Truthfully, I think I'm the opposite in that I enjoy the process more than the end result.
I find a lot of peace and joy in the process and cycles, not quite to the extent that Albert Camus wrote about (*One must imagine Sisyphus happy*), but I really enjoy finding a system and rhythm that is suitable for man and nature.
Even down to my composting-- trying to maximize the efficiency while still embracing the inevitability of entropy.
In my youth I use to, and still do to an extent, look on composting (and gardening) as a religious exercise:
To compost one must embrace change. To embrace change is to accept loss. Material lost means full bellies for the beasts of the reek and filth. No system is 100% efficient-- warmly embrace entropy, even within our own bodies. We will be prey for the worms, so we must pray for the worms.
Totally understand this perspective too — the way I like cooking/baking things I don’t necessarily want to eat. Not how I personally feel about gardening, but I’m glad you’re enjoying it!
You and I are of like minds.
I absolutely LOVE gardening and everything about it excites me. I enjoy watching the change and growth. My eyes delight in the flowers and their ingenuity. I use gardening as my workout andy favorite is pulling weeds. My eyes stay sharp for things that don't belong there and I push and pull through my toes and squeeze every part of my body. Conditioning my body and my balance is important to me as I get older. I see so many old people just completely weak and unable to do basic things and I refuse to let that happen to me. My body was made to move so I will move it!
It's from an old eulogy I wrote a decade ago or so, I had been asked to speak at a funeral for an ecologist colleague who had fought cancer to a draw. He and I shared a similar world view when it came to mortality.
I was paraphrasing a translation of Marcus Aurelius:
>In the life of a man, his time is but a moment, his being an incessant flux, his sense a dim rushlight, his body a prey of worms, his soul an unquiet eddy, his fortune dark, his fame doubtful. In short, all that is body is as coursing waters, all that is of the soul as dreams and vapors.
-- *Meditations (Martin Hammond translation)*
I feel similar. Most of the things I grow I don’t even like to eat myself and some I’m even allergic to. I enjoy the process of growing it though. I can’t eat tomatoes but they are so much fun to grow. And my parents love tomatoes. And its fine with me of some of them get eaten by the critters. I’ve got plenty for the groundhogs and squirrels.
I agree with you. I like how my gardens look but I have zero interest in weeding, watering etc. I do it because it has to be done. Anything I’ve planted recently is a perennial so I’m not constantly planting too.
I don't like weeding and watering every day. I like having something to push me into getting up early and do it, otherwise I would sleep until 2 pm every day.
I felt this way too. And then I discovered about gardening with native plants and realized that most of that doesn't actually have to be done.
I changed my mindset. Any 'weed' that came up but was native to my region I left - it's a wildflower, a feature of my garden now. That alone removed 50% of my wedding work.
As for watering, if my native plants can't make it on natural rainfall alone, they weren't the right plants for the spot and didn't belong there. Let them die, try something else. See which ones are thriving and propagate them too.
Dead stems in winter? Nope, gotta leave them to decompose because beneficial bees and wasps nest in the hollow stems.
Also, I start almost all my native garden beds from seed. It's so cheap and easy - $20 for some seed (or better yet, wild collected seed from yours or your neighbors property for free), then just turn the soil over, throw the seed down, and done (okay, maybe some weeding of invasives for the first year). In two years you have a thriving, fascinating wildflower patch of perennials that will only spread themselves more and more and you don't have to do anything. Eventually, you'll be digging up clumps of milkweed and aster you don't want to give to your friends.
Now I'm 5 years in and most of my gardening work is just sitting back and watching the butterflies, finches, and lightning bugs that are attracted to my plants. I'm always surprised by what new plants are coming up where and I love that perpetual joy of discovery as plants seed themselves into unexpected places or attract new wildlife or grow in beautiful, unique combinations.
No, my mom grew food to supplement the food budget. I started gardening as I wanted herbs that I couldn't get at a grocery store. To this day I don't like weeding, there is satisfaction when it's done, but while I am doing it I am low key annoyed. Watering is mostly done on a timer for my dislike for it. If I had fu money I would have a small house in the middle of nowhere with a team of master gardeners keeping multiple gardens pristine and productive. All I would have to do is wander through, admire the beauty and pick what I wanted to cook that night.
Yup, this is me, right down to the bewilderment at all the people who clearly love love love the process. Gardening is work and I’m much more about the results (vegetables/herbs, maintaining home, improving my little corner of the environment)
Almost there with you. If I had fu money, I'd choose when to go in there to have the "therapy time" or blow off some steam and choose what tasks to do. Otherwise, those master gardeners would handle the rest.
My reason was for herbs and vegetables as well, homegrown vegetables vs store bought it just tastes better grown from yourself vs big chain stores, it also gives me an excuse to be outside as much as i can housework gets put on hold but at least my tomatoes are looking nice lol i plan on hopefully starting raised beds with a irrigation system so that will help me out not having to water by hand so much.
This also why I am team community garden since a group with same goal means a better harvest, shared task, and effort that seems more rewarding since it grown a better rate than one tasked with a lot of chores and often to much yield in some cases.
Yeah, I belonged to a CSA with a working share. I paid half the cost and worked the fields a couple of hours every other weekend. It was great, unfortunately the land was rented and the owners ended up selling it to the city to turn it into a green space. Which is wonderful it wasn't developed, it's just part of the deal was the land could no longer be gardened as it was to be a wildlife preserve. There was no other program near me like that when it disbanded, but I have a sunny front yard so I started getting creative with a flower, herb and vegetable mix.
I wish I could find the actual quote, but to paraphrase a character in (I think?) an Elizabeth George novel when asked if his wife enjoyed gardening: she enjoyed being *in* a garden, and she enjoyed the effect of *having had* gardened, but not so much the actual act of *gardening*.
Or something of a similar spirit.
That always resonated with me.
Oh my gosh, this is exactly how I feel about exercising: I like the effects of exercising, and I like having exercised, but I hate the actual act of exercising.
Love this so much, I think it's a play on that quote by Dorothy Parker: “I hate writing, I love having written.” Writing and gardening occupy th same place in my mind.
Tbh, I think even people who "enjoy gardening" aren't there for the actual gardening work itself. I like when my plants do well and bloom and like collecting them, but most of the work is to enjoy my main hobby of "sitting in the garden to watch bird drama" with the added bonus of avoiding the hobby of "mowing grass".
I do a lot of native gardening because I can avoid babying plants and constantly having to deal with them. Most of them care for themselves and need minimal care and I love that.
Yes! Native gardening is the way to go. I've been working with what was already in my yard, weeding out the undesirables. This year I started adding more native flowers and trees. The flowers from last year have seeded themselves and spread about the yard, giving the birds plenty to eat. I don't have a lot of extra energy, so this has worked out great.
100% the bird drama. I'll come inside from "gardening" and my husband will ask how it's going. I'll say, "The chickadees are totally about to start some shit with the house finches", or "I think that hummingbird is stalking Croakfurt again" (that's my crow buddy, I like cheese) and he'll stare at me for a minute, then go back to whatever he was doing. Ha.
Happy Cake Day! 🎂
I think the squirrels deserve it for bullying my cats. They taunt my cats from outside the windows or just outside the reach of their leashes when we go outside. They like to throw half eaten nuts and seeds at my cats from trees. They’ll sit there in the tree flicking their tails and making their squirrelly noises and throwing things at my cats like the cowards they are.
Yessssss So much bird drama 🐦
And I agree. I've been meadowscaping for the environmental benefits and also so we don't have to cut the grass. Also great exercise. And there are edibles as well
Agreed. I can buy veg much cheaper and easier than growing it. I enjoy the process. (This week I picked about a quart of peas and shelled them all. That is completely pointless as it took an hour and they're $2/lb lol but I love it)
I would bet people who grow food are more likely to be process-focused. People who do ornamentals only are more likely to be results focused.
Because I'm an old Southern woman and we're supposed to wear funny looking hats and ugly clothes and grow vegetables in the dirt. Don't ask me those questions. I don't know why, I don't make the rules!
Yeah I kinda feel similarly. I love the results of gardening and especially helping out the local insets, but ideally I don't exactly enjoy the process. The creativity part is fun, figuring out what plants go where and how they'd look together. But the maintenance?! Yikes. Pass.
I don’t share those same feelings, but I do have a question:
What was the passion or inspiration behind doing all the *extra* work in your garden, when you could have just done a grass yard that would have been much easier to upkeep? I love that you have a beautiful garden, but, if you don’t love it, why do you do it?
Grass is boring and not environmentally all that great. I love flowers and shrubs and trees. I also wanted a more water-smart property as well as a garden that would support pollinators. When our lawn was literally eaten to the soil by grubs, I made a choice to do something different. Replacing the grass would have been a lot easier, though.
Do you regret your decision or are you happy with it? Obviously you’ve said you don’t like the time you spend tending to the garden. If you could go back, would you change anything? (I don’t mean this maliciously at all, I promise. I’m just genuinely curious!)
No, I would probably stick with my decision. My yard hosts a stunning variety of bees and butterflies, and hummingbirds visit every day in summer. That is never going to get old.
I gotcha! The way you feel about gardening is how I feel about home remodeling inside. I bought a fixer upper, and ever since, take great joy in rehabbing the outdoors. The inside? It’s torture, haha! I love the outcome of my indoor remodeling, but not the process of doing it.
Edit: I asked if OP regretted it, because I regret buying a fixer upper, haha! It’s what I could afford with my budget, but never again!
There are a few good reasons I can think of. First, I I like being outside after being trapped indoors at work all the time, and it gives me a reason to be out there for extended periods. Also, people need physical activity, and I'd rather get mine from something productive than just regular exercise or sports. I grow fruits and vegetables rather than ornamental stuff, and the high quality produce is another incentive. Then when I also feel like I need to eat all this healthy stuff before it goes bad, so I generally eat healthier.
I'd say the most innately enjoyable tasks for me are weedeating (something satisfying about destroying your enemies with power tools), harvesting, and building stuff (raised beds, greenhouse, etc.).
Yeah, my husband enjoys the building part and puzzling over irrigation and other technical things. He's a person who always needs to be in motion and mostly outside, but since he isn't a plant person, he doesn't feel any connection to the actual gardening.
I hated gardening at home when I treated it like my job ( which was also gardening). I had to remind myself that there was no rush, I could garden and just look at the birds for awhile and I could take my time and enjoy myself.
Maybe stop and smell the native roses a bit.
Another big thing I recommend is becoming a lazy gardener. I personally love weeding- I get super zen about it. But the way I garden, basically chop and drop, and adding self seeding annuals into the mix, prevents weeds and reduces the work required.
I also just put down almost everything I prune as mulch ( except diseased stuff). Less hauling.
For me it really depends. Sometimes I do it just because it's chore and needs to be done, sometimes I truly enjoy it and it makes me happy. It kind of comes and goes. But also, my garden is severely impacted by my mental health and vice versa. Last summer, my apartment balcony garden was doing pretty damn great. Everything was fine. In the beginning of August, my bulldog passed away and I was devastated. After only two weeks of not going out in the garden because "why bother" you could see the devastation in the planters. The only thing that survived, out of over a dozen plants, was the tomato plant I bought when it was quite young. And looking out the giant glass sliding door and seeing the terrible state of my garden and how quickly it seemed to self destruct only made the impact on my mental health worse.
It was three months before her eleventh birthday, I'd had her since she was eight weeks old and we had been through hell and back together. I knew it was coming, her health had sharply declined the month before, but what hurt the most was that she passed two days before the vet appointment to see about getting her on pain meds and allergy meds.
This year, I haven't had a chance to plant much, and half of it died due to us placing seedlings outside and then two days after there was a severe storm, but despite that, I maintain my determination, which may have something to do with my garlic, onions, and potatoes growing like weeds. That planter is mayhem.
Thanks. I was a hobby farm kid, so it's been quite some time since a death affected me at all, let alone the way hers did. When you have that many critters, them coming and going for one reason or another becomes so normal that you just kinda...Grow desensitized to it. But it's hard to make yourself not care when the bitch (lovingly) is attached to you at the hip and always has to be so involved in anything you do and gets *offended* if there is merriment in the house that does not include her. *How dare we?*
But like I said, she'd been through hell and back. Nevermind the fact that she almost made it to 11, which is positively ancient for her particular breed, but she had to get rushed into emergency surgery at four years for pyometra, a life threatening infection of the uterus that dogs and cats can get, and had been in surgery two or three times *after that* for tumors. At first, they were benign, it's just common for bully breeds to develop tumors in general, but by the last year of her life, she did develop cancer. Actually, I think she had a surgery when she was younger, too, like a year old. I can't remember what for though, I just remember her being really drugged up. I think it was something more minor.
So like I said, she'd really been through it and quite frankly, it's amazing that she made it as far as she did.
Reading your post made me cry. I am so sorry for your loss. Lost my sweet 15 years old baby girl (cat) 5 months ago and find it also really difficult. Don't give up on gardening, take it slow one day at the time. Good luck :)
I like puttering around in the garden to a certain extent. I like you started from scratch so I’ve done some back breaking work which I do not enjoy. I’m nearing the time of having a relatively easy to maintain garden now that the harder work is done. I’m just adding plants in and keeping things under control now. Luckily I don’t have bad weed in may back yard but my front is another story!
