the garden shop to see what was wrong. The lovely lady came back with him to help me. She said the flower was old and needed to be picked off. Gee I felt silly. - Ngaire

Years ago, as a young newly married gardener, I planted capsicum seeds in my garden in Burnham. So proud, I was going to grow capsicums and be so posh. The capsicum grew quite tall and then got flower heads on it. I watched it every day and was so excited and then… a bright yellow dahlia emerged. - Sally

Make sure when you put the clip on the top of the glasshouse door to stop the three-year-old from getting in and eating all the cherry tomatoes that you make sure you can release it from the inside. My son shut me in one day. I had to cut the plastic to crawl out! Thankfully it wasn’t made out of glass! - Rory

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