Tree topping. I'd rather a person just cut the tree all the way down than torture it (and me) like that.

There used to be a neighbor lady who had a LOT of plastic flowers (in a dozen or so large pots) on either side of the wallkway that lead from the street to her door. It was something I noticed but shrugged off -- but some of the other neighbors were horrified by this and complained to her about it, but she didn't remove them. It was a little weird, but she wasn't hurting anyone.

Tree topping is very bad.

Hmm, red mulch doesn't bother me at all. It can be quite pretty with the right house, in my opinion. But I'm far from being a master gardener.

Gnomes!

Big shiny metallic balls. I can't bear it!

A house without a tree in front of it.

Indoor/Outdoor carpeting as grass - yes I've actually seen it.

I actually have a good reason to have little silly-looking fences around some of our beds: they keep the dog out. You wouldn't think an 18-inch lattice would keep a 75-lb dog out of a vegetable bed, but he won't cross them, for some reason.

Otherwise, he'd pull out all our pepper plants, and then we'd be sad and eating bland food.

I think any landscaping that people do is nice. It shows that they care enough about their property to make it look good within the resources they have available to them (which includes design knowledge). Everyone has their own taste.

One thing I wish we could get rid of for the most part is the expectation that all yards should have a mowed grass lawn. I think they look fine (and even really good in some instances), but there are many more interesting ways to landscape.

Unkempt yard? Yes, complain about it. Unkempt yard that intrudes on your own yard somehow? Yes, complain away. A kempt yard that just isn't done the way you'd do it? Bite your tongue, it could be so so so much worse.

Environmental hazard gardening. Toxic fertilizers, chemical compounds. Organic gardening is easy, you just have to buy the organic versions of soil, plant food and pest sprays.

I have used both red mulch and natural. Depending on the colors and types of flowers, plants, and brick border, the red can look nice. I wouldn't say it's a terrible flaw in landscape design. I've seen pots of silk flowers in yards, too. Some look real and natural, but when they begin to fade, it's really tacky.
What I don't like to see is a yard filled with all kinds of ornaments - angels, cats, lighthouses, gnomes, rabbits, flamingos etc.scattered around in different areas in the same yard. A few ornaments are okay, and I think they should be the same type - angels, rabbits, gnomes...not one of each.

I dislike it when a lush, continuous hedge is pruned into tight, individual little "meatballs". More work and less continuity in the garden border or foundation planting, STOP IT!

WHY buy dyed mulch? It comes in natural colors - aka UN Dyed. I've never seen red or orange mulch look good.

And I couldn't agree more with MaxB. My parents have lived in their subdivision since the day it was built, and their neighbors next to them have never once planted a thing in the 25 years that they have lived there. They literally live in a sea of grass. It isn't even well kept grass. It looks horrible, not to mention there is no shade, and no privacy!

I tried dyed mulch for the first time this year. It's black and I love it against our brown/tan house. White gravel? It's common for us here on Cape Cod to have something that looks similar, except we do white ground up shells for driveways. Love the way the cars sound driving over it.

Roundup - and every other Monsanto product.

This post terrifies me.
I really have no idea what I'm doing in our backyard garden other than keeping it tidy and having fun: When I see a spot available in the ground, I put a pretty plant in it. Don't judge!

As much as I dislike plastic flowers (and topped trees and meatball shrubs), I'm horrified that neighbors would complain to the owners about that. As long as it isn't hazardous to anyone or anything, it isn't anyone else's business. Toxic fertilizers, on the other hand, ...

I use black mulch around my house and it looks damn good. Any of you want to pay to replace it with a nice dark landscaping stone so it makes you itch less feel free to send me a check.

