Easy, fussmaster.

"please stop leaving passive aggressive signs on our tree"

isn't that the city's garden, time for a passive-aggressive counter note.

damn you vooodooo, you beat me to it.

Here's the deal folks. I try to keep my dog out of people's gardens. I'm thankful to live near a park so my dog doesn't do his business in someone's front lawn. But as a gardener, I learned a long time ago NOT to plant things that you care about near the sidewalk--ever. Another helpful tip is don't ever plant tomato plants or anything else you're planning on harvesting where dogs can pee.

But you're right, Dan. That thing looks like Charlie Brown's garden.

They need to stop with the notes and just put up a little wire fence, or at the very least, some sticks connected by string. ANYTHING that says to passerbyes, "hey, I trying to garden up in the square". As it stands now, I'd totally take a dump there.

check out passiveaggressivenotes.com. A great time waster when you should be working.

Brett @ 2: LOL! You win.

Douglasf @ 6: Are you homeless or something? Do homeless people have computers?

A little dog shit in your mouth, Dan, would improve the words coming out of it.

Maybe it sucks because people keep letting their dog piss in it. DID YOU EVER THINK OF THAT?

um, i am pretty sure that is city property, not the homeowner's. eitherway, i'd wish drunk ass cock-luvin fraternity b*tches would stop pissing on my garden in fremont. fuckin losers.

You have a much nicer view from the veranda of your back 40, right Little Lord Savage? "Silas! Another mint julep!"

Please keep your pet out of our garden, but feel free to tag the tree.

Kelly O and Ari Spool give Dan Savage can of Rize, Dan Savage drink Rize, freak out, Hulk out, DAN SAVAGE BECOME HULK!

HULK WILL LEAVE GIANT GREEN TURD IN PUNY GARDEN!

And no, I don't feel like letting it go.

Dan, either way, it's good manners to pick up ECB's lil droppings when you walk her...

I had a garden with black-eyed susans around a street sign on the corner. Those things are weeds and usually spread. Everyone let their f*cking dogs piss on em and they died off by the 3rd year.

What neighborhood is this? Could be rabbits. What are you growing?

Oh shit, I'm on the front page. Time to get drunk!

In all seriousness, you're right, that garden does blow. It reminds me of the garden in the middle of Thomas Street Park. Last year it had some crazy 5 ft plants and a fence to keep the dogs out. This year, those are dead, and they haven't really done anything with it.

In other news, my apartment managers FINALLY took care of our garden after over a year. We had some nice 4 foot weeds, and some of them were taking over the walkway. Unfortunately they did not prune the 15 square foot patch of sage that has been inching its way onto my porch. I might have to go guerrilla on its ass.

this is part of why we should eat dogs and their owners. dogs are so fucking disgusting!

as a professional gardener, i have to say this: plant indestructible, tough-as-nails plants near the sidewalk, and remember to water every now and then. the dog business--it's inevitable. plant accordingly, and don't get too attached. the signs are the product of bitter, silly people.

"Lovely and lush"? Fucking ivy and grass? Ivy will grow in toxic waste; it's a virulent invasive and should be ripped out wherever seen.

I'd let my dog pee on this boring ass post. Ehh wingman's banter saved it. guten tag sir

Is that wite-out on top of the plastic cover over the sign? What word is under it?

"Please keep your pet out of ___ our garden Thank you"

"the fuck"?

"fucking hell"?

"fucking fuck"?

"Jesus' and"?

I don't know what word belongs there.

That isn't a garden anyway. It's a tree hole. What the fuck is he/she growing anyway? Weeds?

It doesn't even look like a garden. Perhaps if you cleaned it up and cared for it people wouldn't use it as a convenient toilet, which is what it looks like.

That lush patch nearby doesn't mean squat. Dogs piss over other dogs' piss so the other patch is probably just stuck in a continuous stream (hehe) of alternating pissers.

@24, it looks like "our", like they typed "our" twice, and instead of redoing their note, used wite-out. Classy!

Dan, if they hadn't used the word "garden", would you still take umbrage? What if their sign just said "Don't let your dog shit in this patch of dirt"?

That second one's not a garden, Dan, PLEASE! It's mostly ivy which is the most invasive plant around here. It's so toxic that it probably thrives on dog piss.

case closed, unless it's garden #2's dog doing most of the pissing.

neighbors are assholes.

Just here to jump on the that-fucking-ivy-is-a-nasty-invasive-... and should never be mentioned in the same sentence with words like "lovely" and "garden" and "and".

i don't know about pissing on gardens, but i have stepped in more dog shit walking down boren and union than anyplace else (rural, suburban, or otherwise). maybe i should fixate on the ground while i'm walking, but seriously: who would expect dog shit to be strewn about the sidewalks of an urban area.

I thought the sign was a joke. It made me giggle.

The sign is too high for the pets to read.

And the jerkwads letting their dog pee or poop in the space can't read either, so having it at their height isn't useful either.

this is such a laughably fussy city.

@10: I agree. Also, with dog oneupsmanship every canine in the city will try to pee there. It becomes one big, uh, pissing contest.

Dog urine in itself isn't necessarily deadly but the diets of most dogs - yes, I mean most store bought dog foods - makes the little buggers produce something akin to battery acid.

Dogs pissing on our front garden drives me crazy… I even put up stones around the border to block access, but it wasn’t a high enough barrier. The only things that live there now are hostas. It makes me even more annoyed because I have a dog and I’m careful not to let him pee on plants. That being said, yes, that garden is a shithole. If there’s nothing but dirt and weeds in an area, I don’t see anything wrong with letting a dog go there.

@11 - I hope you don't mind, but I'm coming over Friday and Saturday to hang out in your garden. I'll bring my own beer.

ivy looks cool on old buildings

@31: You can thank the residents of the Sovereign Apartments (the old brick building in the middle of the block) for the deposits. There are at least 20 dogs in that building and their shit is all over the block because their owners can't be arsed to pick up their precious pets. In 2006, the city had to tear out a planting strip near University and Terry due to toxic build up of dog droppings.

Could be worse. They could be leaving old computer monitors there.

40 - great idea, thanks!

1)It's in the right of way and is NOT a private garden. It's nice they want to beautify the area, but dumb and impractical.

2)I'll pee where I damn well feel like it!

These kinds of areas are *technically* city property but building owners are responsible for their upkeep.

"Yeah, we own it sucker and we'll restrict what you can do with it, but you have to mow, edge, seed and otherwise care for it if you don't want it covered in abandoned shopping carts and littered with human and animal refuse."

If someone has gone to the trouble of putting in a raised bed, it's a good bet that they are trying to great a barrier to prevent people and animals walking over it and protect the plants. Is it so hard to keep dogs out of raised beds? Really?

Then I guess when you get down to it people are just no damned good.

~GC

Case not closed!

Dogs like to pee where the other dogs peed. The tree on "garden" number two didn't get the first dog pee, and so dogs ignore it, but the tree with the sign on it probably gets constantly peed on, to the point where crabgrass would not grow.

The only thing that's going to help that patch of dirt is a fence around it. Definitely not a sign.

That sign does not qualify as a passive-aggressive act. The writer clearly makes his/her point, it is actually politely assertive. A pasive-aggressive message would be: "This little garden would be so much better if you didn't allow your dog to ruin it" Disclosure: I do not know who placed that sign or where it is.