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christinmk

Gardening likes and dislikes

I was reading this one garden blog where the author commented that one of their favorite aspects of gardening was maintenance. This got me to thinking about the subject.

Naturally we all love gardening and take the fun with the not-so-fun. Even if you don't mind the whole process, there HAS to be one aspect of it that you would rather not have to do? A part you enjoy the most?

The research: you pour over books and scour the internet for information. You wish to know every dirty detail about it. It's not about simply HAVING the plant, but knowing where it came from, how it was developed, etc.

The hunt: it's just thrilling. Looking every local and online nursery over to see if they carry it. Checking the seed suppliers in a last ditch attempt to find your special item. Then you even search foreign sources to see if they might have it. The rush is over when you find it and move onto the next!

The shopping: come on now, it's SHOPPING. Who doesn't like shopping for plants? Even if you don't like other types of shopping you're still gotta' enjoy looking for flowery, leafy, living things! Paying is a different story, especially with some of those new or rare items that are $$.

The designing and placing: it brings out your creative side. You meticulously chart out a design and find the best plants to fit your scheme. You have seemingly endless color combo ideas. You pay attention to texture and leaf form. It's art but with living mediums.

The observation: from it's pushing up in the spring to it's going into dormancy in fall you watch it. You make notes on its progress, its likes and dislikes, what it responds well to. You find out what makes it tick. You enjoy sharing this information with others and learning what they know about it and their experiences.

The maintaining: you truly do like the nurturing aspect of gardening. Taking care of your plants, keeping them healthy and looking their best. Keeping the whole garden looking its best. The hard work and end result gives you a good deal of satisfaction.

The enjoying: walking around the garden with your morning coffee in hand. Strolling the garden with a friend. Watching the wildlife enjoy your sanctuary. You've learned to stop and smell the roses...

............................
For me:

I love the research. I even enjoy knowing about plants I will never likely grow. Reading seemingly useless points of information about it, like how it was used in olden days, folklore, along with how to grow them and stuff like that. Its one of my chief winter pastimes...

I do sometimes get swept up in the thrill of the hunt, but oftentimes I will forget about wanting a certain plant until it pops up at me at a nursery or sale and says "boo", lol.

Shopping is a delight when I get an opportunity to do so. A bit bittersweet delight though- when it comes to having to choose between some of them ;-(

I've come to appreciate good design more and more over the years. I do like planning a few color combos and placing things for best effect. Collection still comes before composition for me (and always will), but at least it is something I pay more attention to.

Observing is something I heartily enjoy. I love making notes on plants (uhhh...also cuz' I can't be trusted to remember otherwise, LOL). It's fun to learn other peoples findings on the same plant.

Maintaining...not so much. There are times when I'm in a blue funk or a bit upset where having a plot to weed and get my frustrations out is welcome. Other than that no!

Enjoying is something I don't do enough of. Sometimes the last thing I want to do coming home from work is go outside again and see all the things I didn't do and weeds taking over! Sad but true I'm afraid. That is something I'm going to work on next year.

Your turn!
CMK

Comments (39)

  • sunnyborders
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Re perennial garden maintenance:

    I'd say (I'd claim, from experience) that successful mixed perennial gardening is ultimately all about informed maintenance and about the informed juggling of different perennials in mixed perennial beds. I'd take "successful" to refer to optimizing changing flower colour, throughout the full length of the growing season, for the location.

    Personally, I've certainly had long experience of "book learning" in a number of different academic areas, plus experience of academic research, at least in Biological Science. Perennial garden maintenance, however, can't simply be learned or studied from a book/article/on-line. It involves application (even trial-and-error) and then ongoing experiential learning, plus, of course, a lot of labour.

    I enjoy perennial garden for success, or at least for what I consider to be a reasonably successful outcome.

    Below: not perfect, but not bad for July 30 (2013), for a small garden, in our growing circumstances.

    For me, the fun is in the challenge and the ultimate challenge itself, for mixed perennial gardening, is in the ongoing maintenance of the mixed perennial beds themselves.

    I've always felt very comfortable with details, but in this case, I'd claim that is the totality of the outcome that is my focus, at least in as far as I can expect the garden to appeal to others.

