It's a toss up between the weeds and the bugs. Last year I was faithful about weeding until I had to go out of town for a week for work. I was never able to catch up after that. Cucumber beatles are evil little beasties too. I try and keep the bug control organic until I absolutely can't take it anymore. When the cucumber beatles were out of control last year, I dusted with Sevin. So much for organic!

The kibitzers who come around and offer unsolicited advice, especially advice in the form of a question like "Why don't you just get plants from the nursery? Why do you start with seed?"

I get overwhelmed with weeding and being scared to death of running into a snake! But I love nothing more than flowers.

What I enjoy least is when mosquito and black fly season begins, and I can no longer work in the garden without being attacked. I don't use the toxic bugs sprays, so I have to wear this horrendous mosquito hat/face cover, if I decide to foolishly go out anyway. Let's just say, it ain't pretty.

Of course, I don't enjoy weeding, either...

Here in Ontario, there's not much gardening from November to the end of March. What I hate the most is the way my muscles feel when I start up again in April - oh! my aching back! I weeded a major perennial bed today - even my hands are sore :) But it's worth it!

My five least favorite are Weeding, weeding, weeding weeding, and weeding

My least favorite thing about gardening is having to do it on a hot and humid day. I love to garden in the spring and in the fall. When Connecticut feels like a tropical rain forest, without the rain, I often let things go hoping for a cooler day "tomorrow", then "tomorrow" doesn't come and pretty soon things are out of control. Maybe I should move. :)

Those darn little black and green beetles that take over the yard each year. I live just south of Altanta, not sure what they are. They last only a few weeks and don't really seem to do any harm to most of the plants. The only way to get rid of them and not the plant is to knock them off into a bucket of soapy water. Thousands of them I say!

The bugs, without a doubt; and not the ones that attack my plants, the ones that attack me! I don't mind weeding, but I often have to do it after coming home from work... just about the same time that the clouds of gnats swarm and the mosquitoes appear.

Waiting. After laying out the garden, making beds, planting seeds and watering... the waiting. It gets me every year! Was the temp right, am I watering too much, not enough? Were the seeds still good, did I plant too close, too far apart? It's been a week, why is nothing sprouting??? Maybe I should have done a soil test! 10 days.. Should I reseed??? Then... little sprouts start showing and all is well. Gets me every year!!!

In this order:
1. Aphids and scale
2. Weeding
3. Standing around watering everything, which can take a half hour. We need RAIN!!!!

The thing I like least is going and buying a really nice plant, bringing it home, doing all the right stuff for it and then the thing just goes and dies on me anyway! This year I'm trying not to buy anything from a nursery that is already growing, I'm starting everything either from bulbs or seeds in hope that they will adjust better to weather/soil/etc...from the get go...so far so good...I have not killed anything yet! *lol*

woodywoodchuck: I am right there with you....You wait and worry. Why arent they sprouting, what iof I put them too close together or too far apart and they look aweful. What if the seeds are too old. UGH. I also am not a fan of the tomato hornworm or any bug I have not become familiar with. If I have had it before I have a better chance of organically getting rid of it. Now I am in a new state and climate and I am up for new bugs and problems. YIKES

Cleaning up and putting away after I'm finished for the day.

Di

In addition to weeding, which is high on almost everyone's list, (and you have to wonder how DID our forefarthers manage to clear land and weeds with their simple tools!!)I hate having to try and do the heavy manual labor stuff. Like edging all the garden beds, spreading 12 cu yards of mulch (loading my little John Deere wagon, driving, unloading & spreading - and still not having enough!) I just don't have the strength for proper edging and my edges run 300+ ft. on each side of the yard! I don't have the extra $ for power tools and landscape companies have gotten all into only hardscape and mowing lawns. Yes, there is a power mulch spray company too but big $$$. Around here you can't find teenagers anymore who are willing to work in a yard for money...(snow removal too.) As for the bugs - I never go out without Deet on my face, neck, ears, armpits and wear long trousers because of the deer ticks. And once sunset is starting I'm back in the house.

All I can do is a little each day or so after a long day at work, on weekends, and all my vacation time is spent on the yard. I'm a shrub person, not flowers (except one small enclosed garden for some annuals) and the watering each year is a nightmare even with soaker hoses. I always worry that I haven't watered long enough.

I don't mind weeding so much as I derive great satisfaction from it except for two weeds in particular. Quackgrass and violets. Those long shoots spearing roots as they spread only to sprout grassy messes among my johnson blue geraniums are a pain to eliminate! What a thrill when you manage to remove a nice long underground shoot conecting to more plants. It's like hitting the jackpot! The violets are sly ones looking so pretty in the spring that I can't bear to pull them up just yet and when I do it breaks away so easily from the clump of tubers below making this job a lesson in frustration.

Cutting grass! Nothing dumber than marching up and down twice a week (during the rainier weeks) to keep the grass tidy. I continue to create new beds in an effort to reduce the overal lawn size, but it's still there to be cut. I'd rather be weeding, frankly.

My 4 least favorite are snakes, ticks, mosquitos, and weeding. Have had to many run ins with copperheads over the years and the ticks are awfull this year in TN. And I cannot convince the bugs that I'm not their dessert..LOL. Hey Chris ont I cut 7 acres and find that way more fun then weeding any day.
Martha

Cleaning everything up for the winter!

all of you who listed weeding need to get a propane weed flaming torch. its fun! you'll never complain about weeding again, you get to roast the weeds and watch them wither and die before your very eyes. also nice because its organic so no chemicals to mix and no sprayer to clean.

my least favorite garden chore is probably clean-up. i like to play but when im done, im done.

The work.

I couldn't agree more about the weeding torch. Those of you who have unfounded paranoia about Roundup will find this to be an alternative that WORKS!

Dumping annuals when late fall comes.

sdrawkcab - I didn't even know they existed and just ordered one from Amazon. Its the small one that uses a screw-on propane container. We have a stream so can't use Roundup in that area. This sounds perfect!!

The propane torch is great for grass or weeds that get in tight places like between bricks or stepping stones. If you have unwanted vines on a CHAIN LINK fence, just burn the base of the vines and the whole vine dies. Not a good idea with a WOOD fence!
Nutsedge comes back again and again, but finally the nutlets use up all their stored nutrition and they die. The torch with the 4 ft. length reach beats bending over to pull up weeds by a long shot.

Just received notification via the site Amazon deals with that the little propane torch isn't available. :-((

Can anyone tell me where I might find one? I'll check our local big boxes.

Carol

Wantoretire - Gempler's has several large professional flamers; LeeValley has one of the larger ones (these are both good companies to deal with). DR has a medium-small torch @ http://www.drpower.com/prdSell.aspx?X=1&Name=WeedTorch&p1Name=Lawn&Chap=WeedControl&src=AW51567XE2553829.

'Whateverworks' has a small flamer, probably what you are looking for (company okay, IMO shipping a bit slow). I've seen them in other small catalogs. The local HD (in Virginia) also had a small torch in stock but about $10 more than most catalogs. I find the smallest more than adequate, and now that I think of it, HD price is probably okay due to inflation since I bought mine.

Here is a link that might be useful: weed flamer