@Mint_Vi Ah, I'm sorry to hear you're also affected by the issue despite not having the lot trait. Removing the trait fixed the problem in my game, but I suspect there may be a variety of things that trigger it. I know some players have said the issue seemed to be related to evolving plants in their games. I've been playing the same family for years, so their plants have all been perfect for ages. Evolution wasn't the trigger in my game. Mine was definitely happening because of the lot trait. I'm sorry that wasn't the solution for you.
Do you have any gardening mods installed? Perhaps one of those might be triggering it? It's a thought...
...and I agree. Even though I managed to stop the dirt pile issue, "Harvest All" is currently broken in my game and all the harvestables keep getting moved to the family inventory, which means I have to drag the harvestables out of the family inventory in build mode one by one, and then switch back to live mode and drag them into my sims' inventories one by one. It's tedious and time consuming, and I find it ridiculous that EA designed the game to work that way. The whole harvestables being sent to the family inventory thing was a terrible idea. I don't have much time to play these days, and I certainly don't want to spend 90% of the time I DO have having to drag and drop hundreds of harvestables in and out of various inventories one at a time. It was a ridiculous decision to code the game to function that way. I honestly have to wonder sometimes if EA actually hates Sims customers, you know? :P One of the first thoughts I had when they announced Cottage Living was that it would end up being the end of gardening, because it would be broken and never fixed. Sadly, that seems to be the one thing we can count on in this game...that any existing features they expand upon will no longer be playable at all.
Not being negative, just speaking from consistent experiences over time.
Point being, I agree with you. Broken as gardening is in this game now, it's more trouble than it's worth. The lot I play now was designed around an orchard and a large greenhouse, but once the kids grow up and move out, I will follow them and not bother with gardening anymore. Even though I got the dirt pile issue fixed in my game, the family inventory issue and the fact that "Harvest All" no longer works killed gardening for me. It's just not worth the hassle anymore.