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denidill

fave thing to do in the garden

denidill
12 years ago

I was outside this evening digging in a plant. I realized how much I love to do that. It gives me the greatest satisfaction, even if it is placed in the wrong spot. What is your favorite thing to do in your garden (besides sitting with a cold one looking at it! hahaha!).

Comments (36)

  • Lilyfinch z9a Murrieta Ca
    12 years ago

    My favorite thing is watching the birds and bees and hummers enjoy the garden. I love seeing the robins follow me around where I'm digging to steal worms, and the finches at the feeders what seems like all day. And the butterflies! They don't stay too long in the garden, they remind me of people who get easily distracted! ( oh! Pretty flower in the yard over there! )
    I also love to pull weeds. Once I get on a roll I really make progress. You wouldn't know I liked weeding tho if you saw my garden now!
    And I love to look at other peoples gardens. Seriously I am the worst driver when I pass a pretty house with flowers!

  • on_greenthumb
    12 years ago

    My favourite is to really inspect my garden - looking at all the changes daily!!!! I also have really gotten into the birding this year. I listen to the bird call and then mimic it - 9 times out of ten, they answer back. Did I mention that my favourite is doing all of that with a cold one.....LOL glass of water that is...

  • louisianagal
    12 years ago

    I love love love to prune shrubs. Just taking off an errant branch or removing a twig that is crossing over another one. I also love to prune trees. But I need my husband to help with that. We have an electric tree saw, and usually in winter we remove some branches that are too close together or crossing another one.
    I also love to dig out dallisgrass with my dandelion weeder, altho I hate the weed itself, just coming out with a trug full of those weeds is so satisfying!
    Laurie

  • lavender_lass
    12 years ago

    Sitting...with or without a 'cold one' :)

    If I'm actually forced to do work in the garden (LOL) my favorite thing is to water and watch the birds and bugs coming in for a drink. While I do water some of the plants with the hose, I water a lot with a sprinkler (the little round kind) and the birds and bugs seem to like it. Not too much water at once and the birds run around grabbing worms, while the bugs have little 'bug baths' that the sprinkler fills up. We're fortunate that it's so dry here, the plants don't mildew with the sprinkler.

    While it will never be my favorite thing to do, I am getting much better with my weeding. Hopefully, this year the weeds will not be taking over my kitchen garden!

  • gardenweed_z6a
    12 years ago

    What a fun thread! I had to think about it for a minute because any time I spend in my garden is happy time but what I enjoy most (and repeat several times a day) is to go "walkabout" the garden along the paths and just belong there with all the different textures, shapes, colors & fragrances. I smile whenever a honeybee lands on the birdbath for a drink, and chuckle when a robin or grackle splashes around in it. Love the chattering of the squirrels in the crabapple tree. Yanking a few weeds every day is very satisfying too. Going walkabout with a cold one in the early evening is a great way to finish off the day.

  • mandolls
    12 years ago

    My early morning stroll. Especially this time of year when everything is changing daily. Checking for new growth, (& new damage), seeing what is blooming, and prioritizing gardening tasks for the day.

  • girlgroupgirl
    12 years ago

    My favorite things are improving soil - it's a love hate thing (I love it when it actually is successful!!), digging holes and planting, watering (I like to tote water in watering cans), and smelling. I LOVE to smell the flowers!

  • sarahrock
    12 years ago

    Yep, I'm with the strolling and staring contingent. Beer is optional. :)

  • flora_uk
    12 years ago

    Favourite - cultivating the soil ie weeding, digging, composting etc

    Least favourite - watering. I find it so boring and time consuming, when I could be cultivating. Luckily I don't have to do too much.

  • lefleur1
    12 years ago

    I really love the whole *work* process of taking care of my gardens (besides I always lose the extra 8 lbs. I've managed to gain over the winter!

    My hubby complains that I never *just sit* and enjoy what I've created ~~ he doesn't GET it ~~~ (grin)

  • christinmk z5b eastern WA
    12 years ago

    Well, I have two favorite things categories. First is doing something FOR the garden and the other is doing something IN the garden.

