The simple answer to THAT question: on my relatively small property, there
are no less than twelve places to sit. . .not counting the small front porch!
Benches (stone and wood), chairs (wood, metal, cloth, vinyl), even a hammock -
there are even two extremely light-weight metal/vinyl chairs that I can carry
about anywhere I happen to want to catch the sun's rays, or perhaps relax in
the shade. In truth, I consider being able to sit down in the garden a critical
component of a successful garden. . .so often I have visited perfectly
breathe-taking gardens with nary a seat in sight. What a missed opportunity!

At the risk of sounding obsessed, I quite literally take most of my meals
outdoors - either alone or with friends - roughly April through October;
during inclement weather, there's always the porch or the gazebo. . .once
while eating lunch, there was a sudden thunderstorm, and rather than retreat
indoors, I simply plopped a portable chair inside the shed and left the door
open - what a treat to savor my tuna sandwich, safe and dry, while the deluge
crashed down all around me!

Oh, yeah, I LOVE sitting outside! Come join me on a bench some cold
winter morning, all bundled up and sipping java, and maybe I'll convince you.

Carl

I love being outside walking around the garden and looking at this or that if not working. I do not last at sitting for more than five minutes. Actually I don't sit inside house either. I always want to be moving. My husband can sit for hours. I just can't do it.

Nope. I don't like to sit anywhere - inside or outside. If I'm outside, it's walking, doing something, looking around, but I definitely don't sit out there.

Kevin

Initially I thought, well, of course. But then when I thought about it a bit I realised that I also don't actually like sitting that much. We eat outside as often as possible. It's so rarely warm enough to do so comfortably we eat outdoors whenever we get a chance. (Luckily we don't have any bugs to speak of to bother us). But otherwise I need to have a good reason to sit - a cup of coffee, a box of seeds to sort or just a short rest. But I am not good at just sitting. I also loathe sunbathing ... sooooo boring.

I'd like sitting outside if the mosquitos didn't like me so much!

Deanna

^Ditto, Deanna. The mosquitoes are horrible right now and with the past couple of days of rain, will be even worse in the weeks to come.

I don't sit outside either. Outside means activity of some sort. And what Deanna said. So, usually outside, I am dirty, smelly(deet) and wearing garden clothes.

I take gardening breaks in one of the rockers on the shed porch. In the spring and fall when not gardening I enjoy sitting on the screened porch in the morning with a cup of coffee and evenings with a glass of wine. We eat on the porch when it's not hot & humid.

I sit outside everyday. Usually on the front porch because it's part of the cottage garden. Sit there for hours, no problem.

We also sit on the waterfall garden patio. It's shady and totally secluded, like a secret garden.

I have a bench in the side garden, the gravel garden and the cottage garden. I usually sit on those to take a break from gardening.

We have a pool, so we sit out there when we're swimming.

We don't have mosquitoes or flies to drive us inside.

Cameron

um, no. I only like being outside doing something quite physical - I never sit and read outside although I can do it for hours (days) indoors. My garden is so tiny I cannot spare much space for seating (I have grudgingly allowed the smallest table and pair of chairs possible) so it is not exactly a relaxing lounging space anyway. Yep, I especially hate sunbathing and completely fail to see the point of sitting on a beach - any beach, but especially english ones.

Sit? What is that? Who has time to sit? I wish I did, but I don't. I bought a really nice patio set with extra accessory pieces over a decade ago because I thought it would be so nice to be able to sit and enjoy. I probably sit in one of the chairs for 20 minutes total a year.

You folks crack me up! Re-reading my post, I suddenly realized you must
think I am constantly sitting down, except for when I'm rushing to sit in one
of my other eleven spots! Quite the contrary: most of the time I'm working,
sweating, lifting, carrying, dragging, planting. . .the "sitting down" parts are
just the little breaks I take. I guess my point was that I'd rather sit down
outside, rather than inside. . .and I'm in total agreement with others above:
sun-bathing seems utterly pointless to me, and beaches are for walking!

Carl

I am not the type of gardener who enjoy working the garden but the type that enjoy garden after it is finish, so I do enjoy being outside. The downside, is that I don't enjoy sitting for more than 5 minutes, so I keep moving around.

Paul

I haven't spent 30yrs. creating my garden so that I can't enjoy it. Of course I sit. I dream. I plan. I have tea or eat breakfast in the area I created for that purpose - not for other people to just look at. And how do I get all the work done in order to maintain my garden? I take breaks - and sit!

I'm with Carl. I actually kind of resent being inside when it's nice- such as when visiting someone else or going to their house for dinner. We have dinner outside every night if it's at all possible and have a fireplace for when it's chilly. I'm outside now. Outside rules!

Too late Carl! We all know you're a lazy bum! ;)

This is a great thread, and funny, a topic I've never really thought about, but no, I don't really sit outside much. I guess it's not that I don't like to, but I just always have so much to do! Sometimes we eat dinner on the back patio, but usually, we eat rather late due to work and by then there are too many mosquitoes.

