Gardening Mistakes: 7 Common Errors and Easy Fixes
Gardening is a great spring activity, but it's a tough job. Many people make these common gardening mistakes which can derail all that hard work. See the list and set yourself up for a successful healthy garden!
Quick Reference: 7 Gardening Mistakes to Avoid
- Wrong spot: give the bed at least eight hours of sun, good drainage, and shelter from cold wind.
- Too big: start small, two or three crops, especially your first season.
- Poor prep: till moist (not wet) soil and pull weeds, roots, and grass first.
- No soil test: check pH before you amend with lime, sulfur, or organic matter.
- Chemical fertilizer: organic feeds longer and builds better soil.
- Planting too early: wait for warm soil and your last frost date.
- Weeding wrong: plant the day you till, mulch thickly, and weed after rain.
Gardening is a fine way to stay active, lower your risk of heart disease, get outdoors, and bring in fresh produce. But even seasoned hands make blunders that quietly derail a whole season’s work. Before you turn a single shovelful of soil this 2026 growing season, look over these seven common gardening mistakes. Each one is easy to avoid once you know to watch for it, and steering clear of them is the difference between a frustrating summer and a full harvest basket.
Are You Making These 7 Gardening Mistakes?
Here are the seven gardening mistakes that trip up the most gardeners, year in and year out, along with the simple fix for each.
1. Choosing the Wrong Spot
Gardening is all about location, location, location. One of the most common gardening mistakes is picking the wrong place to grow anything. Keep this checklist in mind when you choose the perfect spot:
- Your vegetable garden needs to receive at least eight hours of sunlight a day.
- It needs good drainage, ideally with a slight slope.
- It needs protection from direct, cold wind.
- Don’t garden near trees, so established roots cannot absorb the nutrients in your garden soil.
- Choose a site as close to your house and kitchen as possible. The closer the bed is to your door, the easier it is to reach daily and keep a watchful eye on its progress.
2. Planning Too Big
What are your gardening goals? Do you want a surplus to freeze or preserve, or just enough vegetables and herbs to enjoy fresh through the season? A common gardening mistake is biting off more than you can chew. Dream big, but be realistic about how large a garden you can truly tend. If this is your first garden, start small with a few short rows or a raised bed, and limit yourself to two or three vegetables so you can learn as you go. Gardening should be rewarding, but it is also hard work. Have an enjoyable season this year and you are apt to do it again next year.
3. Poor Plot Prep
Fall is the best time to turn the soil in a new garden site, since the exposed roots, grass, and weeds die off over the cold winter. But do not let a missed fall stop you from tilling a new bed this spring. Spring tilling just takes a little more effort. Using a shovel and hoe or a rototiller, turn the soil when it is moist but not wet, which keeps clumps from forming as it dries. Before planting, remove any weeds, roots, and grass to prevent regrowth.
4. Not Testing the Soil First
Some vegetables, like tomatoes, do better in slightly acidic soil. To determine the pH of your soil, pick up a soil test kit from a garden center, big box store, or your local agricultural extension office. Once you know whether your soil leans alkaline or acidic, you can amend it with lime, sulfur, or organic matter depending on the soil’s condition and the crops you plan to grow. The University of Minnesota Extension recommends testing your soil every three to five years, and notes that spring before planting or fall after harvest are the best times to take a sample.
5. Using Chemical Fertilizers
Reaching for chemical fertilizers instead of organic ones to save money is tempting. Yet organic fertilizers deliver superior, long-range results. Derived naturally from animal, vegetable, or mineral sources, they feed your plants steadily and leave behind a longer-lasting, healthier soil. Or try these homemade fertilizers!
6. Planting Too Early
Sunny, warm days tempt us outdoors to plant. Yet we know from experience that the weather can swing hard, especially in early spring. Those tender transplants set out on a warm day cannot simply be dug up and brought back inside when a cold snap arrives a week later. It is not just the air temperature you need to watch, but the soil temperature too. Most crops need warm soil before planting.
Cool-weather crops like onion, garlic, peas, spinach, turnips, kale, radish, asparagus, and lettuce can generally go in the garden as soon as the soil can be worked, or near the date of the last frost. Before planting, consult the Farmers’ Almanac Average Frost Dates calendar or your agricultural extension office for the average last spring frost in your area. And be patient.
7. Not Weeding Smart
Weeds can overtake a garden if you are not careful. Be smarter than a weed. Follow these tips to keep them in check:
- Always plant vegetable seeds the same day you till, after you have removed weeds, roots, and rocks and raked the soil. If you leave the site unplanted for several days after tilling, the tiny weed seeds just beneath the surface will sprout in abundance and quickly overtake your vegetables. If you cannot plant right after tilling, cover the bed with black plastic sheeting or heavy mulch until you are ready.
