Common Gardening Mistakes & How to Avoid Them
Learn How to Grow Healthy Plants
Learning how to grow healthy plants comes with some trial and error. Signs of trouble may erupt just when you think you’re succeeding.
Your vegetable garden is growing beautifully, then suddenly the plants start fading one by one. Maybe you wake up one day and notice your rose bushes developing strange spots or yellowing leaves covering your favorite bushes. What about those bulbs that never break ground or the new transplants that never bloom like their parents?
It’s far too easy to make gardening mistakes, but many are also easily avoided. Read on to learn about some of the most common mistakes gardeners make. We’ll give you tips to avoid them all because we want you to succeed when learning how to grow at home.
Common Watering Mistakes
Watering your plants may seem like the easiest thing when you first start learning how to grow. You take the hose and spray it over the plants or use a watering can to dump water around each plant.
Easy enough, right?
Not so fast.
There are two common gardening mistakes that you make here:
1. You don’t provide enough water. You may stand out there with the hose for a few minutes each day, but how deep is that water going into soil? In most cases, not deep enough to reach the roots and thoroughly hydrate your plants.
Irrigation systems designed for the garden can help, but you can also just poke holes in the soil and fill them all up. That allows the water to collect then drain without you standing there with the hose for a long time.
2. You water when it’s too hot outside. Your plants need water when it’s hot, and some may wilt a little if planted in too much direct sunlight. The problem is that watering when the sun is at its brightest can heat water on the leaves of your plants, allowing them to scorch. Water delivered in intense heat may also evaporate before it can penetrate deep into the soil.
For most plants and climates, stick with morning and evening watering sessions. Your plants will stay hydrated even when the sun gets intense during the day.
Common Garden Planting Mistakes
Some of the most common gardening mistakes are made before the plants even enter the soil. Here are a couple of those mistakes plus tips on avoiding them as you learn how to grow healthy plants.
1. You select plants not appropriate for your climate or the location of your garden. You may have your heart set on certain plants, but they won’t thrive if you don’t have the proper soil, the right sunlight exposure, and a suitable climate.
The solution is simple: Do your research, and then stick to plants that will do well in the garden you’re planting.
2. You go too big, too fast. Many beginners are ambitious, and they plant large gardens that they can’t properly maintain.
The solution here is also simple: Think about what it will take to maintain a garden of various sizes. Start small and build out over time if you aren’t sure.
There are many other gardening mistakes from choosing the wrong potting soils to ignoring PH levels when learning hydroponics.
