Five Gardening Mistakes to Avoid

Our family didn’t have much success with gardening in Texas (OK, we didn’t have any success), so we were excited to give it a go here in Ohio. Because we rent we couldn’t just dig up the ground, but the good news is my dad let us use his yard and we planted a garden right where I used to do it growing up!
It hadn’t been a garden for quite some time, so we had to till the ground and create our garden space. Unfortunately, that act was just the start of many mistakes. Here are 5 gardening mistakes not to make (and ones we won’t make again!).

Not Planning in Advance
When we were getting our seeds and plants, we basically just bought things we thought we would use. This eventually caused problems because we had way more left than we anticipated. We successfully got it all planted, but it was a crowded mess! Next year, I will be mapping the garden and planting things intentionally where they fit in the plan.
Not Planting Immediately
Because my dad lives about a 15-20 minute drive we couldn’t always go out there every day. This was crucial during the first week. We still had plants we hadn’t yet put in the garden for a couple of weeks! Not to mention it was doing nothing but raining during that time! We definitely lost a few!

Not Planting in the Right Season
Since this is our first time gardening in Ohio we weren’t quite sure of the best time to plant. My dad and the gentleman at the garden shop were definitely helpful but we still ended up planting some outside of their key times. This can go back to planning as well because a good plan would have avoided this mistake.
Not Removing Weeds Before Planting Anything
This probably seems like an obvious mistake, but because my husband and I both have physical disorder, weeding was definitely one of the hardest things for us to do. Of course, this caused major problems as the weeds grew along with the plants. Trying to remove them while your garden is already thriving, it is so much harder and very tedious. Next year we will definitely weed after we till!

Not Knowing When to Harvest
I was constantly looking up information on when to harvest certain plants. This lead to multiple trips to harvest. Thankfully, my dad was harvesting things here and there that he noticed they were done. We had no idea when some of them were ready! Again, I think planning would be key.
Because we made so many mistakes, we decided to call this our “test year” meaning now we have a much better idea how to garden well in Ohio. We have definitely learned that planning is one of the most important parts in gardening. The good news is, it wasn’t all for naught. We still harvested some great veggies and have really enjoyed them! (This is one of our good harvests.)

Did you garden this year? What were some of your highlights?