Things not to do again

[OverWyreGrower]

Seahorse.... successional sowing is my downfalling...

My "successional" courgettes have caught each other up!

[Flummery]

Sow some more now OWG! Surprise your garden!

[OverWyreGrower]

Sow some more now OWG! Surprise your garden!

I already have 8 plants

There are only 2 of us! I though sowing another few might tip me over the sanity balance!

[HappyMouffe]

Oh, this is all so horribly familiar.

"Not assume that assume that the newly taken on allotment will be ready to grow everything in the same year that you aquire it, and order enough seeds to plant up about 4 plots...." - SarzWiz, that's so true...

Not assume that forking through the allotment to get rid of weed roots actually means you won't have 18 million horsetails three months later :O

[Sue]

Hi
All I can say is that there's always another year to remedy your mistakes - and then make another lot to rememdy the next year and so on...
My first year last year and I thought birds didn't eat hard gooseberries - they do and ate the lot, this year I netted the gooseberries and they're fine. Stupidly didn't net the white and red currants and they've been stripped (why didn't I think of that doh!) so next year hopefully a fruit cage will at last be installed.
Put the potatoes in bags too close together - didn't know how huge the foliage would get and couldn't get in between the plants to water and earth up properly, sorted that one out thankfully.
Put up netting for peas and it wasn't strong enough so they all fell over - this year I tried sticks and they weren't strong enough either so peas fall over for second year running.
Planted rhubarb in part of the garden that gets waterlogged, lost two out of three plants.
I could go on....
Sue

[Flummery]

The people who know the answers are the people who've already made all the mistakes Sue! The thing I won't do again is sow peas without checking if they grow to 18" high or 6' high. They climbed up the nice sticks and string and then carried on! And on!!

[g51065]

I won't make the mistake of expecting my greenhouse to stay the right way up of its own devices during high winds, it was like a disaster movie scene.

[TPeers]

Don't plant an entire packet of pepper seeds thinking that some won't grow, otherwise you'll be left with 30 pepper plants, all terribly healthy and growing like weeds....

Peppers anyone?

Don't just plant one seed per 2" pot in the assumption that they will germinate at all - finally got some plants on the third sowing!

And not so much of the 'growing like weeds' - just weedy!

[Salina]

don't put nearly a full packet of radish seeds in one space, and don't end up with enough courgette plants that will eventually be enough to feed the army!

[terrier]

And never leave a job undone until 'tomorrow'. I've found that when you get round to doing the job it takes at least twice as long as it would have done if done right away.

[nosferato]

there not mistakes look at it as just one more way of not doing something

[Scruffy Duffy]

Don't assume you've thinned enough just because you can't face to lose too many of the very successfully growing plants.

Don't try to transplant the lettuces you can't face losing into other pots as they don't survive, and don't leave out in the open the plants you have successfully saved from thinning and moved into pots for the snails/ slugs to get at.

Don't assume 'sow thinly' means 'sprinkle generously just in case'...

Do keep a diary and make a note of all the gems of wisdom you learn from your 'mistakes' and from others advice.

It's definately a learning experience!

Scruffy

[pigletwillie]

Dont build raised beds too close together thinking that equals more beds. Well actually it does, but you just cant get the wheelbarrow in to fill them up.

[shirlthegirl43]

No matter how much your son says he would love to have a cat - don't let him. You will end up feeding it, doing the litter tray, and chasing the little (actually he is a very big cat) beggar out of the veg beds!

[SarzWix]

Don't over-do it with the digging, even if you do "only have a foot left to do"... You'll hurt yourself, the last foot won't be done properly, and the next few days (while you have to rest) hundreds more weeds will grow because you haven't covered it or planted in it...