Love shiny balls, overdecorated yards, etc. Mulch volcanoes, however, are very bad for trees and are everywhere, even (especially?) in professionally "cared for" landscaping.
My kids and I made a PSA about it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL2It-n3DUU&list=UUY2qof_XfApRYxHC0Ie5MkQ&index=1&feature=plcp

These "pet-peeve" posts suppress creativity. They also have a tendency to exclude context from the design choice. Red mulch can very similar in color to some of the iron rich soils we have here in Colorado, and because of this it can look very natural here if it is used correctly (e.g. with native plantings that are layered and abundant). However, if I lived in the Northeast where black soil is the norm, then perhaps red mulch would be rather shocking to look at?

Are there things I dislike? Yes... But I prefer not to make others feel poorly about the choices they make when trying to beautify their lives just because I may not possess the skill or knowledge to imagine either the context of the choice or the regional differences that shape our sense of place within the environment.

I used red mulch to bring a little more color to my otherwise colorless house. Does it really look that bad???

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/456626_731600865912_1541855994_o.jpg

No trees.

Lack of gardening. I used to live in Dallas and all the houses had huge fenced in square yards in back that were just grass. No trees, no bushes, nothing. Just endless grass. It looked so forced and awkward.

Ha, ha! I love shiny balls and gnomes. Our stainless balls are nestled in our buxus and they bring light to an otherwise dark area of the garden.

Tulips (and any other flower) planted in a straight row like soldiers make me sad.

I heartily agree on the tree topping, hockey puck pruning and mulch volcanoes. Plant Amnesty is working to educate home owners and cities about why we shouldn't top trees.

As I possess a pair of black, black thumbs I'm just delighted to see any garden with anything still alive in it. The layout or colors or style or whatever may not be to my taste but it's really not my problem, or my business.

I am unforgiving about treeless houses, but I appreciate any yard where a slight effort is made to keep it clean.

No trees is a big peeve of mine. It just looks so...empty.

It is nice when people make an effort. It's better than nothing. I would never say something just because it isn't my taste. But if you must plant fake plants - take them out in the winter! No one is buying your snow covered tulips ;)

I dislike those rock gardens that are just rocks, like a lawn full of rocks instead of grass. Especially after a couple of years when the weeds start poking through or growing in the dirt and partly decayed leaves that drift in between. Especially horrifying is when it's used as a decorative element around huge paved sections, maybe with the odd patch of fake grass tossed in or that really nasty green outdoor carpet that doesn't even pretend to be grass. Ugh! Some even have huge, tacky sculptures or fountains stuck in there someplace. There seems to be a plague of these sweeping through the neighbourhood as the old houses with interesting yards are torn down and replaced with giant stucco palaces surrounded by pretentious masonry and metal spike fences and way too many outdoor lights.

I agree with @Wendi_C

These posts are really mean spirited. A pile-on to make those who stray from what their neighbours like feel inferior.

Everyone has their own taste and style. Regional/neighbourhood differences play a huge role in landscaping.

It seems like there's some weird superiority complex at work here with those who are claiming that black mulch is the only option, or that red mulch is sacrilege.

Just be thankful that your neighbours care enough to do anything at all to their yard.

The worst... landscaping that borders my fence and is nothing but weeds and wild shrubs. I constantly have to cut and trim their forest encroaching on my yard. Its going to get a dose of Roundup if they don't clean it up. Yes, I'm sour over it!

Why do you care so much? It's not your yard, your time or your money so who cares? As long as an effort is made to keep a yard tidy I'm happy. Everyone is different & that sould be expressed.

It used to be chain-link fencing...but now I am more accepting of that because I hate the 7ft shiny vinyl fences even more! Nothing to me is more depressing than a tall fance which casts shadows 15ft into your (and your neighbor's) yard. At least chain-link allows light to permeate and might host a lovely vine or something...

Wow, judgmental much? I tried doing a little landscaping in my condo's courtyard this summer for the first time, and didn't really know what I was doing. I made many attempts to find out even basic information about what to do and found the majority of resources were targeted towards people who know all about gardening and landscaping. It was very frustrating. Maybe I made some mistakes, but let's cut people some slack! Better to try than to do nothing.
As for the red mulch, that looks completely normal in places like Virginia, where red mud is prominent. Honestly, I didn't even know that mulch was dyed and it never really registered me that it came in different colors. Now that it's pointed out, it's quite obvious, but this post assumes most people already know that, which they probably don't.