- If you planted using stakes and string, you can carefully unearth the tender, shallow weeds that pop up along your plantings after a few days with a garden rake, without disturbing your seedlings.
- Weed after a rain or watering, when new weed sprouts appear in abundance. Wait until the plant foliage dries off, though, to avoid spreading disease.
- Mulching reduces the loss of moisture and nutrients in the soil and cuts the time you spend pulling weeds. Spread mulch thickly for sufficient weed control. Weed after harvest too, to reduce weed repopulation in the seasons ahead.
A Few More Gardening Mistakes to Watch For
Once the big seven are behind you, a handful of smaller slip-ups still catch gardeners off guard:
- Overwatering. More plants are drowned than dried out. Let the top inch of soil dry before you water again, and water deeply at the base rather than lightly over the leaves.
- Crowding plants. Seedlings look small, but they grow. Follow the spacing on the seed packet so air can move and disease stays down.
- Ignoring companions. Some crops help each other and some do not. Keep tomatoes away from potatoes, and pair friendly neighbors using our companion planting guide.
- Skipping the harvest window. Picking too early or too late costs you flavor and yield. Check each crop’s days to maturity and keep up with ripe produce so plants keep producing.
Avoid these and the seven above, and you will set yourself up for gardening success, so you will be glad to return again next year.
Check out our Planting Guides for tips on planting your favorite vegetables.
Gardening Mistakes: Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common gardening mistake beginners make?
Planning too big. A first garden is easier to keep up with when you start small, with a few short rows or a raised bed and just two or three crops. You can always expand next season once you have a feel for the work.
How much sunlight does a vegetable garden need?
A vegetable garden needs at least eight hours of direct sunlight a day. Pick a spot with good drainage and a slight slope, shelter from cold wind, and distance from trees whose roots would steal nutrients from your beds.
When is it too early to plant the garden?
It is too early when the soil is still cold, even on a warm day. Most crops need warm soil before planting. Cool-weather crops like peas, spinach, kale, and lettuce can go in as soon as the soil can be worked or near your last frost date, which you can find on the Farmers’ Almanac Average Frost Dates calendar.
Should I use organic or chemical fertilizer?
Organic fertilizers are the better long-range choice. Derived from animal, vegetable, or mineral sources, they feed plants steadily and improve the soil over time, while chemical fertilizers offer a quick boost without building lasting soil health.
How often should I test my garden soil?
Test every three to five years, and any time you convert a lawn to a bed or notice poor plant performance. Spring before planting or fall after harvest are the best times to take a sample, and a test tells you the pH so you can amend with lime, sulfur, or organic matter.
What is the best way to keep weeds out of the garden?
Plant the same day you till, mulch thickly to smother sprouts and hold moisture, and weed after a rain once the foliage has dried. Weeding after harvest too keeps weed seeds from repopulating your beds the following season.
Deborah Tukua
Deborah Tukua is a natural living, healthy lifestyle writer and author of 7 non-fiction books, including Pearls of Garden Wisdom: Time-Saving Tips and Techniques from a Country Home, Pearls of Country Wisdom: Hints from a Small Town on Keeping Garden and Home, and Naturally Sweet Blender Treats. Tukua has been a writer for the Farmers' Almanac since 2004.
- Deborah Tukua
- Deborah Tukua
- Deborah Tukua
- Deborah Tukua
I know this may be a conflict with Farmers Almanac but take a look at Square Foot Gardening. It helps to eliminate a lot of the problems associated with growing your own produce. You can grow as much or as little as you want.
I’m an avid gardener who likes gardening organically. I have clay soil and was advised not to amend it as I might make matters worse. Well, after trying my best for many years I realized my plants weren’t growing well. From thereon I began adding compost or well rotted composted manure to the planting hole each time I planted. I also began top dressing my garden with 1 inches of either well rotted manure or compost each spring. This feeds my plants the entire year so I don’t need to use fertilizer. And it’s relatively inexpensive. My garden now looks great. I also use Biotone Organic Starter Fertilizer at planting time ONLY – I just sprinkle a little into the planting hole to get my plants off to a good start. I wish I started doing this years ago.
Turning the soil is actually bad for it. It disrupts millions of biomes that are needed to make your plants healthy. There are no -till methods now that are way better for the earth and your plants. I would also suggest pulling weeds by hand, I’ve been a landscaper/ horticulturist / landscape designer for 25 years and I’ve never used a rake effectively for weeding. Grab the weed at the base and turn as you pull, this will get the roots too and if you don’t they will just grow back, Make sure you pull weeds before they go to seed or you’ll be pulling exponentially more weeds in a few weeks.