My biggest garden problem is too much or too little ...what?

Definitely not enough rain! We seem to be in our own little "Ontario triangle". Everyone around us is getting too much rain, and we're just barely squeaking by.

I have way too much sand, but I'd really rather have more room to garden even if it is sand! On the plus side for the sand, everything seems to love growing in it so long as I put mulch down on top to keep some moisture in. Oh, to have a larger garden...

Sweet Gums galore! The shallow roots are unslightly, a tripping hazard, and rob more worthy plants of the moisture and nutrients they require. And those sticky balls!~!~! I pricked myself, turned my ankle, and fallen flat on my bottom from the pesty ugly trash laying all over everything.
I also have zillions of throny locust sprouting every year, but can usually weed them out before they get too big.
I love all my other trees. Shade gardening is fun and beautiful. I have a few good sunny spots and yards and yards of boggy borders to play with.
The last count on the BIG sweet gums on my property is 14, down 2 from last year. I don't like killing healthy trees, but I hate those danged sweet gum balls!

Here in Southern B.C. we have had extremely hot temperatures and very little precipitation.

Our soil is all clay. When we were building the back deck my daughter would spoon it and make a facial mask! The stuff is nearly white! and is in roundish layers. Sounds wierd,huh?

How about soil has too many rocks?!?

I live in a condo. There was a bed that the gardeners had disregarded for a few years and after hurricane Wilma, only a small bush clung to dear life in there, supported only by a few roots. I didn't need a shovel to get it out of the ground. I got permission to garden there and I planted all kinds of tropical stuff, which are all doing great.

The other day, I was told someone had complained about my garden. It was nothing clear, but someone had complained about something. I'll probably receive a registered letter outlining their complaint. I fully expect that I'll be asked to pull up everything so they can get grass in there. A pox on them all! Not only am I gardening on borrowed land, I'm also gardening on borrowed time.

Sylvain.

I have no trees whatsoever on my property, and can't put any in due to community rules governing views, etc. When we first bought the house four years ago, there was a "forest" in back of us - mostly alders, but a forest nonetheless. Two years ago it was clear cut and since then we have been invaded with nettles, thistle, blackberry vines, and horsetail. Before that, it was manageable. I did beg them to leave a small grove of alders that are almost on my property line and they did. Across the road there are some lovely evergreens so that helps a bit. I tried planting wildflower seeds in the clearcut area (called it my meadow, trying to make something positive out of it), but the tall grasses, etc., have pretty much taken over. Also, the owners of the property left brush piles 30 feet high - an unsightly mess, to say the least. After two years, it's funny how we can look past that which had us so upset, but I guess in order to survive, that's what we do!

We have some of everything here, lots of sun, lots of shade, usually enough rain, we can water some if needed. Soil here is great! Nice, black loam that is well drained.
Only thing we need is more room for our vegetable garden. We have 5 acres of veggies, could stand a couple more.
Bernie

For many years not enough land was a problem for me. My town, though in the midst of miles of forest, has very small lots because most of the land is owned by the government of Indian reservations.Little is available for housing. My first garden here was in a community garden.
But when I moved to my current house, a vacant lot behind it was also for sale. That is where most of my garden is now. I feel so lucky because I went through what so many of you are going through now with lack of space.
Now my biggest problem is lack of precipitation. We are in the middle of a long term drought that has resulted in forest fires and the death of many of our local pines because of insect damage.
I am on allowed to water on certain days and am putting in a drip irrigation system to help conserve water.
If it's not one thing its another!

Ohhh, geez .. another one of those polls that doesn't offer enuff qualitative 'options'.

Mine .. is not enuff T-I-M-E.

Amongst doing all of the things a gal's jes gotta do .. with ol Coots fer hubbies, cooking, cleaning, all the other aspects of the family life, a mess of on-going projects, and garden/yardening .. intermingled with the pilphering about and visiting DG.com - - there's just not enuff of it.

Haint gonna be too many folks that will debate the issue, that DG is certainly an imperivative segment to gardening. .. LOL ..

- Magpye

I'd like more space but....since I don't have more time, I'll enjoy what I've got and actually be grateful that space constraints have put the brakes on for me.

Too much sun --- but I'd rather have that than any other problem listed! There are days you seriously can fry eggs on pavers here. BUT -- I'm going to put in my first fall garden and I think I'll be glad of the sunshine then.

Too little room means plenty to work with yet....hubby won't part with anymore lawn. Whats with that?

Lawns look especialy good this time of the year, does it have something to do with drought?
Give me flower beds any day!
Bernie

A lot of clay in the soil here. Every planting spot is ammended with peat and good purchased top soil. Everything is mulched with a double shreded bark which breaks down quickly. Gradually all planted areas are improving, but I still lost a dozen or so of 60 newly planted perennials that were put into a new bed this spring. It was tilled and ammended 12 inches deep which is where the clay begins now. We have had way more than enough rainfall this season and these little plants simply drowned.

Can you ever have enough gardening space? I think not!!!

It's too hot, and we just have not had any rain. Having a large area makes gardening difficult too. If it would rain and cool off a bit, I could do something other than water.

Obviously this year we lack the moisture. The selection most appropriate here is not enough TIME!

Anyone in Colorado who loves to garden, needs to buy a condo or townhome -- I have just the place for you! Come join my Landscape Committee, and you can share in the joys of Bentonite clay, low moisture, vandalizing children, whiney adults, and 90+ heat. But do we have beautiful roses!