Perhaps if I ever get my act together and my garden in shape where I don't need to be *constantly* doing some chore or other, I can enjoy sitting outside more. I do like it when I do, but it doesn't usually last for long because I see something that needs to be done so I at least get up and go look at it. (Note that I did't say I get up and do it!)

When I was a kid and lived in the city, we constantly sat out on the front steps. I don't think it was technically a stoop, but we - and everyone in the neighborhood - sat out front. Every evening, all evening. It was kinda nice...

Dee
P.S. When my kids were little and I was thinner and we could all safely fit without it coming crashing down, we used to spend lots of time lazing in the hammock, staring up at the monarchs in the treetops. That was kind nice too....

I sit outside alone (except for dogs) a lot.
I sit back, put my feet up, and read or simply stare into space.
I often doze off in a chair under a tree after a days work- nirvana!

I love sitting outside and like the previous poster have assorted seating scattered around my yard. My goal is to have somewhere to sit every 15 feet or so; in case my legs give out reprieve is close by. I am not able to stand for long or walk very far so it's kind of a neccessity. I can work for 10 or 15 min and then have to sit for a few minutes. I really notice all of the activity by birds and insects in my sit-down breaks. I also enjoy sitting in my wrought iron walker on my porch during the last dusky hour of the day, watching the hummingbird catch their last meal of the day and jockey over slots at the feeders or flowers.

Many years I traveled and was not home Mon-Fri. Every Sat and Sun morning I would get up and have my cup of tea on the back patio if sunny if it was raining I had my tea on the covered porch.

I purchased a private 4 acre property and retired. Now I get up and sit on the patio every Morning 7 days a week with my cup of tea.

In the evening after working in the garden all day I take a long hot shower. Back out I go to have my meals and relax on the patio with a book, or my laptop, or Kindle.. If it is raining I sit in the Sun Room that has windows floor to ceiling and I feel like I am outside.

My gardens are for my view for when I am outside. So I want to be out there as much as possible. Why would I work my butt off and not enjoy the view? I entertain in the summer and all the activities are outside so they can also admire my gardens.

I do sit out in the garden, with my coffee and newspaper in the morning as the birds are waking up, or sitting on the woods bench watching the morning sun come slanting thru the trees and turning the spider webs to gold. How would I notice the tiny brown creeper scampering up and down the tree trunks, or the wrens feeding their family in the birdhouse above my head if I didn't take the time to sit?

It's my favorite part of gardening; to take in the peace of it and enjoy the flowers I've planted, and also to dream and plan for the next project or to notice things I didn't see unless I sat down to actually look at the
picture I created. I have lots of places to sit so I can look at the garden from different perspectives; that I don't see if I spend all my time just working in it!

Sitting enables me to see where a plant might go to fill in a space, or needs to ne moved. I've had some of my best flashes of inspiation while just sitting. (a whole row of oak leaf hydrangeas at the end of the woods garden that can be seen from the top of the hill 500' away, for example) and my husband and I have some of our best conversations sitting out in the garden of an evening watching the fireflies and listening to the resident owl a few feet away in the top of an oak tree. We watch the woodpeckers, the hummingbirds, listen to the mockingbirds and watch the swallowtail butterflies in the flowers.

I love to sit in the garden! I would miss half the experience of the outdoors I love if I didn't take time to sit!

Sandy

I like to sit on my front porch sometimes, usually if I'm waiting on something/someone. But it's usually TOO HOT and there's too many mosquitoes to languish outside doing nothing, and in this yard, plants are too spread out to see much from any one spot. Daytime, the average is 1 bite per every 3-4 minutes in the sun. Quadruple that if you step into the shade, and get your calculator out if it's getting dark! And the gnats are sooo annoying, they go up your nose, in your clothes, in your eye!

I have chairs outside I've never sat in...if it is not raining, I don't often take time to sit.

Ditto schoolhouse's response. I have seating throughout the garden, chairs, benches, bistro sets, a couple of loungers. Right now the garden is full of scent from Azaleas, Cardiocrinums and Clematis wilsonii (scent of chocolate).

Soon the Philadelphus 'Belle Etoile', Austin roses and lilies will be perfuming the air. To sit outside is soooooo nice this time of year.

Annette

I can sit for hours. I don't like to think of it as doing nothing, I'd rather consider myself thinking or bird/wildlife watching. The porch is for reading and lounging, the garden seating is for rest breaks and just mulling things over. Sometimes "mulling" takes a while.

mull
verb (used without object)
to study or ruminate; ponder.

I am more of a non-sitter. Outside in the gardens, I am usually on the move, and can get easily distracted and off in another direction, only to return 10 or 20 minutes later and realize that I forgot what I was off to get. And have to go back. Even inside the house, while working at the computer, I am up and down constantly.

I do relate to the enjoyment of daydreaming and visualizing in the garden, although this is usually done standing instead of sitting. I will walk around and then stand and stare at the gardens from different angles. It's kind of embarassing if the neighbors or passers-by see you doing it.