I do kind of think that this is a slightly snobby post, however! I hate it when someone plants a new tree or shrub and leaves the tag on forever. That makes me nuts.

Amused by retaining walls that are installed at the same angle of the slope they're retaining (i.e. not level).

These pet peeve posts are not helpful.

My tiny front yard is currently a sea of mulch (not red, mind you) with some baby shrubs and slow-growing native groundcover spotted throughout. What can I say. It was a patch of weeds and poison ivy before and I had to start from scratch. Too shady to plant grass. Would have had to wait till the fall anyway. Sorry if my garden offends you!

I can get on board with the red mulch and plastic flowers, but some of these just get a giant WTF from me. Just be glad that people are planting flowers. Who cares if they "match?!"

I've used red mulch, but went hemlock (brown) this year because it's more soil-like. Meh. Red doesn't offend me. Black mulch is more "stylish" now, but it's no more natural looking in New England than red mulch. (Our soil is brown, not black.)

I love pebbles around sunk planters, but agree they get pesky after they start to support weeds. That's my thing about pebbled gardens - how do you keep the pebbles where they belong and keep them from becoming overgrown? (Oh, maintenance, I know. But I'm not into maintenance!)

My friend has a neighbor with a lush, English-garden type yard. Hydrangeas are blooming now, and look LOVELY! Wild roses, violets, daisies. My friend HATES this yard, because she was brought up to think that a yard is a flat expanse of green grass with a few well-pruned evergreen shrubs up near the foundation. I tend to see her taste as limited in imagination.

To each his own!

@robcurran.... It does... Especially the sparse pines with the amount of mulch under them.
Maybe add some creeping sages, let the plants have a more natural shape, and add some tall perennials towards the back for visual interest. That is a good photo to get inspired by color relations and proportions. And a couple of planters with rich, bright green foliage cascading over would provide the entrance with a much-needed splash of refreshing color.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Iy5w9F5teyk/TC_vddA2YqI/AAAAAAAAAFY/hPoedtZRoTw/s1600/-1.jpg

Or you can keep it as is. It's your place.

Plantings that are inappropriate for the area. Swaths of lush lawn and beds of thirsty annuals and -- stop me from screaming -- hybrid roses in the desert. (Cacti and succulents are some of the most beautiful plants, so why not celebrate them?) Amorphous, blobby beds of hot-colored annuals planted out in blocks or patterns. Anything twee (a particular cart set in a bed cut out of the lawn, surrounded by petunias and planted up with seasonally switched-out annuals comes to mind). Anything that uses way too much water in a place where water is in short supply. Anything that requires pesticides and herbicides to live.

I just scrolled up and read some posts. Why is it snobby or mean spirited to admit that someone else's syle of gardening irks you? Everyone has gut reactions to something. This blog is all about that. Every day.

"Pet peeve" columns foster a negative mindset and the kind of judgmental, bickering, unhelpful interactions that have caused many readers to move on, or limit participation Please find a way to address items in a way that fosters productive, creative, helpful dialog.

I appreciate the talent and experience of so many AT readers, but value diplomacy and respectful, productive give-and-take most of all.

Black mulch? Do you find you need to water ALL THE TIME? That sounds like it would be very hot in the sun and like it would do the opposite of what you want mulch to do, which is keep the soil from drying out.
My contribution to this b*tch-fest: my house had a moat of white quartz rocks around the base when we moved in. Gag. Fakey white rocks in front of a house with boring white aluminum siding? Better to just run the lawn right up to the house.
(Seriously, though: this comment thread really is unhelpfully uptight.)

Most attempts at landscaping makes me happy (red mulch, meticulously rowed tulips, and plastic flower fencing included). The only thing has ever made me cringe is too much hardscaping. A neighbor of mine has their yard set up with tons of rocks and water pumps (that don't work or have any water in them). It kind of looks like an abandoned mine movie set.

