So many of the problems we have in the garden can be traced back to our own bad habits.
   We can blame ourselves for excessive lawn weeds if we mow the grass too short or for disease if we mow too infrequently.  Ill-timed or excessive pruning of shrubs and plants can lead to no blooms, an ugly shape or a flush of unwanted sucker growth. Over mulching trees and plants put them at risk to stress, especially during droughts.
   What about all that spring fertilizer you apply to the lawn instead of or in addition to a fall application? Lawn-choking thatch may result.
   It is never too late make resolutions, so even though it is well past New Year’s Day, I propose we vow to maintain good gardening routines in 2008.
Consider this as a test and ask yourself which of the following and other bad – and potentially costly - habits follow you around the garden year after year.
   Planting with a blind eye to the future makes for more work in the long run.
Chose the right plant for the right site and don’t plant trees and shrubs too close together, too close to the house or under utility lines. Proper placement allows plants to reach full potential in a sunny, shady or protected spot without competition. Look up and out so that you won’t be tempted (or by required by utility companies) later to top or remove a tree or shrub.
   Tree topping, simply put, is bad, resulting in the opposite of what most offenders are trying to achieve. Most homeowners top trees to reduce their size. Instead, they grow twice as fast by putting out weak sucker growth. The tree is not only unattractive but, more important, can be dangerous.
   Large pruning wounds invite insects and diseases, which combined with weak sucker growth, makes for a tree more susceptible to breaking apart or toppling under ice, wind, snow and heavy rain. Certified arborists can help homeowners control growth with the tree’s health (and surrounding buildings) in mind.
   Mowing frequency and lawnmower settings are out of control. We either contract a service that mows grass once a week even when it doesn’t need to be done, or we loathe the job so much that we scalp our lawns monthly or whenever we get around to doing it.
   People are pulled between doing the right thing and the notion of saving time:  Do we follow recommended guidelines and mow at 2½-3 inches, or do we crank the mower blades below 2 inches so we won’t have to mow again so soon? Mowing shorter then 2 inches opens the lawn up to more weeds and stress during the hot dry summer months, leading to a short, weedy lawn with dead patches.
   Over-mulching seems to be epidemic.  The mentality must be, “If the neighbors are using a foot of mulch then I should, too.” Not true. Two inches of mulch is all you need to moderate soil temperature and moisture, keep weeds down and provide a safe distance between the plant and any mowing equipment. More than that smothers the plant’s root system.
   Too much mulch deprives plants and trees of the oxygen needed to take in nutrients and water and encourages root growth into the material, making the plant more susceptible to drought. Research also suggests that mounds of mulch increase the incidence of girdled roots, which can cause the eventual decline of trees, especially during times of stress.
   Failure to follow directions is an almost ingrained-from-birth tendency for many of us. I remember my third-grade teacher once instructed us to read an entire quiz before we began filling in any answers. The last question instructed us to do nothing. Of course, most of us had already started put down answers before we reached the end.
   The lesson was not lost on me. We should always thoroughly read label instructions on chemicals and other garden products before we apply them. First, be sure you have the right product for the routine task or properly diagnosed problem.  Then be sure the product can be used on the plant, that you time the application right, and that you use the correct amount.
   Fungicides do not kill Japanese beetles, and too much fertilizer (organic or conventional) will burn up anything it touches.
   I had no cucumbers in 2006 because I failed to follow directions. Actually, I read the directions, but my mind chose to interpret them based on some assumptions about a bottle equipped with a spray nozzle.  Within hours of incorrectly applying an organic fertilizer, every leaf on every vine hung limp and shriveled in the sun. My cucumbers were dead by my own hand.
   Certainly there are many things we do right in the garden but be mindful of the things that we commonly, or accidentally, do that only contribute to some of the challenges we face each year.
   Here’s to happy and fruitful gardening in 2008.

   Jeneen Wiche writes a weekly syndicated garden columnist, co-host of a radio gardening program and producer of a TV segment on lawns and gardens. She and her husband, Andrew Smart, live in Simpsonville, where they care for Swallow Rail, the horticultural farm her father, the late Fred Wiche, built and began planting in 1979. You can contact her at JWiche@aol.com or write to her at 2340 Connor Station Road, Simpsonville, Ky. 40067.

By Jeneen Wiche
SPECIAL TO KENTUCKY FARM BUREAU