Flowers

The Garden Life: Learning from errors part of gardening

04.02.10

In my first garden, I decided to create a meadow by planting 500 tulips along the far edge of the front lawn. Tulips were never the best choice for this endeavor, but at that stage in my gardening career I was not aware that learning from my mistakes would become one of the most effective ways to get the results I desired.

It took me a few years to accept the fact that deer would always eat my tulips just before they opened in bloom. Year after year, I added more and more tulips and the deer always dashed my expectations. The first few years of effort was a lot of work for such a disappointing outcome.

Gardeners have a tendency to ignore the facts set before them and hope that desire alone will help them beat the odds. For the most part we are an optimistic group. That is why we plant roses in the shade when we know they need six hours a day of full sun or plant a 60 foot tree in a small backyard and hope it doesn’t grow to its full height.

I had better luck with spring blooming bulbs after I accepted the facts and learned from fellow gardeners who already had a bit of experience. Deer will have nothing to do with daffodils, so I planted them in place of tulips. My first choice was a large narcissus variety that bloomed late in spring. These were lovely, a great success — or so it seemed.

Source: The Columbian