f-ing seeds gardening rant

I wanted the 'magic carpet' creeping Thyme as a ground cover ... native to the US and hard to get the seeds in Europe.

Found a store who sold the mature plants for a ridiculously high price, but I wanted to plant a rather large area with it so I searched further for the seeds. Thought about importing from the US, but again, import prices are extremely high, for seeds....

So I found a store in The Netherlands who sold them, from a seeds brand called 'Holly Tops' (reviews were rather good) so I bought 3000 seeds.
why 3000? Because Thyme does not grow so well and when you sow directly into the ground only about 1/3th of the seeds sprout.

So 3000 seeds, of which I planted about 100 in pots as a backup, the rest went straight in the ground.
Thyme seeds are so small, they are like grains of sand... so I really thought I had the right seeds.

it took over 6 weeks for the first sprouts to appear, and after that they stayed small for a long time.
Last week they started growing pretty fast.
I knew right away this wasn't Thyme!!!!!! But decided to wait a bit and find out what I had planted.

So now I have a large patch of my garden grown with Nightshade!
A white flower is appearing today, so I guess it's the Black Nightshade, not the Belladonna.

I don't understand how this happened, (well I do, I got scammed by the seeds seller!!!)
I thought Nightshade seeds were much bigger??? Bigger then Thyme seeds anyway.
It are not wild plants randomly growing, the seeds I planted in the pots are sprouting the same as those in the ground)

I love my garden but right now I'm hating it so f-ing much!!! Hours and hours of work for nothing!!!

a reply to: KindraLabelle2

Sounds like my kind of luck.
Wicked bummer, sorry to hear about the sham.

The good news is that today is the first day of another 12 day heatwave.
If I don't water them, they will die quickly.

a reply to: KindraLabelle2

Gardening can be a hassle.. for many reasons..

I am currently figuring out that what would be the best way to kill my lawn.. Want to replace it with clovers..

originally posted by: XipeTotex
a reply to: KindraLabelle2

Gardening can be a hassle.. for many reasons..

I am currently figuring out that what would be the best way to kill my lawn.. Want to replace it with clovers..

My wife said the same thing last week.

I hate the lawn so I guess I'm in. Probably don't need to kill it so much as just let the covers take over.

Grass is meant for fields, just mow it short a few times and it won't recover.

originally posted by: XipeTotex
a reply to: KindraLabelle2

Gardening can be a hassle.. for many reasons..

I am currently figuring out that what would be the best way to kill my lawn.. Want to replace it with clovers..

That's what I did, before sowing the seeds

I dug out almost 30cm of the top soil, the grass and roots. Should be enough to plant a ground cover on it.

And the patches with grass, I just place them elsewhere, upside down. The roots will die and then you can just bury them so it can decompose

originally posted by: lordcomac

Grass is meant for fields, just mow it short a few times and it won't recover.

I've tried that for many years and it always recovered...

I remember reading some news reports and a warning issued about seeds from China. I guess they were sending noxious invasive weed seeds in packages for other common garden seeds.

I have some belladonna that came up in my starting bed along with less than half the seeds I planted coming up. That was from a wild plant from last season I believe. At least I got lots of fennel to grow.

a reply to: KindraLabelle2

My late step father was drunk and bought his yearly "Beefsteak" tomatoes...only they weren't: they were Cherry Tomatoes.

He kept wondering why they weren't getting bigger!*

*Never shop garden stuff while drunk!!😎✌️

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

When you search for seeds on Etsy, you find these stories in the reviews a lot. People getting entirely other things then what they ordered.
I bought mine from a brand that has mostly good reviews, they were in packages, like the ones you buy in the stores

a reply to: mysterioustranger




good enough advice!

a reply to: KindraLabelle2

An add: I do think we can drink-while-gardening....just not drink-while-planting!!

originally posted by: KindraLabelle2

I knew right away this wasn't Thyme!!!!!!

Have you thought about finding a use for those plants that will grow in the end, even if it's not thyme?

originally posted by: turretless

originally posted by: KindraLabelle2

I knew right away this wasn't Thyme!!!!!!

Have you thought about finding a use for those plants that will grow in the end, even if it's not thyme?

No, I won't keep them.
The unripe berries of Black Nightshade are poisonous, and my dog has eaten my plants before so...

a reply to: KindraLabelle2

Take a hoe to them before the heat. That'll assure they die.