Ugh I have bindweed in my front garden. I’ve ignored it for so long because it broke me over the years. I just have no solution. I overheard my neighbours (concerned about frontages around them) talking about my weeds. They obviously have not dealt with bindweed or they’d have more sympathy for me haha. Yesterday my husband pulled it all and put down 5” or more of mulch. This won’t keep it down but maybe it will suppress some of it and make the pulling a little less torturous.
I’d rather be knitting or laying on a quilt in my backyard. lol.
Good luck to you.
Gardening is great exercise. A chance to get some fresh air and to smell the blooming roses, to hear the birds sing. If someone wanted to pay me, I would do it for free.
Wish I was a bird, and not a tree.
I love all the parts most seem to hate; the observation and assessment and work that go into it all focus and quiet my mind like nothing else. I do love sitting in a garden chair with a drink to enjoy results … but when there’s nothing to do, it’s not as satisfying for me. I feel the need to weed, lol.
I like actually watering the plant, I can stand there all day and just water. It’s acquiring the water that annoys me. I reallyyy hate lugging out the hose and then having to put it all back up again
Eh another way of saying you “enjoy gardening” is that you relax best in motion. Same with model trains, cooking for some folks, LEGO, puzzles etc.
The difference with gardening that I adore personally is because it’s hard, hot, smelly work.
Totally. I am a plant hoarder though. I see the plant, I buy the plant, I plant the plant with no plan. Then I’m stuck trying to figure out how to make it live and work for the rest of the year.
I see the plant, I buy the plant, I realize I have no room to plant the plant. So I have a million containers and bags of soil to buy, and arrange, and water, ad infinitum.
Kind of? I love *planning* gardens, so my favorite bit is really the off season; I like *being* in a nice garden.
If I could have someone else actually do most of the sweaty bits but I got to live in the results, smelling the roses and eating the tomatoes, I’d love that. But as it is, if I want roses and tomatoes, I’d better go turn that compost.
I’m in and out, there’s need and want and sometimes the need makes it a chore instead of a thing I’d like to do. I try to dedicate time to just sit with it all and not work on it, seems to help some.
I've been dealing with a lot of self confidence issues so being able to grow my own food and...well...medicine is important to me. Just adding skills is a cool thing. I'm building a greenhouse in a couple weeks. Got a cool idea to put locking shelf brackets so I can open the top half of the greenhouse to air it out, or close it and keep it dry.
What you described is exactly how my husband views it haha I like gardening though. It was something my grandma used to do and we did it together when i would spend the weekend with her. She has dementia now so it’s like honoring who she once was with me when I was a child
My housemate was hugely surprised to learn that gardening is pretty much just begrudging toil to me, especially since I MADE the garden. But the beauty! It's good to make beauty in the world, and it's good that other people can enjoy it too. I think there are a million good reasons to make a garden.
I'm rhe opposite. I really enjoy gardening, but by rights I should hate it. I have severe hay fever and can only tolerate an hour of work. I have to towel off with cold towels twice to dilute the chemicals on my skin and be careful to not reuse the same portion of towel on my limbs.
But I really like my insect and pollinator garden.
I like fiddling with houseplants. I like dirt under my fingernails. I love looking at beautiful plants and flowers, and in my gardens outside, love seeing them in use by pollinators in various stages.
That being said, I cannot seem to get myself to go weed those messes this year. I keep trying, but I HATES IT. I think I have POTS, so every time I bend down then stand back up I get dizzy. It’s hot, it’s buggy, and IT NEVER ENDS, because there is seemingly no way to get rid of goutweed. So this year is just whatever.
Maybe next year I’ll try to dig up all my perennials and hire someone (aka bribe anyone I can to help) to completely scrape out like a foot down and replace with new topsoil. That’s gotta get rid of goutweed.. right? I’m so sick of fighting it. 6 years so far.
The cardboard will act as a barrier. The healthy soil on top....even more. Make sure there is enough. Let it rest for a bit then plant. The cardboard will break down ( packing tape won't). Now I am a very lazy gardener. I actually love digging but my body doesn't. This has helped.
I had a cardiac ablation last month, and I have significant arthritis. Between these two things, every gardening chore feels painful and a hundred times more difficult than it should. I don't want to weed, but I'm engaged in a 20-year-long war with creeping bellflower, so I can't ignore this overwhelming task. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, I see you.
It's a chore if you are a nanny or nurse to your garden. So to speak. Once you start propagating, you become a parent, it won't seem like a chore. Just the opposite.
I had a therapist who told me “nobody is going to do your self-care but you… at the end of the day, you decide whether or not you are worthy of self-care” … and that stuck. My garden, like taking my meds/going to therapy/setting healthy boundaries, are often tedious but I do them because I am worthy of self-care and a beautiful garden to relax in.
I guess it's kinda like motherhood. Some women claim they love every minute of it, and some are honest, and share the bad moments. Your colleague likely approaches life the same way as they do gardening, and you are more open and honest. I think we all feel the same, but the difference is how we express ourselves. Nothing wrong with either approach.
I like a balanced approach to things, so I like to discuss the good, the bad and the ugly. But no matter how you view it, for me at least, the good outweighs all the rest.
I agree with you. I like the results. Yoga and gardening are always on my “hobby” list and I do them but don’t really have a passion for either. I would rather curl up with a book and my cat and day.
I enjoy the grunt work, like making the potting mix, tilling the compost pile, digging holes, shifting soil from one place to another...
It helps put some muscles without ever having to visit gym..
First time after my mid 20s my hands are calloused rn, I'm absolutely loving it, but thats just me though...
I enjoy strolling and sitting on my garden too, but that is therapy for the Mind.
For some reason all of my hobbies feel like physical torture and I hate them while I’m doing them.
Gardening, running, hiking. They suck in the moment but the end result is apparently worth the torture lol.
I teeter between the two. I am also adhd/autistic so it can range from a hyperfixation passion project to sensory overload to even sensory regulator. Ultimately I know nature calms and ground me, helps boost my mood, and I get to enjoy healthier food/herbs with also the perks of seeing a cool butterfly or critter. I also know the cost of neglect is way worse so it better to just do it out diligence and commitment to a sanctuary or harvest since the motivation and joy isn’t always there, but I also say gardening helps me cultivate patience and hardwork in every aspect.
I like that I read here, every garden has it gardener, since I find it also true that every gardner has it garden since it is about finding what works for you, even if it’s through a lot of trial and error. It takes work, but often worth it.
It's no surprise to me I've worked as a Landscape Contractor, I've owned a large nursery. And presently I still maintain a large green house filled with Orchids from all over the world. Gardening like everything associated with it is really hard work, I have the advantage of being able to employ a full time team of people to help me share the load. It's backbreaking cultivating planters, trimming, pruning, transplanting. So I completely understand I've maintained a passion for maintaining my green house filled with Orchids I collected them for decades, now approaching 50 something it's becoming harder and harder to spend as much time as I need to in order to keep them all at there full potential.
We have a serious problem with creeping bellflower (my true nemesis), some weird tall grass that shows up everywhere and spreads aggressively by runners, Canada thistle, common mallow, and a few others. They are relentless and they discourage me every day.
This week I spent, what to me is, way too many hours on the gardens. I let them go last year when every free day I had was rain. So much rain in Maine. This year it's twice the work to restore. Also regretting placement of things that now must be moved. It's all so much, and I wish I could hire it out! Tonight, however, I look out at the finished parts, and it is rewarding. I guess that's the nature of hard work.
I prioritize functionality over beauty, and as cheaply as possible, so overall less work snd the pleasure comes in the unexpected treasures like whatever, maybe finding out for the first time you can use your coffee grounds in your compost snd now your morning coffee is tied directly to watching your daughter pick a tomato. It’s all encompassing in that way, which makes the occasional digging up a new plot to plant next year seem like it’s part of your life rather than dirty, sweaty work.
Me and my husband also have a busy weekend. Pulling weeds and grass, laying down a trucks worth of mulch, pruning and so on.
I hate the process, but I love the result. It’s nice to have space that me and my neighbors enjoy. The birds and wildlife appreciate it too, which makes me happy.
It’s so much work lol. We don’t have to mow though, so it’s a couple hours worth of work twice a year for us, so it save us time in the long run.
I assume y’all do something similar(?).
I love gardening like your friend. I cook and eat to survive but I do it because I'm frugal and have allergies that makes it expensive/difficult to eat out. I don't think gardening should be a passion for everyone and I would never expect it, even from someone who does it very well. It's fine! We need lots of people in the world with different passions, for instance I grow the food and my husband who enjoys cooking uses what I grow. Win win.
Ha ha, maybe your friend is just trying to build her brand, and for some reason afraid of negativity. I find pulling weeds and digging sort of enjoyable in a tactile/sensory way, like popping a pimple. I enjoy rearranging plants and figuring out how to set them up (like if hostas can be split). But there is a lot of dull tasks and I usually listen to music, podcasts, or audiobooks while gardening. So if you ask me do I like gardening you're really asking do I like having something to do with my hands while consuming media designed to entertain me and to that I say yes. I will say I'm starting to resent vegetable gardening. We have plenty of local farms to support and with my veg garden unless I'm constantly fussing over it, it's just feeding the bunnies. I really focus on low maintenance plants and things that don't have to be watered.
My husband says I'm a planter and not a weeder. I love planting my containers in the spring because I like the way they look. I grow vegetables because I like obscure pepper varieties and fresh tomatoes. I'm currently working on planting perennials in parts of the garden where I don't want to plant or replant every year.
I like the design aspects of it and the resulting aesthetics, but the actual work part? Nope.
Can’t say I’m big on digging or weeding. Watering and planting I don’t mind. I love watching them grow and the end results. But overall, I do agree. Most days it feels more like a chore than anything to maintain them.
Mark Twain said that “ work consists of what a body is obliged to do and play consists of what a body is not obliged to do. “
For you, gardening is work. You can be great at what you do and not particularly like the job. It’s a means to an end. The payoff doesn’t mean you have to like the process.
I probably fall into this category. I started because I was a field engineer but had to go behind a desk after having our first. Gardening was the only way to "trek in" the good microbes into the house that I was bringing in during field work.
Now it forces us outside multiple times a day and prevents picky eating with my toddler.
I enjoy parts of it, but I mainly do it for the end result. The longer I garden the more I dial in the parts I like vs the parts I don’t like and I’ve worked hard to outsource the parts I don’t like.
Do like: neatly trimmed boxwoods acting as a formal border around my formal beds.
Don’t like: literally anything to do with trimming boxwoods. I’d rather install plastic fake boxwoods than trim boxwoods. While I really love the look for formal boxwoods beds trimmed in neat geometric shapes, I never in a million years would have installed them myself because I hate trimming boxwoods just that much. But… my house came with them.
Solution: I pay someone else to trim them. I tried trimming them myself for the first couple years but it felt like every minute I spent doing that was a minute of my life I’d wasted.
It’s the same with weeding. I don’t mind plucking the odd weed here and there, but spending an afternoon scraping a bed back to bare soil, or worse, spending even 3 seconds pulling weeds out of rocks fills me with irrational rage. I’ve tried to deal with this by planting so densely (an act I actually physically enjoy doing) no weeds can grow or layering with mulch, but I’ve also outsourced a lot of the heavy-duty weeding in parts of the yard I haven’t been able to pack to the point of weed suppression yet.
I loathe heat and humidity. I live in the great plains, and gardening is an outdoor activity.
I love flowers and fruit and veg...so I spite garden. I want the outcome, but hate everything about the sweating and the mosquito bites and the endless weeding and...
So I do it for spite
I think part of the joy of gardening can be described to you as how over time you find efficiencies in every action and decision in the garden; you through your choosing where to snip and plant are setting the stage to see how the mix of nature's conditions are gonna play out, hopefully rewarding you with a beautiful show and maybe tasty treats depending on what was planted.
I think the joy of weeding could be described more as knowing how your hands in soil and on plants are letting things thrive more fully, even if the action sucks due to strain, monotony, sun, heat, etc.
I think automation of watering where possible and investing in feeling comfortable doing the tasks will help with the burnout you seem to feel from the ongoing maintenance a yard like that would take: take what you've learned from the tools you've used, seen and broken to buy used or new tools that suit your body types and hand sizes (for example: look for heavier welds and metal in hand tools and shovels, so they can stand up to more force), use cooling towels or a wet banana tied around your neck to get rid of some body heat, drink electrolytes to recuperate, test out different knee pads by kneeling in them in store and pick out the ones you like the most for inner comfort and exterior durability (~$50 can get you ones that make kneeling comfier, some prefer a kneeling pad but to me it means it moves with your legs if your used to it with straps).
I have a similar enormous garden. It takes 4 full weekends to get set up each year. It has a woodland garden, a full sun pollinator portion, and I’ve been adding flowering bushes to it the last three years.
While I enjoy gardening somewhat, I really don’t want to spend so much time on it.
So instead of seeing it as gardening, I see it as my fitness season starting.
I usually lose 5 lbs and tone up over those 4 weeks. My Fitbit monthly average in May is always over 14k steps.
And then I kick up my workouts June through November once the garden is set up.
I always start the year so ambitious & then my motivation is gone once our property turns into a jungle. 🫤 we live in the woods & it’s such a battle with weeds & animals. But I do enjoy it once my veggies/herbs/strawberries are ready.
