Garden Fails and Hope for the Future

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Miracle-Gro. All opinions are 100% mine.


Ever since we bought our house in 2007 my husband has taken great care of our yard.  He's created a small little garden that he works on with the kids and has been in charge of keeping things pretty.  Except for this year.  He's trying to graduate with his PhD this year and has been at work non-stop.  So that leaves me to pick up the pieces.  The horrible, ugly, weedy, overgrown pieces of our once beautiful yard.
Keeping up with my yard is no easy task and let me tell you - I.  Am.  Terrible.

 

EXHIBIT A

 

Clearly I cannot be trusted with hedge clippers.

 

The saddest part is I tried.  I really tried.

 

I can't even look my neighbors in the eye.  It's too humiliating.

 

 

I think my biggest problem, besides chasing two kids while gardening, was that I had no idea what I was doing.  Gardening isn't particularly hard to do but you really need some knowledge to make things work.  So I was really excited to recently learn about Gardenieres.

 

 

Gardenieres is a really cool website where professional gardeners from different regions give you tips and show you instructional videos on basically every gardening topic.  Clearly from my *ahem* gorgeous shrub pruning job, I need to be spending a lot of time over there.

 

I've officially decided that my husband has to fix the shrub that I hacked to death because I just can't look at it anymore, but I haven't given up on gardening yet.  My grandmother used to have the most gorgeous rose garden in Berkeley, California and people would drive past her house on Hopkins Street just to see it.  I have one rose bush that gives me beautiful flowers randomly but lately it is a mess.  The bush is being choked out by Poison Ivy and I have never once pruned it for fear of destroying it like I did my shrub.  So my first gardening project form Gardenieres is to learn how to fix my poor rose bush and make my Nonie proud. 

 

Gardenier, Gina Ilipoulous has a great video detailing just what I need to do to get started. 

 

It looks like all I really need are leather gloves, pruners and Miracle-Gro LiquaFeed to help revitalize the poor sad bush.  Luckily it is still very warm here in Alabama so this will be a good Fall outdoor project for me.  Hopefully implementing these few tips will encourage my roses to bloom bigger and better than they ever have before.  Who knows?  Maybe I'll have a famous front yard like my Nonie did.  Baby steps...
Are any of you working on any fall garden projects?  If so be sure to check out Gardenieres for tips and follow the Miracle-Gro Facebook page where you can chat with other home gardeners from your region and around the world.
I'll be back in a few weeks to show you what I accomplish with my new knowledge!  In the mean time I must know, have any of you ever had any epic gardening fails like my shrub pruning?  Do tell.  I need to feel less sad and reading other horror stories will definitely put a smile on my face.