Monday’s Mistake - Part One
This year I’ve decided to regularly post photos of some stupid things that I or people here before me have done in the Galeazza Garden. Sometimes the mistakes might even be bad choices made many years ago, illustrating how we, as gardeners, leave more of a long-lasting mark than we might imagine!.
I’d rather not make this theme too specific, because it would limit the scope of the argument as well as the fun. A “mistake” might just be a tacky or unsuccessful design decision, trees planted in the wrong spot or pruned improperly, seeds sown at the wrong time, the wrong materials or tools used to do a job, and so on. I could probably post one a day and still have thousands left over, but I’ll try to keep the mistakes for Mondays only.
Warning: The photos might be ugly, but they will usually be funny or educational. My hope is that you and I will both learn from Galeazza Garden mistakes so we don’t make similar ones again - I here, or you in your garden. Once is enough!
I’m beginning with this photo of wood wrapped around a metal fence because even the Fallopia aubertii grown around the metal looks like a big M for Mistake…
What was I thinking? My friend Claudio Baldazzi gave me this plant a few years ago, and I knew it was a climber, so I just grabbed the nearest junk at hand and started to weave the slender stems of the vine up through the plastic-covered wire fence. Big mistake.
Why start with ugly materials when you’ll have to live with them for years? Having a low or no budget is no excuse. Be inventive, and don’t act too quickly out of desperation or enthusiasm to get something done. An old branch and string would have held the plant up a couple years ago when I started to train the Fallopia aubertii up the castle wall. The branch also would have allowed me to save more of the plant today. In this case it wasn’t only a bad idea aesthetically, but for the plant, as well… a huge mess. Today I had to chop nearly the whole thing down to the ground, removing all the metal wire. There’s still one long vine I can use to start over. Lesson learned - I’m going to use something a bit more natural and pleasant to look at this time.
