It's not necessarily a bad thing to be led down the garden path, but while you're traipsing about, be sure to keep an eye out for these common gardening pitfalls. Make plans to avoid these mistakes and your saunters around the garden will always be pleasing.
1. Ignoring your soil.
We all know a good garden begins with good soil, but we've heard it so often that this advice gets filed in the same place as tooth-flossing advice. Something to think about -- one day. But gardens really don't perform unless the soil is maintained. Feed your soil with organics in the form of compost or compost-like natural fertilizers on a regular basis.
2. The wrong amount of water.
There is no general rule for watering. A garden on an exposed sunny slope on which moisture-loving birch has been placed will need more constant attention than a shady swale near a downspout. Get in touch with your water and earth spirits by actually checking your soil to see what it wants.
3. Too much mulch.
Mulching exposed soil with a few centimetres of wood chips is ideal. But more is not better. More than a few centimetres of mulch is not a comfy blanket. It can be smothering.
4. Poor mulch choices.
If shiny white marble chips around the base of your trees and shrubs seem delightful to you, go ahead, but remember: They are brutal to keep clean, and somehow you have to get some nutrients down to plant roots eventually.
5. Lazy bedmaking.
The most notorious weed of garden or shrub beds is lawn grass. Keep your grass in the lawn and out of beds by edging sharply with a half-moon edger a couple of times a year. Alternatively, install a proper brick or plastic barrier that goes down at least 10 centimetres. A line of river rocks will not do.
6. Losing focus.
Give architectural shrubs such as globe spruce and weeping caragana room to show off their form. Don't jam them in among a gaggle of shapeless potentillas.
7. Pushing the zone.
By all means, test or show off your gardening skills by pushing the zone with some borderline hardy bulbs or odd little perennials. But go for the sure winners with trees and shrubs. These big plants anchor your garden and it's frustrating and expensive to have to try out different ones every couple of years because of poor choices.
8. Planting trees too deeply.
More young trees die within their first five years from deep planting than from any other cause. It may seem like you are tucking them in real good, but you are actually slowly suffocating them. The top main roots should be barely underground.
9. Forgetting the seasons.
It's too easy to be seduced at garden centres in spring by pots of early bloomers in full show. Remember to also pick perennials that bloom later on to keep the show going. Delphiniums and beebalms may look plain in May, but they are ready to party late in summer or early fall.
10. Picking the wrong plant.
We naturally pick plants we like the colour of, but we aren't always so careful to pick plants that behave in the type of garden we want.
Gardeners who want each plant to stay in its original spot and not eventually rub shoulders with neighbours should not plant exuberant multipliers such as clustered bellflower, or floppy plants such as painted daisies and yarrow. Gardeners who enjoy a casual party of intermingling plants might find these attributes completely delightful.
-- Postmedia News Service
