Gardeners React to YOUR Ridiculous Gardening Fails
video description
Date: 2023-02-26
Related videos
Comments and reviews: 14
jwilli7434
Very enjoyable video! My big gardening fail was in 2019. I had finally figured out how to compost correctly after four years of having basically dried leaves and dried up food trash sitting in the bin. I had a couple of different kinds of store-bought squash that I had waited too long to use in the kitchen that were going bad. So I chucked them into my compost bin. seeds and all.
I assumed the heat from the composting process would kill the seeds. Oh how wrong I was! Once I started using that finished compost all over my garden (beds and containers) I suddenly had squash everywhere! It even vined over the wood fence separating my yard from the one next door. Fortunately, that yard belonged to my landlady. There was an old jungle gym her tenant had built for his daughter when she was younger and the squash took over that as well as a good portion of the back yard.
I was constantly picking squash seedlings out of my containers as they popped up, to the point where my landlady nicknamed me the plant abortionist.
Another thing I learned is that seeds sometimes wait a year or two to sprout! I think 2021 was the last errant squash plant that popped up. I hope.
So I learned my lesson about being careful what I put in the compost bin.
The other lesson I'm still learning: If you want to save your lettuce seeds from plants that have bolted, make sure you cover them with some type of tulle fabric. Santa Ana winds can pop up at any time and the next thing you know, you (and your neighbors) will have wild lettuce growing in your grass!
reply
Very enjoyable video! My big gardening fail was in 2019. I had finally figured out how to compost correctly after four years of having basically dried leaves and dried up food trash sitting in the bin. I had a couple of different kinds of store-bought squash that I had waited too long to use in the kitchen that were going bad. So I chucked them into my compost bin. seeds and all.
I assumed the heat from the composting process would kill the seeds. Oh how wrong I was! Once I started using that finished compost all over my garden (beds and containers) I suddenly had squash everywhere! It even vined over the wood fence separating my yard from the one next door. Fortunately, that yard belonged to my landlady. There was an old jungle gym her tenant had built for his daughter when she was younger and the squash took over that as well as a good portion of the back yard.
I was constantly picking squash seedlings out of my containers as they popped up, to the point where my landlady nicknamed me the plant abortionist.
Another thing I learned is that seeds sometimes wait a year or two to sprout! I think 2021 was the last errant squash plant that popped up. I hope.
So I learned my lesson about being careful what I put in the compost bin.
The other lesson I'm still learning: If you want to save your lettuce seeds from plants that have bolted, make sure you cover them with some type of tulle fabric. Santa Ana winds can pop up at any time and the next thing you know, you (and your neighbors) will have wild lettuce growing in your grass!
reply
ccrusat
My 1st real year of gardening I failed at seed starting in seed starting mix, so I tried the paper towel method using the same amount of seeds one would used with the soil method. I ended up with EVERY seed germinating leaving me with over 100 plants; almost 10 different types of vegetables, and about 5 plants of a couple different varieties. I couldn't bring myself to get rid of the excess so I planted all of them. The lack of being able to keep up with that many plants and not being prepared with available space pretty much took care of getting rid of some of the plants for me and I ended up with 10% of my plants giving me some sort of fruit. Out of the dozen plants I had left, I got a handful of beans, 4 zukes, a handful of tomatoes, and a couple cucumbers. No bell peppers grew bigger than a golf ball. For some reason, my carrots turned out to be the best crop.
reply
My 1st real year of gardening I failed at seed starting in seed starting mix, so I tried the paper towel method using the same amount of seeds one would used with the soil method. I ended up with EVERY seed germinating leaving me with over 100 plants; almost 10 different types of vegetables, and about 5 plants of a couple different varieties. I couldn't bring myself to get rid of the excess so I planted all of them. The lack of being able to keep up with that many plants and not being prepared with available space pretty much took care of getting rid of some of the plants for me and I ended up with 10% of my plants giving me some sort of fruit. Out of the dozen plants I had left, I got a handful of beans, 4 zukes, a handful of tomatoes, and a couple cucumbers. No bell peppers grew bigger than a golf ball. For some reason, my carrots turned out to be the best crop.
reply
Emilie
About the hot peppers. For two years we ve grown trinidad scorpion peppers. They re really hot. The first year, my boyfriend made a hot sauce with them, wearing gloves. When he was done he did a quick prewash of everything and put them on the counter with the rest of the dirty plates (washing the dishes was my job, he cooked. I don t wear gloves to wash the dishes. Just washing that knife and cutting board, my hands started to burn really badly and the burned for a whole day. I washed the knife and cutting board with soap like 3 times.