    This post was edited by SunnyBorders on Fri, Jan 3, 14 at 17:40

  • GreatPlains1
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    deleting post

    This post was edited by GreatPlains1 on Fri, Jan 10, 14 at 18:15

  • rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    CMK, I gotta comment on your wonderful opening post. You have described perfectly all the aspects of perennially gardening that apply to me...except one....I so enjoy the actual planting of the plant in the ground...the digging, the hole preparation, combining various soils with special additions that I pretend will give my plant a special advantage. Thanks for this thread....outstanding.

  • woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I wrote a long post last night - and lost it when I accidentally hit something that navigated me away from the page! GRRRR.....

    Interesting topic. I've gone through various phases in gardening life :-) Our first garden was very perennials-focused in a rather disorganized getting-to-know-the-plants kind of way. When we moved here, I wanted to garden in a more organized way. Much of the space was a blank slate - except for the mature and maturing trees that were a key reason we bought here. Because I needed lots of plants in the first few years I did a lot of seed-starting in spring. Now though, the garden is at the stage where additions of plants most often means an existing plant has to go to make room for the new one. So that makes me less tempted to make random purchases of something that grabs my attention - if it doesn't suit my plan for the garden, it's easy to pass it by.

    My emphasis shifted a few years ago from plants to overall design, clarifying my overall objective for a unified garden - i.e. the Gertrude Jekyll approach of a 'garden with a house in it' vs. 'a house with a garden around it'.

    And that brings me to my other garden passion - garden reading! My reading concentrates not on plant-specific or 'how-to' type books but rather on garden history, both in the broad sense of garden design and styles through time as well as in the narrower sense of history of particular gardens - and the gardeners, designers, and others associated with them. I'm interested in both large, well-known/influential gardens as well as personal tales of smaller, private gardens. I follow interesting threads from one book to another. For instance, my early interest in perennials led me to read Gertrude Jekyll's books, books about the gardens she made (Gardens of a Golden Afternoon is a good one) and a biography about her. She did a lot of her writing for William Robinson's garden magazine, so I read his books and a biography about him (Did you know the clematises 'Gravetye Beauty and Markham's Pink are
    associated with him - Gravetye was his estate and Earnest Markham was his head gardener....) Jekyll and the architect Edwin Lutyens were closely associated, so I read a biography about him (strange man....!) She was an active participant in the Arts and Crafts movement so I read many books about William Morris, the art and artists of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, house and interior design of the period, etc. That eventually led to Frank Lloyd Wright - and so on.... one thing leads to another in ever widening ripples!

    That's the great thing about gardens and gardening - there's always something interesting to do and learn, so you can garden (in your head at least!) at any time of the year.

  • christinmk z5b eastern WA
    Original Author
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    -Doug, I'm glad you enjoyed the post ;-) You are right. I suppose it roughly falls into he "design & placing" category, but maybe it ought to have been put on its own. A chum of mine from work is like that- she loves planting. When she was planting a front boarder by the parking lot a couple 'office people' came out to comment how blissful she looked planting away, lol.

    At this point, for me, planting can be a semi-aggravation. Usually the place I want for my new purchase is occupied by something else. Then the question is do I where do I want to move THAT? This keeps going on awhile, like musical chairs. Lol.

    -woodyoak, that is super frustrating! Whenever I write a post now I have a WordDoc pulled up on my computer. When I've written and corrected my post I always copy it onto the doc, and keep it until I see my message has posted ok. Can't tell you how much yelling this technique has saved me from ;-D
    CMK

  • woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    CMK - When I use Word and copy to here, it does funny things to all the punctuation marks - that is annoying enough that I've went back to taking the risk of typing directly in the input box - the lesser of the evils.... :-)

  • sunnyborders
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I agree strongly with Woodyoak how interesting and entertaining garden history can be.

    I think one message it may also contain is don't slavishly follow (or preach) a currently fashionable style of gardening or use only currently fashionable types of plants,etc..

    Point in issue: Gertrude Jekyll's visceral hatred of "malignant magenta". Jekyll was obviously able to ban the colour magenta from the gardens she was paid to design, but I'd hate to think that her writings prejudiced others from enjoying magenta in their gardens.

