As I reflect on this past gardening "season", I find it easy to recall a lot of what I did wrong or what annoyed me to no end.
Now the key is to turn those moments into something educational. A learning "opportunity" if you will.
With that said, here are ten of my "opportunities", in no particular order:
1). I need ANY Anemone to thrive for me. I have tried for years to successfully grow a Japanese anemone. And each year there is promise early on in the Fall, only to see it all fall apart soon after.
I have relocated 'September Charm' three times in the past two years (yes, I am in denial) and they looked to be good and healthy and on their way back in September:
And all I ultimately ended up with was one friggin bloom:
Anemones should work for me based on their requirements and I would kill for that late season color and unique leaf shape. But 2012 was yet another failure. So logically, I should give up and move on, right? Nope. I added an 'Honorine Jobert' this Fall and will try yet again.
2). I am not physically capable of growing tomatoes in containers. With all of the deer roaming my property and with the soil draining so poorly, I never entertained the idea of growing fruits or vegetables. To combat that, I figured why not grow them on the deck in containers. Can't be all that difficult.
Here are the wonderful results:
This one can be chalked up to laziness on my part as I tend to forget how cumbersome the watering schedule is in the dead of summer. Throw in vacations where we are gone up to a week at a time and you have a recipe for failure.
But I'll do it again ...
3). Tropical plants and me do not mix. I tried to mix it up a bit this summer and added a few "tropical" plants and they looked out of place from the get-go:
Maybe some day I'll figure out how to incorporate these annuals properly, but for now it is not worth the time, effort and cash.
4). Keeping up with the weeds. Nuff said:
5). Taking
6). I let my guard down and as a result, the mutha f'n deer ate every peony bud:
This was a first and one I'll never forget. I went out to cut a few buds/early blooms for my wife and almost fainted in shock. Next spring, I vow to sleep outside with a shotgun in hand.
7). Poison Ivy is slowly taking over and I am terrified to try and stop it. I have three Russian Sage plants that are slowly being strangled to death:
I am brutally allergic and fearful to try and save them. Maybe a blow torch?
8.) Collapsing/sprawling perennials. I get it. It happens. Even after I've taken the time to cut back earlier in the season or pinch a bit along the way, it is still inevitable. Especially with a lot of the native perennials. I should just grin and bear it, but there is no denying it doesn't look good:
I'll continue to tinker with ways to control it (more appropriate conditions, staking, leaning on neighboring plants) but I guess I have to come to grips with the reality that this is going to happen no matter what I do.
9). I hate pink flowers on yellow foliage. Time to eradicate this problem:
10). It may be time to label my plants. It is at the point where I can't tell what is a weed or what is a native plant I stuck in the ground months ago:
I was confident for years that I could memorize where every plant was placed even when they were dormant in winter. Those days are gone as my memory gets worse with age and the number of plants has reached an extraordinary level.
There you have it. I could come up with ten more if I had the time, but this will have to do for now.
Coming soon - "What I did right this year".
Prepare yourself for a short read.
John