Have you contacted the provider? Maybe it was a mistake and they'll make good. Worth a try.

originally posted by: incoserv
a reply to: KindraLabelle2

Take a hoe to them before the heat. That'll assure they die.

Have you contacted the provider? Maybe it was a mistake and they'll make good. Worth a try.

You mean a hose?
Water them in the burning sun to make them die?
I thought not watering them at all would do the trick. New sprouts and no rain for the next 10 days... the ground is dryer then ever already

originally posted by: KindraLabelle2

originally posted by: incoserv
a reply to: KindraLabelle2

Take a hoe to them before the heat. That'll assure they die.

Have you contacted the provider? Maybe it was a mistake and they'll make good. Worth a try.

You mean a hose?
Water them in the burning sun to make them die?
I thought not watering them at all would do the trick. New sprouts and no rain for the next 10 days... the ground is dryer then ever already

A hoe is a farm implement for cutting weeds in the garden. Just a horizontal blade at the end of a stick.... Not watering the DNS might do the trick but there are natural herbicides that will kill them. Don't use Roundup!!!!

originally posted by: olaru12

originally posted by: KindraLabelle2

originally posted by: incoserv
a reply to: KindraLabelle2

Take a hoe to them before the heat. That'll assure they die.

Have you contacted the provider? Maybe it was a mistake and they'll make good. Worth a try.

You mean a hose?
Water them in the burning sun to make them die?
I thought not watering them at all would do the trick. New sprouts and no rain for the next 10 days... the ground is dryer then ever already

A hoe is a farm implement for cutting weeds in the garden. Just a horizontal blade at the end of a stick.... Not watering the DNS might do the trick but there are natural herbicides that will kill them. Don't use Roundup!!!!

aah, I know the tool you mean, didn't know the English word for it

With all the pets running around I never use poison in and around the house.

It sucks when you buy seeds only to find they are not the seeds they are supposed to be. One time I planted carrot seeds and I thought they looked wrong and up came some other plants in that row. I never did find out what kind of plants they grew, but I didn't mix them up, all the other marked rows were the right plants. Carrots don't grow that well on my land anyway, I have lots of clay in the soil. I thought about putting them in planters, putting fencing around the planters to keep the deer from eating them. My potato plants look like cornstocks that were mowed down with a scickle... but all the other plants in my garden are gone now, all eaten up. I may get about five pounds of baby potatoes out of my garden hopefully, I planted probably ten pounds of sprouting potatoes. Oh well, that is life.

The problem with wrong seeds in a pack does happen occasionally here too. I planted some sage seeds in a planter and the only thing that came up was weeds, definitely nothing like sage.

originally posted by: rickymouse
It sucks when you buy seeds only to find they are not the seeds they are supposed to be. One time I planted carrot seeds and I thought they looked wrong and up came some other plants in that row. I never did find out what kind of plants they grew, but I didn't mix them up, all the other marked rows were the right plants. Carrots don't grow that well on my land anyway, I have lots of clay in the soil. I thought about putting them in planters, putting fencing around the planters to keep the deer from eating them. My potato plants look like cornstocks that were mowed down with a scickle... but all the other plants in my garden are gone now, all eaten up. I may get about five pounds of baby potatoes out of my garden hopefully, I planted probably ten pounds of sprouting potatoes. Oh well, that is life.

The problem with wrong seeds in a pack does happen occasionally here too. I planted some sage seeds in a planter and the only thing that came up was weeds, definitely nothing like sage.

Yes it really does suck. My husband keeps saying to just go and buy a couple mature plants in the garden center. But I don't need just 'a couple' I need a LOT if I want to cover the entire patch I intended to plant and it will become to costly. I can always do half this year and the rest next year, and then I'll have to start removing the grass again next spring... meh, feels like I'm getting to old to keep doing this year after year! LOL

The way you describe your potatoes, that is how mine always look and I was told they are supposed to look that way. My grandfather always said that once the flowers are gone,the leaves fall flat to the ground, then let them be for at least one to two months, even up until October, and you will get nice big potatoes. The leaves may look horrible but the potatoes in the ground keep on growing. I always get a nice batch this way.

Carrots are the only veggie that always fail for me because of the carrot flies (they eat the roots). I tried to cover them with a net, plant in pots, but I never get carrots under the leaves.
Everything else goes in the greenhouses or it gets eaten by the wildlife

I love growing things, but every year, by the end of the season, I'm just completely done with it! And every year I start again, LOL..... like I said before, a love-hate relationship with my garden