Our next use for the cutting board was to cut a watermelon and the melon was spicy.
Last summer the peppers we grew went bad in the fridge because we didn t really know what to do with them (we still have some hot sauce from the year before left and WE USE IT) soooooo I threw the plant away.
reply
About the hot peppers. For two years we ve grown trinidad scorpion peppers. They re really hot. The first year, my boyfriend made a hot sauce with them, wearing gloves. When he was done he did a quick prewash of everything and put them on the counter with the rest of the dirty plates (washing the dishes was my job, he cooked. I don t wear gloves to wash the dishes. Just washing that knife and cutting board, my hands started to burn really badly and the burned for a whole day. I washed the knife and cutting board with soap like 3 times.
Our next use for the cutting board was to cut a watermelon and the melon was spicy.
Last summer the peppers we grew went bad in the fridge because we didn t really know what to do with them (we still have some hot sauce from the year before left and WE USE IT) soooooo I threw the plant away.
reply
Gardening
The beetles in the raised beds are something I deal with every year, for one week. If you have enough birds they're feasting all day every day until they're all gone. They also eat my honeybees but that's a complete different story. I have to net my hedges to keep the birds away from my vegetables.
My first failure story was with flowers. I thought I had discovered a special species of begonia that would drop it's petals every afternoon and have new ones every morning. I thought it was a beautiful red carpet of petals. Then I finally started to think, hmm. maybe this isn't normal. That's when I discovered that there were actually plants for shade and others for sun. Mine was in blasting full all day sun, right up next to a cement wall. How was I supposed to know?
reply
The beetles in the raised beds are something I deal with every year, for one week. If you have enough birds they're feasting all day every day until they're all gone. They also eat my honeybees but that's a complete different story. I have to net my hedges to keep the birds away from my vegetables.
My first failure story was with flowers. I thought I had discovered a special species of begonia that would drop it's petals every afternoon and have new ones every morning. I thought it was a beautiful red carpet of petals. Then I finally started to think, hmm. maybe this isn't normal. That's when I discovered that there were actually plants for shade and others for sun. Mine was in blasting full all day sun, right up next to a cement wall. How was I supposed to know?
reply
Catherine
Those are quiet funny. I don't have that big of a fail in my life (Yet. I lucky to had started in middle school with a Mom who studied horticulture in college. My biggest fail was putting tomatoes in a spot that only had 5 hours of sun because I didn't knew how the sun fell on my new place. Next year after that I grew two pots fulls of shade loving flowers and they loved it there. Now I want to try a hydroponics herb garden, but when I asked Mom how to do that, she said that old apartment couldn't handle even one more lamp, and to wait to get a bigger place. She is correct, all 4 outlet have power cords plugging every device, and sometimes an outlet will just not work for an hour.
reply
Those are quiet funny. I don't have that big of a fail in my life (Yet. I lucky to had started in middle school with a Mom who studied horticulture in college. My biggest fail was putting tomatoes in a spot that only had 5 hours of sun because I didn't knew how the sun fell on my new place. Next year after that I grew two pots fulls of shade loving flowers and they loved it there. Now I want to try a hydroponics herb garden, but when I asked Mom how to do that, she said that old apartment couldn't handle even one more lamp, and to wait to get a bigger place. She is correct, all 4 outlet have power cords plugging every device, and sometimes an outlet will just not work for an hour.
reply
Lori
Birds will eat grubs. There are grubs in my garden but they never do any noticeable damage. I'm in an urban area so no chickens. So I put these large decorative trellises in my garden that I use for tomatoes. These trellises include thick horizontal supports that the birds love to sit on. They sit on them and watch the garden. In the morning they dig in it nibbling on grubs. In the afternoon, they chop on the tomato horn worms. Admittedly, they also poop in my garden and any weed seed in their poop is now in my garden but so is that fertilizer. And I have to plant extra seeds when I direct sow bc they always find some of them too. Overall though, the birds are worth it.
reply
Birds will eat grubs. There are grubs in my garden but they never do any noticeable damage. I'm in an urban area so no chickens. So I put these large decorative trellises in my garden that I use for tomatoes. These trellises include thick horizontal supports that the birds love to sit on. They sit on them and watch the garden. In the morning they dig in it nibbling on grubs. In the afternoon, they chop on the tomato horn worms. Admittedly, they also poop in my garden and any weed seed in their poop is now in my garden but so is that fertilizer. And I have to plant extra seeds when I direct sow bc they always find some of them too. Overall though, the birds are worth it.