    One of my utmost favorite things doesn't even require me to be in the actual garden. Because researching plants, finding new ones I am unfamiliar with, looking up hardiness and growing requirements, and sifting thru the various species and cultivars of that plant is one of my chief enjoyments. That and maybe plant shopping ;-)

    My favorite thing to do specifically IN the garden is plan out the garden. I love (and sometimes it does drive me a bit batty at the same time, lol!) sitting and trying to figure out the "perfect" plant for a certain spot (perfect with regards to size requirement, but also flower color, overall plant form, and foliage color and texture), what would look good with this or that, whether a plant wouldn't look better or have more space ten inches back and to the right, LOL. I also love bringing a book outside with me. Read a little, look at the garden a little, get up to pull that dastardly bindweed by my foot, read a little more, go and try and find where I put my shovel to move that ailing dianthus...

    I really have to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy weeding. Sometimes it is a day when I am simply in NO MOOD to weed and the very idea of it irks me to the core. Then another day I simply go into 'the zone' and get three buckets filled in one evening. And then I rest some more, LOL!

    Fun thread!
    CMK

  • natal
    12 years ago

    I enjoy everything except weeding.

    This time of year the only thing I'm doing is moving the sprinkler around the yard (we're in an extreme drought) and daily tomato harvesting.

    If I'm totally honest the thing I enjoy most is sitting in a rocker on the screened porch, freshly showered, after a full day in the garden, ceiling fans softly moving the spring air, and a cold glass of chardonnay in my hand. No more days like that until fall. The miserable heat is on. :(

  • sarahrock
    12 years ago

    "...sitting in a rocker on the screened porch, freshly showered, after a full day in the garden, ceiling fans softly moving the spring air, and a cold glass of chardonnay in my hand..."

    geez, are you a writer? you really took me there... it sounds like heaven!

  • soxxxx
    12 years ago

    I like to walk around my garden with guests. I like to pull leaves from different herbs and let them smell and guess what it is. It is fun to teach them, and surprise them with names like "Rattle Snake Master" or "Sweet Annie."

    I like to send them off with a boquet or share a plant with them.

  • organic_kitten
    12 years ago

    I love to sit in the shade under the big oak tree with the fan blowing on me, (it was 97 today) a glass of iced tea, and watch the birds and butterflies and enjoy the sights and fragrances in the garden...Gardenias are blooming now, and so many flowers are in bloom. I just love to be in the garden!
    kay

  • Thyme2dig NH Zone 5
    12 years ago

    What a fun thread! I enjoy so many things in the garden. I guess my favorite thing is planting in general. Even planting hundreds of bulbs never feels like drudgery to me because I imagine what they'll look like next year. Or what the teeny shrub will look like in five years. I love how the plants change so much from year to year. I started a lot of perennials from seed indoors this year and after planting out over 200 of them I am still not bored with it or overwhelmed by the sheer volume. I just think about what they'll look like in a couple years, and then realize I've planted them too closely and will have to move them in a couple years......and so the planting continues!

  • natalie4b
    12 years ago

    I love waking up each morning with anticipation of seeing what's blooming now. Taking my stroll with a cup of coffee around the garden, enjoying still cool air, birds' singing (or sending warning signals to each other if my cat is outside), feeling grateful for being able to see, experience, smell, witness all this.
    Frankly, there is hardly anything that I don't like doing around the garden. Even a process of weeding gives me joy, since I love how the area looks like when it's clean and weed-free.
    Spreading compost, digging up old stumps, trimming, sweating, getting sunburns - I don't mind any of it - somehow all of it gives me joy and satisfaction, even if the results are only vivid in my mind's eye.
    Watering is very calming and zen practice for me. Discovering new blooms - is like playing bingo :). And enjoying hollyhocks for the very first time after trying to grow them for 5 years - is the most satisfying and wonderful experience of all!