    On a more academic level, why did she hate magenta? Were there wider issues involved beyond personal prejudice or concerns of garden design?

    The second of the new industrially produced organic dyes of the Victorian Industrial Revolution was fuschine, which dissolved in water gives magenta.

    Did Jekyll's hostility to the colour magenta reflect the contemporary feeling of socially conscious people who didn't like the new industrially produced dyes; the reason being that they didn't like the harsh working conditions of the workers in the factories where they were produced?

    Did her hostility reflect the prejudice of her social class against the cheap new bold (gaudy?) colours which were now available to everyone and used (overused?) in clothing, furniture, wallpaper and the like? Jekyll didn't like the similar colour purple in the garden either. Purple had a long history of exclusive royal use.

    Who knows, but she sure hated magenta.

    But I'm so glad even some garden writers of Jekyll's time wrote back in defence of magenta flowers in gardens.

    Below "Magenta the Maligned" as a pro-magenta writer said: Phlox 'Alma Pötschke'. A nice bit of October colour here.

    I like it, but you don't have to!

    This post was edited by SunnyBorders on Sat, Jan 4, 14 at 15:30

  • woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Sunnyborders - I removed that one from my garden this past fall :-) The plant was very vigorous and healthy but I found the color somewhat harsh and it fought with the purple asters next to it. So, after considering making a change for several years, I finally evicted both the asters and will be replacing them with the pink Mammoth Mums if I can find good ones. I tend to agree with Jekyll re magenta because it's a very assertive color that often does not play well with the quieter colors I tend to use. I suspect her dislike of it came from many of the reasons you mention re it being a harsh chemical new introduction and she was very much a follower of John Ruskin's 'Truth to nature' philosophy. She was also a bit of a snob! Years ago I wrote a book review on a biography of her for a garden website. This bit seems pertinent to a discussion on how she thought of the color issue:

    She was both a woman of her times and a woman ahead of her time - many of her opinions reflect the Victorian class system and her training as an artist e.g. ‘ And when one hears the common chatter about ‘artistic colors’, one receives an unpleasant impression about the education and good taste of the speaker.’ Highly unusual for her time, she was an unmarried woman who was independent, financially successful , famous and respected for her own skills and knowledge.

  • sunnyborders
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Very interesting, Woodyoak.

    Also, true that Alma is quite vigorous. I find I must dig up, reduce and replant blocks of it every three or four years.

    Toned down with the powder blue of smooth aster 'Bluebird'.

  • woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I quite like magenta in beds like that where the intent is for a vivid, 'sunny' look, but it's difficult to place in a broader context because it is so dominant. Jekyll was known for her borders that shaded from cool colours on the ends to hot colours in the middle. Magenta doesn't easily fit in that smooth continuum since it tends to be a screaming 'LOOK AT ME' individualist rather than a team player. :-)

  • sunnyborders
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Love the plant colour classification, Woodyoak: individualist versus team player.

    Still I have to admit that probably one reason for my love of lots of garden phlox is that not only do they do well here, but also different phlox cultivars, in a perennial bed, seem to colour coordinate themselves. They seem to just belong together; actually the whole team together screams "LOOK AT US'!

  • Campanula UK Z8
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    detestable chores - planning ahead, design, harvesting (preserving and all that stuff)

    generally OK and even somewhat satisfying - weeding, pruning, maintenance and building

    Truly joyous - seed saving and sowing, propagating, grafting, training, hybridising.

  • sunnyborders
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Interesting about "planning ahead" as per Campanula's comments.

    I tend not to give it much credit.

    I'm sure we all intent to do things like place plants in appropriate conditions of light, etc., even if it's fall/spring and maybe there's not a lot of light around at the time we plant.

    Everybody's different, but, at least with my type of perennial gardening and use of perennials, I find a lot of gardening involves observing and then reacting, rather than initially thinking in broad sweeps and what might be thought of as planning. At each stage, the plants growing in situ tell you what to do. At the extreme they die and another empty space gets filled in.

    I tend to see perennial gardening as a routine (but pleasant) policing job. The plants, with help, typically perform so well together, that there's a temptation to give the gardener credit for a well planned outcome.

