Okay, my turn. I am so tired of digging Smilax "potatoes" I could scream. I am so tired of landscapers who never show up to do the job they designed(6 months now).I am tired of dragging a hose around an acre and a half when I am supposed to have irrigation. I am tired of trying to keep my yard from rolling away down the hill when it rains. Tired of weed-eating my steep ditch, tired of picking up the pine cone chips squirrels drop from trees, tired of re-working a yard that the previous owners let go. I am tired of weeds that give birth to a kazillion babies in every flowerbed that I have ever had or thought of having. Mostly I am tired of heat and humidity and days so hot you can't work outside until the mosquitos come out! Ain't Georgia grand!

When, oh when will my 3 year old be able to reach the lawnmower handle??

I'm tired of dragging the danged hose all over the front yard; tired of sneaking out after dark to water on those days we're not supposed to for fear the plants will be dead by the time we hit the "OK to water" day and tired of my partner coming up with yet another "lets build a box to plant things in" (we've got...I'm not kidding...30 of those darn things built and filled in the front yard) suggestion. I'm fed up with something eating the leaves on my hostas and gingers and a blasted raccoon (now caught) eating the trillium bulbs. I'm tired of the planted things wilting but the frigging monkey grass (which we've sprayed with Round-Up, given away on FreeCycle, rototilled up and covered with black plastic and pine bark) growing just fine and dandy.

I'm so sick of all of this I bought a little tear drop trailer with the idea we could go camping at least some of the weekends we spend gardening.

There...I feel better.

Gail

i told everyone last week i was done planting for the year. Friday my friend calls and says, "hey, I've got those daylilies I promised you." The weekly neighborhood email said that a neighbor had liriope and a couple of Rose of Sharon to give away, and my neighbor called and said she had the yellow iris she promised me! So, all my good intension went west. I tilled the soil (again) and added more amendment and spent Sunday and Monday tilling, planting, watering etc - and now I need to go and weed another area that has suddenly gone crazy. On top of that there was a dreadful smell in the back of the garden - lived with it for a couple of days, called a friend over to check the sewer line that runs at the back of the property and low and behold the smell has gone. Can only think it must have been a dead animal and something has carried it off. This got me thinking that my neighbor has put down more rat poison and now I have to keep an eye on the dog. I was hoping to spend a couple of days inside doing jobs that have mounted up over the summer, but no, the garden keeps calling, and calling and calling, and now I remember I have 100 bales of pine straw arriving on Saturday. Gail has the right idea, a weekend (or more) away would be wonderful!!!

I want more rain, less mosquitos, cooler days. And when I get those things, then I'd like longer days!

I am sick of trying to figure out how I am going to trade many plants which have gone into early dormancy because of the dry conditions (or else they are dead...I'm trying to be positive,here)I am sick of high water bills. I am fed up with the neighbor who seems to think I should be HAPPY his @%#& ivy is growing in MY borders. I am fed up with the neighbor who lets her dog poop in other peoples yard. I am tired of the one with an invisible fence whose dog barks at me every time I go outside......I have been here six years, give it a rest!!!I am fed up with the couple who feed corn to the squirrels, not caring that the tree-rats then PLANT it in the ammended soil in my yard.I have pulled out a LOT of corn plants.
But I would be very unhappy in a condo or loft....Got to have my "bit of earth"

I know I should be giving all of you 'poor babies,' but I am laughing my head off. It is cheering me up enormously to know I'm not alone. Nothing like a good whine!

Well, I'm off to amend some more soil. I think Sysiphus should be the patron saint of soil amenders.

I love this thread. I am sick of my neighbor's dog that constantly barks. It's almost as bad as the tape of "Jingle Dogs" that I've played over and over again for the last few days. My boom-box is on a ladder and pointing straight twards their house. I've asked them 3 times (before I started playing the tape) to pay the dog some attention and please stop the barking. The owner's last words to me were "take me to court". I guess I'll have to, but according to the Rockdale Co. ordinance, I need to keep a log for a month and write down every time the dog barks....What fun! Oh, but a funny side-note on that....One of the other neighborhood kids came knocking at the door the other day to tell us that our dogs must be very special since they're able to sing in tune like that. He told us we needed to get them in a dog show quickly!

This dog is about to drive me over the edge since I have the all windows open now.....Other than that, the weeds are still doing better than anything else in the yard. About a month ago, I pulled every last one of them, and now it looks like I never did a thing.

