weeds, not having enough time to do all the stuff I want to do in the garden before time runs out (ie kids lose patience waiting for my attention) and not having enough room!

Amen to winter!

What else makes me nuts? Reading the posts above, I realize I must count my blessings. But that is not what was asked.

Running out of room, totally out, and having to sp to make room.
Rust drives me bats.
Not being able to get enough water to the roses in the hot hot days of summer.
Pruning on and on and on and getting ready to spray and then having 2 weeks of rain!
I know, pretty minor complaints compared to some. No rabbits, no deer, no bs, no beetles. But it is hotter than hell here all summer.
Kathy

Works in progress. Will they EVER get done? Maybe by the end of this year.

I really like this funny thread! You guys are nuts (noun not adjective).

Sherry

Slugs! We have trillions of these prehistoric looking, monster slugs here that munch down everything! I've had annuals chomped to nothing in one night! When I first moved here
I was in shock at these things. In summer I do 'slug patrol' at night and and fill bags with them. Then I put salt in them and watch them sizzle. The Bay Area had annoying snails, but they didn't do the damage these slugs do. They are really ugly too. I also use beer traps.

I had to laugh at the dig holes and the cats come use them while you're turning to get the plant or rose to plant, that's exactly what my cats do. Glad it's just not me:)

I agree on the weeds, I'm getting rid of one large crop but in a couple of weeks as soon as it rains again it'll be like I never weeded. I hate large scale weeding once, twice is bad. I forgot to put my gloves on today.

I hope last year's abundant crop of thrips is abnormal and the same with the rose slugs and budworms. The toads I fed them to liked them well enough, but I hated going out in 100+ temps twice a day plucking the latter off the roses for 2 months.

I agree with Sherry too, I thought I did all the hard work last year on putting in the rose beds. Not so, I expanded them last fall and still haven't removed the grass. I'm still tired from last year and I haven't started that part yet.

Oh, taking 3 days to dig one hole in the clay. Let's see times 12 new roses sitting there waiting that's going to take me a couple of weeks. I can manage 3 holes a day:) I do find trash that was buried there when they built the house.
Leslie

devon,
Mix Viagra in the water for the leaning tree rose or Cialis if you want it to last longer.

You all complain too much. Half the fun of gardening is being able to do it, then looking back at it and relishing what you've accomplished. That includes weeding, spraying, and all the other tedious chores. I hope I'm never satisfyed with the way mine looks.
If these little things made me "nuts" I'd stop gardening.
You should try it from the seat of an electric scooter. that's about all that might make me nuts. "Might" I said. It doesn't.
Just be "Happy in your work," and don't sweat the small stuff.

Grass. If I had my druthers the whole yard would be a lovely maze of rows and rows of roses and his tractor be *#&@*#!

Well, besides the friggin' DEER??

I'm with Ronda on the friggin' BERMUDA GRASS!! Impossible to get rid of once it takes hold!

MOLES... well, thank heavens they aren't gophers...

WEEDS...

PINE NEEDLES...

Did I mention DEER?

WINTER...

Running out of room (or at least where the sun shines)

Karl - you're right. But can I still hate snakes? They're creepy.
-terry

oh wow, This is a easy question. DEER EATING MY ROSES. and not able to do everything I want to do in the yard.

Jean

seeing and hearing and reading about all those wonderful roses out there knowing darn well I don't have a place for them. I rent and have a small, mostly shady square of concrete outside my glass door to call my own. So one SMALL pot ghetto. I have used up all the spots at my parents' already. Call it unsatisfied rose lust.

I can live with deer and hares (like rabbits but bigger) and common weeds because all that is only to be expected. What drives me nuts is the plants I put in deliberately, in complete ignorance of their true nature, like Geranium pyrenaicum. It makes me see red athough it's all my own fault. Another pet hate is mislabeled roses, especially when a supposedly well-behaved little rose proves to be a rambler, too big to move, like my White Dorothy in the middle of a bed of groundcovers.