  • nwrose
    12 years ago

    I just had to add my thoughts of fav's in the garden. Right now it is moving plants. I'll see a plant being eaten up by another and I'll search for a place where it will really shine. I look at textures, colors, plan groupings and imagine the final scene once they re establish. I move my yard art to get a better look and I watch for spaces where a new plant I've drooled over, becomes a nessescity.
    And in the morning, me in my night clothes, I run the house waste out to the compost via every twist and turn. By the time I get back into the house, my coffee cup is empty and I'm ready for a refill, I've seen my efforts and can plan my day. About my nittie...I keep wondering why the nieghbors on both sides planted walls of sky scraping arborvitae...hmm. I can't see them, they can't see me.
    Smiles,
    D....

  • Kiskin
    12 years ago

    I love the thrill of discovering yet another clever spot to add a (no dig) flower bed. Or the satisfaction of finding the perfect plant combination. Or the success of propagating my favourite plants through cuttings.

    But most of all, just writing in my gardening journal on my chaise longue on my deck, surrounded by flowering fragrant David Austin roses...

  • Calamity_J
    12 years ago

    My fav thing changes as I "grow" in my gardening experience. Weeding is just not on any fav list!lol! I am planting up the whole 1/2 acre of yard, so love to make new beds. I LOVE adding/making garden accents, solar lights are my new fav. Every morning I put on coffee and walk outside to "check" on things...wondering around, looking at the pond, saying good morning to all my babies(plants/birds/fish/yard), usually forgetting all about the coffee for a good 45 min!!!ha! The birds are using the feeders/birdbath/houses I have put out, so thrilling to watch a robin having a bath!!!

  • rock_oak_deer
    12 years ago

    I love planting new plants because it means another bed is ready to plant and we've made progress!

  • luckygal
    12 years ago

    I have so many fave things to do in my garden! I agree with many things others have said.

    I love sharing plants with other gardeners - I've given away dozens so far this year to appreciative folks.

    I love the expectation of waiting to see what plants will look like. Right now I'm waiting on the columbine to flower as I've potted quite a few so I can situate them in the correct bed (colorwise).

    I like 'discovering' seedlings in places where I cast some seeds last year and then transplanting them to other areas.

    I enjoy propagating plants - yesterday I took 18 cuttings from my Walker's Low catmint and hope to have a lot of new (and free) plants in a couple of months. Might even do more - I love this plant and want to use it throughout my garden.

    I enjoy planting my patio/deck pots as they quickly grow from tiny plants to lush, colorful, and very pretty decorations - so rewarding.

    I like almost everything except weeding.

  • mosswitch
    12 years ago

    I love all of it, even the tough, dirty pruning jobs and cleaning up the unending leaves in the spring. But my favorite "work" to do in the garden is weeding the moss, sitting on the soft, cushy carpet and picking out the small weeds. A Zen occupation.

  • ianna
    12 years ago

    I love to dig just like you.

  • bouquet
    12 years ago

    I like to walk around at dusk and light candles. The garden looks magical at that time of day. I have these wire holders stuck in the ground throughout the garden, and you know those old decorative glass shades? Like ones from old light fixtures and ceiling fans? These fit perfectly standing in the holders with a tea light in the bottom. Whats really nice is since they're open at the bottom, they don't fill with water when it rains.

  • crackingtheconcrete
    12 years ago

    I really love watering with buckets and a watering can. It gives me time to think, while doing something, and I always notice little things I might have missed if I just meandered by.

  • eightzoner
    12 years ago

    Count me among the strolling and staring crowd. Half of my gardening efforts go on in my mind. LOL!

  • doggonegardener
    12 years ago

    While I LOVE a good trip to the green house/nursery for buying plants, money has been tight this year since we did some MAJOR home improvement this last winter. That situation has led me to really enjoy the challenge of filling 4 new beds with divisions from plants already in my garden. Dividing is proving to be good for my existing plants and it's allowing me to expand and add color and texture to the new beds without spending money. It's hard to not just go to the nursery and buy a bunch of plants to experiment with but it's also been fun to rise to the challenge of filling the beds without spending a dime... except on soil amendments. Even some of those are coming for free since I get 5 gallon buckets of coffee grounds from Starbucks and compost and so on.