Vicki, I have the same problem as your #7....It's a tradgedy to pull up those re-seeding annuals, even if they're taking over all the beautiful perennials...

WAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!

Where to begin???? The weeds, the amending clay, the thorny vines. No, I know....the raking and shoveling dirt as we try to re-grade the backyard after we had to tear it all up to install a drainage system because 3 of our neighbors yards drain towards ours and it caused a swamp in our backyard. That was back when we had rain...had I known it wouldn't ever rain again, I'd have left it all alone! And we still have about 15 cubic yards of top soil to bring in.

Then there's the zillion degree temperatures with 120% humidity, but not a drop of rain to water my non-producing cucumbers and zuccinis. And everytime I turn around my husband says "hey honey, let's not have grass here, you can have the area for more gardens." Does he think I'm stupid? He just doesn't want to mow! New rule for him, if he doesn't mow it, he's gonna till it!!!

And...I too have the crazy barking neighbor dogs...two little yappers that charge the fence anytime I'm within 10 feet of it. And they're mean and nasty about it. One of these days, I'm gonna let my German Sheperd jump the fence and let them know where the property line actually is. hehehe

Well, I'm off to shovel something, rake something, water something, pull something, or kill something.

Japanese beetles, Japanese beetles, Japanese beetles - they drove me crazy, but at least they're gone.

Now I'm dealing with ants. Everywhere that I want to plant something, there is a stupid fire ant bed. I get bit at least five times when I'm doing something in the yard.

And, sigh, my front yard perennial bed...I had such high hopes for it, but it has been so ugly all year. Who knew that Shasta daisies could be four feet tall?! Everything I planted there is leggy and when I go to trim it back, I get grossed out at the hundreds of rotting Japanese Beetle corpses in the bottom of the bed.

And last but not least, tulips, I love them, but what evil person came up with the idea that you have to put all this hard work into planting them only to have to wait 6 months for any results?!

I'll be darned! EFam, your post made me realize that, after battling fire ants for years, there is not a single hill in our yard. I wonder what happened to them? I'm not complaining but that is curious. I hadn't even thought about them this summer.

I think you guys covered just about all my woes which leaves me with just being tired, dead beat, worn out, TIRED.

I am considering black plastic for the front yard next year. I think the contrast would be much better than the weeds I now have. Maybe I will just make the whole front a giant parking area now that we have 6 cars in the driveway every night.

I have potted all my trade items already but, I still need a new door for the greenhouse before it gets colder and need to clean out the shed and send a million pots to pikes for recycling. I also have shade cloth to put up and need to clorox the entire inside of it to kill any remaining mold spores. Anyone know where to get sulpher candles, I hear they do a good job?

Oh well.... Time to go do a little illegal watering.....

I don't like this wind one bit.
Went outside today to find one of my newly planted (sunday) oakleaf hydrangeas blown to smithereens. Broken branches and all. My newly planted trees are blowing like crazy in the wind and the soil is drying out very quickly which means more water. The stuff I haven't planted keeps blowing over so I literally have ropes tying down my plants to stationary objects so they don't blow over.

And speaking of water, it doesn't rain here for weeks and weeks and now this tropical storm nonsense?! I don't want everything I just planted to wash down the hill and into the pond, down the creek and into the river. This is unacceptable!

There, I'm through.

When it rains, it pours! 3 inches today, and my newly tilled and seeded backyard now looks like a sattelite view of the mississippi delta.

RAGE! WHINE! ANGST! MORE RAGE!

Oh, and I love dogs, and I especially love pit bulls, but two pit bulls kept in an 8'x8' pen, who never see anything outside of that pen and who apparently have vocal cords of steel since they never go hoarse... argh! I kind of like that idea of pointing a stereo at their house and playing dog jingle bells, except there's a house between ours and theirs.

Denna (again)

Great thread! Thanks for the smiles. And yes I'm tired too. We've already had our plant swap and now I have to kick into high gear since the days are too short for working folks. I'm tired of spending precious time mowing the lawn and pulling e-vile bermuda from my beds. I'm sick of worrying about the rabbits and the digging dogs and whether or not what I plant now will survive the winter anyway. At least I can't complain about the weather right now- Tammy is a very good thing for my part of NC.

Shari

Okay I have nothing left to whine about. You have pretty much said it all and I feel much better. Oh wait-- how could I forget Stinkhorn?! I am so sick of Stinkhorn, which keeps sprouting in my daughter's play area. I dig up all the little balls I can find in the mulch and two days later they are everywhere again! They are so disgusting!!!

