The things we got wrong
This page is a log of the mistakes we made before we knew better. It’s here so you can see what we’ve learned—and what we’re still figuring out.
The best gardening advice isn’t just the tips that work; it’s the ones that *almost* worked, the ones that failed in ways that taught us more than success ever could.
Most sites hide their failures. We don’t. If you spot something here that doesn’t add up—soil pH numbers that don’t match real-world tests, a planting guide that contradicts what actually grows in your zone—you’re not just reading a mistake.
You’re seeing proof that we’re still digging in the dirt with you, and that we’ll keep correcting ourselves as long as the garden does.
Three we had to fix
Here are the first three mistakes we caught—big enough to matter, small enough to fix. Each one changed how we write, test, and publish. And each one was found by someone who trusted us enough to point it out.
The pH chart that lied to everyone
- 1Wrong soil numbers in the guide
Our first soil pH chart claimed ‘6.0–7.0’ was ideal for tomatoes, straight from a textbook. But when readers in the Pacific Northwest started emailing—‘My tomatoes still wilt, even with that pH’—we tested it ourselves. Turns out, the *actual* range for their clay-heavy soil was 5.5–6.5, and the chart had never been updated since we copied it from a 2012 extension service PDF. It stayed live for nine months.
- 2The ‘perfect’ compost breakdown
We swore by a 3:1 brown-to-green ratio for compost, pulled from a viral blog. But after three batches turned sour in our urban bins, we measured the moisture and carbon-to-nitrogen ratios instead. The ‘perfect’ mix was useless if your brown material was just dried leaves instead of straw. The guide was rewritten in 48 hours, and we added a ‘test your pile’ section. Marisol Salazar fixed it.
- 3The ‘foolproof’ seed-starting hack
Our ‘no-soil’ seed-starting method—just damp paper towels in a ziplock—worked fine for basil but drowned pepper seeds in two days. We didn’t notice because we only tested it in March, not August. By the time a reader in Arizona pointed out their chili peppers rotted under the same method, we’d already shared it in three newsletters. The fix? A table of seed types with their *actual* moisture needs. Marisol Salazar caught it after the third complaint.
What those three changed
These weren’t just corrections. They rewrote how we work. No more copying charts without testing them. No more ‘hacks’ that sound good until they rot your plants. And no more waiting for readers to yell before we check our own math.
Rules that came from mistakes
- 1. Test every number. If it’s not measured in your own soil or bin, it’s a guess. (From *The pH chart that lied*)
- 2. Season matters. A method that works in spring might kill your plants in summer. (From *The ‘foolproof’ seed-starting hack*)
- 3. Update or delete. If you can’t verify it, take it down. (From *The ‘perfect’ compost breakdown*)
The people behind this
This is Marisol Salazar, founder and editor of *Weed And Feed*. She’s the one who dug up the pH chart, rewrote the compost guide, and still gets her hands dirty in the test beds behind our apartment.
You’ve already met her through the mistakes she fixed—and the ones she’s still learning from.
Keeping a log like this isn’t easy. It means admitting when you’re wrong in public, then doing the work to prove you’re not. It’s uncomfortable, but it’s also the only way to earn trust.
Marisol started this site because she’d spent years reading gardening advice that sounded right until it wasn’t—and she swore she’d never do that to someone else.
There’s a mistake she’ll never admit to publicly, though. The first time she tried growing cilantro from seed, she followed a ‘quick-sprout’ trick she’d read online: soak the seeds overnight. They didn’t just not sprout. They *molded*.
She threw the whole tray out before realizing the ‘trick’ was for coriander seeds, not cilantro. (She still keeps a jar of dried cilantro in the pantry for emergencies.)
If you find something we got wrong, don’t just tell us—show us. Bring the photo, the soil test, the wilted leaf. The contact page is where to send it.
There will be a next one
This list isn’t finished. We’ll keep adding to it as we find more—wrong pH numbers, planting dates that don’t match reality, or a ‘tip’ that only works if you’re not actually trying to grow food. If you spot something before we do, the contact page is where to tell us.
And if you’re reading this thinking *‘I’ve seen this happen elsewhere,’* you’re exactly why we’re doing this.
The guides are grouped by category: Advice, Aphids, How To, Landscaping, Lawn and Mower.