Making mistakes is an essential part of life — it’s the best way to learn, but it’s not exactly fun. Especially if it causes ruin to something you set out to nurture, like a garden. Gardening can be complicated, with a multitude of ways to screw it up. Read on to learn from others’ mistakes, gardening “boo-boo” stories and expert advice.
Know Your Plant: The Wandering Wisteria
During the COVID-19 lockdown, Eugene Weekly office manager JJ Snyder decided to nurture new tendrils growing on the cut-back wisteria bush next to her covered back deck. Since the bush had a thick trunk, she assumed the house’s previous occupants had cut the plant to make the yard look neater.
“Every day I would go out and check on the new growth, encouraging it like it was one of my children, and hoping that quarantine would lift soon so that I could share the amazing smell and beautiful flowers with my friends,” she says.
By the fall, the plant had grown 12 feet across the deck. The next spring, there wasn’t room for the wisteria to continue growing on the deck, so Snyder put up an old pop-up frame beside the deck. The plant grew rapidly. New shoots sprang out of the trunk and wove through the older vines. After a few months, Snyder noticed the roof showing signs of stress, but she wasn’t worried, she would just cut back the new growth. Then she got COVID…