What useful ‘tips’ have proved questionable?

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Some ‘tips and tricks’ or ‘hacks’ that you read or hear about can be really useful – and some can be not so useful at all. I’m a keen but not terribly expert gardener so I keep an eye and ear out for useful tips, for example in magazines or on radio programmes. One such was the recommendation to use old nylon tights to tie up plants such as roses, as the fabric is more stretchy and less rough than string or wire, so less damaging to the stems. Well I do tend to accumulate old tights and stockings because my rough fingers (often from gardening, ironically) snag the material and cause laddering. So I thought that sounded like a good idea. And true enough, they do a good job of tying up the plants. The snag is – they look awful! You might think that shades of brown would blend in with the leaves and branches but no. And in winter when the leaves have fallen (or in this case when the deer have eaten the leaves they can reach), it’s really not an attractive sight! What tips have you tried that didn’t work out so well? All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2025.