I love the earth. But...It's time to collect leaves (I just planted trees 2 years ago) so I have none of my own. My neighbors don't either. I want to be organic. My first compost batch was a wet, mushy mess. My red maple has black tips on the leaves, my weeping willow has rust, my white swan coneflowers have mildew, as do my mock orange and some of the Goldstrum black-eyed susans. I have brown spots in my St. Augustine lawn, but it doesn't fit the description of brown or take-all patch. My viburnum is curling up and crusty-black at the leaf tips, my smallest dog (I have 3) revels in chewing every vine I try to grow on the wonderful pergola my husband slaved to build. The largest one tramples on everything low to get to the bees on the butterfly weed and salvia. According to water needs, I planted most everything in the wrong place. I love the continuous blooms of the verbascum I planted last year, but so do the snails, of which there are thousands! I can't find the address to where I should send soil samples. Fire ant stings HURT! I don't want to kill the caterpillers I see, because I love all the butterflies that come from them! And my daffodils are a little confused, proven by their early green shoots.

Okay, so it's not that bad. It is November and I am barefoot and in shorts (with the windows open). My rock rose just blooms and blooms, I have a sweet alyssum that has graced my west-facing front bed for 2 full years, and I saw two monarchs playing footsies today.

Where oh where do I start?

Pick one or two things to research and prepare over the winter (doesn't sound like you have winter!).

The snails can be managed by several methods. Maybe adding lots of diatomous (sp?) earth will solve the problem. Try doing a search of this website for slugs and snails, I know we have discussed them many times. Copper strips might be another way to repel them.

Maybe research your maple tree also. Use the web to find you county extension office or one of the "Tree MD" sites out there. Bet you can cure that one too.

Then relax (don't worry)! Gardening is always hard (but fun) work, even when everything is done "right". Pick a couple things you can solve, and check these forums on a regular basis -- you can learn a lot and get a start on future problems before they become problems!

Hi Kat, don't panic! First, it would help to know where you live, the kind of climate you are in. If you add that info to your signature line (go to profile/settings and add a line or two), then all your future questions will be easier to answer!

Most of your "complaints" sound like the kinds of problems that happen with too much water. So turn off the sprinklers! Sprinklers are NOT the way nature waters, it's too much, too often and foliage doesn't like it.

This winter/spring, try to convert to drip irrigation, but only for flowers, roses, water loving plants/gardens. Those trees don't need extra water. Heck, I live in a semi-arid place, and my mature trees and mature fruits only get the hose once a month! My newly planted trees are on drips, as are all my flowers. Now that it has rained, those drips are OFF. Only if we go without rain for a few weeks will I turn on the water.

If you live where it is humid, that humidity will cause all kinds of rust/mildew/fungus problems.

With drips, you can set up different circuits, and put them on timers (or turn on by hand) and the plants needing water often you put on a different drip system than those needing water less often.

I also use a device called a "moisture probe". Costs around $10 (find it at a garden store) and you stick the end of it in the soil and it tells you how wet things are. I use it for watering all my houseplants, and since I recently moved here, and don't know how all my outdoor plants are doing, waterwise, I probe under them to check for moisture to try to adjust things just right.

As for the mushy compost, that too sounds like water. The secret to compost is to layer things, and to keep air in the pile. Personally, leaves I just pile up in a wire bin (make a circle with a large piece of chicken wire, and toss in the leaves. Every foot of depth, add a 2 inch layer of dirt, the dirt adds microorganisms which help "eat" the leaves). Either ignore that pile for a year, or turn it with a pitch fork every 2 months to get air in the pile and speed things up. If you get lots of rain, cover the pile with black plastic, as too much water isn't good.

As for the diseases on the trees, less water should solve that. I personally ignore any leaf problems on shade trees. However, it the trunk is oozing, that will possibly kill the tree, so then I take action.
Diseases on fruits/roses I treat.Clean up all the leaves UNDER the mildewed plants. Those spores live on the leaves and will splash up and reinfect the plants. Infected leaves you don't want to compost with, at least around tender plants.