Every spring the landscapers who mainly mow the six lawns on our cul-de-sac drop a load of bark mulch on the street next to our house. Since the President of the Homeowner's Association likes red mulch, that's what she orders -- for all of us, like it or not. When it rains, the stuff leaches a sickly tomato soup excrescence all over the place, running down the nearby storm drain leading to the river. There is redwood mulch, mostly available on the west coast, and there is dyed pine. Pine naturally ages to a rich dark brown which is what I prefer. Dye can't be wonderful for the environment. It's an ecological concern as well as an aesthetic one.

Victorian gazing balls (those large metallic globes) are meant for viewing reflections of the beautiful English garden. If you don't have a beautiful flower garden, they can look out of place, so there are garden styles where they fit in and some where they don't -- just like decor items in homes of different architectural styles.

Also, your outdoor environment is shared with your neighbors and everyone that passes by. I think it's completely reasonable to be constructively critical. If you live on your own private island, go ahead and BE belligerent about your exterior decor. If not, it's neighborly to try to make your contribution to the appearance of your neighborhood attractive. If that's merely tidy, fine. If it's Fine Gardening Magazine level, also fine. But if it's antagonistically kitschy or something (gnome haven, for instance) then you might consider whether you are trying to be deliberately hostile for some reason... (It's one thing to make gardening mistakes and another to be offensive because "it's MY yard and I will do as I please".)

By the way, I have never been to any garden center including Home Depot where you can't get gardening advice about those mistakes. I'm a librarian -- there are hundreds of books for beginners, if you look for them or ask someone for recommendations. In most counties there is a Cooperative Extension Service with Master Gardeners on tap who will also help.

Use of pesticides and weeds taller than a small child are my pet peeves. As long as your house and land look nice, then knock your socks off with your gnomes, roses, daisies or whatever. I hate rhododendrons, but lots of my neighbors have them and I am okay with that.
Just like everyone is not a Master Chef, not everyone is a Master Gardener. Our garden areas are not perfect, but I love them. I have foxgloves behind hostas, which clearly would aggravate some and an area with bee balm, lemon balm, horseradish and high grasses. It actually works.
I sort of miss kitsch in the garden. An awesome Mary on the Half Shell in a grotto? Rock on. Faux frogs hiding in echinacea? Go for it. Sure a well manicured garden is always a joy and something to aspire to, but it's like all the white/granite/stainless riddled kitchens of late. I do not care to have my home or yard look like everyone else's? If I did I would have bought a Toll Brothers home n a development.

Let me tell you about this year's pet peeve: yellow jackets. In the ground. Our area had an exceptionally mild winter, followed by a very dry summer, and these... creatures... seemed to take it as their personal invitation to move in. I mean, who do they think they are?? SO tacky. And please-- who wears yellow and black together? In the summer, no less.
I can tell you, my gardening is not getting done in any of the (numerous) areas where I know these b@$+@^<s are dwelling-- not in red, or black, mulch or gravel. Sorry if I have offended my neighbors. Feel free to come over & tidy up any area not to your liking. And bring your EpiPens.

All the stuff you said are my pet peeves as well.
Plus, I can't stand it when a shrubs are planted right next to the foundation not allowing for any growth space. Come on, folks. The plant is not going to remain that 1 gallon plant size for long.
As to the white gravel, would you believe that I once saw a house in the woods of east Texas where they had done the entire yard in white gravel. Really? White gravel? It had turned green with moss growing all over it and pine needles smothering large portions. What a mess!

I don't really care what other people do with their landscaping. It's part of THEIR home and unless it's driving down my own property value, who am I to say they should or shouldn't use something as trivial and dyed mulch.

