In the summer it's watering. Even tho' we have a huge irrigation system that normally functions quite well, our summers just get to be too much and I find myself draging hoses around to give extra water where it's needed.

In the winter it's pruning just about everything -- Salvias, roses, grapes, fruit trees and shrubs.

Caring for over an acre of gardens requires some effort.

My expansive english-style flower beds require long hours of weeding, deadheading, cutting back, dividing, mulching, fertilizing, the list goes on and on.... The annuals need to be thinned, planted and removed twice a year. The vegetable garden needs to be planted, hand watered, weeded, harvested and pulled out every year. As to the lawn, it's watered by automatic sprinklers, needs fifteen minutes of mowing about every 10 days, and I pay someone to dethatch it every couple of years. I may spread ant killer on it once in a while. It always amazes me that people consider lawns high maintenance, it's the easiest thing in the whole yard to deal with.

Mine is definitely the "irrigation system", since we don't have one, and I water everything that needs it by hand during the dry seasons. My plants are randomly placed throughout the yard, with no specific beds, in a cottage-style setup, so it's always fun to see what plants hold up while I drag the hose over them. :)

Brenda

The lawn is less maintenance as I reduce how much lawn we have and replace with plants. Not the most time consuming, but it's the least enjoyable and I feel wasteful(water) for me to have. But I'm working on it!

A good part of time is also controlling ivy from the previous residents. It covers the top half of our back slope, and I can't yet remove it all for fear of serious erosion problems and a lack of a good replacement plan. That stuff is evil, should be illegal to plant in the ground!

Most of my time gardening is probably doing enjoyable things. Watering, pruning, propagating cuttings, planting, collecting seeds, watching hummingbirds, lizards and insects, and a little weeding I consider relaxing and fun. Those things make time fly, so hard to say how much time I spend on them. Plus they can be done for just a few minutes at a time when I have time during the day.

The shorter days make me wish I had more time during Fall when the temperature is good for doing everything.

I will choose a group of plants....Roses! They REQUIRE more time in terms of deadheading, pruning, fertilizing, checking for disease, spraying, etc. I only have a "few" by some standards, but they are still more work than any of the other gazillion plants in my garden.
Second is Clematis who are heavy feeders and need careful pruning as to type throughout the blooming season.

wanda

Hands down....watering. In late Summer in SoCal means every day - Santa Ana's mean twice a day (but what a pleasure early in the a.m on a warm and crystal clear morning - I just wish I could stay there all day and not go to work!)

Sluggo'ing and regular whacking back, so it looks like a garden and not a jungle.

Beating the bougainvillea "barabara Karst" back into submission, deadheading several large stands of cannas, and last and worst, the horrible and frequently messy inflorescence and fruit of the Queen Palms.

Another vote for watering. DH put in an irrigation system this fall and I am expecting miracles next summer...we'll see.

It would be watering. I've been slowly switching everything over to a soaker hose system (the 1/4" Raindrip stuff that I get at Lowe's). The garden looks like black spaghetti rained down in winter, but it's easy to assemble and repair. It's going to take a LOT of "black spaghetti" to eliminate the whole watering effort, though.

I have native plants in the front and back. Watering young plants through summer takes some time (1 hour a week), but as the plants get established, they need less or no water at all. Winter is the busiest time, when I spend 5-10 hours a week pruning, mulching, planting, weeding, and snail/slug hunting. By March, most all the work in the garden is done; the rest of the year, I coast and take it easy.

It's not a requirement, but I spend a lot of time walking around, thinking about what I SHOULD be doing. Especially about my clay slope I'm trying to establish with drought tolerant natives that thrive in clay soil...I have few REQUIREMENTS in my garden, but attending to irrigation is a really, really should. This includes making sure it's not being wasted, babying along new plants then adjusting back. Seeding vegetables in the early winter takes time too.

Last year I would have said watering, but we use a drip system now. What an amazing difference. I would have also said my lantana requires a lot of attention just to keep it from taking over. This year the "boys" said "just leave it mom and see what it does". It pretty much grew over everything else in their bed. So... the thing in my garden this year that requires the most attention by far would be the fountain. With the high heat and wind it would run dry or almost dry every other day.

