Gardening Mistakes You'll Want To Avoid

When you have made the effort to create a lovely home garden, you’re going to want to pull out all the stops to ensure it looks as good as possible throughout the year. For the most part, this means you’re going to have to work hard to maintain and care for every inch of that garden; after all, gardens are time-consuming pleasures, but they are worth the sacrifice. 

However, as wonderful as gardening is, there is no denying that managing a garden can sometimes, well, not provide particularly good returns.  Most gardeners are more than happy to dedicate hours to weeding, trimming, tidying, and maintaining,  but they do it in the expectation that their outdoor space will bloom with natural beauty, and provide a stunning vista--an Eden all of their own. This is the exchange, of course: you do the work, then you reap the wonderful rewards.

Unfortunately, though, that's not always the case. Poor weather, poor soil and poor quality plants can all be reasons for a garden that fails to deliver.  However, there's other gardening mistakes you'll want to avoid. 

Gardening Mistakes You'll Want To Avoid

​Is Your Garden Getting Too Much Of A Good Thing?

Gardeners can generally agree that there are many things that constitute a “good thing” when it comes to maintaining a garden. For example, watering plants is considered to be a good thing, what with plants needing water to survive and often struggling to find the hydration they require during the summer months.

Another “good thing” is feeding and fertilizing plants. This helps plants to grow and develop; it helps to maintain the health of all the plants in your outdoor space and encourages that stunning bloom that every gardener aims for. As with watering plants, feeding and fertilizing are considered by gardeners to be inherently good decisions that will have great results for their garden space.

However… as with most areas of life, it genuinely is possible to have too much of those "good things". Of course watering is important, and most plants will require some element of feeding and fertilizing to be able to grow at their very best - but there is a limit. There is a point when a beneficial amount of water, food, and/or fertilizer becomes overwhelming, and starts actively causing harm rather than encouraging life and vitality.

Skeptical? You’re not alone; but if you read on, you’ll soon see that when it comes to caring for your garden, restricting “good things” may just be the best decision you have ever made.

Is It Really Possible To Overwater Your Lawn and Outdoor Plants?

The simple answer here is yes, absolutely. Plants, shrubs, and trees can all be over-watered, with symptoms of this including:

• The so-called “wet and wilting” state. This is when a plant is clearly wilting and drooping - which would usually be caused by dehydration - but the soil is wet to the touch. In this scenario, given that water is clearly available, you can usually safely assume that the wilting and drooping is due to too much water rather than not enough.
• Another common symptom of overwatering is edema, which you can read more about on GardeningKnowHow.com.
• Brown leaves are also a sign of overwatering.

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As well as plants, shrubs, and trees, your lawn itself can also be accidentally over-watered. Signs of this include:

• Necrotic ring spot - there’s a thorough overview of this condition here, along with pictures. If you see anything similar to this on your own lawn, then this is a sign it has been overwatered.
• Weeds growing incredibly quickly. If you can never quite seem to keep up with weed growth, then over-watering may be the culprit.
• Any sign of mushrooms growing on your lawn is also a sign of too much water.​
• So while most of us associate water as being good for plants and our lawns, the truth is that there definitely can be too much of a good thing.

What Can You Do About Overwatering?

If you have noticed any of the aforementioned signs of overwatering, there are two things you need to do next:

• Rectify. Overwatering is rarely fatal to plants or your lawn, but there are a few steps you will need to take to help coax them back to life. Lawns that are suffering from issues such as necrotic ring spot will usually need professional assistance to cure, but for overwatered plants, there’s a great guide you can read at HomeGuides.SfGate.com that you may find beneficial.
• Prevent. When you have returned your plants and/or lawn to their former glory, you can think about how you can ensure the issue does not happen again. If the overwatering was caused by circumstances outside of your control - due to heavy rainfall, for example - then you may want to think about implementing a system to ensure water does not accumulate at plant and lawn roots in future. For other causes, you may want to consider completely automating the watering process altogether; spend a little time browsing ProIrrigation.com to explore your options in this regard.

By rectifying the existing problem and preventing the issue from developing again, you can be sure you have complete control over the water needs of your home garden.

Now, let’s turn our attention to the second half of the “good thing” equation: feeding and fertilizing.

Why Is Overfeeding Harmful?

When you feed or fertilize a plant or lawn, you are essentially providing it with nutrients. In the right amounts, those nutrients can be extremely beneficial. The plant will grow tall and strong as a result of the nutrients they have received, or your lawn will be robust and beautiful - these are the desired outcomes when feeding or fertilizing.

However, too much of a good thing is a concept that very much applies to this area of garden maintenance. Here’s a look at the signs that your plants or lawn are accidentally being overfed or fertilized:

• Yellowing or browning of the tips of leaves (on plants) or tips of blades (on grass).
• Root damage. The root ball may look blackened or brown; almost as if it has been burned.
• Extremely slow growth, or no growth at all. When it comes to feeding and fertilizers, less is definitely more. If a plant or lawn receives too many “good” nutrients, its growth will usually substantially slow.
• Wilting or otherwise looking “unwell”. A healthy plant should be tall and strong, but a plant that has been overfed or fertilized will often droop. ​

How Can I Tell If Overwatering, Overfeeding Or Fertilizing Is The Problem?

Ultimately, you can’t: there’s no way of asking the plant to describe the cause of what ails it, and the symptoms of overwatering and overfeeding and fertilizing are remarkably similar. This can be confusing, but it can be helpful to change the way you think about the issue. Rather than seeing signs of ill health as a mystery you have to now begin to solve, see these signs of ill health as a signifier of a change of necessities. Clearly, something that you are doing isn’t working for your plant, so it will be helpful to overhaul your entire routine. You can examine both your watering regimen, and your feeding and fertilizing regimen - so it doesn’t really matter which of these areas has been problematic, as you’re now going to be able to fix both.

​Can Over-fertilizing damage my plants?

Sometimes. Unfortunately, the nutrients that are so useful for encouraging plant and lawn health can also be poisonous to plants if overused.

If the damage is limited, then careful watering and monitoring can help return a plant to its former glory.

In some cases, however, the plant or lawn will have been permanently damaged. This is particularly likely if you notice signs of chemical burning in the roots, which usually displays as blackened tips and withering. It is still worth trying to repair the damage, but prepare yourself for the fact the plant or lawn may never be able to recover. If in doubt, speak to a professional for their advice as to how you may be able to rectify the problem - but try to do this more in hope rather than expectation.

Want more great gardening tips?
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​Check out this article on ​Well-Balanced Plant Nutrients, and Why They’re So Important by gardenandhappy.com.

​In Conclusion...

If you want to ensure that your efforts in your garden are rewarded, then sometimes, the best thing you can do is step back and let nature take its course. While using plant food, water, and other garden-friendly additions may seem like a sensible idea, the simple truth is that gardens can easily experience far too much of a good thing - so opt for the right systems to manage distribution of those good things, then step back, watch what happens, and only intervene further if there is clear need for such a step.

Of course, one of the benefits of a more “hands-off” approach is that you’ll be able to spend less time conducting garden chores - and more time enjoying your wonderful outdoor space!

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