I too mull or ruminate while standing. In fact, mulling is my biggest garden activity. I often walk around the yard, from garden to garden, and just mull, pondering what I can do with this bed or that bed, and ruminating on all the weeds that need to be pulled and the dead heads that need to be deadheaded and the mulch that hasn't been put down yet, and so on.

If I actually worked even a third as much as I pondered, I could get a heck of a lot more stuff done!

Dee
P.S. and yes, I wouldn't be so embarrassed if the neighbors caught me working a bit more than they catch me mulling.

I too am too impatient to remain seated for long periods of time but I LOVE being outside. My ideal situation would to one day own a home in which every room could open up to the outside, and I don't mean by having doors in every room but rather that the entire wall can be opened. I have visited many homes in other countries (mainly warmer climates) that have this and it truly is the best of all worlds, at least for me. This way when you are watching tv, eating dinner, etc you are sitting "outside". One can dream...

ATekk, that was my dream also but since I decided to continue to live in a climate that made that dream not the best idea. I traded for rooms with large windows.

In the living room there are 4 large windows and a large glass door. Dining room the window is almost wall to wall on one side. The Sunroom is a sunroom with ceiling and floor to ceiling glass. Master bedroom two walls of wall to wall ceiling to floor windows.

None of these windows have window covering so as you walk around you have the feeling that you are outside.

I think if you do not see your dream of moving make your dream work where you are. It is actually breath taking when it is snowing. To look out and see all the white sculptures mother nature has created and you are sitting there by the fireplace it feels real good.

It has been suggested in a few posts on this topic that one has to sit in order to observe what's going on in the garden. I completely disagree. I don't sit, I'm in constant motion, but that doesn't mean I'm not in tune to what's going on around me. I'm constantly observing, checking things out, following the bees and the butterflies as sappy as that may sound.

What I could never do and what irks me to high heaven is the need for so many people to be plugged in to music every second of their lives. And than includes garden work. I know they're missing so much of the total garden experience, but it's pointless to argue the point with them. A few moments of life without their devices is just incomprehensible. to them. I find it sad.

Kevin

Okay, these are a little OT...

Atekk, my son and I visited Hilo, Hawaii to see the volcano last year, and as soon as I got off the plane, and experienced the open-air airport and motel, I LOVED IT and knew that was how I really wanted to live!! (Someday...)

Re: devices - people seem to think that every little bleep from their smart-phone requires immediate attention! I can't believe how many people have their nose buried in the their phones, while walking on the street, through an airport, waiting to be seated or eating in a restaurant, etc. Very out of touch with their environment, and could even compromise one's safety. Seriously, WHAT text/email/video/Facebook update could possibly be that important??

Who has time to sit? Okay, this year I have time to sit because I am recovering from knee replacement surgery so can only work so long before I need to sit. Other years I have been too busy working in the gardens or doing some project. I found that the end of my gardening day was my time for sitting for a few minutes and enjoying the beauty and peacefulness of the garden as I watch the birds at the feeders or in the birdbath or butterflies flitting to and fro.

I have sitting areas throughout the garden and they are welcomed places when friends stop over and I take a break to visit.

I do my pondering and planning outside on my feet and later at my desk where I do research and diagramming and plotting.

In a word, Yes.

carl18, I need to read all of this post when I get home tonight, but right now, love you to pieces.

Yes. We love to sit outside on weekend mornings to read the paper (and on weekdays, too, now that school is almost finished). I love to sit out on the patio or deck when the kids come to visit or drop the wild pup off to play with our galloping gardeners.

We like to eat outside, too. We do turn on a fan to keep the bugs away. Cameron, where in NC do you live that here are no flies or mosquitoes (unless you spray, that is)? wow-lucky you if that is a natural occurrence.

Absolutely! When I get home from work I stroll around, pick a weed or 2, see what is blooming, think about the next garden project and then I sit. No music, not plugged in, just me, the birds, the bees, my 2 cats and my puppy. And maybe my hubby. He doesn't sit outside much.

Jodi

I rarely sit in the garden, which is a shame. I find there is always just too much work waiting to be done and once I am out there, I always see something to do. Which I enjoy doing. When the weather gets hot though I do less work, but then it is too hot to sit out there during the day and mosquitoes at night. I am going to make the effort to sit out there more often this year though and see how that goes.

This is such a funny thread - and it really strikes a chord. My boyfriend and I hardly ever sit out in the garden; we're always too busy working in it. (Still, at least our upstairs neighbours get to enjoy it!)

I like the suggestion of having easily portable chairs that can be carried around the garden and plonked down depending on what looks good/what time of day it is, to take advantage of, say, the beauty of backlit leaves and flowers. I'm going to try to keep handy a couple of those folding camping chairs with drinks holders, so my partner and I can potter out at the end of the day to find a good view and enjoy a tasty bottle of beer (or two).