reply
Sarah
It was my first garden and I like tomatoes so I planted seeds indoors. I transplanted them outdoors thinking that each plant would give me 2 or 3 tomatoes. I planted 54 indeterminate plants in about 200 Sq ft plants thinking I could handle the 120 tomato or so yield. Then I dislocated my knee in July so I stopped pruning them and let them go. It was not only a prolific year for tomatoes in general, but multiplied by 54, I was completely overwhelmed with my dense tomato forest that I had created. I was praying for frost so they would die off. I was picking (5) 5 gallon buckets of tomatoes per day, crutches and all- begging people to take them off my hands. Never again.
reply
It was my first garden and I like tomatoes so I planted seeds indoors. I transplanted them outdoors thinking that each plant would give me 2 or 3 tomatoes. I planted 54 indeterminate plants in about 200 Sq ft plants thinking I could handle the 120 tomato or so yield. Then I dislocated my knee in July so I stopped pruning them and let them go. It was not only a prolific year for tomatoes in general, but multiplied by 54, I was completely overwhelmed with my dense tomato forest that I had created. I was praying for frost so they would die off. I was picking (5) 5 gallon buckets of tomatoes per day, crutches and all- begging people to take them off my hands. Never again.
reply
Kittie
I totally enjoyed this video so much. So far, my epic failure is snail vine germination trying again this season.
The biggest mistake is trusting my nursery to deliver what I ordered compost. What did I get 5 yards clay top soil! :( It was a busy season, so they made mistake, would they come and get. no. got a refund. But I had 5 yards to move. Ugh, heavy work
Of course, dumped in the driveway while working remotely, so i had zero choice but to use. Now, I have years of rehabilitation to do. Cover crops, organic matter, and lots of leaf mulch. At least I have a challenge to fix, while negative experience I am learning a bunch from this mistake!
reply
I totally enjoyed this video so much. So far, my epic failure is snail vine germination trying again this season.
The biggest mistake is trusting my nursery to deliver what I ordered compost. What did I get 5 yards clay top soil! :( It was a busy season, so they made mistake, would they come and get. no. got a refund. But I had 5 yards to move. Ugh, heavy work
Of course, dumped in the driveway while working remotely, so i had zero choice but to use. Now, I have years of rehabilitation to do. Cover crops, organic matter, and lots of leaf mulch. At least I have a challenge to fix, while negative experience I am learning a bunch from this mistake!
reply
Hilary
Enjoyed that lesson. It's alright to fail, I'm just about to start finding that out. I'll have to build up my learning, one fail at a time. I've got a new allotment (UK term for a small plot of rented land from the council) and it's going to be an adventure in seeing what works and what doesn't. My sweet corn grown indoors to start it off, got to 3 inches high looking healthy and then keeled over. The stem was rotted. The compost didn't seem to be too dry or too wet so don't know what ailed it. I almost felt a badge of honour when you said about someone accidently cutting the ears off. Mine didn't get that far. Enjoyed the video though and the tips.
reply
Enjoyed that lesson. It's alright to fail, I'm just about to start finding that out. I'll have to build up my learning, one fail at a time. I've got a new allotment (UK term for a small plot of rented land from the council) and it's going to be an adventure in seeing what works and what doesn't. My sweet corn grown indoors to start it off, got to 3 inches high looking healthy and then keeled over. The stem was rotted. The compost didn't seem to be too dry or too wet so don't know what ailed it. I almost felt a badge of honour when you said about someone accidently cutting the ears off. Mine didn't get that far. Enjoyed the video though and the tips.
reply
Catherine
My mom rolls her eyes at people complating at suculants. I see why. I remember one time when I young my mom said to my dad, Dear? Who learned about plant in college? Now. Please, I banned for loving on my aloe. I love you. But, I banning you away from my aloe. I'm just noticing it looks sick. And who fault is that? Me. For try to love on your plant while you were on vacation. Good. No more loving. It's my plant. My plant.
Also, I don't know if it the same plant or not, but she had been growing aloe in that same pot in the same sunny part of the house for over 12 years. And only this time with Dad did I see those cool leaves droop.
reply
My mom rolls her eyes at people complating at suculants. I see why. I remember one time when I young my mom said to my dad, Dear? Who learned about plant in college? Now. Please, I banned for loving on my aloe. I love you. But, I banning you away from my aloe. I'm just noticing it looks sick. And who fault is that? Me. For try to love on your plant while you were on vacation. Good. No more loving. It's my plant. My plant.