  • mnwsgal
    12 years ago

    My favorite garden activity is sitting at the end of the day and enjoying the gardens beauty. My favorite gardening job is deadheading. This takes me through each of the garden beds and I can evaluate the beds and note new blooms or plant growth. It is also a quiet slow solitary job which gives me a break from other people and allows me to hear and watch birds and insects. I carry a bucket and my hand hoe so if I spot a weed it gets plucked immediately.

    Gardening can be hard dirty work but I do it because I like to garden and experiment. When I come in exhausted at the end of the day DH asks, 'You want to do this, right?" And I do.

  • neverenoughflowers
    12 years ago

    My friend and I call it "The Garden Walk", we go to either her house or mine, get a nice glass of wine and go out for a stroll. We admire the plants, (since we share, we have lots of the same plants), pull weeds along the way and dream of what we want to add to the garden. We each seem to have just the right amount of "garden junk". We've been doing this for the past 16 or 17 years and we never grow bored.

  • silvergirl426_gw
    12 years ago

    I love to compost. I dig it and turn it in the composter, and I shovel out the loose richness from the bottom and chop it finer with the shovel then mix it with decomposed leaves from the big pile next to it. Like a miser, I decide where each new load is going to go. After years of this, the old established beds have such wonderful soil to turn over. I really love to dig! I feel the anxieties and the cares of the week fall away.

    I'm also one of the wanderer/welcomers. With my coffee cup in the early morning, in bare feet in the dew, greeting everyone, new and old -- the wonder of it all. And then doing the garden walk at the end of the day. I have to hold my hands, to just enjoy and NOT deadhead or pluck or pat. I love it all.
    lucia

  • plantmaven
    12 years ago

    My fav is probably the walk-about. I used to really enjoy planting, the soil has so much limestone aways down that it is a real physical chore that I can no longer do.
    I am in the process of puting down muclh. We are a hair's breath away from stage 3 water restrictions. When that happens we will be able to use the irrigation system every other week. that would be one day and only from 3 to 8 a.m.
    or 8 to 10 p.m.
    fortunately we can still water with a hand held hose.
    Lack of water sure takes the joy out of gardening!

    I do enjoy the birds and make sure they have water. The cardinal fledgling really enjoy a shower.

  • cearbhaill (zone 6b Eastern Kentucky)
    12 years ago

    We have always had our "go to" chairs placed overlooking our rear yard.
    My favorite feeling on earth is to work my butt off all day long, getting the animals fed, dinner figured out, and then just sitting down with an adult beverage and watching my dogs play and admiring all our hard work.
    This is when my reward happens- the joy I feel at seeing my little patch of the planet is something I treasure. Mistakes are pondered, future projects planned, and just a huge feeling of accomplishment and contentment.

    Our yard is always going to be a work in progress- it is very early into this house and we have a very long way to go but I think we have done well.

    This is our back yard the day we took possession in '07

    {{gwi:683687}}

    And how it looks now

    {{gwi:683688}}

    I have a new metal roof being installed any day now and the moment that is completed is going to be celebrated beyond belief- end of Phase ! :)

    As we are very fond of saying- we're working on it!

    Here is a link that might be useful: more yard photos

  • aftermidnight Zone7b B.C. Canada
    12 years ago

    My favorite thing to do in the garden is...
    After dinner, just before the sun sets, walking around the garden after working in it all afternoon, a bit of a cool breeze after a hot day carries scent of whatever's blooming throughout the garden. Glass or Mug in hand stopping for a bit of constructive staring, frowning at what still needs to be done, smiling at what has worked then finding a place to sit and just enjoy.

    Annette

  • ogrose_tx
    12 years ago

    After reading all these interesting posts - you know what? We're a very lucky bunch, we have the important things in life figured out!

  • cindysunshine
    12 years ago

    Great thread made me smile all the way thru.

    I do know the job I like the least is mulching once that is finished it's so good to enjoy how nice it looks all freshly edged and clean. I love those walkarounds.

    I love walking the garden and enjoying the big picture vistas and then zeroing in on the combinations that make it work and then to look deeper on the individual blooms and foliage and how amazing they are in color and form. I like to see the repetition in bloom and how it ties it all together.

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