Gardening is so satisfying

My job has always been mowing the lawn for the last 35 years or more but things changed this year It started in January I renewed most of the larch lap panels around the garden the cleaned the borders started planting new rose bushes and trailers 20 + plants then a load primulas raked and fed the lawn aprox 200 sq yards also planting more rhodendrons plus ive started to grow plants from seed the garden has never been prioritised so much Ive never done so much gardening even started to plan what I want to plant I only do a couple of hours at time You might say Ive got the garden Bug
So keep planting its enjoyable

Give me a nice line of freshly ironed shirts anyday

But the shirts get worn and have to be washed & ironed again, so it’s not really any different from weeding!

At one with MooMoo. Like to look; don't like to touch.

Don't like to burst the bubble but I like a nice garden and doing the flower pots but the rest no thanks I find you can spend hours outside and not see anything for it. Give me a nice line of freshly ironed shirts anyday.

I need to get cracking on my garden but it is very cold here at the moment and we have had a series of frosty nights, so I will leave what cover there is for another couple of weeks and then start looking to see what has survived from last year and is putting up shoots. At the moment I will content myself with sitting in the conservatory and drawing up mental ‘to do’ lists for when it gets a bit warmer!

Lisagran - beautiful garden, you can see it’s well loved!

There are lots of Chafer bugs here, they have decimated lawns round the village, ours included. I have noticed a few people replacing theirs with gravel or artificial grass. Apparently these bugs are very hard to get rid of once you have them. Horrible little blighters they are.

Thank you for the tips on how to deal with bindweed everyone!

I like weeds which flower, such as aconites and bindweed. They are so pretty, What's not to like
Well, it does bind itself around other plants!

Is bindweed another word for ground elder
Kim, no, it's also known as convolvulus - very pretty white flowers but it wraps itself round plants and strangles them so not such a pretty habit.
It's very difficult to get rid of as the roots go down deep and then it springs up somewhere else.

We're not allowed to put bindweed in with our garden waste so it goes in with the general waste.

Fortunately, gardening is our main hobby ( fortunately, because we have a large garden.)
It does take a lot of upkeep, as does the hard landscaping, cleaning the drive, putting up new fences, painting fences, gate and shed etc.
We are now running out of space for any new plants, so are buying more garden pots and tubs for those ‘have to have’ plants and shrubs.
On a sunny day, it does you good to spend an hour or two pottering, hear the birds etc.

I wish I could still manage my garden, I used to love spending hours weeding, planting and looking after my numerous pots. Now I can't even manage to water the pots so have had to cut them right back. I have someone to cut the lawn and I pay a friend to do some weeding every couple of months.

Luckily my garden is planted with well established bushes which only need annual pruning which my lawn man will do in the winter. The rest of the beds run riot with undergrowth, ferns and the dreaded ivy!

I have created a nice patio and treated myself to a retractable sun awning as I prefer to sit in the shade. But tending the garden is beyond me and it frustrates me somewhat to sit there looking at what needs doing!

Yes I agree, gardening is good for mind body and sole.
On our allotment we have those who are retired and those who are semi retired and those who are still working full time. Some of the retired almost live on their plots from morning to dusk. One man who separated from his wife actually lives in his shed, it has all mod cons, sofa / cooker / Heating via log burning stove. Solar panels On the roof. We and the council look upon him as site security. He belongs to a local gym and goes daily to shower. He is as happy and a pig in muck.

GreenGran78 about your double wall. I would so love one of those. We've got beech hedges though. Nice enough in itself, but a double wall looks so easy to garden. Love Nasturtians too.

That should of course be 'overlook the canal'. (When are we ever going to get an editing facility?}

We have a fairly simple garden - mostly grass with a few small fruit trees and a border on one side as we have 2 dogs who seem to have no knowledge of where grass stops and flowers start. We are lucky though, and mainly the reason that we bought the house, that we overlal the canal and the woodland that backs onto it.
Because of joint and heart problems, I can't do much in the garden, but my husband does all the heavy work while I point appropriately! We bought a couple of plants to fill in some empty space in the border this week and I left him to it after pointing out where the peonies and hostas were starting to come through, so avoid those and there may possibly be some other plants about to appear that I've forgotten about, so be careful.
I had a look this morning- and found that he's 'weeded' and dug up all my Canterbury Bells!! Bless him, what can I say, they're only plants after all. Back to the garden centre!

Thanks A1. Won't tell you how long I've been gardening!

No Kim, they are completely different plants,

Two questions, please....Is bindweed another word for ground elder and is artificial grass hugely expensive to install and maintain?

I'm glad that I re-vamped my garden, some years ago, to make it easier to manage. The dreaded osteo-arthritis has settled in my right hip and knee, and makes gardening painful and difficult. I especially love my double front-garden wall, filled with colourful plants. Poking a handful of nasturtium seeds in, each year, results in a cascade of colour right through until autumn.
I have many shrubs and climbers, which aren't too hard to deal with, and lots of bulbs and perennials. My family has always joked about the large number of pots that I used to plant up every year. Sadly, I can't cope with growing and planting lots of annuals any more, but I have acers, hydrangeas, pieris and roses in pots which provide year-round colour.
The forget-me-nots are in flower, right now. They have self-seeded everywhere, and grow out of crevices in the pathways too. They look lovely!
I hope that I can continue to live in my home and cope with the garden maintenance. I would miss having somewhere to potter, and the colourfil view from my window.

My daughter treats every leaf of Bindweed with a paint-on weedkiller! Patience of a saint that one!

Gardening was my hobby and I am very disappointed that I can no longer do it because of walking difficulties.
We bought our Hampshire bungalow not because of the building but the half acre garden where I spent most of my time. It broke my heart when circumstances forced us to move to Norfolk to a property on an estate with a small garden.
It is very difficult to find a proper gardener now. They call themselves gardeners but they don’t know a weed from a plant and charge the earth.
I now manage to supervise my home help while she does it. She and my previous help have learnt a lot and now enjoy gardening.

Bindweed - train it up a stick where it is growing so that you separate it from your precious plants, and then you can spray it's leaves carefully with an organic weedkiller.

I have just had a new hip and have been told absolutely no gardening for six weeks. At this time of year when the weeds are just laughing at me! Never mind, I'll get them before long and meanwhile I can sit in the sunshine with a clear conscience.

I like weeds which flower, such as aconites and bindweed. They are so pretty, What's not to like? We had a young relative visit us from abroad and she loved those yellow daisy things that are poisonous to horses. I did not tell her they were weeds. I do have lots of beautiful shrubs and flowers anyway, such as camellias and roses, so not all "weeds" or wild flowers. And lots of violets all over the place!

Lisagran, what a beautiful garden you have! I love gardening too, but due to a bad knee I just cant do what I used to. so I call in the local handiman who tidies it up for me. I bught some lovely new hydrangeas through the internet and I will have a go at potting them into bigger pots this weekend, Happy gardening everyone.

I do, Callistemon. I might be making a mistake here, but there is no other option when you have established shrubs in the border. I have recently dug up some clumps of perennials and tried to separate those horrible, nasty fat white wormy roots. It's satisfying, rather like squeezing a particularly pus-filled spot. However, bindweed is a survivor. It has a knack of re-growing from the weeniest fragment and popping up again when your back's turned - ditto bracken which is deep-rooting and almost impossible to erradicate. I continue the Good Fight on both.