For our September 2012
Washington Gardener Magazine Reader Contest, we asked: "What is Your Gardening Pet Peeve?" We selected randomly among the entries and the following individuals each one a set of two passes each (prize value $20+) to the upcoming
DC Green Festival this week at the Washington Convention Center.
Washington Gardener Magazine will be there with a booth and Editor Kathy Jentz will be hosting a talk on Cool Season Edibles on Sunday at 3pm.
Congratulations to the Winners:
~ Susi Baranano of Washington
DC
~ Carrie Biggs-Adams of Colmar Manor, MD
~ Pam De Pena of Potomac
Falls, VA
~ Patricia van Bergen of Boyds, MD
~ Courtney Greenley of Washington,
DC
~ Sarah Urdaneta of Berwyn
Heights, MD
~ Sheeba Tom of Hyattsville,
MD
~ Madeline Caliendo of
Washington, DC
And now for the Gardening Pet Peeves:
I thought colored mulch was bad, that is until I saw someone
in our neighborhood paint rocks (4") a bright blue to simulate a steam
running through their front yard. They then painted white accents on some of
the rocks, so then it was a "rushing" water....so tacky!!!!
~ Blake Schreck
By far, my biggest gardening pet peeve in the garden is the
pesky POKE WEED. They grow fast and large, and their taproots are impossible to
completely remove. The bane of my woodland garden, for sure.
~ Pam De Pena.
Melon thieves and vandals.
~ Ellen C.
McBarnette
Oh easy - disappearing ink on variety labels!!!
~ Pablo Elliott
My pet peeve is rabbits. I have cats (2
my own) wander through my garden but they only nibble on the grass. I
have gardened in the Washington
area for 50 years and I never thought rabbits would be a problem - I have
always thought of them as taking a few things from Mr. MacGregor's
garden! Yet here they are munching on my tender hostas, cutting down new
shoots from my blueberry bushes like they were lettuce, and being told that
they will munch through anything except wire fencing!
Since they are becoming more prolific, I have found more
information on them, and seem to have found that a mesh fence will keep them
out, as long as it's about 2 feet high and staked into the ground.
~ Cindy Bertaut
My garden pet peeve is WEEDS!! While the rest of my garden
might be struggling due to too much or too little rain, high humidity or drying
winds, and various pest and diseases, the weeds are always there, growing
strong and taunting me so that if I neglect my garden for even a
week, they will take over. The worst of the weeds is what I call the
"Invasive Vine Cocktail", a discouraging mix of Oriental
bittersweet, catbrier, Japanese honeysuckle, English ivy and various
other non-natives, that are ready to pounce and smother my garden no matter how
often I beat them back.
~ Sarah Urdaneta
My gardening pet peeve is when gardeners buy plants (in
pots) and never transplant them into the ground. They leave them in the
pots and not water them. I assume they intend to plant them or forget
or get too busy or whatever. The plants eventually die in the pot.
~ Susi Baranano
Gardening Pet Peeve? Weeding! Especially when
you have roommates that have different opinions on what a "weed" is.
~ Courtney Greenley
My "Pet Peeve" has to do with weeds in my
garden. If my beloved plants only grew so vigorously I would be a very
happy gardener! It seems in my garden that weeding is a never ending
task. As soon as I think I've got them all up, another appears.
Perhaps its best to change my attitude about what plants are weeds! LOL.
~ Madeline Caliendo
It pains me to write this, but my pet gardening peeve is my
family. I like to think that I've worked miracles on a site that is very
large and very shady by creatively converting the front yard and lawn, the only
sunny spot, into a wonderful mix of flowers, shrubs and vegetables. I
built a retaining wall using broken concrete to level out the slope, topped it
with rose bushes, and placed the vegetable planters behind them so the tomato
vines aren't visible from the street which would offend the neighbors.
I am currently planting a hedge of deer resistant shrubs and
perennials along the street edge of the front yard, behind which I will string
deer fencing to keep them out. I think it's beautiful--the rest of my
family hates it! They want grass and conformity. As for the large
and shady backyard, I am creating small garden rooms, starting nearest the
house and eventually to work further out (where it is currently a tangled
mess). I love doing this, too, and have been given full reign. But
my family asks why I can't abandon the front and return it to its former lawn
glory. My peeve: they don't understand why a gardener might want
some SUN, too!
~ Alexa P Freeman
At farmers market when I see non seasonal fruits/vegetable with stickers
mentioning "Product of Brazil/Mexico ...." we know all fruits and vegetable grow in farms, I don't get what does a local farmers market means when i see this, we can get
the same in the store too Why people come to farmers market, to buy the local produce !!!
~ Raja Mohan
My Gardening Pet Peeve is Poison Ivy - How can this stuff
shape shift in my yard and get me time after time? I have just finished
my THIRD course of Prednisone so far this year. I own every concievable
potion to keep from getting exposed, garden in laytex gloves, wash in TechNu
and get it again.
I can't seem to recognize it in the
yard, can't wash it off me fast enough, and can't seem to develop enough
immunity to it to go out and pull weeds in the yard without getting another
case of POISON IVY - yes it is my gardening pet peeve. And no I did not grow up
here, but I knew its cousin poison oak in California.
~ Carrie Biggs-Adams
My gardening pet peeve is toxic fertilizers; it is an
oxymoron, IMO.
~ Patricia van Bergen
It looks like weeds are the clear pet peeve champions.
And your editor's gardening pet peeves? Where do I begin?
- Plant pots with no (or too small) drainage holes forcing you to get out the drill and risky personal injury.
- Inadequate plant labeling or missing labels. List if it is an aggressive spreader and of the plant's full, mature size (not just size in 5-8 years)!
- Not enough sunlight hours in the day this time of year.
- Jerky mockingbirds.
- Garden tools that are green or brown, please make them with brightly colored handles.
And, oh so many more, but I'll stop there...
So what are YOUR gardening pet peeves?
As I carried the big harvest basket across the street back to my house, I was stopped by a young student walking to Montgomery College down the street. "What beautiful colors!" she exclaimed. And indeed, my garden haul today, in addition to the sweet potatoes, was a lovely combination of the latest fall fashion hues. 
