Beginner Gardening: What gardening horrors did you inherit with your house?, 1 by jkom51

jkom51 wrote:
Sorry, I meant to add a photo to the above posting so you could see the contrast, although the "before" photo looks positively lovely compared to the weed- and ivy-infested mess it was for decades before we finally tamed it! The soil here is awful -- gluey, suffocating adobe clay -- and a walnut tree dropping juglone-tainted leaves every year doesn't help much. But we added compost on top, and so far the plants we added are managing to survive.