Garden design mistakes

[MereDintofPandiculation]

Designed a lovely vegetable garden with a geometrical design of edged beds and gravel paths, and a central path with a pergola to train apples of to make a tunnel of apple blossom in spring and a tunnel of apples in autumn. So far, so good, and it looks lovely at all times of year. But then, because I am in a frost hollow on heavy clay with appalling drainage, I chose a rootstock not as dwarfing as it could be, in order to give my apples a better chance of coping with the adverse conditions. Turns out they didn't need it. My veg garden is now my "shade garden" and my veg are now grown in tubs up on the terrace where we park the cars.

We have a lovely pond full of frogs and newts. The ground is sloping, so the pond is ground level at one end and built up about 30 inches above ground level at the other. We didn't think about cutting the adjacent hawthorn hedge. So twice every year I choose a dry day to teeter along the retaining wall or the pond with hedge trimmers, and a sack balanced on the 6inch wide wall in front of me.

Anyone else like to share their design mistakes?

I took out some ugly bushes that were wasting a beautiful big sunny raised bed by the house when we moved in, to make a veg and herb patch. Turns out next door’s fig and vines grow so fast and huge each year the bed’s in total shade (and rain-shadow) from early summer. Slugs enjoyed it at least.

EgremontRusset ... if only you'd obeyed the usual advice to wait a full year before doing anything

My neighbours have a small front garden, about 2 parking spaces wide a 1 deep. Several years ago they bought one of those living willow ornamental plants where all the stems have been weaved in and out of one another, and planted it in the middle.

It seems to like it there

In the spring this year, they cut it right back low, and now - 6 months later - it is gigantic and has completely filled the entire garden.

My boss said he'd planted a weeping willow in his garden. Within a few years not only had it filled the garden, but it had completely emptied his large ornamental pool!

Went from zero to a hundred in terms of having any interest in my garden about two or three years ago. This happened in April/May. Spent hundreds (maybe a thousand) in the garden centre, and I had nothing at all in flower from early July onwards.

I made exactly the same mistake the next year.

😂

That's so funny @WellTidy 😂

I'm sure I have lots of things planted in the wrong places.

WellTidy That's a well-known phenomenon - many English gardens are superb in May/June and dead in July. A monthly visit to the grden centre is what you need

Always - wouldn't you know? Either the plant is half dead, or you can no longer find your back door, in which case it's in the wrong place. But if it's flourishing in shade, and the accepted advice is it needs full sun, then you're "pushing boundaries".

I made the mistake of planting what I wanted to grow instead of what would cope with the conditions. My front garden only gets a bit of morning sun but the look I wanted needed full sun. It looked lovely for a few weeks but then the plants began to die and got smaller and smaller. I had to dig them out and replace them with tougher shade tolerant plants. It doesn’t have the look I want but at least it’s alive!

I'm ''pushing boundaries'' so @MereDintofPandiculation

Interested to follow these.. we're in our first house with garden that we can actually plant into the soil!! Have itchy fingers to get planting but agree it's best to wait a year... I am trying to make do with containers for now

Not reading plant labels about predicted height, and having giant triffids in the front of the border and titchy little scraps further back. I'm getting good at moving plants now

Actaea Can you get nearer the look you want by growing a few things in container, moving them into the front when they're at their peak, enjoying them for a few weeks, then moving them back to the back to recuperate?

I did the same - we have a broad (2m or so) alleyway between greenhouse and hedge running down to the pond, so I went for an arid look, rounded pebbles and a few carefully placed sedges. Of course it's too shady and damp - still have the sedges, but the main look is foxgloves and ferns. Luxuriant growth rather than the arid look.