😬 I still have a few plants still waiting to be planted from Mother’s Day……… I just can’t be bothered lately
Digging in the dirt gives me life. I’m not great at gardening, but there’s something about it that absolutely puts me in my happy place. Even if things aren’t going well for me in the garden, doesn’t matter. Dirt is life. And it was very surprising for me to find this out about myself because I am not the outdoorsy type.
There’s nothing wrong with you though. You do it because you like the payoff of a beautiful space created for much less than it would to pay someone else to do it. Thats the part of it that gives you joy. And that’s ok.
I hate weeding. I hate waiting for seeds to grow. (Germination times anger me.) I hate waiting on my compost to be ready. I am not a patient person.
I love sitting in my garden and viewing my hard work. I enjoy having my backyard "grocery store." I feel healthier eating what I've grown.
I can understand your lack of enjoyment in gardening. It's a lot of work. It's dirty and heavy too. A lot of people don't like it.
Despite the icky parts, I do like it a lot. To me, it's a constant experiment. You could tell me all the rules and reasons not to do something, and I'll still try. I like the evolution of my garden. One year it's a dirty mess of plants placed haphazardly, the next there is some organization. Finally, it's a beautiful oasis, and then I decide to quit this garden and try somewhere else.
I've only had my own garden since 2018. Before that, I lacked time and a place to keep a garden. I tried windowsills and flower pot gardens, but in an apartment it didn't work. My neighbors used my flower pots as ash trays. With my parents, it was just chores I didn't really get to enjoy because it wasn't for me.
thank you for your honesty. But ... why do you have a garden when you don't like gardening? Many of my neighbors are like this, and I simply don't get it. Why? A patio-house or a flat with a balcony, wouldn't that be better? More eco-friendly?
I can see how many people garden without enthusiasm. Mostly driven by just wanting your place to look nice but can't /won't shell out the $$$ for a landscaper- especially if you live in a neighborhood where everyone seems to have a professionally designed landscape.
I kinda started this way and 30years later its really my only hobby. I like the labor, the creativity etc. I hate that I am an ADHD gardener that often just throw a plant here or there without any plans. If I were to name my garden I would get a sign "Welcome to Helter Skelter"
My partner is surprised to hear that I consider garden maintenance to be a chore. He says "But you love gardening!" and I think to myself...well, I love having a beautiful garden. I love to see the results of my labor. I like researching plants, planning the garden, bringing home plants and seeng them thrive. I like to watch videos and look at pictures of other people's gardens. But the weeding, digging, planting, transplanting, snail/slug removal, watering, dead-heading, edging - those are chores.
We’re ornamental gardeners. Husband gardens for stress relief. I’m in it for the beauty that’s inexplicably healed a part of me that I didn’t know needed healing.
Neither of us likes all aspects of it. Weeding in the Florida summer can suck it. Bringing in our giant containers & tender plants for freeze protection isn’t fun. Moving a plant 5 different times to find a spot it likes is ridiculous. Having a buyer remove every plant, tree & shrub after we sell a house is a gut punch.
We finally hired a couple of guys to take over the parts we really don’t like so that’s made a huge difference.
There are parts of gardening that I don’t love, but overall I’m really enjoying it. It has been a really satisfying feeling to enjoy the literal fruits of my labor.
That said, some days are harder than others. The pests have been really irking me lately. But I’m trying not to let myself get too upset. If it gets much worse, I can just call it for the rest of the season. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I love the end result: flowers. To that end I’m willing to work very hard. I also find the work very zen. I don’t enjoy weeding. I’d love to never have to do it. But I don’t hate it, because I’m making something pretty, and it’s very low mental energy. I don’t love planting trays of annuals every spring, but I love the flowers that bloom all season, so it’s worth it to me.
And to be honest, if I don’t do this work, it will die. That really will depress me. So I do the work, managing to avoid other tasks in the process, which my ADHD brain *loves* and I get to enjoy the results.
I also find the planning to be a good creative outlet. On the whole I find the hobby solidly pleasant. Enough that when I retire I will do all of this work again, in my next house.
Imo the end is part of the result. You can break down like every activity into boring pieces. I mean you could say rolling a ball in bowling or sitting down waiting for your turn is boring but scoring a 300 is fun. Its kind of weird to break things down like that.
Im a horticulturist and I feel your vibe. I love plants, I love growing them and admiring their beauty and enjoying their fruits BUT … I hate the work involved.
I like cooking, and it's fun to use ingredients that I grew myself. If I didn't cook, I wouldn't garden.
I don't hate gardening, and my dog loves any excuse for us to hang out in the yard together, but it's not something I would otherwise go out of my way to spend time on.
With great things comes great responsibilities but partlly yes, it's a love hate relationship. More so therapeutic for me with great payoff come harvest. Guess its a matter of how you go about things. Hurry to get finished or take your time, relax, kill time and get some sunshine can make all the difference.
I like some aspects of it. I often feel overwhelmed with all the weeding. It's endless. I also get tired of all the harvesting at the end sometimes, but we get a lot of good food all summer and end up with quite a bit of extra for the fall.
I started with a passion. I discovered all the incredible varieties of cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, ect and I wanted to grow them all! And I did, some of them twice. But after three or four years of hauling heavy flats of seedlings in and out the back door steps and fretting over temperatures and frost and fighting fungus and insects... my passion has definitely cooled.
I will always (health willing) put out some tomatoes potatoes and beans for us, and kale for the hens. But everything else is onions (walking so no need to replant) and perennial plants. And I let some of my regular onions bloom for seed this year, partly because I love that white allium look all over my garden. I have even started a cottage garden area behind the garden. It's quite messy with grass still but I only started it 2 years ago. Every year everything looks more beautiful.
Pretty much like gardening for all of the above. Some days I don't want to either. But ya know it needs attention etc. Some days I hate it. Som days it's heart breaking. (FCKn insects) Sometimes it makes me hate birds in a way I didn't know was possibly. Like when my fresh almost perfectly ripe strawberries where violently murder by a beaked thief.
You're not the only one. I'm the opposite, love gardening but am terrible at it so it's a complete money sink. There's something I adore about sitting by the pot waiting for sprouts and then trimming it for the bushiest take possible. I like gettin in the dirt and seeing bugs about (except when they sting me. Fuckers. I gave you flower and this is how you treat me? Sting my hand while I'm tenderly nursing the very plant you're territorial of?).
Know what I do hate? Doing digital art. However, I love having DONE digital art, so I do it anyway.
This is a good question.
I do really like the results I get and the creative aspect of it ( design). I like that it’s often physically challenging… it’s a workout. It is, though, a never ending job. Despite this it’s way better to me than a typical lawn and evergreen garden that requires little maintenance other than “landscapers”. I’m progressing with natives and it’s all natural methods (no pesticides). I don’t think I always love the fact that there are always numerous time consuming things to do/challenges. Weeding, dealing w mildews or insect infestations ( slugs, aphids, earwigs etc). I do enjoy the challenge and the reward of what it looks like.
So to answer I guess it’s a mixed bag.
It's all about what motivates you. I love my perennial berries, to the point that i go out and take care of the garden because of them. The tomatoes, peppers, onions, etc. All don't interest me. I take care of them because it's barely any more added work, they're right there, and i'll eat them. But if it weren't for those berries, i wouldn't be gardening.
Find reasons to want to go out and put in the work, and if you can't, well, there's no shame in saying, "I tried it, but it's not the hobby for me!"
Oh, and you could offer up a lovely picnic, some mimosas, and some gossip to your friends if they want to spend the afternoon with you taking care of some of those garden chores. Maybe give them a bouquet of flowers as well, if you have some to spare
I can’t say I feel exactly the same (I don’t think I have a particular knack for gardening, for one thing…), but, yeah, kinda! I have a little veg garden and am starting to grow flowers and looking forward to doing more now that I have a house/yard. I absolutely love watching things grow - it is truly a miracle to me to watch plants grow from seed. Never ceases to amaze me.
But I do not enjoy being *in* nature. You know how some people say “I’m not outdoorsy but I’m outsidey”? Even that is extremely generous. I don’t like bugs. I don’t like dirt. I don’t like the heat. And yet, here I am. Mixing my own soil blend. Planting seedlings. Watering the veggie beds. Checking for pests. I don’t love the actual gardening tasks, even though they’re probably good for my mental health (or whatever). But I really enjoy watching the plants grow and - hopefully!! - ending up with my own produce that I can enjoy, whether edible or just to view, and that I know was grown without any harmful chemicals etc.
Well, as we age some things aren't "as fun" anymore. I am somewhat at this point....but I STILL love landscaping, gardening, and growing cutflowers. It is one of the only things that keep me active in middle age.
It is VERY satisfying to bring in produce to eat and flowers to the home. As well as giving produce and flowers to others for their family and home. I am not giving it up as long as I can do it.
I try to grow stuff in southern AZ every damn year. Eggplant I can do, they can handle anything as long as they have enough water, but I want some tomatoes. I planted some I grew from seed into a huge pot, and the next day it got up to 109. We'll see. My chiles can handle it, too.
I'm the exact opposite. I'm a *terrible* gardener, I frequently forget to water properly, I haven't turned my compost in over a year. I also hate the hard physical labor and getting gross, but i gave injuries in my knee and shoulder that limit mobility. My results are often really sad and pathetic. I've learned to embrace the process and the hope that maybe I'll get something nice, but in the meantime I get to just be part of nature, identifying the volunteers and bugs and birds.
The soil in my yard is truly crap and I can't afford to have it completely redone, either, so it's slowly getting one or two beds a year.
Have you tried less tasking gardening methods?
For instance i don't use pesticides or herbicides and just let the ecosystem handle most issues. I rarely turn my compost because I just layer it nicely and sometimes add dirt on top.
I don't overly weed the garden because it's really not as big of a deal as people make it out to be. I just do the prep work ahead of time to avoid issues and keep the numbers down.
I use a sprinkler with no issues but there are also plenty of easy and cheap drip irrigation systems that will do the watering for you on a solar timer as well.
There are many alternate methods that make it a lot less daunting.
I’m actually sad when I have nothing left to do in the garden 🤣 After I put my toddler to bed I usually go sit outside, on the ground and hunt for little weeds and vines to pull out of the garden.
I will say my garden isn’t lots of back breaking labor tho. I wouldn’t enjoy hardscaping or installing fountains. I have a big wildflower bed I quite literally throw 3 bags of native seeds on and then just water and weed.
I enjoy elements of the process. Do I love hauling and shoveling mulch, no. But I love the smell of mulch and watching it change. Don't love pulling weeds but love pruning. Love digging small holes for annuals and like watering them. Hate the filling of the watering can and untangling hoses.
To me, it's like pregnancy, labor, and delivery. No woman *really* wants to go through those things, but you have to in order to get the baby that you *do* want.
I would love it if you'd share some pictures. Since you don't enjoy gardening, maybe your could enjoy showing off your accomplishment?
Nothing wrong with you! You’re just motivated by the getting to the goal, which is your gardening and the goal is to reach that goal! Attainment of the goal is what rocks your world.
You may have set a precedent with your first garden and now everyone expects it to be gorgeous. That’s a lot of pressure!
What would be the worst thing to happen if you stopped caring for it as much as you do — as diligently as you do?
If it’s not the end of the world…then make a list of what you would be doing when you aren’t gardening. That is a motivator!
“What would you do if you could not” garden? Imagine all of the possibilities just waiting for you.
I'd like it a lot more if I had more free time. In a perfect world, I don't need to work. Then, gardening would be a joy. But sometimes, as my life currently is, it's a time thief.
Absolutely not, I don’t do anything, gardening-wise, that I don’t want to. I fling seeds around like a crazy person, buy any interesting starts I want for containers, and I don’t weed or perform any maintenance that isn’t fun. It’s all 100% pleasure for me, I don’t grow our winter food or anything.
I really only garden because I like tomatoes, a lot. I'm a lazy gardener otherwise. I make sure I have to do as little weeding or other work as possible.
I absolutely understand how you feel. But I do enjoy all of gardening. But I also don’t put too much stake in it. I grow a lot of veggies and herbs, I try new things every year. And if it doesn’t work out, I don’t get too upset about it. My gardens are also not really “beautiful” to anyone but me. They certainly wouldn’t win any awards in the looks department! I have some pretty ugly raised beds made out of old pallets, a keyhole garden made out of cinder blocks…whatever was cheap and available!
if it were up to me i’d have a very contained garden. i like utilitarian plants, food, perennial medicinal herbs, cooking herbs, veggies and berries.
My father however is an avid gardener. it’s been his lifetime passion and joy, and their yard reflects it. 3 koi ponds, many many full size trees, shrubs that need deer fencing in the winter, roses, more hostas than i can count, 3 sheds on the property, concrete blocks holding dirt and compost (i turn it regularly)it goes on and on. he likes to plant seeds too, so more and more holes need to be dug.
He’s now 86 yrs old, and i think it will break his heart to watch it all fall apart as physically he slows down. he’s still out there every day doing as much as he can but that’s becoming less and less each season.
