Really enjoyed reading your rant about the hose, Renee! So funny yet true! LOVED viewing the pics of your beautiful garden on Picasa, as well.

Brenda

Thanks to everyone else for putting my budworms into perspective! Is there really such a thing as a Giant Himalayan Blackberry? Makes my battle with the morning glory seem like picking daisies.

I'll also add the drip system - never ending revisions to get it right. I don't think there is such a thing.

BettyN

Any or all of these could go away and I would be very happy about it.

Lesson learned: If a lot of tiny bulbs sell for very cheap with a description that says "Grows well in any kind of soil, sun or shade", avoid them like the plague! (unless you want that kind of plant...)

No bugs to complain about here and the rabbits have stayed away for the last couple of years even with part of the fence down. I'm giving credit for that miracle to my neighbor's cats that come up at night and hang out on my deck.

Me.

my crappy soil

vinca

It's driving me crazy. At least they smell nice.

did I mention squirrels?

Also on my list:
--Bermuda grass, spurge, crabgrass, clover, misc weeds;
--gophers, moles, squirrels (rats with good PR), rats (squirrels with bad PR);
--my dog, when he's not chasing rabbits;
--my chickens, when they're in the vegetable garden or messing up my patio;
--neighbors' dogs;
--whatever disease is making my tomatoes wilt;
--ants, black widows, pillbugs, snails, slugs, cutworms, miscellaneous disgusting bugs;
--heat, frost, Santa Anas, June gloom;
--palm tree seedlings and people who plant palm trees;
--my local water company, which doesn't understand that people with half acre hills need more water than people without, even when the people with hills try to plant natives;
--the local firefighters, who want all weeds cleared by June 1 and don't understand that natives are not weeds (just kidding about that last one -- we need the firefighters)

But then I get one perfect rose and it's worth it all. I think.

You'll get a LOT of earwigs in these traps, and except for the odd snail or ladybug, that's all they entrap -- just earwigs. These have saved my zinnia seedlings more than once!

I will have to put up with the hose until I can rig some sort of watering system.

Of course I am sure they are mostly a problem because its a new garden and the soil is pretty crappy.
Or am I delusional to hope the problem will get better as I improve the place I am planting in?

Hmmm. I think I'll go with the hard clay soil.

Boy, is there ever! Imagine inch-thick coils of botanical barbed wire that can increase their length by up to 14 inches in one day. They have three propagation mechanisms: they can grow from seeds that are widely dispersed by birds, they can tip root when their arching canes touch the soil (forming trip lines that are sure to snare you when the wheelbarrow is full of compost) and they can regrow from severed roots (so that the back-breaking labor of pulling them out is little more than an exercise in producing more of them). They are resistant to all but the most toxic herbicides. They will stall brush mowers by wrapping their tentacles around the blades and quickly clog chainsaws with tough strands of fiber. And if you ever managed to conquer them for a season, don't congratulate yourself too quickly. You will have a never-ending battle with bird-sown seedlings.

"ANTS!!! I hate ants crawling all over me when I am working in the garden HATE the ants that get on the hose then down my hands oh the ANTS!!!!"

I have been laughing about Socalgirl's post for a year now. Every time ants crawl up the hose on to my arms I squeal:
"ANTS!!! oh the ANTS!!!!" and my husband cracks up.

Renee

Mealybugs on amaryllis and cacti.
Kathi

Well...at least I'm consistent. :)

Honorable mentions go to ants, foxtails, spurge, and the neighbors who on multiple occasions have left their hose running for a week until our yard (which is lower than theirs) was a foot underwater. The best part is when I come home from a camping trip and notice it and go over to beg them to turn it off - only to find out they're on vacation themselves until who knows when.

Also known as nut grass.

I'm not generally a woman inclined to faith or superstition, but this weed confirms the existence of the devil. The delicate thread tendrils that connect the plant to the "nut" always break when you dig the plant out. Unless you get the nut, too, you're just making it angry. Those nuts can be 2" down or 18" down. I have dug hundreds out of my vegetable garden this year. Over the winter, I'm going to go all medieval on them and use something nuclear.

Oh, and I hate ficus plants. Vines or trees -- take your pick.

I don't know how many time I have told someone, "If I could wave a magic wand and make gophers extinct I wouldn't even hesitate."

Ant farming aphids suck.

Since the crazy cat lady in the neighborhood died, the strays have decided that the garden is a toilet. Unfortunately, they don't have a taste for gophers or I might not mind so much.

Oh, asparagus fern can be a PITA.

Sluggo Plus is iron phosphate and Spinosad, a soil-dwelling bacterium. One of the other GardenWeb members recommended it earlier in the year, and it has been a lifesaver (or at least a lettuce and pepper saver). One 27.00 jug has treated my half-acre twice.

Renee

From what I understand, because they are crustaceans instead of insects, normal methods don't work on them.
Thanks for the tip.

Most people consider it organic, I believe. Spinosad is like BT (Bacillus Thur something or another): a biological agent that infects only specific insects.

Renee

The lovely neighbor on the other side who trimmed my rose bush when it grew taller than the fence. (No, I didn't want those rosebuds!?!)

The Bermuda grass. The bermuda grass growing under the sidewalk. When I dig it out on one side or the other, it grows back from under the sidewalk.

I was planning on digging out the bermuda and replacing with drought tolerant plants, but I don't know what the mole (unless its a gopher) would think of that. Seems like a lot of trouble to go to just to have the rodents revolt. :-(

Holes from burrowing rodents.

1. 2x4" pig wire. Fasten it right over your tilled earth after you sow your seeds and let the plants grow through it.

2. Take pvc, make a square the size of your bed, put a T in the middle of the north and south sides, and bend another piece of pvc into an upside down U and slip the ends into the Ts. Cover with bird netting, very light shade cloth, or chicken wire.

I also screen the dirt and feed the grubs to the chickens.

Renee

2.) oxalis pes-caprae also known as Bermuda Buttercup. Grows all over the yard year round with yellow flowers throughout cool season. Try getting this stuff out of planting beds...impossible! It grows from bulbs which I've found as deep as 18 inches in my beds. It just keeps coming back!!!! Argh!!!

I believed those articles- until the first day that I let my new chickens out to free-range.

Renee

I once made the comment that San Pedro was the ant, slug and snail capital of SoCal. I also hate nutsedge and DANDELIONS and fight a daily battle with my clay soil.

Not too crazy about bindweed either. MaryO