What was your worst garden problem this year?

We have watered so much in this midwest drought of '05 that I am surprised we aren't pumping sand out of our well!! Everything has suffered, because no matter how much you put out from the hose it doesn't equal what a good rain fall will do. The one bright spot is that there are hardly any mosquitos!! How did your garden grow?

Hi meezersfive from another midwest drought sufferer. My garden never looked lush and green this year from the lack of a good rainfall. May have to take out a loan to pay the water bill. LOL. Of course this was the year I ordered lots of plants (only my 2nd year here) so I was out every night with the sprinkler like a worried plant mother. These young ones don't have the root system to survive any type of drought. Just tried to keep them going so they could make it to next year.

However, my worst nightmare is mowing the lawn so this summer was great for that! I've only had to mow once since the middle of June and my dream of the lawn turning brown and not coming back so I can plant flowers without digging up the whole lawn may actually become reality. :)

I lost a whole set of plants from Bluestone due to the heat even with water ever day... I am going to try more natives cause around here they tell us the lack of rain is here to stay for a while. On the plus side my rosemary went nuts and tripled in size!

PARROT GRASS, this is an annual grass which sprouts late in the season and it just looks ugly and I have lost lots of my energy and so it begins to be everywhere. My roses look horrid because of this crazy weed.

The only positive this summer has been the demise of the bermuda grass. We have watered, and watered, and watered all the other plants and St. Augustine, but it just isn't the same as a good rain. It sprinkled this morning -- would almost rather not have that teaser. Took a trip down south to Salado yesterday, and the bottom dropped out around Waco on the way home. How unfair!!!

Count me in as another drought sufferer, although I'm pretty pleased at how most things have done. I only lost one thing - an alpine Lady's Mantle. The things that look the worst for me are my primroses and caladiums. My zinnias that I planted from seed didn't do well at all, and I normally don't have a problem with those, but other than that, most things did pretty well. Of course, I watered at least once a day, and many times twice. I started a lot of new things this year and I was bound and determined I wasn't going to lose them!

Oh wait. I forgot my tree rose. Powdery mildew has done a number on it all summer. :-(




This message was edited Sep 11, 2005 8:07 PM

Hello from drought blighted Kentucky. It was really a struggle to keep everything watered this year. I was bound and determined to not lose anything, so have the water bills to prove I'm a good plant mom!!.

My worst garden problem this year was a visit from Hurricane Katrina, while she was here she uprooted most of my plants and trees and took a lot of them with her when she left.

Yes, I truly feel for our DG friends who have lost gardens, homes and more to that nasty Katrina. I'm sure you will have offers of replacement plants and cuttings from your DG friends. Up here in the frozen tundra we are accustomed to starting over. Often. Bad winters are hard on perennials. Wishing you the best as things settle down.

The word "extreme" would sum up my worst problem(s). We went from an extremely cold spring to an extremely hot summer and are now suffering from an extremely hot and dry fall.

I was hopeful this morning as it started to rain. Disappointment reigns, didn't even wet the ground. More coming...maybe!

I live in the upper desert of Calif. so we are used to the dry and the extra watering but what got us was all the small and furry animals that we just could not keep out of the garden. After replanting three times, some things we just gave up on. I just bought some long redwood planters and I'm putting them up on blocks and that's where I'm planting lettuce and radishes and green beans. If the rabbits and mice and whatever else build themselves ladders then I'll quit all together.
-Juli

I'm going with drought also.This was the worst summer I can remember.It was both extremally hot and dry.I lost several things,but I've been ill and didn't get out enough to water.I only lost plants that were in pots :-(
I lost 8 roses,I'm so angry with myself for not planting them,i just didn't feel good enough and have no one I can trust to dig and plant anything.Oh well there always next year.:-)

The gardener's song: Tomorrow.... tomorrow ....

My worst problem has been the aphids on my milkweed. They are naturally attracted to it, but it's been a real battle (and I mean daily!) just keeping my plants alive. I've lost a lot of leaves and a few plants. Most of the milkweeds have no bottom leaves and a lot of the leaves are sucked dry from the aphids. The Monarchs are finally here and laying eggs. Hopefully I'll have enough to feed them.

Despite the drought here, my things are doing pretty well. I've worked too hard and spent too much money on my plants to let them die, so I water.

I'll say drought too. I lost so many plants it is depressing. I tried to water with hoses but we kept losing water pressure to our well and after having had to re-drill last year because of that 14 week drought, I wasn't about ready to push my luck. I have never had to order water tankers before from another state but this year I did and I still couldn't save many plants. I also wasn't high on the popularity list with the boys when I drained their swimming pool to try to save some of the little trees in my little home orchard. What are you going to do but try again next year. These things happen.

i feel really bad even telling you all what my problem was. water, water, water. everyday from june1 thru aug15 it absolutely poured buckets and buckets and i am talking every single day. it wasn't all day, just started at around 1 in the afternoon, quit about 5 and start up again about 10 at night and rained most of the night. LOL i haven't got a garden or landscape in yet since we just moved here, but i had to repot all of my containers that i brought with me from the Keys with a much, much lighter potting mix and even then almost everything had mold, fungus, botrytis and the pests loved it. compared to our gardening friends in and around Katrina, it was insignificant. tomorrow is truly another day. debi

Hot and dry here also. It has been hard to keep everything watered well enough. Nothing takes the place of a little rain. It is so dry here.
I had the worst luck this year with my lantanas. Of all plants to have a problem with!! They have always been my hot summer 'stand by' plants. But this year some kind of insect or fungus hit them and they just looked terrible. The leaves had dark brown almost black tips and a moldy looking appearnace on the leaves. The underneath growth was ok. I am going to cut them way back and see what happens for the remainder of the growing season.

Lin

Don't feel bad at all trackinsand, "water, water, water. everyday from june1 thru aug15 it absolutely poured buckets and buckets and i am talking every single day. it wasn't all day, just started at around 1 in the afternoon, quit about 5 and start up again about 10 at night and rained most of the night." In the spring of '04 we had about the same conditions you described for about a month straight. Virtually verything I had stuck in the ground rotted. What survived the deluges, succumbed to an almost 3 month drought that followed last summer wherein which we got all of about 3" sum total of rain. I pretty much figured everything was lost because of the spring rains that never let up. At least in a drought some people can water but in what you desribed about the only thing I can think of would be to put whole house umbrellas over your property and even then you'd probably flood. This spring looked promising for us as we got nice rains spaced properly until the middle of May but after that it was all downhill. That's two years in a row for this area.

Too much rain may even be worse than too little. Some plants go dormant in droughts and surprise you the next year but rotting, fungus laden, botrytis riddled plants don't ever come back to surprise you. Those seem to just rot and become one with the earth. Really sorry about your plant losses. Doesn't seem as if this has been a good year for any of us.

Heat & Drought!
Weeds as a result too hot to go outside. We are having record heat wave here. 100 degrees today!I'm spending this month cleaning & organizing closets, drawers ect. I live in North La. and didn't even get rain whe Katrina hit south of us. I did get my pregnant Daughter & hubby & pets though until they can return to N.O. I love them , but I keep hearing little remarks from SIL about my weedy back yard-Like Is that a weed or tree?LOL! I told him It's all I can do to water & maybe get some weeding near neighbors .
Lost lots to drought. Next year I'm consentrating on plants that are drought tolerant. The thing is we get the deluge type rain all winter & spring-so plants have to like winter wet, summer dry. Ginger