Most of the above TRY to get to me, but usually don't succeed (except that I ALWAYS wish we had longer growing seasons).

Oh, I know!

It's that I always come inside, only to realize I've left my pruners or stem strippers outside SOMEWHERE. Guess what I got for Christmas? (A pair of inexpensive pruners-partly a joke, partly serious). Phyl

When I lean over to smell a nice fat bloom of Oklahoma and have a lack racer snack lift its head and start hissing!

(Snakes. Why does it have to be snakes?)

Elaine

Running out of beer.

1. japanese beetles.

2. Deadheading after the first flush. Took me two days last year. For the first time I started to wonder if I had too many roses.

3. Keeping climbers in order. It is one job I didn't realize would be so labor-intensive. Several times in the heat of high summer I am having to rein them in as they are sending canes every which way and overgrowing their supports.

1. Rose rosette disease
2. Japanese beetles
3. Thrips
4. Mosquitos
5. Black spot
6. Weeds

Carla

Realized there is one thing that drives me crazy (crazier?) in the yard. Watching Deb while she is working out there. It is a good thing. Trust me :)
Everything else is just part of the hobby I enjoy so much. I just hope I have the same attitude if I ever have to garden sitting on a scooter..... I think that would be absolute proof I was crazy about roses.

I can't believe no one has mentioned this already...

FIREANTS!!!

I love everyone's comments. Karl has a great point really. Most of the time I enjoy my garden so much that even a hard, less than perfect day of working in the garden beats a regular non gardening day hands down.

However. No one mentioned squirrels? Talk about your garden terrorists! Here they are even more destructive than the racoons who in general simply eat my strawberries. But although they drive me to the brink of murder during the summer I have been feeding them all winter so I may be part of the problem.

Kate

My garden in general makes me kind of nuts. It's such a gigantic project. Every year it takes the entire winter to prune and clean up in preparation for our open garden party. Every year I always believe that I won't quite make it even though I awlays do. After that the responsibility of watering drives me nuts.

The ever-kinking hose. And the the swear words never help.

Not enough money-Not enough time.

Oh yes- and then there's the fire ants!!!

Although some things are more challenging than others, everything else is pretty much enjoyable to me.

Running out of beer.

LOL!

You should try it from the seat of an electric scooter. that's about all that might make me nuts. "Might" I said. It doesn't.
Just be "Happy in your work," and don't sweat the small stuff.

Good point.

I often wish the neighbors would trim their disease riddled half dead trees away from the property line, but since there isn't anything I can do about it, I try to ignore it.

I do wonder why the friggin' rabbits won't eat the friggin' bermuda grass, though.

CHILI THRIPS!!!!!!!!!!

What makes me nuts is the constant internal aguement between my better self and my rosaholic self. It goes this way...
"I want more roses!"

"But you can't take care of any more"

"But I have so much room, and I want some Austins"

"But you can't take care of the weeding and spraying and watering if you get any more."

"But I want them...."

"You can't afford them now and you promised not to get any more,"

"But I want more"...

and on and on!

So I ordered 3 Austin climbers, and now I have to dig a bed for them. Hmmmm. I am a BAAAAD girl!
Kathy

For me it's a weed called nutsedge. It's very hard to eradicate this weed. I even tried digging up the area and siffting the soil to get the nutlets,but no luck!

LOL Kathy! You sound like me! My argument is "WHY THE HECK AM I DOING THIS TO MYSELF???"

DH trying to get me organized. I'd like to see the rule that says a gardener is supposed to be organized.

Second and third are the deer eating my roses and the Japanese Beetles, but I'm sort of resigned/dealing with those issues.

DH and the organization thing is in an entirely different category.

The two things that most drive me crazy (a short trip on some days) are the deer eating the roses and the chipmunks cutting all my drip irrigation lines. It's a jungle out there!