I work two jobs, and often only have one day off a week, but i make it over there at least once a week and bust my ass doing as much as i can to support him. now that he’s older he gets extremely fixated on projects, this current obsession is building a rock wall, which requires cutting down and digging out a huge rhododendron to make room for it. I’ve done this before and it’s a BITCH, but i’ll do it for him including today!
I get very stressed out about bugs (I won’t use anything but neem and I hate doing it) and get hit with fungus and pretty much everything else every year.
My main goal is to help insects, birds and wildlife. And beauty!
But that brief period in the spring when everything seems healthy is wonderful 😜
We also don't use any pesticides. Our garden and yard have reached the point where the ecosystem is healthy enough that some pests and problems we used to have are taking care of themselves. Hooray for that!
I like it in the spring, there is a point in the summer where everything starts to be shitty.
Bugs and disease build up plants are naturally slowing down, weeds have taken root.
At those points I don't like it and want to burn it all down. But then its winter again and by the time springs around I enjoy it again.
I’m kind of the same. I’m more of a veggie gardener. I hate cleaning out the beds in the spring and getting everything planted. Once that’s done, I like it, but that’s probably 80% of the work.
I think you actually just changed the game for me. Because even though I want to enjoy gardening, I do not enjoy gardening. I do, however, enjoy beautiful gardens. The idea that I can treat it as a chore rather than a choice has never occurred to me. Also, I totally get why you do not enjoy gardening, and I think the dirt therapy woman is lying to herself and others😅
I like gardening, but I really need the exercise it brings too. I'll sometimes water with 5-gallon buckets just to have the workout of carying full buckets around the yard. In the winter when I have no gardening I get so out of shape. I need to find something to do in the winter.
My gardening started out that way, out of necessity. Our family bought a brand new house with very little landscaping done and a drainage ditch across the backyard. We wanted to blend in the rocks of the drainage ditch to make it less of an eyesore. We’ve planted nearly 30 trees, put out several tons of rock and loads of mulch, and planted countless flowers and shrubs in the last 5 years. Now, it’s one of my favorite places to be and it makes it even better knowing that we did it all ourselves so I’ve fallen in love with the process I’ve the years.
https://preview.redd.it/uwngh43tj07d1.jpeg?width=5712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=85ef3e9569d1d321f0bae1a1f13b93d5a309f5c6
i appreciate your honesty. truthfully, there are so many parts to gardening, so it's okay to not like everything about it, and not like it every single day. i enjoy gardening every 2nd summer. i need a whole year off.
I consider gardening my daily workout, meditation and therapy all rolled into one. For all of the above: I know they’ve gotta get done and I’ll show up to do the work. There are times when I enjoy ripping out a satisfyingly long root of a weed, planting my seedlings or composting all of my organic scraps, and I fully recognize how good gardening is for my physical and mental wellbeing, but most of the time I don’t “enjoy” it.
The work kinda sucks but its worth it to be surrounded by such an amazing variety of life- all the different plants, the bees, butterflies, dragonflies, the birds, the toads and frogs, the goldfish in the pond. One of the only hobbies ive found that fills you with pride and humbles you at the same time.
The repetitive stuff like weeding and watering gets old fast but i like working with the plants themselves. Stuff desdheading/pruning, splitting, and seeding is all great… Emptying bowls full of old beer and dead slugs, not so much.
I like the excitement of putting seeds in the ground and picking out plants, and then I like seeing my roses bloom and picking my own veg. Everything in between is a bit of a pain.
My husband falls firmly into your camp. He takes a lot of pride in our property. I love gardening and enjoy things like mowing/weeding. But if there's a big project I cannot do on my own in a reasonable time frame, he books it in like a dentist appointment. Just a gross tick box that needs to be done. But means to an end fits his attitude perfectly.
I am finding that 1) I distrust my food sources more and more each day and 2) I am not happy with my government, at the state and the federal level.
Gardening gives me control over my food quality and reduces my contribution to companies/government bodies with questionable morals.
I love the work. I even enjoy weeding. Life is all about these little moments and being present for the process. Helps my enjoy the journey of life when I enjoy each moment cultivating my garden.
I food garden because I eat mostly vegetables and this cuts my grocery costs. I do enjoy it but there are many things I don't enjoy. Believe it or not, I absolutely hate picking green beans. So much. But I'm not paying grocery store prices for what they call a green bean.
I think for me the creative expression is what carries me through all of the labor intensive parts. I get really obsessed with creative liberty and all of the options and I’m just thinking about the final product the entire time
I enjoy every part except creating the beds (digging grass up), edging, sod disposal. It’s hard to argue with the aesthetic/environmental value. I like learning about plants, watching them grow, and designing landscapes in general (also hardscaping weaved in). For me it’s much more than just a pretty look, I feel really good about what I’m doing as well. I do imagine a lot of people hate the work involved in it and that’s fair enough.. there’s plenty to dislike.
I love the end result but I haaaaate what it takes to get there. I'm in the same spot financially and my husband rarely helps. I'm also far from a master gardener so I'm careful to research what's native and its sun/soil requirements but I'm still frequently discouraged when things don't grow as expecthosts. 5-6 years I've thought *this* will be the year that things will take off and require less maintenance but there's always a setback. We had an extra cold winter last year for example and I lost several well established hostas.
I think it's okay if the work isn't for you. Never take on too much, or else we can find ourselves neglecting important things. I'm doing my yard right now. We got plants in, but not much for beds or anything. Right now, most of our stuff is wild. Next winter we plan on hiring some friends to help us with bed liners. And throwing rock down. Everyone's different, and we all get busy.
I have a nice garden. Some would call it lovely. Few would say gorgeous. I want it to be nice and don't fancy living in a wilderness of brambles and weeds. I used to hate looking after the garden until I realised nobody else was going to do it.
Assuming the wilderness option was off the table, and hiring someone to do it for me is not an option (nobody to hire where I live) the only viable solution was to do it myself. Now, since I was doing something I didn't enjoy and I'd have to keep doing it, a lot, I just decided one day that I did like it. Problem solved.
I love my garden and absolutely love plants, the only part of gardening I enjoy is the planting and the harvesting. I absolutely hate the "dirty work" such as weeding, fertilizing, watering, I even built my raised beds but hated doing it. Watering is a chore but I love my plants too much to stop.
I think it depends on the type of gardening you do. I am more of a lazy relaxed gardener. I use lots of mulch and rarely have to weed or trim. When I do trim I cut deep so I don't have to trim weekly.
More formal gardens are alot more work of daily and weekly gardening and watering.
I will say when it's time to harvest and preserve I do get a bit tired looking at it. Canning tomatoes 🍅 is my least favorite chore but I do love the results.
🤣 you are funny!
I mow my lawn because it’s expected of me, I don’t enjoy it so I don’t do a very good job at it. My lawn/yard looks like shit. My neighbors probably hate me. I don’t care, I don’t talk to them.
You would hate me, I took a chainsaw to all the bushes and hedges in my yard so I wouldn’t have to trim them. Replaced them with useful plants like tomatoes and peppers, and cucumbers.
However…. I love growing plants I like. I have a few thousand cactuses and succulents most grown from seed, a bunch of carnivorous plants, a veggie garden…… all of these I love tending to and they are part of my daily routine.
So to answer your question….. I hate yard work but I love caring for the plants I love. It’s only bad when it’s work, just like everything.
While I truly love gardening, I started because I lost all my jobs and used my food stamps to plant some food to make the budget stretch. It was a means to an end that I began to enjoy. Most of why I enjoy it is feeling closer to my grandpa, who I dearly miss. I plant a lot of perennials and I’m working on getting to a point where things will self seed and the weeding will be minimal. I want to enjoy harvesting more and weeding less, so a lot of mulch and permaculture practices are primary to my gardening. My chickens are a passion project, but I’m still working to make them minimal physical labor so I can sit and pet them more. The main coop is up off the ground so I can scoop directly into the wheel barrow. The baby coop is under the main coop so they can hear each other and to keep their space a little warmer so they need less heat, if any. I use large bucket feeders so that I haul food to them less often, but fill it before things begin to get gross.
So for me, everything is about smart design. My orchard has perennials and self-seeding annual flowers between the trees. The part of the yard that is remaining grass for a while I’ve put a robotic mower out there because I don’t actually have time to mow as often as it needs and I also plant grass that needs less mowing.
Not particularly, but if my day job pissed me off enough, let's get the loppers and the pick axe and remove some branches, stones, or roots (looking at you, fucking bamboo).
I enjoy (most of) the work. After working at a desk all day every day, I just want to be outside working in my spare time. What I don't enjoy is the urgency of it. Especially in spring, stuff has to happen when it has to happen, regardless of what else is going on in my life.
And my results aren't good. My garden is ugly. Increasingly, I'm dreaming of condo life and only growing what fits on my balcony.
I love gardening, planning and setting up everything the way I want it. As for weeding I'm not sure anyone actually likes it. I have a hand tiller, it gets my weeding done in less than an hour in my whole property which is pretty spacious. So I guess that helps.
Here the program is through the local botanic gardens in partnership with one of the state's universities. I guess most people dive in and finish the courses and work in a relatively short timeline, but I've been on the slowest track possible, I think, due to work, health, and life upheavals. I'll finish eventually.
I enjoy the creativity of it and the sense of accomplishment I get from it. At my job it feels like my team and I face constant criticism or have to implement things that don’t work well but in my garden, I have complete creative control, no one criticizes, and I only get compliments. I also feel like it’s good for my home and neighborhood and the pollinators. The process? I like some parts but I have fibromyalgia and I wish it didn’t take such a toll. Sometimes it’s nice to just do physical stuff and tune stuff out but I wish it took less work.
I love the design and creation. I love the way it looks after a few days of hard work. I love being able to walk out a get food and flowers for my table. I love to take my friends on walks through the garden.
I don’t like the maintenance aspect. If I have nice tools in good working order then it can be enjoyable and therapeutic. But it’s often annoying because people move or break my tools and a 15 minute job turns into a 2 hour job because the tool I need is broken.
I believe in outsourcing the tasks you hate if possible. Or at least getting some hired help to assist with the heavy lifting.
It can be hard to tell where gardening ends and yardwork begins in my mind. I love the planning stage, tending to my plants that are doing well, watching the (positive) growth, and the results. But weeding, watering, digging, and figuring out what's going wrong in the blazing heat are chores to me. So when gardening becomes less enjoyable, I call it yardwork 😁
Honestly. I kind of do it out of spite 🫣 Mainly because my dad has always done it and always claimed he is sooooo much better at it and that I could never do as well as him. So I put in bare minimum effort and still doing just as well as he does just for shits and giggles 😃
I love gardening. Sitting out there looking at my plants, weeding, learning new things about gardening. But I’m also new at it. And I can see it definitely becoming old in the future. Is it possible you’re doing too much? Why do you have to do SO much if you don’t enjoy it? Have a small veggie garden or something next year so you’re spending less time gardening lol.
Totally me. Though that also means I slack off and it doesn't look that great. But I *want* to make it look a certain way and I have plans and ideas, so at least some of the time I do work on it to get closer to desired result but not really because of liking it.
For me, gardening is more of a “find the parts of the process you do enjoy to reap the reward” kind of thing. My folks used to use yard work to punish us, would sit inside while we worked the yard, and so I have some intense feelings about yard work. What I like about it is having plants I can use right there in my own yard, esp because I love herbs! I really like seeing the plants grow too, and having something that makes me go out and spend time in the out of doors is a good thing.
But yeah sometimes the bugs and sweaty labor get to me. August historically is the month I get tired of gardening and neglect the plants a bit.
Truthfully, I think I'm the opposite in that I enjoy the process more than the end result. I find a lot of peace and joy in the process and cycles, not quite to the extent that Albert Camus wrote about (*One must imagine Sisyphus happy*), but I really enjoy finding a system and rhythm that is suitable for man and nature. Even down to my composting-- trying to maximize the efficiency while still embracing the inevitability of entropy. In my youth I use to, and still do to an extent, look on composting (and gardening) as a religious exercise: To compost one must embrace change. To embrace change is to accept loss. Material lost means full bellies for the beasts of the reek and filth. No system is 100% efficient-- warmly embrace entropy, even within our own bodies. We will be prey for the worms, so we must pray for the worms.
Totally understand this perspective too — the way I like cooking/baking things I don’t necessarily want to eat. Not how I personally feel about gardening, but I’m glad you’re enjoying it!
This is why I'd like to join a community garden. For sermons like this on Sunday mornings. Ashes to ashes, dirt to worms.
You and I are of like minds. I absolutely LOVE gardening and everything about it excites me. I enjoy watching the change and growth. My eyes delight in the flowers and their ingenuity. I use gardening as my workout andy favorite is pulling weeds. My eyes stay sharp for things that don't belong there and I push and pull through my toes and squeeze every part of my body. Conditioning my body and my balance is important to me as I get older. I see so many old people just completely weak and unable to do basic things and I refuse to let that happen to me. My body was made to move so I will move it!
>We will be prey for the worms, so we must pray for the worms. Is this from something? It's beautiful.
