How much time do you spend in your garden?

I could live in the garden. Even though at the moment I'm under the weather (nothing serious, just a cold I can't throw off, slightly sore throat, tired, catarrh) I've just spent the afternoon in the garden. Planted lots of spring bulbs, moved some plants around, cut down some shrubs. Yesterday re-planted the garden behind the pond. Sometimes I go out in the dark with a torch to water the over-seeding on the lawn. Rasp canes cut back last week. Everyday I go up the garden at least once, I love it so much. Unlike the house it never needs dusting or polishing.

Farview
Thanks,
It’s so apt that your name reflects what we have.
We are so lucky to have been able to have lived here for 32 years. And incidentally I too hate housework?

..that's my kind of border lemongrove!
Beautiful view Magic Maggie!

I'm not a keen gardener and spend the minimum time to keep the garden neat. A lot of things died this summer in the extreme heat but at least I didn't need to cut the grass or weed in the heat. When I was younger I had more interest but can't be bothered much now. The hot summer this year with a south facing shadeless garden it was unbearable to be outside in the garden.

I too love my garden, and luckily I have a husband who although is not particularly interested, will patiently dig holes for me even when I change my mind about where
to put a particular plant.
Most of all we love sitting out in the gazebo with a nice
bottle of wine on a warm evening enjoying the view.

Easy and a bit wild looking borders are my favourites.

I'm pretty much with farview on this apart from the dog. What amazes me is that I can go out to do a specific small job and TWO HOURS later I can still be there pottering. I seem to lose myself and it not been unknown to find some very crisp 'object' still doing away in the oven. My formative years were spent in cities and tenements so I don't know where this pleasure in gardening came from but it certainly is here and much satisfaction flows from it.

I love gardening and have really enjoyed reading all the posts on here about it.I don’t really time myself and don’t garden every single day as we have got it to the state that we wanted, which is that much of it takes care of itself, with lots of shrubbery. There is always room for one more plant mind you.
I would quite like a small rose garden, but they look so bare in Winter.
Why not post pics of your gardens on this thread, or of your plants in pots, or individual shrubs, trees?

Oh I just love gardening...I wouldn't call mine a 'neat' garden...that's not my style, it's got wildlife areas, beautiful herbaceous borders, grass.. not lawn because the grandchildren play football, acrobatics, boules etc, we have a dog!!!! I go out first light with a cuppa,a d last light with a glass of wine..if am stressed/worried..it 'stills' me a bit....Hate housework though..

My small garden doesn't need much time in it to keep it reasonable. The last one was around three times the size and dear late husband could spend all day out there - we had loads of herbaceous plants to dead-head. I do a little bit each day, weather permitting and it only takes ten minutes to mow the lawn - the only garden job I dislike.

I’m another who enjoys gardening. I like to spend as much time out there as possible.
I like weeding and pruning because I can quietly think about things or take my annoyances out on the pruned shrubs.
I love sowing seeds and seeing then through to fully grown plants.
Our current garden was an large empty space when we bout the house and now it has veg and flower beds, a greenhouse and a large courtyard with a water feature.

I love my garden. I designed it myself and got a landscaper to build it for me. That was 11 years ago and all went well until I got arthritis in my knees and couldn't get "down and dirty". For the past few years i've been unlucky with gardeners but now have found a lovely lady gardener who is going to put my garden right. It'll take sometime as it's had nothing done for a year but i'll be spending more time out there in future.
Big plans for replanting one bed and for replacing plants, mainly shrubs, that the last incompetent gardener killed. It'll take quite a bit of work but then I'll be able to do it myself - especially after my second knee replacement op in August.
Can't wait until Thursday when the work starts.

I dislike gardening and don't really have the strength for serious digging. I mow my lawns once a month in summer and am planting as many perennials as possible in the front flowerbeds to minimize the amount of weeding.

Planning an easy to keep front garden (paved with two flower borders and lots of flowering bushes) to be put into effect when DH gets his pension and money will be less tight.

Like Saggi and Sodapop I happily spend time on all sorts of housework in preference to gardening.

....sorry my latest acquisition is a honeysuckle that I've planted at the foot of a new fence( to cover it really) . So far-so good! Well it's still alive anyway!

Our garden is also large, it was our main reason for buying the house. When we moved in it was just an empty field and a small orchard, we have dug and planted extensive borders, hedgerows and thousands of plants. I do enjoy gardening - when my asthma will allow me to, sometimes I can't walk to the other end of the lawn. I like mowing the grass (Oh that wonderful smell of cut grass...!), deadheading, planning and planting borders. I draw the line at weeding (tedious) but fortunately DH finds that quite therapeutic. He also does all the digging and heavy work. In the winter months we spend more time in the greenhouse nurturing plants for the following year. We're going to a plant fair this weekend and I know I will come back with something!