6 months every year with no roses...

I thought of another one that hasn't been mentioned, and that is plants that turn out to be mislabeled.

When the wind keeps blowing my hat/cap off!

I drive MYSELF nuts in the garden. I spend more time looking around for the pruners or the tape measure or my gloves that I set down.....somewhere. I can almost hear my potted (soon to be planted) plants laughing with glee.

Sandy

West Texas sandstorms they are terrible!!!!

CREEPING CHARLIE! If I ever figure out how to rid the gardens of this I'm throwing a big party!

Mike - try WD40 on Creeping Charlie. Someone at work told me it works. I have it bad too, but have never tried it.
-terry

That my body cannot keep up with my garden plans. Today I was going to transplant 2 roses and plant 2 others. I just realized I need to be in better shape. Got winded after just 2 roses transplanted (this is the hard part I'll admit). Is this happening with any others of my age bracket (60-ish)? Also the hip and knee are just not cooperating!
I will be smart and take a break, plant some seeds and maybe finish my pruning. But it's such a beautiful weekend andI envisioned so much more productivity! I know, it's middle of winter and I need to take it slow and easy. Easier said than done.

Santa Ana Winds and hand watering in them.
Racoons that rip up new grass and groundcover and expensive 6-pack annuals. Forget direct seeding of annuals.
Bermuda grass from next door. I have a bare kill zone between our properties. The best thing I ever did for my garden was kill every last bermuda grass root!!!!!!!!!!!
Boring beetles killing the neighborhood pines. We already lost 2 trees and hopefully we won't lose our last 3.
Fuchia Mites. I used to grow big 4 and 5 foot tall standards and have huge hanging baskets. The local growers tell me to use a systemic poison on the plants but then what about the innocent hummingbirds who spread this plague? I think the only solution at this point is a screen house. I do miss the big trailing fuchias hanging in my trees!

{{gwi:228300}}

Barb - Cute as can be pup and I'm sure he/she is great company in the garden!! I too have a roseguard dog; he's just a bit smaller.

Dog owners who can't be bothered to pick up the doggie doos after their dogs have done their business. It makes me livid.

A passive-aggressive gift from workers and other visitors....

CIGARETTE BUTTS AND OTHER TOBACCO WASTE PRODUCTS.

(Do NOT let me catch you....)

My Doggie never leaves our yard without a leash. IN fact we put up a 6 ft high fence just for him. Currently he is failing from Heart failure and Arthritis. He is on many medications. I am very sad because with him I know there is stress filled days coming.

" DH and the organization thing is in an entirely different category."

When is someone going to make a DH repellent for the garden?

DH= Dear Hubby?

My next door 91 years old neighbor's survival-of-the-fittest-all-HT-rose garden!

There's just not enough daylight for me. I want longer days, longer summers, say, Alaska summer hours, Florida climate, all here in Kansas. Without stinging or biting insects. Seems like I'm forever needing another hour of daylight to finish something.
Barb--here, DH is Dear Hubby, D*** hubby, depending on how helpful he's being!

My biggest beef is our disgusting lawn. When people walk around the garden to look at roses, I fear for their lives. Awful pot holes and sinkage and tree roots sticking up. We built our house fron scratch and carved it out of a damp forest. When we prepared the back and sowed seed for the large lawn, we had it levelled nicely, and it looked wonderful, though we had a bit of a grade. But it has deteriorated quickly over the years It is now like the surface of the moon with huge pot holes. Springs have re-surfaces, even though my husband trenched and diverted with rocks and Big O beneath......and we have squelchy boggy areas. It has turned out very poorly and moss and weed ridden. It will take a fortune to fix it. So I try and ignore it and tend to the roses. Anything else, especially now we do not have deer in the back is negligable.
Pauline.

Moodyblue, sounds like you have a wetlands in your back yard, like vernal pools, a neat place. There may be some vernal pool plants that would do well there.