I was pulling weed from my lawn and after a day's worth of pulling of what I thought was creeping charlie (Glechoma hederacea) I realized that it was (also) the white clover (Trifolium repens) that I seeded a week before! What a setback to my mixed grass/clover lawn it was :-(

ive been struggling to join in..

i am sure there were many idiot moves made over the years .. but apparently ive done a bang up job of completely obliterating them from memory ... lol ...

i mean really.. what the use of remembering your finer points for the rest of your life... lol

there.. now that ive said that.. maybe a few will seap back in

ken

Other than having numerous non hardy plants die, no not really. Thought I nuked my lawn with roundup while spraying for dandelion, but it turned out to be a fungal problem.

As part of my duties I visited a vacant building twice per month to make sure it was secure. I noticed Tradescantia pallida 'Purple Heart thriving without irrigation against a South facing brick wall under July Texas sun. The soil was so dry and hard I literally chipped plants out with a hammer and screwdriver. After I got them home the plants struggled 2 years before dying despite my best efforts in preparing and maintaining the bed.

"Embarrassing moments" ????? Really? I prefer to call those many experiences of trying to understand and perform the multitude of detail needed in the horticultural business..."learning experiences"! Mother Nature has created an ongoing puzzle to be solved. Working with her has been a daily lifelong, ever changing thrill for me!

Embarrassing? no, mistakes? Of course, nobody's perfect. But I suspect even that depends on who you ask. lol.

I don't believe you can do anything and not learn something that you could've done better. That's just the way it is and how you become more efficient and all around better at what you do.

And of course, there's been things I've done and after a while, realized that it just isn't for me.

Early on, one of the first trees I planted here, a small spruce, I dug the hole too deep. Then replaced some of the soil. And not wanting to compact the soil too much, which I read was total taboo, I simply tamped it down a little with my hand. Finished planting, only to watch it for the next several years stay about the same height. Yes, the soil settled underneath, and the tree ended up ~4" deeper than it should've been. Duh! ;-)

A few years ago I was spraying Liqued Fence Deer Repellant all over the back upper garden. Happily spraying the hydrangeas and other delectable deer loving shrubs. When finished I was astonished to realize that I was spraying with Round-Up! Ugh, I quickly rinsed the plants with the hose and that night it rained. Fortunatley, none of the shrubs suffered from my mistake and since then I have never used Round-Up!

yeah.. yeah.. ya.. blame the roundup .. lol ... ken

Many years ago in a former garden I had an entry path of sandstone pavers surrounded by creeping thyme. Weeds popped up in and around the thyme so I blithely sprayed it all with a lawn weed herbicide, never considering for a moment that the weed killer would not be able to differentiate between the wanted thyme and the unwanted weeds!! Needless to say, when all was said and done, the carefully nurtured thyme was just as dead as all the weeds :-( That might have been the last time I ever opted for a spray herbicide!

It wasn't long after this that I relandscaped the entire front garden and removed that pathway completely. Sandstone in a PNW winter is not highly advised :-))

Protecting root balls of B&B trees with wood chip mulch is common practice for fall/winter storage till ground conditions and day time temperatures allow planting. In a particularly busy planting year (now 30 years ago), we "heeled in" a load of very nice 3" caliper Cornus florida var. rubra which had come in early February from Tennessee.

The wood chip mulch had only recently been delivered from a local tree service, and the plants were covered and a good bit of rainy warmer weather followed. I became concerned when I observed a bit of steam rising from the storage area one cooler morning.

Sure enough: the fresh wood chips had commenced to heat up, and temps were hotter than you would want to put your hands in. Those Pink Dogwood specimens never saw a planting site to enjoy their new digs.

I'm ashamed everyday for things that I've done......and posted.

Okie HU

Spontaneous combustion is real, but I believe one of the most overlooked danger of gardening.

While it was not gardening, we nearly lost our new house with out thinking. We had just moved in and had an attached garage full of cardboard moving boxes. We had the hardwood floors refinished and sandings were placed in a plastic trash can in the garage. That evening when we smelled the smoke and we knew something was wrong. We got the can out of the garage, with no damage. It could have been much worse.

Are you certain there were no rags with solvent in the bag? Watco I believe was sued and bankrupted over used rags combusting. The name was later used on a different formula.

I would admit to mispronunciations of certain Latin plant names, but I was seldom as embarrassed as the person correcting me hoped I would be. 😏

There were not rags with solvents only the sandings from the finish sanding of the newly refinished floors. We had the entire second floor refinished or about 900 sqft.

"Spontaneous combustion is real, but I believe one of the most overlooked danger of gardening."

But it DOES happen!! Under the right conditions, compost and fresh woodchip mulch piles can combust, typically due to the heat generated by decomposition and a lack of sufficient aeration.

I actually experienced something similar personally. A few years ago, I was called out to a client's residence after they lost a large covered wooden porch (and almost their home) to a fire caused by a bag of alfalfa meal. The bag had been opened and some used but the remainder was left in the bag propped against the porch. Enough moisture gathered to start the decomposition process and the bag and the meal ignited. Scary!!

I had a large mulch pile that was putting up quite a bit of smoke several years ago. It was in the winter and it had had a layer of ice over it which I guess was holding in the heat or not letting it breathe I guess. I had to hose it down. Kinda scary.

Since this is in the tree forum I will admit that I actually paid for a silver maple tree years ago right after we built our house. They reseed so heavily, I'm pretty sure I could've found a free one in just about anyone's yard. We cut our tree down years ago.

Don't feel bad Christie. I cut down two big ol rotting Silver Maples and miss them. If the neighbors did not have a couple for me to look at I would have replanted one to!

(That feels like some kind of confession)

FWIW, about my mishap in establishing a mixed grass/clover lawn that I posted earlier on, nowadays the lawn in my front yard is partly grass and partly clover in separate areas. The lawn in my backyard is 100% clover. I like the lawn in my backyard better. I think that the lawn in my front yard will slowly grow to 100% clover too without me doing anything :-)