Since discovering GW I've switched to uncommon, unusual, and different plants, which I love. But now I battle slugs, aphids, lubbers and who knows what else. I've spent more on insecticide in the last six months then I have in 6 years before GW.

I can't keep leaves on some things, see teeth marks in other, trails or highway lines on leaves, and black gunk on limbs. I've learned how to kill lubbers and cuban tree frogs and aphids and slugs...it's enough to make someone give up trying to be cruelty free!!!!

This, my friends, is the GardenWeb effect--not only do you learn more about plants, but also bugs. Not only will you spend a small fortune on plants, but also on bug sprays. And yes, Garden Web will make you spend more time in your garden, but most of it is checking for things to kill.
Lori

Since joining GW, I have more beautiful and a greater variety of plants but short of killing lubbers and controlling a fungus if it gets out of hand (which I always did), I leave the rest to itself. And that is no different than it was before. Thanks to swaps, I hardly spend any money on plants. I don't spend much on pesticides either.

Let yourself and your garden go. Worry less about the bugs and enjoy the flowers.

Melissa

Lori - Add one more word to describe your original garden: boring. What you've learned here is that real gardens don't grow in big box stores. Their products have their place, but you need to find other gardeners for true inspiration.

I hate these dang frogs about as much as anything I can think of, and kill them every chance I can. I go out at night with a flashlight and my frog guillotine, and hunt them down around the borders of the pond, dispatching several each night. But they are hard to catch, and you can never stay ahead of the tadpoles.

So I now have a new plan. The goldfish are history. I'm going to put cichlids in the pond, and I do believe the frogs will NOT like swimming with THEM. Won't they be surprised when the fish bite BACK!

Marcia

Once in awhile (maybe once a year or even less), I might get inspired to use a bit of soap spray, if something I like is taking a hit it might not recover from. But other than that, it's get tough or die time. Anything that needs very much babying gets replaced with tougher plants.

In the beginning, though, it was a learning process to find out what was happy in my yard & zone, and with the type of care I was willing to give it. Maybe you can think of it that way? And as you see which plants are too much work, you can find better choices for your area, perhaps?

Good luck, either way!

Marcia

Not only that but my yard is full of things that I have never seen in big box stores. Sure I have tons of things that have died....but they will always be replaced by the kindness of strangers and friends here on GW.

Felix

But you also make a point. I never had frangapani cats until I had frangapani. Oleander cats until I had desert roses. Hornworms until I tried tomatoes...so it goes. "sigh"

Melissa

I leave nature alone. I have never sprayed. I literally don't have time for that. I walk by the grasshoppers eating my brugmansias, the strange horned caterpillars that were on one of my roses, etc and let nature take care of it. It always does. I never feed the birds or squirrels and that way, they hunt for bugs and whatever they normally eat naturally. I don't kill any bugs because they are probably predators for another bug.

If a plant loses its leaves, it comes back. This year was the first time I have ever had a real problem with aphids. A ton of ladybugs showed up as well, took care of the problem and left. As for my CTF's, winter last year took care of nearly all of them and I saw alot more green tree frogs this year. That was exciting.

I let the cubans live and mate in the pond knowing they're getting the mosquito larvae. I know that when they leave the pond, the snakes will get them, and the cats get the snakes. The things I'm spraying and using systemic's on, don't have any bugs on them that I can see despite all my looking. I'm assuming whatever it is must come out at night. I'm hoping that the systemics and sprays I put on the plants will make it taste bad and whatever it is that's eating them will move on the ex's house and live there instead (wink, wink emoticon here).

And today I am removing two baby brugs from the ground and putting them in pots cause something comes out at night and eats all their leaves, while ignoring the other brug I have in a pot. (quizzical emoticon here asking "what can't climb pots?").

And the last lubber I saw was dismembered and laying in the garage...cats again.
Lori

I LOVE your emoticons! They are so much better than the pictures. You are a lunatic.

Melissa

i actually have some vocabulary skills in emoticons =P
They're easier then you think =)
i guess it's like i keep tryin to tell my mom, just look at it sideways XD

but i digress as always ~
and i have to admit that when i read the title of this thread i had almost an immediate understanding of what it MUST have been!
cause clearly the GW effect Surely means that "well, i have these very simple plants but this thing happened and . .", "i found these really neat lookin s.o.b's but hell if i know what they are . . and how do i grow it anyhow ?!" =[
more importantly (and this is the category that i fall into) "so i had some regular house plants, and got some cuttings from my mom, and stole a cutting from my friend . . . and now i'm stealing cuttings from Everywhere and feel like a herba-clepto-phile (although i do ask permission where/when i can =P ) and i just can't see an end to my desire for Variety in my life!!!"

personally . . . i think all are perfectly acceptable approaches to life (and gardening)
but the latermost seems to be the GW effect for me, i got a little green bug about me lately and was googling everything from orchids to coconuts (de-husked ie:store bought . .i already have a coconut growing, but was curious) and Never to Fail, was GW.
i can't tell you how many googles i put out for menial and semi-advanced things . . . they all wound up here.
so i joined =P
now your stuck w/ me, and my hunger for variety! =D

p.s. we'll talk about pests on some other cloudless day ; )

I am pretty much a "live and let live" kind of gardener. I don't care if things chew on my plants (within reason). I hardly ever kill them. I don't care what the snakes eat, because it balances out, mostly. I love the big obnoxious birds (jays and grackles) as much as the cute little ones. Squirrels and possums have free reign in my yard, in spite of tearing things up from time to time. But I do kill the CTF's and I just wanted you to know why, so you wouldn't think I was crazy for doing so. When they quit eating my Carolina anoles, and I see some native green treefrogs appearing again, I'll retire the froggie guillotine.

When they are eradicated from areas, the natives start returning, and life is good again. In the meantime, for me, it's WAR.

Marcia **making a silly grinning face here :o)**

OMG!!! I have your dog's cousins....

:-D

Sharbear, I have pictures of them which I will post later on. I have to go watch crazy dancing people on tv now. *grin* Can't miss my fix of EITHER of the dancing shows currently running (competing) with each other. Between Dancing With The Stars (for general amusement) and So You Think You Can Dance (for amazing talent), I'm JUST HAPPY this season.

Back with photos later! Or you can Google the Florida forum for them and probably pull up old links. They are hard to ID when they are smaller, but when they are grown...ICK. They are NOT cute.

Back later!

Marcia