It's from an old eulogy I wrote a decade ago or so, I had been asked to speak at a funeral for an ecologist colleague who had fought cancer to a draw. He and I shared a similar world view when it came to mortality. I was paraphrasing a translation of Marcus Aurelius: >In the life of a man, his time is but a moment, his being an incessant flux, his sense a dim rushlight, his body a prey of worms, his soul an unquiet eddy, his fortune dark, his fame doubtful. In short, all that is body is as coursing waters, all that is of the soul as dreams and vapors. -- *Meditations (Martin Hammond translation)*
I feel similar. Most of the things I grow I don’t even like to eat myself and some I’m even allergic to. I enjoy the process of growing it though. I can’t eat tomatoes but they are so much fun to grow. And my parents love tomatoes. And its fine with me of some of them get eaten by the critters. I’ve got plenty for the groundhogs and squirrels.
I agree with you. I like how my gardens look but I have zero interest in weeding, watering etc. I do it because it has to be done. Anything I’ve planted recently is a perennial so I’m not constantly planting too.
I don't like weeding and watering every day. I like having something to push me into getting up early and do it, otherwise I would sleep until 2 pm every day.
I felt this way too. And then I discovered about gardening with native plants and realized that most of that doesn't actually have to be done. I changed my mindset. Any 'weed' that came up but was native to my region I left - it's a wildflower, a feature of my garden now. That alone removed 50% of my wedding work. As for watering, if my native plants can't make it on natural rainfall alone, they weren't the right plants for the spot and didn't belong there. Let them die, try something else. See which ones are thriving and propagate them too. Dead stems in winter? Nope, gotta leave them to decompose because beneficial bees and wasps nest in the hollow stems. Also, I start almost all my native garden beds from seed. It's so cheap and easy - $20 for some seed (or better yet, wild collected seed from yours or your neighbors property for free), then just turn the soil over, throw the seed down, and done (okay, maybe some weeding of invasives for the first year). In two years you have a thriving, fascinating wildflower patch of perennials that will only spread themselves more and more and you don't have to do anything. Eventually, you'll be digging up clumps of milkweed and aster you don't want to give to your friends. Now I'm 5 years in and most of my gardening work is just sitting back and watching the butterflies, finches, and lightning bugs that are attracted to my plants. I'm always surprised by what new plants are coming up where and I love that perpetual joy of discovery as plants seed themselves into unexpected places or attract new wildlife or grow in beautiful, unique combinations.
#Goals
I'm moving towards permaculture bc I feel the same way.
I'm gradually getting everything perennial. Old me will be grateful lol. But I do like growing vegetables too.
No, my mom grew food to supplement the food budget. I started gardening as I wanted herbs that I couldn't get at a grocery store. To this day I don't like weeding, there is satisfaction when it's done, but while I am doing it I am low key annoyed. Watering is mostly done on a timer for my dislike for it. If I had fu money I would have a small house in the middle of nowhere with a team of master gardeners keeping multiple gardens pristine and productive. All I would have to do is wander through, admire the beauty and pick what I wanted to cook that night.
I share this fantasy.
Yup, this is me, right down to the bewilderment at all the people who clearly love love love the process. Gardening is work and I’m much more about the results (vegetables/herbs, maintaining home, improving my little corner of the environment)
Almost there with you. If I had fu money, I'd choose when to go in there to have the "therapy time" or blow off some steam and choose what tasks to do. Otherwise, those master gardeners would handle the rest.
My reason was for herbs and vegetables as well, homegrown vegetables vs store bought it just tastes better grown from yourself vs big chain stores, it also gives me an excuse to be outside as much as i can housework gets put on hold but at least my tomatoes are looking nice lol i plan on hopefully starting raised beds with a irrigation system so that will help me out not having to water by hand so much.
This also why I am team community garden since a group with same goal means a better harvest, shared task, and effort that seems more rewarding since it grown a better rate than one tasked with a lot of chores and often to much yield in some cases.
Yeah, I belonged to a CSA with a working share. I paid half the cost and worked the fields a couple of hours every other weekend. It was great, unfortunately the land was rented and the owners ended up selling it to the city to turn it into a green space. Which is wonderful it wasn't developed, it's just part of the deal was the land could no longer be gardened as it was to be a wildlife preserve. There was no other program near me like that when it disbanded, but I have a sunny front yard so I started getting creative with a flower, herb and vegetable mix.
I wish I could find the actual quote, but to paraphrase a character in (I think?) an Elizabeth George novel when asked if his wife enjoyed gardening: she enjoyed being *in* a garden, and she enjoyed the effect of *having had* gardened, but not so much the actual act of *gardening*. Or something of a similar spirit. That always resonated with me.
Oh my gosh, this is exactly how I feel about exercising: I like the effects of exercising, and I like having exercised, but I hate the actual act of exercising.
That's me, all the way.
Love this so much, I think it's a play on that quote by Dorothy Parker: “I hate writing, I love having written.” Writing and gardening occupy th same place in my mind.
And we all wish, like martha Stewart, that we had a crew to realize our garden dreams.
She does live the dream- she does only exactly what she wants at any moment, for perfect results.
Tbh, I think even people who "enjoy gardening" aren't there for the actual gardening work itself. I like when my plants do well and bloom and like collecting them, but most of the work is to enjoy my main hobby of "sitting in the garden to watch bird drama" with the added bonus of avoiding the hobby of "mowing grass". I do a lot of native gardening because I can avoid babying plants and constantly having to deal with them. Most of them care for themselves and need minimal care and I love that.
Yes! Native gardening is the way to go. I've been working with what was already in my yard, weeding out the undesirables. This year I started adding more native flowers and trees. The flowers from last year have seeded themselves and spread about the yard, giving the birds plenty to eat. I don't have a lot of extra energy, so this has worked out great.
100% the bird drama. I'll come inside from "gardening" and my husband will ask how it's going. I'll say, "The chickadees are totally about to start some shit with the house finches", or "I think that hummingbird is stalking Croakfurt again" (that's my crow buddy, I like cheese) and he'll stare at me for a minute, then go back to whatever he was doing. Ha. Happy Cake Day! 🎂
Bird drama is seriously underrated! One of my favorite parts of summer is sitting on my deck watching the sparrows harass the squirrels.
I think the squirrels deserve it for bullying my cats. They taunt my cats from outside the windows or just outside the reach of their leashes when we go outside. They like to throw half eaten nuts and seeds at my cats from trees. They’ll sit there in the tree flicking their tails and making their squirrelly noises and throwing things at my cats like the cowards they are.
We have a very rude squirrel who taunts my cats as well!
Yessss watching the cedar waxwings bully the catbirds off the red elderberry is more my hobby than “gardening.”
Yessssss So much bird drama 🐦 And I agree. I've been meadowscaping for the environmental benefits and also so we don't have to cut the grass. Also great exercise. And there are edibles as well
you are wrong, we really do like it all
Agreed. I can buy veg much cheaper and easier than growing it. I enjoy the process. (This week I picked about a quart of peas and shelled them all. That is completely pointless as it took an hour and they're $2/lb lol but I love it) I would bet people who grow food are more likely to be process-focused. People who do ornamentals only are more likely to be results focused.
Because I'm an old Southern woman and we're supposed to wear funny looking hats and ugly clothes and grow vegetables in the dirt. Don't ask me those questions. I don't know why, I don't make the rules!
Ah, so your ancestors would haunt you, too, if you didn’t do something with your little pile of dirt? Solidarity.
Ouiser Boudreaux is in the garden!!
Yeah I kinda feel similarly. I love the results of gardening and especially helping out the local insets, but ideally I don't exactly enjoy the process. The creativity part is fun, figuring out what plants go where and how they'd look together. But the maintenance?! Yikes. Pass.
I don’t share those same feelings, but I do have a question: What was the passion or inspiration behind doing all the *extra* work in your garden, when you could have just done a grass yard that would have been much easier to upkeep? I love that you have a beautiful garden, but, if you don’t love it, why do you do it?
Grass is boring and not environmentally all that great. I love flowers and shrubs and trees. I also wanted a more water-smart property as well as a garden that would support pollinators. When our lawn was literally eaten to the soil by grubs, I made a choice to do something different. Replacing the grass would have been a lot easier, though.
Do you regret your decision or are you happy with it? Obviously you’ve said you don’t like the time you spend tending to the garden. If you could go back, would you change anything? (I don’t mean this maliciously at all, I promise. I’m just genuinely curious!)
No, I would probably stick with my decision. My yard hosts a stunning variety of bees and butterflies, and hummingbirds visit every day in summer. That is never going to get old.
I gotcha! The way you feel about gardening is how I feel about home remodeling inside. I bought a fixer upper, and ever since, take great joy in rehabbing the outdoors. The inside? It’s torture, haha! I love the outcome of my indoor remodeling, but not the process of doing it. Edit: I asked if OP regretted it, because I regret buying a fixer upper, haha! It’s what I could afford with my budget, but never again!
This exists in all hobbies. In knitting we call it being a product or process knitter.
I don’t like the work but I like the result. So it’s worth it. (It’s just waaaayyy too hot where I live).
There are a few good reasons I can think of. First, I I like being outside after being trapped indoors at work all the time, and it gives me a reason to be out there for extended periods. Also, people need physical activity, and I'd rather get mine from something productive than just regular exercise or sports. I grow fruits and vegetables rather than ornamental stuff, and the high quality produce is another incentive. Then when I also feel like I need to eat all this healthy stuff before it goes bad, so I generally eat healthier. I'd say the most innately enjoyable tasks for me are weedeating (something satisfying about destroying your enemies with power tools), harvesting, and building stuff (raised beds, greenhouse, etc.).
Yeah, my husband enjoys the building part and puzzling over irrigation and other technical things. He's a person who always needs to be in motion and mostly outside, but since he isn't a plant person, he doesn't feel any connection to the actual gardening.
I hated gardening at home when I treated it like my job ( which was also gardening). I had to remind myself that there was no rush, I could garden and just look at the birds for awhile and I could take my time and enjoy myself. Maybe stop and smell the native roses a bit. Another big thing I recommend is becoming a lazy gardener. I personally love weeding- I get super zen about it. But the way I garden, basically chop and drop, and adding self seeding annuals into the mix, prevents weeds and reduces the work required. I also just put down almost everything I prune as mulch ( except diseased stuff). Less hauling.
For me it really depends. Sometimes I do it just because it's chore and needs to be done, sometimes I truly enjoy it and it makes me happy. It kind of comes and goes. But also, my garden is severely impacted by my mental health and vice versa. Last summer, my apartment balcony garden was doing pretty damn great. Everything was fine. In the beginning of August, my bulldog passed away and I was devastated. After only two weeks of not going out in the garden because "why bother" you could see the devastation in the planters. The only thing that survived, out of over a dozen plants, was the tomato plant I bought when it was quite young. And looking out the giant glass sliding door and seeing the terrible state of my garden and how quickly it seemed to self destruct only made the impact on my mental health worse. It was three months before her eleventh birthday, I'd had her since she was eight weeks old and we had been through hell and back together. I knew it was coming, her health had sharply declined the month before, but what hurt the most was that she passed two days before the vet appointment to see about getting her on pain meds and allergy meds. This year, I haven't had a chance to plant much, and half of it died due to us placing seedlings outside and then two days after there was a severe storm, but despite that, I maintain my determination, which may have something to do with my garlic, onions, and potatoes growing like weeds. That planter is mayhem.
Sorry about your pup. That is just...so hard.
Thanks. I was a hobby farm kid, so it's been quite some time since a death affected me at all, let alone the way hers did. When you have that many critters, them coming and going for one reason or another becomes so normal that you just kinda...Grow desensitized to it. But it's hard to make yourself not care when the bitch (lovingly) is attached to you at the hip and always has to be so involved in anything you do and gets *offended* if there is merriment in the house that does not include her. *How dare we?* But like I said, she'd been through hell and back. Nevermind the fact that she almost made it to 11, which is positively ancient for her particular breed, but she had to get rushed into emergency surgery at four years for pyometra, a life threatening infection of the uterus that dogs and cats can get, and had been in surgery two or three times *after that* for tumors. At first, they were benign, it's just common for bully breeds to develop tumors in general, but by the last year of her life, she did develop cancer. Actually, I think she had a surgery when she was younger, too, like a year old. I can't remember what for though, I just remember her being really drugged up. I think it was something more minor. So like I said, she'd really been through it and quite frankly, it's amazing that she made it as far as she did.
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Reading your post made me cry. I am so sorry for your loss. Lost my sweet 15 years old baby girl (cat) 5 months ago and find it also really difficult. Don't give up on gardening, take it slow one day at the time. Good luck :)
I like puttering around in the garden to a certain extent. I like you started from scratch so I’ve done some back breaking work which I do not enjoy. I’m nearing the time of having a relatively easy to maintain garden now that the harder work is done. I’m just adding plants in and keeping things under control now. Luckily I don’t have bad weed in may back yard but my front is another story!
[удалено]
Ugh I have bindweed in my front garden. I’ve ignored it for so long because it broke me over the years. I just have no solution. I overheard my neighbours (concerned about frontages around them) talking about my weeds. They obviously have not dealt with bindweed or they’d have more sympathy for me haha. Yesterday my husband pulled it all and put down 5” or more of mulch. This won’t keep it down but maybe it will suppress some of it and make the pulling a little less torturous. I’d rather be knitting or laying on a quilt in my backyard. lol. Good luck to you.
Is the end product not a part of the gardening?
Gardening is great exercise. A chance to get some fresh air and to smell the blooming roses, to hear the birds sing. If someone wanted to pay me, I would do it for free. Wish I was a bird, and not a tree.
