What do you wish you had done differently?

[Rosalind]

I was weeding and thinking, ah, if only I'd...and a list longer than my arm immediately leaped to mind. What do YOU wish you had done differently when you were starting out?

I wish I had started by picking a sunnier plot, then laid out my beds with some thought as to a crop rotation, then cleared the ground by means of chickens. I'd have built a chicken tractor for layer hens the first year, and moved it around to clear successive areas of grass/weeds. Then I would have put up some very serious fencing around the garden with a perimeter fence so I could loose the dogs around the yard without the garden itself getting trampled.

I wish I hadn't underestimated the sheer amount of predators we've got around here.

I wish DH was a bowhunter, so he could shoot some of these darn deer, they're too close to the houses for a rifle. I'd be eating venison hotdogs right now, with mustard and sauerkraut...

I wish I had built a greenhouse on the concrete patio behind the woodshed before it got claimed for, you know, stovewood. We could have moved the stovewood elsewhere, but now that it's there I'm not about to haul two cords of wood around the yard, yanno?

What about you guys? What would you do differently if you were starting over?

 

[vfem]

Well... I've JUST started so everything is new already. Everything seems ok, but I know in another season or 2 I will have regrets.

So far, I regret not making a nice clearing where my tulips come up at the end of the driveway. The weeds come up between them and we have to wait 2 months until they are dead and dried up to weed whack there and knock down the 2' ft weeds everyone sees when they pull in the driveway!

I also planted in a small odd shaped bed in the front yard, that I no longer wish to be there. I wish I could pull it up and just resow grass there. That spot is a pain to mow as its too small for the turning radius of our riding mower.


I'm sure more regrets will come. But just thing, they are all such PRETTY regrets in the spring

 

[digitS']

I wish that I'd been more selfish in my interests with regards to the fence with a neighbor.

Built the darn thing because DW was complaining about their then small boys being in our yard after they moved in. Set the line 6 inches inside the antique wire fence that was there. Only asked that they remove the old fence as their payment for the new one - then had the guy out with a tape measure telling me that I should have moved it back 8" and not 6" since the old fence must have been in the wrong place. Two years later, he's trying to tell me that the fence was actually 2 feet (!!) inside his property. I suppose if his wife hadn't thrown him out, he'd now be saying that it's more like 20 feet.

His departure was fortunate but also, he didn't bother to pull 2 of the ancient posts so if this issue comes up again with someone else, all I gotta do is point to those old posts - one if which is becoming surrounded by a tree that is now, apparently, a "bone of contention" regarding ownership. Dang weed tree that someone is going to have to pay to have taken out, sooooommmmme daaaaay.

I tried to make the fence "democratic" by alternating fence boards so it appears the same on either side. Heck, it looks more like it was thrown together from pallets than some example of neighborliness. It certainly offers very little privacy. I'm sick of looking at that dang fence!!

Steve

 

[blue skys]

I would have made a bigger garden this year. O'well I have big plans for the fall and have even started planning for next spring!! I also would have planted more corn, like my hubby asked, and more garlic for me, cause I love garlic!

Oh, and when building the chickens run, I would have made a gate on the end next to the garden, so that when it's their turn to help with the gardening, I could just open the gate to give them access.

 

[Greenthumb18]

i wish i would of planted a little earlier especially the eggplants and peppers. Thats basically the only thing that i regret.

 

[Greensage45]

I can relate to this post, however, I think that gardens are forever changing and sometimes we do not know what we know at the time; it takes the experience of the garden to grow and lead it into a better situation. It talks to us.

Season after Season we work out the kinks. I am currently on six seasons at this yard. It has now taken two seasons to get my mulch bin from the West side of the house to the East side. LOL

My chicken coop was an old structure already here, and I was building myself a greenhouse when suddenly a weasel struck. I turned the new greenhouse with a concrete floor into a permanent coop, tore down the old and have watched it all transform itself year after year. Each year something new, and each season another project. It all adds up.

Later I started another structure that could become a greenhouse, then I hatched out too many roosters and it become my rooster coop. Afterward this new building became the rabbit's apartment, complete with a flight to dig and refrigerated airconditioning for the summer. Darn! Where is my greenhouse!

I think I am beginning to run out of space. Nearly every inch is taken up by my obsessions. Now it is a matter of rearranging and recreating the beds. Yet I would still love to build a greenhouse.

Ron

 

[Catalina]

I wish I had.........bought a house with a bigger yard and built my fence 2 feet higher.

Used round-up on the quack grass sooner.

Never bought 'ornamental' grass.

Learned how to trellised my tomatoes sooner.

Cut the tree stump, in my backyard, off flush with the ground.

Sold and moved the ugly metal shed in my backyard, before I'd planted everything and made it impossible to move without crushing my plants.

Just a few.........

 

[Southern Gardener]

I wish I'd put my garden in a different spot instead of the lowest part of the yard where it's been flooding for the last month and half. I wish I wouldn't have dug up my potatoes just because my idiotic neighbor told me I'd better, and last but not least - I REALLY wish I could grow vegetables.

 

[GrowinVeggiesInSC]

I wish...

...I had made the garden even bigger (plot size).
...planted more stuff.
...been more diligent with my seeds.
...chosen to get chickens two years ago instead of another dog (don't get me wrong, I LOVE her, she's wonderful... but fresh eggs and free fertilizer would be pretty great, too).

Next year I will...

...expand the plot.
...plant more stuff.
...dedicate myself to my seeds and seedlings.
...reintroduce the chicken idea to DH (who will say no - but I can try).

 

[miron28]

i wish i would of done a bigger one! i did 12 rows they 20 feet long just not big enough!