Garden mishaps!

[PunkRotten]

When I was a kid I got stung by bees all the time. That is cause I bothered them though. I don't have a problem with them now. Sometimes I may be doing something right near the bees on the plant and they never bother me. However I hate those big black bees that sometimes get all curious about you and charge you.

[rainbowgardener]

@madonna

Wow that's a severe phobia! You are much more likely to get stung running around and squirting them than if you stayed still and calm. My perennial salvia plant always has several honeybees visiting it. I reach my hand down amongst them to deadhead the plant and they do not bother me.

If you would like to work on ridding yourself of this phobia so your time in the garden can be less anxiety ridden, PM me and I will tell you how. But you have to be willing to work at it, it's not magic.

[gixxerific]

A few years ago my naming of my tomatoes bog mixed up bad. Hardly anything in the garden was what is was what my map had.

No big deal right, well I had some dwarfs that were supposed to go in pots but they ended up in the garden while some full sized plants ended up in pots that should have housed the dwarfs.

[IndyGerdener]

it looks like I'm just gardening peacefully, and then suddenly begin squirting water randomly all around me. Probably because the voices told me to.

I was actually laughing out loud when I read this. My wife looked at me funny because she though I was putting our garage sale on craigs list and not reading a forum.

I have had a couple incidents this year of stepping, trying to step, over the fence into the garden and falling into the garden. The falls were not very graceful since I was sacrificing myself in order to not harm my precious plants! I went to step over and my sandal got caught on the fence. as it pulled my leg out from under me I saw my peppers plants right in front of me. I turned my body and landed directly on my back right in the middle of the row. WHEW saved em!!

I was taking a video of the garden the other day and my neighbor saw me doing it. I have not heard the end of it. That is why I try to take the videos before he gets home from work, then I don't have to hear it. Haha

2 years ago I planted a couple trays of seedlings in March, marked them all with little tags and let them start growing. on day it was about 75 degrees so I thought I would put them out in the sun. When I came back out to bring them in my brothers dog had removed every last tag I had in the trays. I had no idea what I was growing until they fruited. at least it didn't eat the plants!!

[gixxerific]

Hey Indy I'm with you. Stepping over the fence can be a challange at times. Bud Lights don't help with all that I can attest to that.

Good luck to you and all the rest of you.

[lorax]

My personal best was going out to the compost pile at night and surprising the resident Huanchaka (it's a sort of possom-esque critter, but much less hairy than northern possums are. So like a big, pink, mostly hairless marsupial with an attitude.) It was sitting in the compost corral with a couple of slices of stale bread into which it had stuffed some iffy grapes.

I'm not sure who was more startled, but I will say that it's the first and only time I've ever seen an animal make itself a sandwich.

[SOB]

A few years ago my naming of my tomatoes bog mixed up bad. Hardly anything in the garden was what is was what my map had.

No big deal right, well I had some dwarfs that were supposed to go in pots but they ended up in the garden while some full sized plants ended up in pots that should have housed the dwarfs.

Did something similar this year except I was just lazy and didnt mark them. I only do Romas, one type of cherry and one type of larger slicing tomato and thought that once they seedlings got big enough I would know which is which. Well, I couldnt tell. The worst part was that I grow seedlings for 3 other people that want (for example) 1 cherry, 1 slicing and 4 romas. Now that the plants are setting fruit we have realized that one person got almost all the cherrys, another got almost all the slicing, etc. Unfortunately we don't live close enough to share.

Oh well, hopefully I learned my lesson!

[PraticalGardener]

I've accidently mowed over pumpkin vines that strayed into the lawn.

Several years ago, I decided I would weed a garden row for one of my siblings. I diligently pulled out every individual weed. What I didn't know then was that some of the young 'grass' that I weeded out were actually young carrot plants. Perhaps the funniest part was that he didn't even have to ask who weeded his row.

[DarrenP]

The first one that comes to mind is the disappearing seedlings.
I turned over a new bed for the summer just past (your winter), and planted various seeds and seedlings. They kept disappearing, either individual flowers or leaves, or the whole thing, with just a stem left sticking out of the ground. Of course, I blamed the dog, as nearly all of the other veggie beds are out of his reach. So I rolled out and staked some chicken wire, just tall enough for me to step over (no trips-yet). Still there were disappearances. So then I was blaming birds, although why it was happening in only one bed was beyond me. I decided to make little wire surrounds for each seedling out of aviary wire.
Then one day, I noticed our resident bearded dragon sitting inside the wire perimeter. The little bugger was the one eating the seedlings. He is very game, usually just sits there and watches me garden. I never thought he would be the one eating the seedlings. Why only that bed remains a mystery, unless it is on his usual path through the yard.