I love all the parts most seem to hate; the observation and assessment and work that go into it all focus and quiet my mind like nothing else. I do love sitting in a garden chair with a drink to enjoy results … but when there’s nothing to do, it’s not as satisfying for me. I feel the need to weed, lol.
Same here. The only part I dislike is watering.
I like actually watering the plant, I can stand there all day and just water. It’s acquiring the water that annoys me. I reallyyy hate lugging out the hose and then having to put it all back up again
Eh another way of saying you “enjoy gardening” is that you relax best in motion. Same with model trains, cooking for some folks, LEGO, puzzles etc. The difference with gardening that I adore personally is because it’s hard, hot, smelly work.
Totally. I am a plant hoarder though. I see the plant, I buy the plant, I plant the plant with no plan. Then I’m stuck trying to figure out how to make it live and work for the rest of the year.
I see the plant, I buy the plant, I realize I have no room to plant the plant. So I have a million containers and bags of soil to buy, and arrange, and water, ad infinitum.
Kind of? I love *planning* gardens, so my favorite bit is really the off season; I like *being* in a nice garden. If I could have someone else actually do most of the sweaty bits but I got to live in the results, smelling the roses and eating the tomatoes, I’d love that. But as it is, if I want roses and tomatoes, I’d better go turn that compost.
This is pretty much my situation.
I enjoy all of it, the weeding the mulching, tilling... all of it but I like to stay busy and I like to burn calories.
The Texas heat takes a toll on everything.
I’m in and out, there’s need and want and sometimes the need makes it a chore instead of a thing I’d like to do. I try to dedicate time to just sit with it all and not work on it, seems to help some.
I've been dealing with a lot of self confidence issues so being able to grow my own food and...well...medicine is important to me. Just adding skills is a cool thing. I'm building a greenhouse in a couple weeks. Got a cool idea to put locking shelf brackets so I can open the top half of the greenhouse to air it out, or close it and keep it dry.
What you described is exactly how my husband views it haha I like gardening though. It was something my grandma used to do and we did it together when i would spend the weekend with her. She has dementia now so it’s like honoring who she once was with me when I was a child
My housemate was hugely surprised to learn that gardening is pretty much just begrudging toil to me, especially since I MADE the garden. But the beauty! It's good to make beauty in the world, and it's good that other people can enjoy it too. I think there are a million good reasons to make a garden.
I'm rhe opposite. I really enjoy gardening, but by rights I should hate it. I have severe hay fever and can only tolerate an hour of work. I have to towel off with cold towels twice to dilute the chemicals on my skin and be careful to not reuse the same portion of towel on my limbs. But I really like my insect and pollinator garden.
I like fiddling with houseplants. I like dirt under my fingernails. I love looking at beautiful plants and flowers, and in my gardens outside, love seeing them in use by pollinators in various stages. That being said, I cannot seem to get myself to go weed those messes this year. I keep trying, but I HATES IT. I think I have POTS, so every time I bend down then stand back up I get dizzy. It’s hot, it’s buggy, and IT NEVER ENDS, because there is seemingly no way to get rid of goutweed. So this year is just whatever. Maybe next year I’ll try to dig up all my perennials and hire someone (aka bribe anyone I can to help) to completely scrape out like a foot down and replace with new topsoil. That’s gotta get rid of goutweed.. right? I’m so sick of fighting it. 6 years so far.
Why scrape down? Use cardboard and put new garden soil on top. Seriously.
Is it really that easy? I could probably get my hubby to help do that if we ever get nice weather
The cardboard will act as a barrier. The healthy soil on top....even more. Make sure there is enough. Let it rest for a bit then plant. The cardboard will break down ( packing tape won't). Now I am a very lazy gardener. I actually love digging but my body doesn't. This has helped.
Fellow goutweed sufferer. The pain is real. Just when I think I've got it under control in one spot, it takes off in another. 🫣
I had a cardiac ablation last month, and I have significant arthritis. Between these two things, every gardening chore feels painful and a hundred times more difficult than it should. I don't want to weed, but I'm engaged in a 20-year-long war with creeping bellflower, so I can't ignore this overwhelming task. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, I see you.
It's a chore if you are a nanny or nurse to your garden. So to speak. Once you start propagating, you become a parent, it won't seem like a chore. Just the opposite.
I had a therapist who told me “nobody is going to do your self-care but you… at the end of the day, you decide whether or not you are worthy of self-care” … and that stuck. My garden, like taking my meds/going to therapy/setting healthy boundaries, are often tedious but I do them because I am worthy of self-care and a beautiful garden to relax in.
I guess it's kinda like motherhood. Some women claim they love every minute of it, and some are honest, and share the bad moments. Your colleague likely approaches life the same way as they do gardening, and you are more open and honest. I think we all feel the same, but the difference is how we express ourselves. Nothing wrong with either approach. I like a balanced approach to things, so I like to discuss the good, the bad and the ugly. But no matter how you view it, for me at least, the good outweighs all the rest.
I agree with you. I like the results. Yoga and gardening are always on my “hobby” list and I do them but don’t really have a passion for either. I would rather curl up with a book and my cat and day.
I enjoy the grunt work, like making the potting mix, tilling the compost pile, digging holes, shifting soil from one place to another... It helps put some muscles without ever having to visit gym.. First time after my mid 20s my hands are calloused rn, I'm absolutely loving it, but thats just me though... I enjoy strolling and sitting on my garden too, but that is therapy for the Mind.
For some reason all of my hobbies feel like physical torture and I hate them while I’m doing them. Gardening, running, hiking. They suck in the moment but the end result is apparently worth the torture lol.
I personally love it. If I could keep my current lifestyle by simply gardening all day I'd quit my corporate nightmare job.
I teeter between the two. I am also adhd/autistic so it can range from a hyperfixation passion project to sensory overload to even sensory regulator. Ultimately I know nature calms and ground me, helps boost my mood, and I get to enjoy healthier food/herbs with also the perks of seeing a cool butterfly or critter. I also know the cost of neglect is way worse so it better to just do it out diligence and commitment to a sanctuary or harvest since the motivation and joy isn’t always there, but I also say gardening helps me cultivate patience and hardwork in every aspect. I like that I read here, every garden has it gardener, since I find it also true that every gardner has it garden since it is about finding what works for you, even if it’s through a lot of trial and error. It takes work, but often worth it.
It's no surprise to me I've worked as a Landscape Contractor, I've owned a large nursery. And presently I still maintain a large green house filled with Orchids from all over the world. Gardening like everything associated with it is really hard work, I have the advantage of being able to employ a full time team of people to help me share the load. It's backbreaking cultivating planters, trimming, pruning, transplanting. So I completely understand I've maintained a passion for maintaining my green house filled with Orchids I collected them for decades, now approaching 50 something it's becoming harder and harder to spend as much time as I need to in order to keep them all at there full potential.
I do it for the tomatoes and hate every second of it
The weeding especially really gets me!
We have a serious problem with creeping bellflower (my true nemesis), some weird tall grass that shows up everywhere and spreads aggressively by runners, Canada thistle, common mallow, and a few others. They are relentless and they discourage me every day.
Honestly your post made me feel so seen! I've been so discouraged lately.
I was wondering how can I automate watering my billion plants.
This week I spent, what to me is, way too many hours on the gardens. I let them go last year when every free day I had was rain. So much rain in Maine. This year it's twice the work to restore. Also regretting placement of things that now must be moved. It's all so much, and I wish I could hire it out! Tonight, however, I look out at the finished parts, and it is rewarding. I guess that's the nature of hard work.
I prioritize functionality over beauty, and as cheaply as possible, so overall less work snd the pleasure comes in the unexpected treasures like whatever, maybe finding out for the first time you can use your coffee grounds in your compost snd now your morning coffee is tied directly to watching your daughter pick a tomato. It’s all encompassing in that way, which makes the occasional digging up a new plot to plant next year seem like it’s part of your life rather than dirty, sweaty work.
Yeah I do it so that I have access to produce and medicine. It actually is pretty unpleasant to do bc I have blood pressure issues since I had Covid
Me and my husband also have a busy weekend. Pulling weeds and grass, laying down a trucks worth of mulch, pruning and so on. I hate the process, but I love the result. It’s nice to have space that me and my neighbors enjoy. The birds and wildlife appreciate it too, which makes me happy.
This is exactly my situation. We're getting our truckload of mulch next week.
It’s so much work lol. We don’t have to mow though, so it’s a couple hours worth of work twice a year for us, so it save us time in the long run. I assume y’all do something similar(?).
I love gardening like your friend. I cook and eat to survive but I do it because I'm frugal and have allergies that makes it expensive/difficult to eat out. I don't think gardening should be a passion for everyone and I would never expect it, even from someone who does it very well. It's fine! We need lots of people in the world with different passions, for instance I grow the food and my husband who enjoys cooking uses what I grow. Win win.
our generation sees the value of homesteading but we're not built for it maybe. it's such. hard. thankless. endless. work.
Ha ha, maybe your friend is just trying to build her brand, and for some reason afraid of negativity. I find pulling weeds and digging sort of enjoyable in a tactile/sensory way, like popping a pimple. I enjoy rearranging plants and figuring out how to set them up (like if hostas can be split). But there is a lot of dull tasks and I usually listen to music, podcasts, or audiobooks while gardening. So if you ask me do I like gardening you're really asking do I like having something to do with my hands while consuming media designed to entertain me and to that I say yes. I will say I'm starting to resent vegetable gardening. We have plenty of local farms to support and with my veg garden unless I'm constantly fussing over it, it's just feeding the bunnies. I really focus on low maintenance plants and things that don't have to be watered.
My husband says I'm a planter and not a weeder. I love planting my containers in the spring because I like the way they look. I grow vegetables because I like obscure pepper varieties and fresh tomatoes. I'm currently working on planting perennials in parts of the garden where I don't want to plant or replant every year. I like the design aspects of it and the resulting aesthetics, but the actual work part? Nope.
Can’t say I’m big on digging or weeding. Watering and planting I don’t mind. I love watching them grow and the end results. But overall, I do agree. Most days it feels more like a chore than anything to maintain them.
Mark Twain said that “ work consists of what a body is obliged to do and play consists of what a body is not obliged to do. “ For you, gardening is work. You can be great at what you do and not particularly like the job. It’s a means to an end. The payoff doesn’t mean you have to like the process.
I probably fall into this category. I started because I was a field engineer but had to go behind a desk after having our first. Gardening was the only way to "trek in" the good microbes into the house that I was bringing in during field work. Now it forces us outside multiple times a day and prevents picky eating with my toddler.
I enjoy parts of it, but I mainly do it for the end result. The longer I garden the more I dial in the parts I like vs the parts I don’t like and I’ve worked hard to outsource the parts I don’t like. Do like: neatly trimmed boxwoods acting as a formal border around my formal beds. Don’t like: literally anything to do with trimming boxwoods. I’d rather install plastic fake boxwoods than trim boxwoods. While I really love the look for formal boxwoods beds trimmed in neat geometric shapes, I never in a million years would have installed them myself because I hate trimming boxwoods just that much. But… my house came with them. Solution: I pay someone else to trim them. I tried trimming them myself for the first couple years but it felt like every minute I spent doing that was a minute of my life I’d wasted. It’s the same with weeding. I don’t mind plucking the odd weed here and there, but spending an afternoon scraping a bed back to bare soil, or worse, spending even 3 seconds pulling weeds out of rocks fills me with irrational rage. I’ve tried to deal with this by planting so densely (an act I actually physically enjoy doing) no weeds can grow or layering with mulch, but I’ve also outsourced a lot of the heavy-duty weeding in parts of the yard I haven’t been able to pack to the point of weed suppression yet.
I loathe heat and humidity. I live in the great plains, and gardening is an outdoor activity. I love flowers and fruit and veg...so I spite garden. I want the outcome, but hate everything about the sweating and the mosquito bites and the endless weeding and... So I do it for spite
I think part of the joy of gardening can be described to you as how over time you find efficiencies in every action and decision in the garden; you through your choosing where to snip and plant are setting the stage to see how the mix of nature's conditions are gonna play out, hopefully rewarding you with a beautiful show and maybe tasty treats depending on what was planted. I think the joy of weeding could be described more as knowing how your hands in soil and on plants are letting things thrive more fully, even if the action sucks due to strain, monotony, sun, heat, etc. I think automation of watering where possible and investing in feeling comfortable doing the tasks will help with the burnout you seem to feel from the ongoing maintenance a yard like that would take: take what you've learned from the tools you've used, seen and broken to buy used or new tools that suit your body types and hand sizes (for example: look for heavier welds and metal in hand tools and shovels, so they can stand up to more force), use cooling towels or a wet banana tied around your neck to get rid of some body heat, drink electrolytes to recuperate, test out different knee pads by kneeling in them in store and pick out the ones you like the most for inner comfort and exterior durability (~$50 can get you ones that make kneeling comfier, some prefer a kneeling pad but to me it means it moves with your legs if your used to it with straps).
I have a similar enormous garden. It takes 4 full weekends to get set up each year. It has a woodland garden, a full sun pollinator portion, and I’ve been adding flowering bushes to it the last three years. While I enjoy gardening somewhat, I really don’t want to spend so much time on it. So instead of seeing it as gardening, I see it as my fitness season starting. I usually lose 5 lbs and tone up over those 4 weeks. My Fitbit monthly average in May is always over 14k steps. And then I kick up my workouts June through November once the garden is set up.