I have an Angel's Trumpet that I have been trying to kill for 3 years. I have cut back, sprayed, beat, and tried to suffocate the thing at least 4 times each year. It just keeps coming back. The lady who planted it there, apparently did not forsee me moving in, and planting a garden on the other side of the fence from this plant. I get shoots of it coming up everywhere!!!!!!!!! I hate that plant.

I also just had my wisdom teeth removed, and have not been feeling well...of course, now is when the 2 flats of pansies that I ordered from some little girl down the street would arrive. I don't feel like going out and putting them in.

I need to get a big load of big rocks delivered so that the drainage ditch in my back yard doesn't take over the rest of my yard when we get the next downfall of rain. I don't see myself wheelbarrowing that into the back yard anytime soon.

My dog has been going over the fence that I have wrapped around my compost pile, and she's been rolling in it. -Now I need to bathe her, but don't feel like doing that. She has an apt at the vet's in a few days, and they'll probably fine me for the way that she smells if I don't hose her down.

I needed to whine. Poor me. Thanks. -Pony

What the heck is up with Daylight Savings Time?? Of all the useless, outmoded, life-sucking laws, having the government steal your sunshine has got to be the worst. Every year the mosquitos die down, the air gets cool, I rush outside, and it's DARK. WAAAAAH!

I tried to be really anal about labeling ALL of my plants in the garden this year since I was kinda' sloppy about it last year. I kept painstaking computer records and had everything labeled using those thin little plastic tags that come with every plant you buy. (We're talking WELL over a thousand plants) Done...Whew! Or so I thought...

Saw a sick, neglected puppy on the side of the road and brought it home. Stayed with me a couple of months so that I could get her healthy again before finding a new home for her. During which time I discovered her one goal in life was to painstakingly remove and destroy over half my labels.

Got the bright idea from someone at the Spring trade to use white plastic knives as innexpensive labels (specifically didn't wanna' use spoons or forks because they break easier in my crappy, rocky soil). So, to the grocery store I go and as I'm walking down the aisle I find that you can buy spoons by the hundreds, forks by the hundreds, but not knives. Oh, you can buy a "variety pack" containing 36 items (only 12 of which are knives). Went to three different stores including Wal-mart supercenter and found the same damn thing. I felt like Steve Martin in "Father of the Bride" when he flips out in the grocery store over the hotdogs/hotdog buns conspiracy.
Maybe party stores or Sam's Club places sell knives in bulk but there sure aren't any close to me.

WHAA!!. Okay, I'm done. :)

I can probably deal with all other gardening complaints (and there are some) but this is a good one: my neighbor is always home and leans on his back deck rail watching at me work in the garden. He has some sort of bronchial disease and, about every half hour, coughs, loudly gathers the disgusting "stuff" out of his throat, and spits it out of his mouth, falling two stories down to the ground on a loooooong string.

EWWWWWWWW! Just the staring would freak me out, but man... nothing can gross me out quite like a big loogie. >_Denna

too much rain
not enough rain
fire ants
tree roots-especially those of the daggone designer pear trees that I cant stand
shotgun fungus on shrubs I didnt want in the first place (I'm cheating-that was a last year complaint- I dug them all out- but it is a classic, no?)
slugs on my hosta
deer on my hosta
weird cross-pollinations
and #1-
JAPANESE STILT GRASS!!!

My husband let the grass in the backyard grow 6 feet tall which killed off the majority of my roses back there.

I AM SO MAD AT HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have the usual whines about this year, started with too much rain which caused everything to be leggy, ended with too little rain which scorched my hosta in Spetember. Morning glory just keeps coming and I keep yanking and it keeps coming, same with the monarda, and my biggest mistake of all - porcelain vine. At least I haven't let it set seed so maybe it will be easier to dig the whole thing out this fall. Almost forgot - wild violets - everywhere in my beds! I dig them out leaving great clumps of dirt hanging off them in hope of removing all the pups - but two weeks later they are back! I guess I better get to it. Oh Oh! And don't forget sour grass(clover) in my iceplant! How many times have I weeded that out?!!?!

Little late to add to this post due to having left breast lopped off...
My pet abomination is when I go out in cool of evening and hope to enjoy a peaceful hour admiring garden and sipping predinner beverage. Listening to sleepy bird calls, breeze tiptoeing thru the trees, little rustles in the bushes. But I can only hear a boomboomboom from neighbour's car radio or sound system guaranteed to be heard in Outer Mongolia.