The only thing that I really can't seeing though is when people just don't water their plants. Watching a tree, grass or some lovely plants die of neglect is incredibly frustrating. I've been known to tiptoe across a lawn and water and fertilize a rosebush after a foreclosure. If nobody is around to water, that's one thing. It's the people who just plant then ignore that get me!

And, yes, I realize I made it sound like I pooped on a rosebush. I'm having a really bad streak of unintentionally horrible comments today!

Fromage, you just made my afternoon!

Just in case you're still checking @robcurran, I don't think your red mulch looks bad at all. :D Context is key, and your look is very thoughtful.

And I totally agree with @carrotsticks that the mainstream standard needs to get away from mowed grass lawns. I live in Southern California and it's so hot and there's so little water, and people struggle to keep up huge, grassy lawns that the climate just doesn't agree with. There are a few houses down our street that have done fantastic landscaping using desert plants. It's a scary transition, and the look isn't for everybody, but I applaud the effort to work with local weather rather than tailor your yard against it. Maybe there's a happy medium in there somewhere. :)

Along the same vein, my personal pet peeve are sprinklers that water the sidewalk or driveway as much as the grass. all that water....

It must really be about taste, because I hate that picture you posted @SFW1983. WAY too much happening there for me and it just looks sloppy imo.

Thanks for the assurance SPKDRMNKY123

@Duluthgirl - Good! Because my afternoon is going down in flames, apparently! :)

My biggest gardening pet peeve is, apparently, other people who think their taste is somehow objectively better than other gardeners'. The great thing about having a garden is that it is YOUR garden, and your place to express yourself and your taste, even if your taste wrangles together one of each kind of cutesy lawn decoration and every different type and color of plant imaginable. I wouldn't want to hear neighbors complain about my house color, or the kind of car in my driveway, or the art I hang in my house, so if they have any awesome gardening tips about how my personal space would look way better if I got rid of stuff I love and replaced it with stuff that they love, they can just keep their ugly mouth shut.

I get why these kinds of stories get posted; the number of comments is one measure of success, and people love to whine, so it is an easy way to rack up a comment count to make a post seem popular. But it honestly gets a little tiring when there are so many "HEY INTERNET, WHAT DON'T YOU LIKE ?? BITCH ABOUT IT IN THE COMMENTS !!" posts, and it makes this site seem cheap and obnoxious. Oh well.

and @ROBCURRAN, I can't look at the picture you linked from work because facebook is blocked, but if you like it, then I'm sure it is great.

People who are all judgmental and opinionated about your yard. My mom does it all the time when we drive through her neighborhood. As long as the resident is attempting to keep up their yard and gives a damn, who cares if their taste is not to your liking?

I'm fine with being called out on some of the things mentioned here. @jbirdhome - too funny - I'll admit to having left tags on plants for a year after I've planted them. I love individuality in expressing oneself in outdoor spaces, although I will admit that I'm glad I don't live next to the "Gnome Lady" up the street.

My only gardening pet peeve is people who just leave their front yards unkempt.

I think this post was meant to be light-hearted. Most people understand the idea of a pet peeve as something they find irritating, even though they know it is petty and a little unreasonable. No worries, Everybody, we're all friends here. I admit my pet peeve is hosta tutus around trees. I like hostas circling trees when they have a good balance of scale, but I often see little teeny circle of hostas tight against the trunk of a gigantic, tall tree, and it just makes me think of a beanpole in a tutu.

The sprinklers in the pouring rain drives me insane too. Where we live it rains every afternoon during the summer so we just turn our sprinklers off for the season. I also cannot stand when someone cannot take the time to adjust their sprinklers so they are watering the sidewalk, the street, and the cars driving by. (Although I must admit that I seek them out when I am jogging and run through them!)

Seriously manicured trees/bushes are definitely not my thing but it certainly doesn't bother me if someone else does it. I just like the "natural" look. But I go to extremes with my lack of pruning because the rose bush I inherited with the house has literally grown up through the tree and over the house. I love the way the roses peek through the tree, but I am sure the sight would make some gardeners cringe.