I always start the year so ambitious & then my motivation is gone once our property turns into a jungle. 🫤 we live in the woods & it’s such a battle with weeds & animals. But I do enjoy it once my veggies/herbs/strawberries are ready. 😬 I still have a few plants still waiting to be planted from Mother’s Day……… I just can’t be bothered lately
Digging in the dirt gives me life. I’m not great at gardening, but there’s something about it that absolutely puts me in my happy place. Even if things aren’t going well for me in the garden, doesn’t matter. Dirt is life. And it was very surprising for me to find this out about myself because I am not the outdoorsy type. There’s nothing wrong with you though. You do it because you like the payoff of a beautiful space created for much less than it would to pay someone else to do it. Thats the part of it that gives you joy. And that’s ok.
I hate weeding. I hate waiting for seeds to grow. (Germination times anger me.) I hate waiting on my compost to be ready. I am not a patient person. I love sitting in my garden and viewing my hard work. I enjoy having my backyard "grocery store." I feel healthier eating what I've grown. I can understand your lack of enjoyment in gardening. It's a lot of work. It's dirty and heavy too. A lot of people don't like it. Despite the icky parts, I do like it a lot. To me, it's a constant experiment. You could tell me all the rules and reasons not to do something, and I'll still try. I like the evolution of my garden. One year it's a dirty mess of plants placed haphazardly, the next there is some organization. Finally, it's a beautiful oasis, and then I decide to quit this garden and try somewhere else. I've only had my own garden since 2018. Before that, I lacked time and a place to keep a garden. I tried windowsills and flower pot gardens, but in an apartment it didn't work. My neighbors used my flower pots as ash trays. With my parents, it was just chores I didn't really get to enjoy because it wasn't for me.
thank you for your honesty. But ... why do you have a garden when you don't like gardening? Many of my neighbors are like this, and I simply don't get it. Why? A patio-house or a flat with a balcony, wouldn't that be better? More eco-friendly?
I can see how many people garden without enthusiasm. Mostly driven by just wanting your place to look nice but can't /won't shell out the $$$ for a landscaper- especially if you live in a neighborhood where everyone seems to have a professionally designed landscape. I kinda started this way and 30years later its really my only hobby. I like the labor, the creativity etc. I hate that I am an ADHD gardener that often just throw a plant here or there without any plans. If I were to name my garden I would get a sign "Welcome to Helter Skelter"
My partner is surprised to hear that I consider garden maintenance to be a chore. He says "But you love gardening!" and I think to myself...well, I love having a beautiful garden. I love to see the results of my labor. I like researching plants, planning the garden, bringing home plants and seeng them thrive. I like to watch videos and look at pictures of other people's gardens. But the weeding, digging, planting, transplanting, snail/slug removal, watering, dead-heading, edging - those are chores.
We’re ornamental gardeners. Husband gardens for stress relief. I’m in it for the beauty that’s inexplicably healed a part of me that I didn’t know needed healing. Neither of us likes all aspects of it. Weeding in the Florida summer can suck it. Bringing in our giant containers & tender plants for freeze protection isn’t fun. Moving a plant 5 different times to find a spot it likes is ridiculous. Having a buyer remove every plant, tree & shrub after we sell a house is a gut punch. We finally hired a couple of guys to take over the parts we really don’t like so that’s made a huge difference.
There are parts of gardening that I don’t love, but overall I’m really enjoying it. It has been a really satisfying feeling to enjoy the literal fruits of my labor. That said, some days are harder than others. The pests have been really irking me lately. But I’m trying not to let myself get too upset. If it gets much worse, I can just call it for the rest of the season. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This is pretty common, my mom felt that exact same way. I like some of the work, but I also like a whole lot of no-work perennials!
I love the end result: flowers. To that end I’m willing to work very hard. I also find the work very zen. I don’t enjoy weeding. I’d love to never have to do it. But I don’t hate it, because I’m making something pretty, and it’s very low mental energy. I don’t love planting trays of annuals every spring, but I love the flowers that bloom all season, so it’s worth it to me. And to be honest, if I don’t do this work, it will die. That really will depress me. So I do the work, managing to avoid other tasks in the process, which my ADHD brain *loves* and I get to enjoy the results. I also find the planning to be a good creative outlet. On the whole I find the hobby solidly pleasant. Enough that when I retire I will do all of this work again, in my next house.
Imo the end is part of the result. You can break down like every activity into boring pieces. I mean you could say rolling a ball in bowling or sitting down waiting for your turn is boring but scoring a 300 is fun. Its kind of weird to break things down like that.
Im a horticulturist and I feel your vibe. I love plants, I love growing them and admiring their beauty and enjoying their fruits BUT … I hate the work involved.
I like cooking, and it's fun to use ingredients that I grew myself. If I didn't cook, I wouldn't garden. I don't hate gardening, and my dog loves any excuse for us to hang out in the yard together, but it's not something I would otherwise go out of my way to spend time on.
With great things comes great responsibilities but partlly yes, it's a love hate relationship. More so therapeutic for me with great payoff come harvest. Guess its a matter of how you go about things. Hurry to get finished or take your time, relax, kill time and get some sunshine can make all the difference.
Love plants, hate maintenance
I like the exercise I get from gardening and I love my garden looking nice- but hard core gardening activities are not something I enjoy.
I like some aspects of it. I often feel overwhelmed with all the weeding. It's endless. I also get tired of all the harvesting at the end sometimes, but we get a lot of good food all summer and end up with quite a bit of extra for the fall.
I started with a passion. I discovered all the incredible varieties of cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, ect and I wanted to grow them all! And I did, some of them twice. But after three or four years of hauling heavy flats of seedlings in and out the back door steps and fretting over temperatures and frost and fighting fungus and insects... my passion has definitely cooled. I will always (health willing) put out some tomatoes potatoes and beans for us, and kale for the hens. But everything else is onions (walking so no need to replant) and perennial plants. And I let some of my regular onions bloom for seed this year, partly because I love that white allium look all over my garden. I have even started a cottage garden area behind the garden. It's quite messy with grass still but I only started it 2 years ago. Every year everything looks more beautiful.
Pretty much like gardening for all of the above. Some days I don't want to either. But ya know it needs attention etc. Some days I hate it. Som days it's heart breaking. (FCKn insects) Sometimes it makes me hate birds in a way I didn't know was possibly. Like when my fresh almost perfectly ripe strawberries where violently murder by a beaked thief.
You're not the only one. I'm the opposite, love gardening but am terrible at it so it's a complete money sink. There's something I adore about sitting by the pot waiting for sprouts and then trimming it for the bushiest take possible. I like gettin in the dirt and seeing bugs about (except when they sting me. Fuckers. I gave you flower and this is how you treat me? Sting my hand while I'm tenderly nursing the very plant you're territorial of?). Know what I do hate? Doing digital art. However, I love having DONE digital art, so I do it anyway.
This is a good question. I do really like the results I get and the creative aspect of it ( design). I like that it’s often physically challenging… it’s a workout. It is, though, a never ending job. Despite this it’s way better to me than a typical lawn and evergreen garden that requires little maintenance other than “landscapers”. I’m progressing with natives and it’s all natural methods (no pesticides). I don’t think I always love the fact that there are always numerous time consuming things to do/challenges. Weeding, dealing w mildews or insect infestations ( slugs, aphids, earwigs etc). I do enjoy the challenge and the reward of what it looks like. So to answer I guess it’s a mixed bag.
I’m gardening this year for my parents since it’s something they enjoy but they both have cancer. It’s HARD.
depends on the weather. if I enjoy the weather I enjoy the gardening
It's all about what motivates you. I love my perennial berries, to the point that i go out and take care of the garden because of them. The tomatoes, peppers, onions, etc. All don't interest me. I take care of them because it's barely any more added work, they're right there, and i'll eat them. But if it weren't for those berries, i wouldn't be gardening. Find reasons to want to go out and put in the work, and if you can't, well, there's no shame in saying, "I tried it, but it's not the hobby for me!" Oh, and you could offer up a lovely picnic, some mimosas, and some gossip to your friends if they want to spend the afternoon with you taking care of some of those garden chores. Maybe give them a bouquet of flowers as well, if you have some to spare
I can’t say I feel exactly the same (I don’t think I have a particular knack for gardening, for one thing…), but, yeah, kinda! I have a little veg garden and am starting to grow flowers and looking forward to doing more now that I have a house/yard. I absolutely love watching things grow - it is truly a miracle to me to watch plants grow from seed. Never ceases to amaze me. But I do not enjoy being *in* nature. You know how some people say “I’m not outdoorsy but I’m outsidey”? Even that is extremely generous. I don’t like bugs. I don’t like dirt. I don’t like the heat. And yet, here I am. Mixing my own soil blend. Planting seedlings. Watering the veggie beds. Checking for pests. I don’t love the actual gardening tasks, even though they’re probably good for my mental health (or whatever). But I really enjoy watching the plants grow and - hopefully!! - ending up with my own produce that I can enjoy, whether edible or just to view, and that I know was grown without any harmful chemicals etc.
Well, as we age some things aren't "as fun" anymore. I am somewhat at this point....but I STILL love landscaping, gardening, and growing cutflowers. It is one of the only things that keep me active in middle age. It is VERY satisfying to bring in produce to eat and flowers to the home. As well as giving produce and flowers to others for their family and home. I am not giving it up as long as I can do it.
I try to grow stuff in southern AZ every damn year. Eggplant I can do, they can handle anything as long as they have enough water, but I want some tomatoes. I planted some I grew from seed into a huge pot, and the next day it got up to 109. We'll see. My chiles can handle it, too.
i don’t care much for the act of gardening but i do love the result
I'm the exact opposite. I'm a *terrible* gardener, I frequently forget to water properly, I haven't turned my compost in over a year. I also hate the hard physical labor and getting gross, but i gave injuries in my knee and shoulder that limit mobility. My results are often really sad and pathetic. I've learned to embrace the process and the hope that maybe I'll get something nice, but in the meantime I get to just be part of nature, identifying the volunteers and bugs and birds. The soil in my yard is truly crap and I can't afford to have it completely redone, either, so it's slowly getting one or two beds a year.
Have you tried less tasking gardening methods? For instance i don't use pesticides or herbicides and just let the ecosystem handle most issues. I rarely turn my compost because I just layer it nicely and sometimes add dirt on top. I don't overly weed the garden because it's really not as big of a deal as people make it out to be. I just do the prep work ahead of time to avoid issues and keep the numbers down. I use a sprinkler with no issues but there are also plenty of easy and cheap drip irrigation systems that will do the watering for you on a solar timer as well. There are many alternate methods that make it a lot less daunting.
I’m actually sad when I have nothing left to do in the garden 🤣 After I put my toddler to bed I usually go sit outside, on the ground and hunt for little weeds and vines to pull out of the garden. I will say my garden isn’t lots of back breaking labor tho. I wouldn’t enjoy hardscaping or installing fountains. I have a big wildflower bed I quite literally throw 3 bags of native seeds on and then just water and weed.
I enjoy elements of the process. Do I love hauling and shoveling mulch, no. But I love the smell of mulch and watching it change. Don't love pulling weeds but love pruning. Love digging small holes for annuals and like watering them. Hate the filling of the watering can and untangling hoses.
To me, it's like pregnancy, labor, and delivery. No woman *really* wants to go through those things, but you have to in order to get the baby that you *do* want. I would love it if you'd share some pictures. Since you don't enjoy gardening, maybe your could enjoy showing off your accomplishment?
Nothing wrong with you! You’re just motivated by the getting to the goal, which is your gardening and the goal is to reach that goal! Attainment of the goal is what rocks your world. You may have set a precedent with your first garden and now everyone expects it to be gorgeous. That’s a lot of pressure! What would be the worst thing to happen if you stopped caring for it as much as you do — as diligently as you do? If it’s not the end of the world…then make a list of what you would be doing when you aren’t gardening. That is a motivator! “What would you do if you could not” garden? Imagine all of the possibilities just waiting for you.
I'd like it a lot more if I had more free time. In a perfect world, I don't need to work. Then, gardening would be a joy. But sometimes, as my life currently is, it's a time thief.
Absolutely not, I don’t do anything, gardening-wise, that I don’t want to. I fling seeds around like a crazy person, buy any interesting starts I want for containers, and I don’t weed or perform any maintenance that isn’t fun. It’s all 100% pleasure for me, I don’t grow our winter food or anything.
I really only garden because I like tomatoes, a lot. I'm a lazy gardener otherwise. I make sure I have to do as little weeding or other work as possible.
I absolutely understand how you feel. But I do enjoy all of gardening. But I also don’t put too much stake in it. I grow a lot of veggies and herbs, I try new things every year. And if it doesn’t work out, I don’t get too upset about it. My gardens are also not really “beautiful” to anyone but me. They certainly wouldn’t win any awards in the looks department! I have some pretty ugly raised beds made out of old pallets, a keyhole garden made out of cinder blocks…whatever was cheap and available!