  • mxk3 z5b_MI
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I love planning - whether it be work-related or for pleasure. I'm a planner and organizer at heart - when the actual event occurs or project comes to fruition, I usually find it a let-down, it's the planning and organizing stages I find invigorating.

    And I love tinkering with design, finding ways to make things look better - this ties in with the planner/organizer in me. I'm constantly re-arranging things and thinking how things can be improved.

    Planting stuff - not so much, but I suppose it has to get done, no? Same thing with maintenance chores. I enjoy puttering to some degree, sometimes that is relaxing just going out there and looking around, pulling a few weeds, snipping some flowers, stuff like that.

    I also truly enjoy seed sowing. Of course, the planning and dreaming of what annuals and vegetables I will grow in the coming season, but also the actual process and tending to the seedlings - it's a thrill each and every time those seeds germinate and then again when I get the first flowers from them :0)

    I detest lawn work. I refuse to do it. That is DH's job. If he didn't do it, I'd hire it out - the cutting, trimming, fertlizing, all of it, I won't do any of it.

    And you all know I *detest* watering chores. Just hate it. Automatic sprinkler system was some of the BEST.MONEY.I.EVER.SPENT.

    Of course, I like buying things, the thrill of the hunt (which again ties in with the planning/organizing) :0b

  • mnwsgal
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I like all aspects of gardening except for end of the day's cleanup. Tools get a good cleaning and put away while pots etc. get a quick rinse and then stacked in the garage. By fall the garage requires a day's reorganizing and stays neat until the cycle begins again the next spring.

    Also don't really care for the showing of the garden to visitors unless I know they are really interested in gardening. It is awkward as those with casual interest dismiss my joy and enthusiasm. I remain polite and they remain polite as we then move quickly from one area to another. Makes even more special those visitors whose comments and questions show true delight.

    My favorite part is the end of the day when I sit quietly knowing that the work is done for the moment and I am enjoying the fragrances and sounds and sights.

    This post was edited by mnwsgal on Mon, Jan 6, 14 at 4:45

  • rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I *detest* watering chores. Just hate it.

    Me too, me too.

    Automatic sprinkler system was some of the BEST.MONEY. I.EVER.SPENT.

    If I was starting with a clean or cleaner slate I would do this for sure. But given that our gardens are so well established I just can't bear the thought of them being ripped up. But if drought like conditions become more common I may bit the bullet.

  • rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Also don't really care for the showing of the garden to visitors unless I know they are really interested in gardening. It is awkward as those with casual interest dismiss my joy and enthusiasm..

    I couldnt agree with you more.

  • mxk3 z5b_MI
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Rouge: Actually, it's not as much of a tear-up as you might think. There are some trenches and holes to be dug, but a majority of the piping is threaded underground with machines. Now, trampling of plants here and there is something you'll have to expect, crews aren't going to tip-toe around your plants with satin slippers on, but they generally won't dig shrubbery unless it's a major obstacle. Go for it. YOU WON'T BE SORRY !

  • docmom_gw
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Isn't it funny how we each find enjoyment so differently. I could stand and hand water all day long. And I love mowing and raking and pruning and weeding. I do dislike rolling up the hose. So, this year I plan to install a Y-connector and run a hose up either side of the yard beneath the ground cover and leave them there. Then I can just turn on the water and water as long as I need, then turn it off and leave it in place.

    Martha

  • prairiemoon2 z6b MA
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    What do I love the best and what do I love the least...

    I think I love the experience of being in the garden and working in the garden the best. Heading out the door for the first time in spring, and the smell of the earth and the sight of new growth on all the shrubs, grass starting to actively grow,the breezes and the fragrance and the sun on you. Everything just comes to life as soon as you head out the door. With the anticipation and the rhythm and progression of the gardening season ahead of you. Each day a little different than the day before. I love getting a little wet in the rain, and I don’t even mind when it starts to turn colder in the fall. The only thing that I don't enjoy is the heat. If it gets too hot and humid, I wilt and can’t stay out there beyond early morning.

