So many mistakes I’ve made this year gardening. So much I have learned. SO much to replant this fall…OMG!
Some people plant and enjoy. I plant the most beautiful things in the wrong place, the wrong size, the wrong sun exposure. I’m a slow learner, BUT I am a learner….not a quitter.
Last year I figured out that hostas cannot grow in full sun. I asked Russ why he planted them there years ago? The old rotted shade tree mattered. It got cut down before the next storm was a comin’. Two years of burnt hostas got replanted…in no particular fashion in the shaded plot. So then I looked around all the flower plots and decided that really nothing was in the right place. EVERYTHING got dug up, replanted. Winter was approaching and Russ went to Lowe’s to pick up many bags of outdoor potting soil. I cut EVERYTHING back and covered all my area with the black loam. I drastically, almost to 1 foot off the ground, cut back our 2 year to us, 5 year old Japanese Wisteria because, for lack of knowledge, I had let it grow…all I can say is terrible.  Then because of a new bigger patio, I dug up all the front tulips and put them all around in sporadic places. And everything took off and was really growing through the fall. With great anticipation I now awaited this spring.
I excelled in NEW mistakes. EVERYTHING TOOK OFF WITH SERIOUS GROWTH! ! I planted new coral bells, the hostas covered them with shade so I moved them around the old tree stump; they revived long enough to start wilting in the sun, moved them to a new location……..Since we live on a hill with tornado force winds…DAILY….. I took welded tomato cages and put them around the gladiolas coming up, the 2nd year clematis, the elephant ears, the morning glories, the other, a Chinese wisteria. I am SERIOUS about the wind we get…..so I figure this will hold all these beautiful plants UP from being toppled over. That was the BIG mistake. July brought 104 degrees and burned the plants where they were touching the metal. Alright so now I have a 6″ clematis wrapping around a tiny wood trellis but fall is around the corner….. It is a 2 year perennial, so there is hope. The wisteria is finally taken off again…also 2 year old. Tomato plants thrive on these cages….
Not the end of my mistakes….I used to grow the most beautiful morning glories in the dirt in front of our patio. With our new patio, I planted them in pots alongside the legs of the pergolas. BIG mistake. It’s that hot metal thing about the 104 degrees…..I discovered, for the 1st time, planting sweet potato vines in full sunshine on a concrete patio turned out to be a nightmare. The biggest discovery…because it took me a lifetime to figure out….that spring annuals are just that…SPRING. The hours I have spent deadheading….and now after constant high temperature they look well in the trash can.
Ok, I do have lush flower gardens (I’ll count my blessings)…so I decided NEVER to buy anymore spring flowers EXCEPT marigolds, I do grow the best! I replaced all those with…grasses. Now I have my problems. I did kinda plant by height all over, but looking in a book I ordered after the fact, I have discovered that they eventually grow 5 feet wide.
I’ve had it! Two more weeks and fall will be dropping temperatures so I can spend some serious time outside. I’m digging every damn plant up with lots of dirt and laying ALL the damn plants out on the grass in categories of size and light and replanting all the damn plants. I assure you I have my eye on 3 plants that are going in the damn trash.
I need to send Russ to Lowe’s for 10 bags of potting soil.