I need more trees, but I'm working on that...it is somethign I can do something about with time....but this drought is killing me! I spend 2+ horus a day watering my gardens. I've got stuff I need to plant, but dare not because I can't get enough water to it. The last few days, though, we are starting to get the afternoon heating/popcorn thunderstorms. And when I say storms, I do mean storms! Wow! I had a tree get knocked down from straight line winds Friday night..and one of my naner trees taht was bklooming broke in half Saturday night. It is tartign to cloud up and prepare for another afternoon of 'rain roulette'...will it rain here? Will it rain two streets up and not touch us? If it does rain, will it be a nice steady rain or will it be a monster storm? Wheeee!

Of course, it won't be too long before we will be complaining about tropical storms. The Gulf usually starts really heating up in September and October. Although we are 90 miles inland, we still get dumped on by the tropical weather.

I could have said almost "all of the above". I get "too much sun" at the front of my house, and at the back "too much shade" from the "too many trees" on my neighbours property. I, therefore, have "too few trees" of my own. In winter we have "too much rain" and in summer "not enough precipitation". My "soil has too much clay" over which is "too much sand". Add to that I live in the San Francisco Bay Area where properties tend to be tiny, so I aslo have "too little room to garden". At times I feel like I have "too much area to maintain" when I have to deal with all the issues above. :~(

Can anyone tell me where the gardening utopia is because that's where I'm buying my next house?

I can practically make terra cotta pots out of my clay soil. :(

they actually DO make ceramics out of our bentonite. As in ceramic tiles for space vehicles. Figures.

Renting a townhome, so space is the biggest issue. The second isn't really on the list but I have to hand water (watering can) everything that is in a pot. The small bed I let get by with rain in all but the driest conditions when I have to for my plants to survive.
The owners are nice about the gardening as long as you keep it up. It sure beats the scrubby shrub and pine straw that the "landscape maintainance" guys put in at the non-gardening apartments.

I choose not enough trees. We live in a newer subdivision and have no trees at all. Could have also chosen, Too much sun, Not enough rain, Too much clay, Too much sand & if available to choose way too many rocks.
Kevin

Way Way to much clay and Rocks. Pick axe is needed dig holes for plants. Raised beds are the only solution.

even though there is alot of clay, I have been able to overcome that- and space is my biggest issue. My back garden is the labratory of learning.

We have no rain... none for about 6-9 months at a time... yet that is not the problem... since I plant for that. Too much heat maybe (got up to 120F last week!). But, really, I love plants, and I love landscaping... and, sadly, after just 19 months at this new place, it is full. Oh well.

The only problems I don't have is too much sand and too much sun. Everything else applies pretty much.

I selected too much space. We have ten acres, and every year we get it into almost perfect shape, and then something happens. This year it was from the too many trees category. With five days before our son's new inlaws arrived, we had only touch-ups and lawn mowing to do. Then we got hit with a micro burst that took out two white pines and a red pine in one group, two black spruce right in the gardens, and twenty or so poplars. We also lost power for three days. But if it hadn't been that, it would have been something else. We could do it all, if life didn't interfere. Of course we keep making our lawns smaller and our gardens bigger, and we have almost all the brush off the gardens.

A big ol 'hearty' welcome to DG, to ya .. cordel !!

- Magpye

Too few trees and therefore, too much sun, and nothing blocking the wind. We got wiped out by a tornado two years ago and it's all rebuilding. But there is some fun in that. :-) Sun sure bakes the clay the builders left us with.

I picked the clay. It's something that can be fixed, but it requires a lot of labor that I'm just not equipped to do anymore. So I'm tackling it one hole at a time. Moved into a new subdivision with ZERO trees (former farmland), but everyone here is working on that. And there are big trees on the outskirts on all sides on the undeveloped (so far) land.

I bet there's not one person here who wouldn't have voted for 'not enough time'. I'm with 'ya, Magpye & Podster!

gram

Still looking for the
"Too little money in the bank account to fund all my gardening dreams" button!

Our clay is an issue, but not as bad as some have in this valley. We call it 'Gumbo' and it's nearly impossible to work until it dries out a bit. Since we live on a river, about 18" below the soil is sand. So at least we drain quickly. In the spring when things are wet, the soles of our shoes grow by inches as it sticks, and sticks and sticks! So that by the time I'm done playing in the garden I'm easily 3" taller!! =º)

All the room in the world wouldn't be enough room for me to garden!

Of the choices given, I've not got enough space and I have too much space, both at the same time - not enough space to grow everything I would like, and too much space that I can't properly maintain (keep weeded) what I have now.

The only problem with our soil is that it is low in iron. Some people think it's nasty but I don't mind the high clay content. I've learned to live with it and it holds water. It would be nice if summer wasn't so hot and if it would rain all year, but I guess then I wouldn't appreciate winter as much.

Too much heat. Not enough rain. Poor soil. Bugs. Varmints. Wind. Weeds.

Now why did I want to do this?

I hesitated there. But in the end I had to go for not enough space - in a concrete balcony, all I can do is container gardening.... and I so wish for the day when I have a huuuge garden and lots of other problems like dry lawn, overgrown trees and stuff like that. And squirrels, and country mice, and all the other country things...
Apart from that, I sometimes complain of too much sun - my balcony faces south-eastish, so it's a full blaze most year round. Keeps my choices a bit constrained. I bought a begonia some time ago because I couldn't resist it, and have to keep it under a chair the whole time... nevertheless, she's doing quite well there - too bad no one can see it..... :-(