    I love pruning although I wish I were better at it and I keep thinking I will take a course to improve at some point. If there isn’t more than I can handle, I like to deadhead.
    Planting and sowing seed are fine, and I like digging, which is strange I think. lol
    I don’t mind a reasonable amount of weeding. I used to love to water but I could easily give that chore up at this point. I don’t enjoy responding to plant diseases and pests. Or fertilizing, why I have no idea. I think I would have easily said seed starting was my favorite thing to do when I was a new gardener and for many years after that, and I still find it fascinating to watch seeds sprout and start to grow, I don’t look forward to the organization, the preparation and the labeling. I’m happy when they are all done and ready to just water and watch them grow and then finally adding them to the garden.

    I used to think I loved the design and planning of the garden, but that was also when I was new to gardening and I discovered along the way that it is very difficult to do well and I find I am not as good at it as I’d like to be. And I think good design requires a lot of experience with plants, having watched them grow for a long enough time. So as a new gardener, you are at a disadvantage with design. I’m not often satisfied with my own efforts to come up with the ‘whole package’, which is disappointing. Since I so often start any design with the list of plants I just have to have in the garden, and work the design to fit those, maybe I am more of a collector. I haven’t decided, because I really love great design, too.

    But I’ve also realized, that it doesn’t matter. It is a process that I continue to love from beginning to end. Even when I am not happy with 80% of the grand scheme of things, just heading out to the garden and seeing a healthy, happy plant blooming in the sun, just makes my day. And I do plan and design, just with lowered expectations. I get a lot of ideas and enjoy trying them out and if it doesn’t turn out exactly as I expected, I am content to tweak it and improve upon it or live with it awhile until I get another idea and change it all over again. (g) And then when you finally end up with something you're happy with, it is just so satisfying.

    OH…and docmom, I found a hose reel that has made rolling up the hose, a pleasure. It is a water powered hose reel, that you can just flip a switch while the water is running and it will roll itself up. My #1 best gardening tool ever!


  • susanzone5 (NY)
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I hate having to deal with the rodents...voles, woodchucks, rabbits, mice. I live in the country with fresh supplies of varmints. I have 5 different kinds of traps and a shotgun.

    The times I have a fox or resident black snake are relaxing, rodent-free days for me.

    I love all other parts of gardening, especially seed starting.

  • susanzone5 (NY)
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I hate having to deal with the rodents...voles, woodchucks, rabbits, mice. I live in the country with fresh supplies of varmints. I have 5 different kinds of traps and a shotgun.

    The times I have a fox or resident black snake are relaxing, rodent-free days for me.

    I love all other parts of gardening, especially seed starting.

  • mnwsgal
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Like prairiemoon I am not as good at design as I would wish. For most of the same reasons. What I enjoy the most is the process, the doing. And lately I am thinking that maybe I am ready to be "doing" something else.

  • GreatPlains1
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Decided its time to move off this forum.

    This post was edited by GreatPlains1 on Fri, Jan 10, 14 at 18:14

  • sunnyborders
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Re the last post:

    I'm for "talking"/discussion.

    Personally, I wouldn't want anyone to feel intimidated from contributing whatever content/discussion they want.

    The topic is about what we like/ dislike about gardening, not what we like/dislike about gardeners.

  • GreatPlains1
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    deleted

    This post was edited by GreatPlains1 on Fri, Jan 10, 14 at 18:16

  • rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    The topic is about what we like/ dislike about gardening, not what we like/dislike about gardeners.

    Hear, hear. So true SB. Another thread getting pushed off-track.

  • mxk3 z5b_MI
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Greatplains -- I took your post as meaning people in general/people with whom we interact "in real life", not specific to this forum, and I agree with the general sentiment. I'm fortunate I don't have anyone who starts arguments about gardening/plants with me, although I do have one person who irritates the cr*p out of me because no matter what looks great in my garden, her statements are usually along the lines of "you should see MY xxx..."

    Kind of on-topic, but mostly off, so back to scheduled programming...