I hope new gardeners are reading this. My worst job is pruning vigorous shrubs/vines that never should have been planted on a city lot. The culprits:

unnamed Escallonia that wants to be 15 feet tall (and wide) in front of a window (3 are out - 1 to go)
Hardenbergia - likes to cover the roof
Jasmine - ditto plus likes to crawl under fences and cover the boat next door
Budleias - my error. Can't quite bear to eradicate but a job to saw back every year

Trying to control Kikuyu Grass. It grows from stolons, seeds, rhizomes, teleportation (o.k. I made the last up but seriously, it's impossible). It grows in full sun, it grows in full shade it will grow in standing water, it will turn brown if not watered in summer but returns with the first winter rains (a clump allegedly survived two years covered by the Salton Sea and began growing again when it receded).

Ryan

Definitely cleaning up the debris from eucalyptus trees - leaves, pods, and fallen branches. But I do love their airy height,the shade they give on a hot, sunny California day, the home they give to birds, and a place to hang a hammock to watch the sky through the filter of the tree canopy.

Keeping a schedule of pruning azaleas, rhodes and others so flowering will happen next spring/summer is hardest for me. I know this next year the camellias, azaleas and rhodes won't bloom cuz I was too late.

Penny

The things I spend most time on are watering, weeding, tidying, and pest conrol -- things I hate. Far less time is required and spent on things I love, such as pruning for shape. This leads to my 18th law of home agrodynamics: The enjoyment derived from garden tasks is inversely proportional to the time necessitated for their execution.

Bob

In my personal yard it used to be lawn care ... now my lawn is gone .. so that leaves the juncture between my pool and two Summac trees. I like the way the two play off each other but it requires a lot of attention otherwise the two do not work together.

Good Day ...

Excellent question to hear others answers to!!!!
I spend a lot of time dead heading and cleaning up daylilies. Along with cottage gardens comes deadheading...but it's definitely worth it...I used to spend an inordinate amount of time picking rose petals out from everything that grows around them. One day I decided to use my shop vac and it works like a champ!!! Saves me endless hours of stooping...my neighbors think I'm CRAZY...hey...whatever works...

I hear a lot of people moan about watering. I used to use soaker hoses as well but was always cutting through them and didn't like the way they looked.
I finally put in an underground pvc system...BUT...it is not hooked up to the main water line...I installed it as if it were but instead used "hose to pipe" fittings. I just hook the garden hose up to it and turn it on. This saved a huge amount of digging, a ton of pipe, and a much easier way to water.
Each section of the garden has it's own hook up. I just go from one section to the other. While one section is being watered I can dead head or just sit and relax. I use "stream bubbler heads" NOT SPRAY HEADS...this keeps foliage dry and prevents mildew etc. I adjust/shut off individual heads as needed depending on what I've planted.

If you have semi decent water pressure you can do this easily and not have to cut in to main water lines of the house. It is infinitely easier than hand watering. Sch. 40 pvc works best...it's very hard to break with a shovel.
I also only buried the pipe 6 inches...a lot easier...

A shut off valve at the end of the hose makes it easy to go from one section to the next without turning the bib on and off. I also use the "swivel" elbows to easily adjust angles etc.

I found this was totally worth the investment and saves a huge amount of time and labor. You can also add drip lines to it for potted plants on walls in trees etc.

This was very easy to do and didn't involve having to blast under sidewalks, patios, tree roots etc.etc.

Try it!

Wow, that's a great idea to use hose to pipe fittings with PVC! And to have different sections. I may just take your advice, maybe next Summer because of my precious seedlings sprouting everywhere now.

Thank you also for the hilarious mental image of someone shop-vac'ing their garden. That's called a passion for gardening, whatever works!

When you mention vacuuming the garden, I have an electric blower/vacuum that slings over the shoulder for cleaning up after Barbara Karst. I have never used the blower option. I highly recommend it. It weighs less than 10lbs and has an easy to empty bag. I bought it at Sears a few years ago. It is not a wetvac, I also use it around the garage for cobwebs and sawdust.

In the next months, the biggies are repotting large pots (at least six 24"ers) and pruning a couple of out-of-hand climbing roses. Madame Alfred is taking over the back of the house.... the rule is to start with the dead wood - I don't know if I will be able to find it or reach it.

The irrigation always feels like an ongoing chore. I think I've got it taken care of and as some plants grow - they block a sprinkler or the drip is not enough or, or, or.... constant adjusting and I'm never confident that I've got it right.