[imafan26]

I must admit I have done a lot of the things already mentioned. Got my shirt caught on wires and trays and put holes in them. Some of them weren't even garden shirts yet. I always am looking for tools I had in my hand and suddenly, I notice that they are gone. I have to retrace my steps to find out where I left them. I have thrown more than one weeder into the garbage can along with the weeds and had to tip the garbage can to get it back. Sometimes, it just goes out with the trash. I have tried tying a long bright red caution tape to the handle and I have painted some of the tools bright yellow, and orange but it sometimes does not help that much in the tall weeds. I have clipped my finger and a few drip tubing with my clippers.. ouch!

For years, I had been using those cone shaped tomato tubes upside down. Frankly, they did not work any better right side up.

I was testing a machine gun sprinkler and it shot over the wall into the next yard and it landed on my neighbor. He said a few unmentionable words. I apologized and he forgave me, that time.

I went out the front door to work in the yard. Then I heard the neighbors dogs barking and I saw a cat in my yard under the orchid benches. At first I thought it was a stray, but it turned out to be my cat. She did not see me when I went out the door so she opened the screen door somehow and came around the side yard to find me. It happened a few times and when I checked the door it was still locked. I could not figure out how she was getting out. It turned out she just pushed the bottom of the door out and could just get out and the door would still be latched. After that, I had to make sure the back door was unlocked and that I kept the inner door in front shut.

I was sitting on my garden rocker weeding my sloping driveway and fell over. I had the rocker backwards. Once I was on the ground, it was really hard to get up again.

For some reason, I went on the roof of my patio, then I could not get down. I kept calling my neighbor until they heard me and came to my rescue to hold the ladder so I could get off the roof. They couldn't help themselves, they had to laugh at my predicament.

I was out watering the garden and then this rock in one of my pots started spitting water. I screamed, it wasn't a rock, it was a toad!

I keep trying to plant garlic in my yard. Somehow the cloves always end up smaller than what I started with.

I have red dirt in my yard, sometimes when I walk through it after it rains and it is very muddy, not only do I end up skiing in mud, my shoe gets stuck in the mud; my foot comes out and the shoe is still there.

I wear old clothes in the garden. The elastic in one of the pants is stretched out, and my pants have fallen down or nearly fallen.

Don't you hate it when you go out the door and lock yourself out.

[digitS']

Other than outrageous mistakes from not knowing any better or unpardonable neglect, probably the most damage that I've done in the garden has been from falling over on plants .

I'll brag a little then reflect on childhood . If the most dangerous critter in the garden is the gardener pulling a hose, doing that with proper care has been a personal accomplishment. We had NO measurable rainfall during 3 months of summer, 2017! That was unusual but rain during the growing season seldom amounts to anything. Irrigation is a must for nearly all garden plants - okay, I've had lots of practice dragging a hose .

(By the Way: A horse went thru my garden last spring. Covered about 200+' of ground doing it. He/she managed to step on one [1] cabbage plant! I might be a lucky gardener, also .)

Imafan26 . We moved to lived a year with my grandmother on her little farm when I was 3. She introduced me to gardening. Outside her door was a stack of wooden flats and empty clay pots. Strategically placed under one of those clay pots in that stack was the key to the door . I don't do quite the same thing but always remember those flats and pots when I think about or have to retrieve my outdoor key ...

Steve

[gumbo2176]

The absolute worst thing that ever happened to my garden was back in the early 2000's a very severe hail storm hit my area. It was sometime in late November if I remember right and I had a beautiful crop of tomatoes getting just to that orange stage about a week away from being vine ripe. I also had every other fall crop I grow every year. Broccoli, collard greens, Brussels sprouts, onions, beets, etc. and that storm just flattened everything in my yard. It even defoliated my trees and caused enough damage to my roof that it needed replacing.

It was late night when it passed and I went out on the back porch and just watched as the garden was flattened to mush in about 15 minutes. The hail was golf ball sized and bigger.