Also, I don't know if it the same plant or not, but she had been growing aloe in that same pot in the same sunny part of the house for over 12 years. And only this time with Dad did I see those cool leaves droop.
reply
Dragonbleps
My fail: Well, buying a venus flytrap from Home Depot was probably the first one, but after that-- I was trying to find a good place to put it. Where I initially put it, it didn't get enough sunlight. So I moved it, and then it got too much water when it'd rain (caught the water falling from the roof, splashing the substrate. Then I finally moved it and it seemed to be getting enough sun, and it wasn't getting water from the roof, but it was still dying? Turns out, where I'd put it was right in the firing range of the sprinklers, and we have hard water. RIP my first venus fly trap. It went through SO much lmao
reply
My fail: Well, buying a venus flytrap from Home Depot was probably the first one, but after that-- I was trying to find a good place to put it. Where I initially put it, it didn't get enough sunlight. So I moved it, and then it got too much water when it'd rain (caught the water falling from the roof, splashing the substrate. Then I finally moved it and it seemed to be getting enough sun, and it wasn't getting water from the roof, but it was still dying? Turns out, where I'd put it was right in the firing range of the sprinklers, and we have hard water. RIP my first venus fly trap. It went through SO much lmao
reply
Adam
I have 600 square feet dedicated to bananas. I live in central Florida. I recently bought a Gros Michelle (big Mike) to supplement my genetic diversity. I bought 2 different banana cultivars from this supplier. The Big Mike, at first grew well for about two months and then it started to fail and eventually died. Conclusion: my garden has the virus that killed off this variety. For years I wanted to grow this. But it won't happen. Big Mikes are your grandmother's bananas that were popular back in the day before the blight that killed them all off. Now we have Cavendish which is a poor substitute.
reply
I have 600 square feet dedicated to bananas. I live in central Florida. I recently bought a Gros Michelle (big Mike) to supplement my genetic diversity. I bought 2 different banana cultivars from this supplier. The Big Mike, at first grew well for about two months and then it started to fail and eventually died. Conclusion: my garden has the virus that killed off this variety. For years I wanted to grow this. But it won't happen. Big Mikes are your grandmother's bananas that were popular back in the day before the blight that killed them all off. Now we have Cavendish which is a poor substitute.
reply
Brenda
Radon test I failed to do, on a new piece of land, was my biggest fail. Plants grew like crazy. Radon, we released methane gas, on that same land, by turning the ground to only 2 foot. Killed a few chickens, and a few wildlife animals. (We always put a few birds out when we turn new ground. If they drop or stagger, get out) The EPA had to come out, and they sent people to do whatever they do about the Radon. The gov bought the property. It's still fenced off. Squash, tomatoes, some beans, and a few other plants, still voluntary grow out there. No, we never ate any of it.
reply
Radon test I failed to do, on a new piece of land, was my biggest fail. Plants grew like crazy. Radon, we released methane gas, on that same land, by turning the ground to only 2 foot. Killed a few chickens, and a few wildlife animals. (We always put a few birds out when we turn new ground. If they drop or stagger, get out) The EPA had to come out, and they sent people to do whatever they do about the Radon. The gov bought the property. It's still fenced off. Squash, tomatoes, some beans, and a few other plants, still voluntary grow out there. No, we never ate any of it.
reply
Emow
In the beginning, we planted out tomatoes in a sunny spot we thought was perfect. We didn't realize that it was sunny because it was the beginning of spring and the tree had no leaves. Once spring started, the leaves popped up and our area was in shade.
Another bad one was I fertilized one of my raised beds, I forgot to close the door to the raised bed. I had planted really organized rows of lettuce, spinach, radishes, beets, carrots, garlic and onions. My dog had gone and dug everything I planted because she was attracted to the fertilizer. This one hurt.
reply
In the beginning, we planted out tomatoes in a sunny spot we thought was perfect. We didn't realize that it was sunny because it was the beginning of spring and the tree had no leaves. Once spring started, the leaves popped up and our area was in shade.
Another bad one was I fertilized one of my raised beds, I forgot to close the door to the raised bed. I had planted really organized rows of lettuce, spinach, radishes, beets, carrots, garlic and onions. My dog had gone and dug everything I planted because she was attracted to the fertilizer. This one hurt.
reply
Add a review, comment
Other channel videos