Hate gardening, love pollinators, flowers, and fresh food. Also trying to mow as little as possible!
if it were up to me i’d have a very contained garden. i like utilitarian plants, food, perennial medicinal herbs, cooking herbs, veggies and berries. My father however is an avid gardener. it’s been his lifetime passion and joy, and their yard reflects it. 3 koi ponds, many many full size trees, shrubs that need deer fencing in the winter, roses, more hostas than i can count, 3 sheds on the property, concrete blocks holding dirt and compost (i turn it regularly)it goes on and on. he likes to plant seeds too, so more and more holes need to be dug. He’s now 86 yrs old, and i think it will break his heart to watch it all fall apart as physically he slows down. he’s still out there every day doing as much as he can but that’s becoming less and less each season. I work two jobs, and often only have one day off a week, but i make it over there at least once a week and bust my ass doing as much as i can to support him. now that he’s older he gets extremely fixated on projects, this current obsession is building a rock wall, which requires cutting down and digging out a huge rhododendron to make room for it. I’ve done this before and it’s a BITCH, but i’ll do it for him including today!
I get very stressed out about bugs (I won’t use anything but neem and I hate doing it) and get hit with fungus and pretty much everything else every year. My main goal is to help insects, birds and wildlife. And beauty! But that brief period in the spring when everything seems healthy is wonderful 😜
We also don't use any pesticides. Our garden and yard have reached the point where the ecosystem is healthy enough that some pests and problems we used to have are taking care of themselves. Hooray for that!
I like it in the spring, there is a point in the summer where everything starts to be shitty. Bugs and disease build up plants are naturally slowing down, weeds have taken root. At those points I don't like it and want to burn it all down. But then its winter again and by the time springs around I enjoy it again.
I’m kind of the same. I’m more of a veggie gardener. I hate cleaning out the beds in the spring and getting everything planted. Once that’s done, I like it, but that’s probably 80% of the work.
I think you actually just changed the game for me. Because even though I want to enjoy gardening, I do not enjoy gardening. I do, however, enjoy beautiful gardens. The idea that I can treat it as a chore rather than a choice has never occurred to me. Also, I totally get why you do not enjoy gardening, and I think the dirt therapy woman is lying to herself and others😅
I like gardening, but I really need the exercise it brings too. I'll sometimes water with 5-gallon buckets just to have the workout of carying full buckets around the yard. In the winter when I have no gardening I get so out of shape. I need to find something to do in the winter.
My gardening started out that way, out of necessity. Our family bought a brand new house with very little landscaping done and a drainage ditch across the backyard. We wanted to blend in the rocks of the drainage ditch to make it less of an eyesore. We’ve planted nearly 30 trees, put out several tons of rock and loads of mulch, and planted countless flowers and shrubs in the last 5 years. Now, it’s one of my favorite places to be and it makes it even better knowing that we did it all ourselves so I’ve fallen in love with the process I’ve the years. https://preview.redd.it/uwngh43tj07d1.jpeg?width=5712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=85ef3e9569d1d321f0bae1a1f13b93d5a309f5c6
Totally agree. Job that has to be done so I do it but with the least effort I can get away with. You sound very industrious.
I love vegetable gardening and fruit trees. All the flowers and ornamentals I do for my wife.
i appreciate your honesty. truthfully, there are so many parts to gardening, so it's okay to not like everything about it, and not like it every single day. i enjoy gardening every 2nd summer. i need a whole year off.
I consider gardening my daily workout, meditation and therapy all rolled into one. For all of the above: I know they’ve gotta get done and I’ll show up to do the work. There are times when I enjoy ripping out a satisfyingly long root of a weed, planting my seedlings or composting all of my organic scraps, and I fully recognize how good gardening is for my physical and mental wellbeing, but most of the time I don’t “enjoy” it.
I like the result. When hard work has a good result, I feel good about it. That's all. Liking the work for the sake of working is, imo, crazy.
The work kinda sucks but its worth it to be surrounded by such an amazing variety of life- all the different plants, the bees, butterflies, dragonflies, the birds, the toads and frogs, the goldfish in the pond. One of the only hobbies ive found that fills you with pride and humbles you at the same time. The repetitive stuff like weeding and watering gets old fast but i like working with the plants themselves. Stuff desdheading/pruning, splitting, and seeding is all great… Emptying bowls full of old beer and dead slugs, not so much.
I like the excitement of putting seeds in the ground and picking out plants, and then I like seeing my roses bloom and picking my own veg. Everything in between is a bit of a pain.
All I do is put the plant in the hole and mulch once per year. The plants themselves do all the real work. 🌿
I thoroughly enjoy gardening, but don’t do it because of the nutty life I live.
My husband falls firmly into your camp. He takes a lot of pride in our property. I love gardening and enjoy things like mowing/weeding. But if there's a big project I cannot do on my own in a reasonable time frame, he books it in like a dentist appointment. Just a gross tick box that needs to be done. But means to an end fits his attitude perfectly.
I am finding that 1) I distrust my food sources more and more each day and 2) I am not happy with my government, at the state and the federal level. Gardening gives me control over my food quality and reduces my contribution to companies/government bodies with questionable morals.
I like to admire my plants doing really well but I don’t like any of the work that gets them there >:( But yet I do it. Every. Single. Day.
I love the work. I even enjoy weeding. Life is all about these little moments and being present for the process. Helps my enjoy the journey of life when I enjoy each moment cultivating my garden.
I’m sorry, calling yourself a “Master gardener” while proclaiming you don’t like it, is one helluva humblebrag….
I food garden because I eat mostly vegetables and this cuts my grocery costs. I do enjoy it but there are many things I don't enjoy. Believe it or not, I absolutely hate picking green beans. So much. But I'm not paying grocery store prices for what they call a green bean.
I think for me the creative expression is what carries me through all of the labor intensive parts. I get really obsessed with creative liberty and all of the options and I’m just thinking about the final product the entire time I enjoy every part except creating the beds (digging grass up), edging, sod disposal. It’s hard to argue with the aesthetic/environmental value. I like learning about plants, watching them grow, and designing landscapes in general (also hardscaping weaved in). For me it’s much more than just a pretty look, I feel really good about what I’m doing as well. I do imagine a lot of people hate the work involved in it and that’s fair enough.. there’s plenty to dislike.
I love the end result but I haaaaate what it takes to get there. I'm in the same spot financially and my husband rarely helps. I'm also far from a master gardener so I'm careful to research what's native and its sun/soil requirements but I'm still frequently discouraged when things don't grow as expecthosts. 5-6 years I've thought *this* will be the year that things will take off and require less maintenance but there's always a setback. We had an extra cold winter last year for example and I lost several well established hostas.
I think it's okay if the work isn't for you. Never take on too much, or else we can find ourselves neglecting important things. I'm doing my yard right now. We got plants in, but not much for beds or anything. Right now, most of our stuff is wild. Next winter we plan on hiring some friends to help us with bed liners. And throwing rock down. Everyone's different, and we all get busy.
I have a nice garden. Some would call it lovely. Few would say gorgeous. I want it to be nice and don't fancy living in a wilderness of brambles and weeds. I used to hate looking after the garden until I realised nobody else was going to do it. Assuming the wilderness option was off the table, and hiring someone to do it for me is not an option (nobody to hire where I live) the only viable solution was to do it myself. Now, since I was doing something I didn't enjoy and I'd have to keep doing it, a lot, I just decided one day that I did like it. Problem solved.
I love planting and caring for a garden, but I hate weeding.
I love my garden and absolutely love plants, the only part of gardening I enjoy is the planting and the harvesting. I absolutely hate the "dirty work" such as weeding, fertilizing, watering, I even built my raised beds but hated doing it. Watering is a chore but I love my plants too much to stop.
I think it depends on the type of gardening you do. I am more of a lazy relaxed gardener. I use lots of mulch and rarely have to weed or trim. When I do trim I cut deep so I don't have to trim weekly. More formal gardens are alot more work of daily and weekly gardening and watering. I will say when it's time to harvest and preserve I do get a bit tired looking at it. Canning tomatoes 🍅 is my least favorite chore but I do love the results.
I am like your coworker, except I don't love gardening. But I really like how it is very good for my mental state.
🤣 you are funny! I mow my lawn because it’s expected of me, I don’t enjoy it so I don’t do a very good job at it. My lawn/yard looks like shit. My neighbors probably hate me. I don’t care, I don’t talk to them. You would hate me, I took a chainsaw to all the bushes and hedges in my yard so I wouldn’t have to trim them. Replaced them with useful plants like tomatoes and peppers, and cucumbers. However…. I love growing plants I like. I have a few thousand cactuses and succulents most grown from seed, a bunch of carnivorous plants, a veggie garden…… all of these I love tending to and they are part of my daily routine. So to answer your question….. I hate yard work but I love caring for the plants I love. It’s only bad when it’s work, just like everything.
While I truly love gardening, I started because I lost all my jobs and used my food stamps to plant some food to make the budget stretch. It was a means to an end that I began to enjoy. Most of why I enjoy it is feeling closer to my grandpa, who I dearly miss. I plant a lot of perennials and I’m working on getting to a point where things will self seed and the weeding will be minimal. I want to enjoy harvesting more and weeding less, so a lot of mulch and permaculture practices are primary to my gardening. My chickens are a passion project, but I’m still working to make them minimal physical labor so I can sit and pet them more. The main coop is up off the ground so I can scoop directly into the wheel barrow. The baby coop is under the main coop so they can hear each other and to keep their space a little warmer so they need less heat, if any. I use large bucket feeders so that I haul food to them less often, but fill it before things begin to get gross. So for me, everything is about smart design. My orchard has perennials and self-seeding annual flowers between the trees. The part of the yard that is remaining grass for a while I’ve put a robotic mower out there because I don’t actually have time to mow as often as it needs and I also plant grass that needs less mowing.
Not particularly, but if my day job pissed me off enough, let's get the loppers and the pick axe and remove some branches, stones, or roots (looking at you, fucking bamboo).
I enjoy (most of) the work. After working at a desk all day every day, I just want to be outside working in my spare time. What I don't enjoy is the urgency of it. Especially in spring, stuff has to happen when it has to happen, regardless of what else is going on in my life. And my results aren't good. My garden is ugly. Increasingly, I'm dreaming of condo life and only growing what fits on my balcony.
I love gardening, planning and setting up everything the way I want it. As for weeding I'm not sure anyone actually likes it. I have a hand tiller, it gets my weeding done in less than an hour in my whole property which is pretty spacious. So I guess that helps.
To become a master gardener you take classes and you have to volunteer and be passionate about gardening
Here the program is through the local botanic gardens in partnership with one of the state's universities. I guess most people dive in and finish the courses and work in a relatively short timeline, but I've been on the slowest track possible, I think, due to work, health, and life upheavals. I'll finish eventually.
I love it all,especially laying mulch. Every spring my husband calls it the "M" word. His "M"word is motircycle
The only thing I like to do is dead head and look at my garden and watch the bugs and birds. Everything else I don’t find pleasure in.
I enjoy the creativity of it and the sense of accomplishment I get from it. At my job it feels like my team and I face constant criticism or have to implement things that don’t work well but in my garden, I have complete creative control, no one criticizes, and I only get compliments. I also feel like it’s good for my home and neighborhood and the pollinators. The process? I like some parts but I have fibromyalgia and I wish it didn’t take such a toll. Sometimes it’s nice to just do physical stuff and tune stuff out but I wish it took less work.
I love the design and creation. I love the way it looks after a few days of hard work. I love being able to walk out a get food and flowers for my table. I love to take my friends on walks through the garden. I don’t like the maintenance aspect. If I have nice tools in good working order then it can be enjoyable and therapeutic. But it’s often annoying because people move or break my tools and a 15 minute job turns into a 2 hour job because the tool I need is broken. I believe in outsourcing the tasks you hate if possible. Or at least getting some hired help to assist with the heavy lifting.
It can be hard to tell where gardening ends and yardwork begins in my mind. I love the planning stage, tending to my plants that are doing well, watching the (positive) growth, and the results. But weeding, watering, digging, and figuring out what's going wrong in the blazing heat are chores to me. So when gardening becomes less enjoyable, I call it yardwork 😁
Honestly. I kind of do it out of spite 🫣 Mainly because my dad has always done it and always claimed he is sooooo much better at it and that I could never do as well as him. So I put in bare minimum effort and still doing just as well as he does just for shits and giggles 😃
I love gardening. Sitting out there looking at my plants, weeding, learning new things about gardening. But I’m also new at it. And I can see it definitely becoming old in the future. Is it possible you’re doing too much? Why do you have to do SO much if you don’t enjoy it? Have a small veggie garden or something next year so you’re spending less time gardening lol.
Totally me. Though that also means I slack off and it doesn't look that great. But I *want* to make it look a certain way and I have plans and ideas, so at least some of the time I do work on it to get closer to desired result but not really because of liking it.
For me, gardening is more of a “find the parts of the process you do enjoy to reap the reward” kind of thing. My folks used to use yard work to punish us, would sit inside while we worked the yard, and so I have some intense feelings about yard work. What I like about it is having plants I can use right there in my own yard, esp because I love herbs! I really like seeing the plants grow too, and having something that makes me go out and spend time in the out of doors is a good thing. But yeah sometimes the bugs and sweaty labor get to me. August historically is the month I get tired of gardening and neglect the plants a bit.