Me too Sodapop I would willingly do what little housework I do and pay someone to weed and generally look after my garden. I'm not afraid of heavy work in garden... I'm reasonably fit even with two prolapsed disks. But I just have a 'black thumb'. I read the instructions ...do the digging...do the planing...do the watering... stand back and watch them die off. It's disheartening! Just haven't got what it takes to 'build' a garden. Give me re-wiring a plug or changing a car wheel any day or decorating , laying a wooden floor ...I can and have done it all....but that 50x30ft of Earth at the back of my house just defeats me. Lol

Love gardening, only have a small garden but have filled it with as many perfumed shrubs, roses, and flowers as possible. For me it is a little sanctuary sometimes just to sit in and relax. The longer I spend in it pottering about, the more I enjoy it. Everything we have planted in it is for its perfume, and depending where you sit you get a different mix of fragrances. The annual flowers we grow from seeds always seem to be a bonus as they are a bit hit and miss as to whether they will come through. This year I made a little trellis of honeysuckles, sweat peas and rambling roses and the scent from it was a heady. It also gives you more exercise than you realise and all the fresh air helps towards a good night's sleep.
We go to quite a few " open day gardens " in our area as well as garden centres, always looking for other little ideas to incorporate into ours.

Ha Ha, cornergran. Farmers and gardeners have a whole different take on making things grow.

On my first day at horticultural college the lecturer asked if anyone was married to a farmer. I shot up my hand with a big smile on my face thinking she'd be impressed. She just gave me a sympathetic look and mumbled, 'Good Luck!'

I'm forever hiding the hoe when hand weeding is required, trying to ignore his teasing about getting the knapsack sprayer out (we're organic), shrieking at him for trampling on self-seeders at the edge of the lawn, pleading with him not to plant enough potatoes to feed half the village and begging him not to 'harvest' everything at once.

Such Fun!

Gardening feels too much like housework, but it has to be done. I enjoyed every minute of this lovely long hot summer (just sitting out there of course).

I love the garden and gardening including growing annuals and tomatoes etc from seed. The perennials take care of themselves except for a bit of pruning. I like mowing the grass and have a 80 ft x 40 front and side too. I would not call them lawns. The back is a small courtyard garden with own little micro climate. I haven't a clue how much time I spend there but it's time well spent.

Half an hour - not a fan of gardening really

Before I moved to my current home 5 years ago my gardens were always for kids and dogs, nothing really much to do in them. But since I moved here I have loved gardening, my garden is scruffy but very productive, I grow all sorts of fruit and veg and have planted some fruit trees, apples, pears, plums, cherries, quince, hazelnuts and elderberries. There are all sorts of flowers and shrubs and I have a resident hedgehog, robins nested in an old teapot and I get all sorts of birds feeding on my feeders. Everything I've learnt has been by trial and error, most plants bought from the Poundshop or the 'dead' section at B&Q

By the way my garden is about 7 metres long by bout 14 wide with a bit more down the side of the house, just wish I could have taken more interest when I was fit enough to enjoy it more.......

Not enough
I have to be in the right mood even though the weeds are nodding their heads defying me to remove them.

I'm a fine weather gardener but love it, always have. My (farm worker) father used to laugh when I retreated inside if it began to rain. It relaxes me, if I'm cross about something a bit of pruning restores good humour, its my measure of the seasons and where I feel closest to the world.

Our garden is tiny now, the right size for me to manage and I'm happy with it. Mr C does the labouring. we spent two days recently moving shrubs around, but he leaves what he calls the technical stuff to me.

When we've moved, which we have a lot, I have been able to leave the houses without a backward glance but have always been sad to leave 'my' plants and garden behind. Its hard to say how much time I spend out there, some weeks about 10 minutes, other weeks a few hours split into manageable chunks.

Our garden is large. Over the years I've tried to make it more low maintenance but I'm my own worst enemy - always creating new borders, planting schemes and growing veg. Today I'll be off to my favourite nursery to see what they have in their autumn sale.

Unless the weather is bad I spend an average of four hours a day gardening. DH takes care of grass cutting, hedge trimming etc., and we have somebody to help one afternoon a fortnight.

I bought two very posh wooden sun loungers in June. They have yet to be used.