So it's a new year and I started thinking about actually be prepared for spring gardening. I looked up the average date of the last frost. Realized I've missed the window for doing any seed stratification in time for spring. (Ha ha - never stratified seeds before. Good intentions and all.)

Today was a very hot 80 degrees. It's 68 as I'm typing. Tomorrow, however, the forecasted high is 56 and low of 36. How am I supposed to have any idea about what season it is? For all I know it could be summer when the weekend rolls around. Never mind good intentions and all. It's just that the dang old weather gets in my way!

Hoping the Showy Ladyslipper returns in the spring!

Interesting thread. I have enjoyed the range of responses. My big fear at the start of summer is that all the native Dudleyas that I have been propagating (so far doing well) will fall to the mealy bugs. The plants are dusted with a whitish powder so the bugs can blend in very well. By the time I see them it may be too late. I lost half those plants to the bugs last summer and I am not eager to repeat history. They go dormant in the summer and that's when they seem to be most vulnerable.

But anxiety is based on the unknown, at least to some degree, so I'm hoping that awareness and alertness will make a difference.

I am most anxious about the time plants are coming up or blooming nicely and here come the rabbits eventually joined by the Japanese Beetles.

I am most anxious about the heirloom tomatoes falling prey to fungal diseases. I have carefully watered them only at the base, they get morning sun to dry the leaves, and I've carefully snipped the diseased leaves off the plants.

It's a conspiracy I tell you! lol It is always something with us gardeners.

hostasmore said:It's a conspiracy I tell you! lol It is always something with us gardeners.

That has to be one thing we can all agree on!

I get most anxious when I can't get my flower beds and gardens weeded fast enough and know that the weeds and grass are growing like crazy until I can get to them. Then I know that I have to start all over again in bed #1 and so on over and over all summer.

Ditto. I seldom weed, apply Preen, then mulch though when I have done it that way it's worked so well.

Thanks for the suggestion, Arlene. I have some preen on hand so I will try that in my Iris bed when I am done adding to it since Iris do not multiply by seed.

I guess I just don't associate 'anxious' with anything in my yard. Yeah the weeds get out of control, but there's always next season. Shrug.

I'm anxious about the number of baby cherry laurel sprouts this year. They'll be easy(ier) to pull for only so long... after that I'll have to dig. There are thousands. I need THIS!
https://www.kickstarter.com/pr...

I get anxious every time my grandchildren come to visit. They wander (or run!) through my yard without even realising they are stepping on tender plants that I've been babying and watching, hoping to see them flourish.

Plants are forgiving. Let the babies run. Plant some stevia for a sweet treat.

This is a great thread because I have a few gardening anxieties. Some stem from just having bought this home in December 2015 and not done any serious gardening since I lived in Michigan 10 years ago.

1) That I won't give the plant enough light/I will kill it with too much light or heat
2) Newfound fear: Rabbits and my daylilies. I actually woke up at 5am this morning (thanks to my trusty dog!) to scare off the deer in case they're partially responsible
3) That my plants (or I ) will get eaten by bugs. More the former, long term but the latter in the short term

conniepr27 said:I get anxious every time my grandchildren come to visit. They wander (or run!) through my yard without even realising they are stepping on tender plants that I've been babying and watching, hoping to see them flourish.

I'm certainly not(!) comparing your grandkids to my dog but she's 60 lbs and runs and jumps through my new garden beds like it's nothing. I usually freak out (internally) and my DFH (fiance) tries to get her out of the beds!

Hahaha, Jacky, I can just see it in my mind!

tx_flower_child said:I'm most worried that I've messed everything up and will kill all my plants. I don't know what I'm doing. Just winging it.

This is still #1. But now that we've had an unusual amout of rain, I'm scared to go outside. Skeeters are everywhere. I could slather myself with deet (which I wouldn't do, just saying) and do everything else alleged to repel or kill mosquitoes but I think their only purpose in the universe is to find me and attack.

I now have a new anxiety. Yesterday I was about to go in for the day and saw a cute little bunny in my yard. A little one with a big old cotton tail. Granted I'm a city girl, but I do know that little Peter Cottontails are not good for gardens. Took awhile to scare it away, knowing it would be back. So I go to my computer and logon to a site where people from my hood and surrounding neighborhoods post all kinds of things. Asked if anyone had lost a pet bunny. (people have before) So far the only response was that there have been a lot of bunnies in an open area a few blocks from my house. Dang! I don't foresee a happy ending.

In my neck of the wood, we often have a bunny-year or a coyote-year, and they seem to roll in cycles. When the coyote population is lean, the bunnies thrive, which then feeds the coyotes well and depletes the bunnies, repeat, repeat. It doesn't seem to be a year-on year-off cycle, but this year I've not heard many coyotes, and the bunnies are rampant. So...2017 is a bunny-year. Looking back at my photos 2013 was definitely a coyote-year, I had them in my backyard. So, maybe a 5 year cycle?

Same here, and we are definitely in the bunny cycle!