[Gary350]

About 15 years ago when I had an old 5 HP tiller that burned more oil than gas. The motor was having carburetor problems burning too much fuel & making black smoke, after taking the carburetor apart and working on it 3 times it was still making lots of black smoke, and the engine was barely running. The engine needs to burn less fuel or the fuel needs to contain its own oxygen. I had a gallon of model airplane fuel that was 100% alcohol with 15% Nitro both contain oxygen I poured that in the tiller and it ran perfect but now the throttle will no longer slow the engine down. Engine was running wide open about 6000 RPMs and blowing out more white smoke than a bug fog sprayer machine. It was about 6 pm wind was dead calm white smoke filled the garden and the whole back yard, tiller engine was running 2 times faster than normal and I could barely see the soil I was having a very hard time trying to see where to tilling. There was so much smoke I could not see my own house or garage or the neighbors house. I had to stop the engine every 5 minutes to fill it with oil soon smoke had filled my yard again and the neighbors yards too. Tiller was running so fast I tilled my garden in 1/2 the time it usually takes I was almost finished when the engine self destructed. OH well that was a 20 year old engine. I put another engine on that tiller and I still use it.

[jal_ut]

"I stare out the window cautiously as if I am hiding from a bear or a zombie. I take a few seconds to regain my compsure. I think the bee is gone, and return to my gardening. 2 minutes later, I see the bee again, and once again run frantically inside. "

I to am allergic to the bee venom. I am also a beekeeper. (Go figure) Any way, I always carry two Benadryl tablets in my pocket. If I get stung I pop those pills immediately. This has been enough to keep me from any severe allergic reaction.

Generally the bees won't bother you unless you are in front of their hive. You mess with their hive you are going to get it. They sting in defense of their home. Bees out on the flowers have nothing to protect and usually won't bother you unless you accidentally squish one and it feels trapped.

[thanrose]

My garden mishaps usually start with me telling someone not to do something.

"Don't mow that ferny area in the side yard. That's where the snakes live!"

"That's really fresh manure. Use the compost instead."

"Don't use fire ant bait when you've let the chickens out."

"Don't use that axe unless you hone it first."

It just works out better when I don't say anything.

Oh, this is sorta gardening. A tree fell in a storm, and partly landed on a corner of the roof, just crumpling the edge and damaging a few shingles. Since I had so many other trees, this tree fell onto a mid height palm tree, then to the roof. A huge forked limb hung up on the palm. The palm was toast, btw. I told my elderly father to leave it alone and let the contractor handle it. Next thing I knew he was starting the chain saw, insisting he would take off the limb that was resting on the crown of the palm tree. That palm tree was the only thing keeping the substantial crown of the hackberry from giving my bedroom a skylight.

[jal_ut]

I went out and got on the big tractor tiller and went to tilling, when my son comes out waving, and says, "Hey, that is where you planted the garlic!"

[applestar]

Wow, hopefully your tiller doesn’t chop things up too fine and hasn’t shoved those poor garlic cloves down too deep and they will still grow? I HAVE noticed that if they end up on their sides or even upside-down, they will still grow but the effort to grow upward will deform the bulb and cloves won’t form evenly.

[Gary350]

I went out and got on the big tractor tiller and went to tilling, when my son comes out waving, and says, "Hey, that is where you planted the garlic!"

That is why I started marking my rows my brain is on auto delete these days. If I plant something that is slow to germinate I cannot remember what is plated there and if I actually planted it or was I just thinking about planting it. Once plants start coming up then I recognize the plants and don't need markers.

[Myacre]

This year I made new beds for tomatoes, and decided to do wire fence for support. I bought these metal sticks with hooks and holes for barbwire, put two on each side of bed, put wire in between them and was done. even managed to tie a few plants that reached the bottom wire. So, last night there was hail in the forecast. Me and my hubby were jumping all over the garden putting tarp on top of those sticks thinking we're so smart, saving tomatoes this way. Hail never came, but the rain was pretty heavy. two hours later we had to repeat the exercises this time taking the tarp out. rain water pooled over our plants and bent all those schmetal sticks. Thankfully, none of the plants got damaged, but my support system looks like broken guitar with bent sticks and wire going crazy without proper tension. Yeah, also got very refreshing shower and mud up to my knees. Gotta love Texas