UKGA , Yeah, that boomboomboom can be disconcerting. Many people don't appreciate the peace and quiet of nature and figure they are entitled to listen to their music at whatever volume they choose. It is a form of pollution. Just as floodlights don't stop at the property line neither does sound. I would try reporting it to the police and they may come out and speak to the people but don't get your hopes up that one visit from the police will cure the problem.

Late addition too, but here goes..

I'm tired of working on a yard that keeps fighting to get better and almost stabilizes, and then have some F*$*%N yahoo drive by and throw beer bottles, captn Ds styro and cigs into my yard and gardens.

I have having to go through and redirect water flow for my yard and patio I dug in because my neighbor is too old/stodgy/uncaring that he doesn't get his backyard in any shape to retain and direct water and instead lets it flow through on almost bare ground while he leaves his dog out in it.

and i'm sick and tired of that dang fast growing leggy weed that pops up in my walk ways that i'm desperately overplanting dwarf mondo in now to choke it out for next year. those damn roots are everywhere and i'm having to lift and reset the entire path to get the weed roots out.

I'm not even going to talk about the other neighbor who has let his yard go to pot so badly that I go in it to kill the poison ivy that's now been coming into my yard for 2 years from him, and the curb that's backed up with leaves and trash because he wont ever sweep or clean around his tree that's growing out into the curb and causes the backup.

now back to digging out the other part of my walkway and busting up concrete to put in drainage before next year's monsoons. ah the dry season water bills...

Well here's my 2 cents worth:

Now don't get me wrong -- I love pets; however, I am sooooo tiered of pooper scooping for individuals in the neighborhood who refuse to leash their dogs, allow them to walk themselves & go to the toilet on my lawn.

I am also tiered of looking at my neighbors white house which is quickly turning "GREEN" due to the moss which is taking over & spreading rather quickly (I haven't said anything to her as yet but I sure will)

I also have another neighbor (and his wife) who enjoying reving up their HARLEY DAIVIDSONS at 6:00am on weekends! Now that's what I call a RUDE AWAKENING!

I got a great kick reading this thread. We got similiar complaints with Florida, except the soil is sand, not clay. As soon as we can sell the house, we will be working our way up to West Central Georgia to relocate. Soon, I will be whining with ya!!

Well, I hope this whiner's thread can be reactivated. LOL, but you're scaring the poo out of me. I'm new to the area, recently relocated from Oakland, CA. I'm already assembling my own list of whines...

Yep let's reactive...cause I have a few choice whines that weren't mentioned. My yard has Florida betony and nutgrass. I fight the betony in the winter and the nutgrass in the summer. The nutgrass came in with some peanut hull mulch and the betony came like a wave from our neighbors when they plowed up their yard to redo the lawn. Been digging, pulling, poisoning, smothering betony ever since...but no luck. IT LIVES!!!! And to add insult, it blooms and scatters seed to add to the unkillable root system. Then I dig the nutgrass, but there's always that one little nut left and there it goes again with 3-foot underground runners that sneak up plants everywhere. SIGH...SOB! Darn pesky plants &$#

Can I whine about my neighbor mowing, then edging, then power washing, all while I'm trying to take a friggin nap! It's beautiful outside except for the noise pollution!

Chickweed and clover, over and over.

'nuff said.

Denna

How about living in a place that's owned by & was once inhabited by a girl (an old friend) w/15 dogs & cats, who doesn't believe in chemicals (not even a squirt of Off!) or killing anything - & I mean anything - whose house sat on a bed of wood chips that got pooped & peed on by the (some, rather large) animals for 14 years. My neighbor said HIS neighbor couldn't even sit out on her front porch some nights because the smell was so bad. Then he said every year she'd just have another pile of chips dumped on the old ones. I finally called Cooks & they had to spray for 3 months inside (yuk) & out to get the roaches to back off, then came the flies, fleas, mosquitoes, ants, slugs & an assortment of unidentifiables, probably a result of inadvertent crossbreeding. The yard hadn't been touched in 3 years & was full of ivy (including poison, I learned the hard way) & leaves from the 2 huge oak trees in the front & 1 in back. That's where the rats & snakes were nesting.

