It's your worst nightmare. You arrive home eager to get out into the garden only to find that it no longer exists. No plants. No flowers. And a trail of destruction left behind.

At first you blame it on some random weather pattern until, on closer inspection, it proves that human nature - not nature itself - is at fault. Some revengeful neighbour, arrogant council workers or disenchanted juveniles decided that your garden was a prime target for venting their frustrations.

And the mess they leave - heartbreaking.

1. Deborah Dale

   If you haven't heard the story regarding Deborah Dale's garden and her run in with the City of Destruction then you might want to check your pulse, or come out from under than rock.

   Dale's curbside garden was mowed down and destroyed by zealous council workers who mistook her garden for an unkempt lawn - easy enough to do if you're completely stupid.

   BTW - check out the before and after pics. If this is the way Toronto beautifies their city, I'm probably going to remove it from my To-Visit list.
   

2. Brenda Sherriff

   
   Brenda's story isn't too dissimilar except this time it wasn't the council with an axe to grind but a neighbour with hired help. Sherriff had been out while her neighbour's contractor had decided to do a little more pruning than was required.

   "I thought he was just going to cut back the foliage over the other side of the fence. But when I returned home he had been in my garden, hacked my plants to bits and even cut a tree down."

   The damage bill is expected to be more than £2,000 but money doesn't buy your garden back.
   

3. Stolen Trees

   
   While this horror story occurred against a local government, it's not unusual to hear similar tales about personal home gardens.

   Two 2m high Yuccas were stolen from an inner city garden with no trace of the culprits. An easy target, newly planted trees are increasingly becoming the focus of opportunistic gardeners or bored teens. In this case, it was probably the former as Adelaide suffers more water restrictions and the price of this size genus is much more than a punnet of flowering annuals.
   

4. Neighbours who don't appreciate your front-yard vegetable garden

   Bob Waldrop of Oklahoma City met with numerous code violations when he planted out his corner garden with fruit trees, vegetables and berries. Most of these were neighbour initiated as they found the garden distasteful, especially in the early years.

   This is not the last time we'll hear about this problem as more gardeners test the legal bounds of their council's bylaws and neighbour relations fray over differing opinions.
   

5. Vagrant gangs turn this garden into a toilet

   
   Imagine planning a beautiful garden only to find it completely taken over by pests - pests of the capricious human variety. This gorgeous garden in Edinburgh was closed in 2003 as it was being used by drug addicts and recently re-opened to the public. Unfortunately, it's now closed again.

   Beer-drinking mobs occupied the garden from 8:30 in the morning onwards, getting drunk, lighting fires and then using the garden as a sewage facility. Such a waste.
   

6. Sewage covering your garden after every downpour

   
   This must be the ultimate garden horror story.

   Since 1998, residents of Awdry Avenue face the unpleasant *complete understatement* event of having their gardens completely covered with a foot or more of sewage water. Once the flooding has subsided, everything needs to be jet washed down and cleaned up until the next downpour.

   Not only would the flooding be frustrating but having to deal with human waste floating round your backyard would be enough to send any person insane.
   

7. 20 cars crash through your garden

   
   Living on a bend can be an almost fatal affair and this garden has now been locked up and its owner won't allow his two young children play in it. In the past 6 years, 20 cars have crashed through his front wall and landed in his garden and it's only a matter of time before someone dies.

   Could you imagine trying to landscape around this hazard? Every time a car came around the corner you would be wondering whether your summer annuals are going to see past spring.
   

I'm sure there are plenty more garden horror stories out there so if I've missed some feel free to drop a link in the comments box.