Oh, and sorry. But I just cannot get into the whole "toilet seat as a flower bed" motif.

Not a style thing nor really a judgment: uncontrolled English ivy. We just spent $4000 to rid our lot of five dump trucks full, and will be pulling up shoots for several years to come. Why anyone plants it in temperate climates is beyond me. It's pretty and sweet for about a year, like a tiger cub. Then it grows up and you have a really scary problem on your hands.

And like afithianruby said, pet peeves are just pet peeves, not calls to arm. My next door neighbor has naked ladies all over her front yard, and I hate them every August. My other neighbor has a clumsily and garishly painted gnome birdbath in front, and I hate it year round. But I don't tell them that, and I love both neighbors, lend a hand whenever the need it and bring gifts at Christmas time. We can have our peeves and still be nice.

I just got new neighbors right across the street. Before they even unpacked all their furniture they installed nine, count 'em NINE, lawn ornaments in a tiny front yard. They range from a family of stone rabbits; to four very cartoony and loudly painted turtles (way bigger than the rabbits); to a pair of large, very modern metal horse heads that are on either side of the driveway facing each other; to a four-foot-tall bear that is lit up at night. I get to gaze upon this every day. There oughta be a law ...

Houseproud ticky-tacky dwellers who think a mowed yard and the same clipped hedges everyone else in the city does is what everyone should be forced to do under pain of death. Nvm global warming and the place you live in is naturally sagebrush desert and grass savannah without stealing water from the rivers. God forbid someone should plant native flowers and ornamental grass...heaven forfend.

AT seems to consistently have posts about pet peeves/trends they've decided are now over/complaining about nonsense. I don't understand why. I come here for design inspiration and this is not constructive or inspiring. Articles like these are why I spend less time on AT and more and more time on DesignSponge.

I am a self proclaimed lover of lawn gnomes. The stranger and creepier the better. I don't give a toss about other lawn ornaments, and I do try to curb my desires for a lawn gnome army, but what can I do?

Honestly, I don't get precede about the yards of other people unless they're overgrown and full of junk. Beyond that, I'm just happy to see that the grass and plants are tended.

"And then all the plants avoid each other for the rest of their lives, and it's super-awkward."

That's hilarious!

going to have to jump onto the wagon of "who cares, what's the point of this post?"

maybe i'm just not peeved by much in the way of yard care, but if there's anything i've learned moving out into the neighborhood i'm in, it's an appreciation to any for of upkeep to one's yard regardless of what it looks like. red mulch? picket fences? gnomes? man, who cares! mow your lawn and water your plants and you can put a tin tiger in a top hat in the middle of your yard for all i care.

that actually sounds pretty rad, haha! i know we all have preferences, and maybe posts like this affirm our personal choices, but i agree with others: it's not helpful and stifling.

I hate red mulch as well. The school I go to has really pretty flowers and trees planted around the campus but there is red mulch everywhere. The colour doesn't go well with the colour of the buildings and they use way too much. Plus people walk everywhere so it spills onto the grass and looks messy. They stick to clothes and hurt because they can give you scratches and splinters.

Square bushes, topped trees and when someone has so many little garden ornaments you don't know what to look at.... oh ... and those round circles left left in the grass from someone banging the weedeater on the ground to make the string come out (but then again I despise weedeaters altogether)

plants ... marooned in a sea of mulch
At your home, plant your garden as you choose. Please try to reduce your use of pesticides and fertilizer, much of which goes right to the ocean when it rains (coastal town, many surface water drains lead to the ocean).

When commercial landscapers use vast quantities of mulch, I dislike it. A few daylilies (the commercial, non-spreading variety) in a sea of mulch is not terribly attractive. And over-mulching trees is bad for them. Then people see that it's what landscapers do, so they copy it.

I hate bushes chopped into weird shapes with electric shrub trimmers. It ruins the growth, makes the inside all woody and ugly and the outside eventually grows leaves sparsely. It's ugly and unhealthy for the plant.