Every gardener has stories of good ideas gone bad. Here are a few National Home Gardening Club members with tales of their own gardening mistakes.

never enough zucchini
In my first vegetable garden, I planted 30 feet of zucchini plants, thinking they’d each bear two or three fruits. That year I made stuffed, sautéed, and fried zucchini. I baked zucchini muffins and bread. I gave tons to the food bank and the local nursing homes, and even left boxes on bus-stop benches.
—Ellen Henry, Albuquerque, NM

more than mulch
I added pillbug-infested mulch to my vegetable garden. Since then, my squash and cucumber plants produce only a handful of vegetables because they’re gnawed along the stems. The only plants unscathed are the garlic, shallots, and fennel.
—Veronica O’Barr, Diamond Bar, CA

bake until brown
I planted five azaleas, and they were brown, crunchy, and dead within a month. I exchanged them for new ones twice with the same sorry results. When the nursery manager asked me where I’d planted them, I told him in full sun in the south-facing bed in front of my house, mulched with white rock. I couldn’t have done any more damage if I had baked them in the oven!
—Tammy Goebel, Saint Charles, MO

they looked the same
Our first home had a nicely landscaped front yard. But I was horrified to find our back field full of what I thought were thistles ready to go to seed. My husband mowed them down fast. Two days later the same “thistles” in our neighbor’s field bloomed into a gorgeous sea of California poppies.
—Susan Salzman, Tolono, IL

garden thugs
My biggest gardening mistake was ignoring invasive plants. I thought they’d be easy to control, but I’m still pulling out English ivy and perennial pea. Hopefully it will only take a few more years to get rid of them.
—Donna Kimmel, Hillsville, VA