  • GreatPlains1
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    deleted

    This post was edited by GreatPlains1 on Fri, Jan 10, 14 at 18:17

  • Campanula UK Z8
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Still, there are plenty of things I do not like about gardeners either - a list as long as my arm regarding some of the philistines at my allotment -although I am still seething because I arrived to find a new 'neighbour' has simply appropriated half of my path, chopping the turf in half, to plonk his raised beds - meaning I can no longer get a mower there or even walk down MY path. Then there are those who refuse to deal with infected plants (the whole plot has since gone down to white rot and blackcurrant big bud mite is rampant, along with raspberry cane blight), not to mention the ones who refuse to give up their plots (despite a huge waiting list) but never do a hand's turn of work.......or those who attach a hose to the public standpipe and monopolise the water for entire weekends.
    I am afraid that merely being a fellow gardener is no guarantee of good manners, fair behaviour or even the slightest consideration for others.......and I expect I would have to add in a mea culpa there too, sometimes.

  • GreatPlains1
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    deleted

    This post was edited by GreatPlains1 on Fri, Jan 10, 14 at 18:18

  • christinmk z5b eastern WA
    Original Author
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Can we please stay on-topic folks?

    If you want to discuss something not pertaining to the original topic please start a new thread.
    Thanks
    CMK

  • sunnyborders
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Fair enough, CMK.

    Campanula, interesting to hear about problems specifically related to allotment gardening.

    Have read of the English tradition of gardening allotments. Suspect that George Russell of York (the lupin hybridizer) is perhaps the most famous English allotment gardener of all time.

  • wayne_z5_ia
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    What an interesting conversation this has been. How different we are in our likes and dislikes. I guess one of the things I like most is getting out in the spring as soon as the first green shows. i try to try at least a few new perennials or shrubs each year and I have to see if they made it through the winter. We have always been on the border line of zone 4 and 5. Now almost the entire state of Iowa is considered zone 5. This will be an interesting spring. Ten of the last 12 days have been below zero. I planted some new butterfly bushes last year. We'll see.

    I don't like lawn work, but I live with my daughter and she loves to mow lawn. That takes care of that. I don't mind watering, fertilizing, or weeding. I do not like deadheading.

    Visitors ? That is one of my greatest pleasures. By visitors, I mean those who stop by who actually want to look at the gardens. Family, friends, or those who just want to visit? No. I feel uncomfortable unless they ask to see them, knowing that they may not be all that interested.

    Right now, I am enjoying going through all the new catalogs. So, bring on Spring !!

  • Campanula UK Z8
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hi Wayne
    There has been quite a tradition of breeders and growers on allotments, especially of stalwarts such as dahlias, narcissi and chrysanthemums. Despite moaning, it really is a brilliant tradition of providing space for urban (and rural) gardeners. Our little island is incredibly crowded - it is 40x smaller than the US but has a population only 5x as few....so we hardly ever have the amount of space we would like - my home garden is 36square metres.....but at the allotment, which I rent for a tiny amount of money (about the equivalent of 60 dollars a year) , I have a quarter acre (2 plots). There are various rules, but, in true garden rebel tradition, few of them are ever upheld (which has its own advantages and disadvantages).

    Lupins....sigh....a fail in my rubbishly sandy alkaline soil.

  • sunnyborders
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Very interesting, Campanula.

    You mention some sunshine plants. I'm guessing that allotments are not associated with excessive shade.

  • Campanula UK Z8
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    tsss, failing to stay on topic and addressing wrong person. Sorry, sunnyborders.

    Am contemplating another gardening dislike....which is the vegetable beds clear up..... heaps and heaps of corn and bean haulms, fruit prunings, old tomato canes (shame on me) and yards of netting, cloches and string to clear after a winter of idleness. A mountain of new compost material tho'.

  • mxk3 z5b_MI
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Oh yea, the clean-up...another chore I don't enjoying doing but it does have to get done, doesn't it. I still have a large, quite dead annual moonflower vine on my trellis next to the front door. Lovely....sigh...

    I do enjoy some of the chores *if I'm in the mood*, especially if it's a crisp fall day or when the scent of spring is in the air. It's not really so much the chores I enjoy, it's the being outside and enjoying the season for what it is - especially the scents.

  • christinmk z5b eastern WA
    Original Author
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I don't mind cleanup so much, but that is probably because I "save it" to do in spring. By the end of fall I'm often burnt out with all things garden and want a break. On the flip side, by the end of winter I'm itching to get outside and at least do SOMETHING. At this point I'm bursting with energy and can usually get the main beds done in a few days.

    Although tearing down the old hops vines from last year is not a particularly enjoyed chore, lol.
    CMK

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