10+ major gardening mistakes made by beginners

Experienced gardeners have many things in common -- they love plants, get pleasure from watching them grow, enjoy working in the soil, and delight in the harvest and beauty that their efforts yield.
Another thing you can count on is that these same gardeners have all gained their experiences by learning from their mistakes. Whether you're new to gardening or you're an old hand, you'll benefit from the mistakes they made and are willing to share with you.
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Read about 10 of the most common gardening errors that beginning gardeners should avoid. After all, forewarned is forearmed!
1. Spending too much money
If you’re just starting out, don’t get carried away on gardening equipment. All you need right now are a few items:
• Pitchfork
• Spade shovel
• Garden rake
• Trowel
• Gloves
 Stock-Asso / Shutterstock
2. Planting too early
Although you might be impatient to get started planting, resist the urge to put your seedlings into the ground too early or a late frost could send you back to the garden center for replacement plants.
 Kostenko Maxim / Shutterstock
3. Choosing a bad location
Make sure your garden is handy for both you and your water supply. Also, most plants will require at least six hours of sun each day, so lay out your new garden in a convenient and sunny location with a source of water nearby.
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4. Planting too much
Don’t let your enthusiasm for spring cause you to plant more than you can handle. Everything you plant comes with a laundry list of maintenance tasks that includes watering, weeding, feeding, pruning and harvesting. Start out small with a few rows or a small bed, and expand from there.
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5. Planting too closely
Why leave 3 feet between your tomato plants when you can squeeze them closer? The reason is that they're going to grow and fill in very quickly. Plants that are too tightly spaced can’t get enough sun and air circulation, which can result in disease and a low harvest.
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6. Ignoring maintenance
Without regular water and food, plants stress out and shut down. With too much competition from weeds for water and nutrients, your plants will not grow properly and will yield less. Weeding, feeding and watering are requirements that can’t be ignored.
 Elena Masiutkina / Shutterstock
7. Not putting up a fence
If you choose to skip putting up a fence, the local animals could wipe out your harvest. Deer require a higher fence, but it’s worth it since they can damage your crops severely. Rabbits and groundhogs will be deterred by a short but sturdy fence that’s buried about a foot into the ground.
 Shcherbakov Ilya / Shutterstock
8. Using invasive plants
Planting invasive plants is a common mistake that gardeners make. Some of these plants grow out of control and can be extremely difficult to get rid of. Check online to make sure that a plant you’re considering isn’t going to turn into a nightmare.
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9. Skimping on soil
If you start off with poor soil, you’ll be toiling against it all season. Work a 2-inch layer of compost into your soil before you plant. Your soil will reward you with healthy plants if you give it infusions of organic matter regularly.
 Jurga Jot / Shutterstock
10. Not staggering harvest times
You need to do some strategic planning to stagger your harvest times. Otherwise, you’ll be eating lettuce every night for a brief time but not throughout the season. Stagger your harvests with succession planting and planting varieties that mature at different times.
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