Oh yes - the rats. Not only did I get no help with that tiny little problem, I dared not mention I was having to trap & kill them. My neighbor came out to get an update (he'd seen one cross the street and proceed right down my driveway, in the middle of the day, no less). He knew I'd set traps the night before, & I guess he saw me outside dressed for winter, donning rubber gloves, mask & goggles. When he asked me what I was going to do w/it we agreed I should give it a decent burial out back - you know, so the landlady could come & visit & put flowers on its little grave.

The upside - lots of hidden flower beds in rich, black soil, weed cover under all those chips, & a variety of plants, shrubs, trees, etc - including 3 rose bushes so far. And - last but not least - a newfound love of gardening.

My builder (asshat) who used what eventually he made into the big bed in front of my new home as a staging area for every load of brick, gravel, solvent, morter, plastic, wire, sheetrock mud, coke bottle, fast food debris, nail staple and scrap wood. Every time I try to plant anything in the front bed I contend with building debris, and what I am sure is poisoned soil. I grow beautiful plants elsewhere in the yard but everything I plant in the front bed struggles for a while and most eventually die or, at best, remain stunted and poor.

Thanks for listening. That's more than he did.

Sweet Autumn Clematis, creeping Euonymus, ground ivy, Dichondra... oh gosh, don't get me started!!

1. bindweed.

2. earwigs.

3. having a lawn (i'd rather hand-pull wild geranium than spend 30 minutes mowing).

4. as someone else wrote, having to remember to water my potted plants (most are starts or gifts waiting for a home...).

If I pull up one more SPURGE or MIMOSA out of my lawn/garden, I am going to get a $%^&@ blow torch and torch everything I see.

OTOH, the mosquitoes have been less awful the last two days.

mosquitos. mosquitos, mosquitos, mosquitos.

red clay. especially red clay which has ever been run over by building machines.

blackspot.

next-door neighbor's escape artist puppy. cute as the dickens but fond of frolicking in flower beds.

neighbor who reaches OVER my fence to kill golden orb spiders.

grandma down the street who lets a toddler run loose to tear up my shrubs. literally puts his whole weight on lower branches to pull them off.

a family who thinks people's birthdays, weddings, talent shows, homework, dinner, algae in the swimming pool, day jobs, surgeries, and life-threatening illnesses are more important than my garden.

marien, try Bayer Disease Control for BS. I've been using it the past two years and it has virtually eliminated BS on my roses.

I do also use the Bayer all in one fertilizer/disease and insect systematic as well. The combination has made all the difference in my roses.

I love pets too but one of my neighbors (I don't know which one) has a dog that comes into my yard every night and does a number two. Judging by the deposits, that some of a gun must be big as a cow. I can't understand why people can not or will not control their pets.

Tropical Chickweed (Drymaria cordata) - God must be punishing me.... It is un-controlable :( I am seriously about to loose it!

-Jc

Can I play? I love this thread.

Boy am I tired of not knowing what the heck I'm doing. I'm really hoping the problem is self-correcting.

jcreef, we had a serious problem with chickweed. We now use the Chemlawn service and it is GONE! If we didn't have this drought my lawn would be perfect!

weeds... stinking weeds... the drought doesn't bother them... at all.

Hm, the one good thing about the drought is less weeds.

Sorry, forgot this was the WHINE thread....

1) Next door neighbors thowing their cigarette butts on my lawn, or letting their pets poop RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME... on MY LAWN!
2) Covinents!!!
3) Burmuda grass and its way of going everywhere!!
4) Verbena... and its reseeding abilities....Grrr!
5) TOO LITTLE RAIN!
6) This horrible clay (Though, I have been amending EVERYTHING... and now I have an abundance of worms... and better soil.)
7) The way my poppies die in the heat
8) The way I want to die in the heat... and that I do nothing but burn when I'm outside.
9) Weeds, weeds, and more weeds!
plus many many more, I'm sure!

If my next-door neighbor was gardener, he would be perfect.
But unfortunately he is totally ignorant of anything to do with plants. Therefore, when he had almost his whole lawn dug up to install drainage, he seeded out a new lawn with BURMUDA seed. He told me that that was what was used on golf courses and would make a wonderful lawn. Since he is a man, it goes without saying that he scoffed at my dismay.

Bermuda Grass

Drought

Weeds

Japanese beetles.

Waaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

Hearing my husband say to me. " Where could you plant any more plants? Your running out of room."
Are you kidding me?????? There is too much space as far as I'm concerned. There is tons of room out front if I could ever get you to rip out those stupid stinking shrubs the builder put in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!