Gardening success means avoiding these common mistakes

An image showing "volcano mulching" applied around a young dogwood tree. The practice is detrimental to trees and often results in their slow death. Photos: Jessica Damiano/AP

Much of gardening is learned by trial and error – for many, mostly error.

Planting a shade-lover in full sun isn’t likely to breed success, nor is letting your emotions run rampant at the nursery. But we’ve all been there, and the good news is we can learn from others’ mistakes as well as our own.