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Post by Cherry on Sept 4, 2011 15:13:48 GMT
Why do you tend your garden? Do you do the bare minimum for tidiness, or garden for visitors to enjoy, for exercise which is a health benefit, for wild life, or to enjoy al fresco dining? Has it acted as a stepping stone for writing, broadcasting, testing, exhibiting or collecting?
Maybe showing came before gardening.
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Post by Louise on Sept 4, 2011 17:20:56 GMT
I garden purely for me !
I do it when i'm in the mood and leave it untended for weeks on end when i'm not and this is a perfect way to be - for me, i refuse to be a slave to it and am a fairly relaxed gardener. I'm definately a fairweather gardener these days too.
I'm an outdoorsy person and if i wasn't gardening i'd be out walking, i get very restless in the cold months, when i don't enjoy being out in the open air, and get frustrated and impatient waiting for the warmth to return.
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Post by sweetpea on Sept 4, 2011 17:35:18 GMT
When I first got a garden I worked it cos it was there and also to grow some veg for the family. then I started getting into showing veg and later sweetpeas and other things such as dahlias, chrysanths, fuchsias, narcissi, even jam and other domestic items. Don't bother so much now so just try to keep the garden reasonably tidy and a pleasant place to be in. I have my disappointments as well as my successes but I don't worry about that anymore. If I like it then I couldn't care less if others don't. Their problem not mine.
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Post by Geranium on Sept 4, 2011 17:57:07 GMT
I love putting plants together. I couldn't live without flowers around me, either. When I was working, I still managed to get in the garden at weekends, and it was a good way to get exercise and fresh air.
Now, it's my solace, my pride, pleasure, and of course I got interested in collecting Geraniums.
It's still good exercise, too, although I do walk Henry every day as well.
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Post by wildlifefriendly on Sept 4, 2011 18:13:17 GMT
Because I love it, all the other benefits you mentioned are simply by-products.
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Post by lesley on Sept 4, 2011 18:13:19 GMT
I Love gardening because I can lose myself out there come rain or shine, if raining I do things in the greenhouse like taking cuttings, planting seeds, my garden has to be like indoors neat and tidy, it must off rubbed of from my mother when I was young.
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Post by hywel on Sept 4, 2011 19:36:05 GMT
I've never thought about why I garden. - I think it must be because I'm obsessed with plants, especially flowers and colours, and I like to arrange them so that they look beautiful and interesting. I love the various shapes and forms of leaves and flowers, and I have to get as many different ones as I can. I especially like cacti/succulents but I don't know if that can be counted as 'gardening' really, since they are in pots.... but whenever I see cacti, I've just got to buy a few I think I'm mad ;D
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Post by Cherry on Sept 4, 2011 19:42:31 GMT
Looking at these posts so far, it seems as if we all crossover and have similar reasons to garden. The only person I can't identify with is Lesley. My house is far from neat and tidy and the garden has loads of weeds. I must try to do better.
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Post by floydie on Sept 4, 2011 20:50:09 GMT
Because of you lot thats why i do it you all made me . Really i suppose i do it because i like to look at something thats pleasing to the eye (I know the garden is not exactly that but at lease my flowers/plants are ;D). Ive also kept at it because the children get so much pleasure out of the garden always asking questions about plants and flowers wanting to help etc. Another thing is seeing all the insects, birds & animals that visit the garden on a warm sunny day the garden is a buzz with hoverflys & bees plus flutterbys ;D. We've enjoyed eating the veg too so thats another plus ;D. Also it gets me out of the house (well when I'm not running for cover to avoid having to talk to next door) before i would rarely go out just because i was scared of being seen and having to talk to people i would be shut up in the house all day with the doors locked and curtains drawn, now i could do that but would get annoyed because my jobs were not getting done (i set jobs for the day and if they are not done i get very stressed about it). So you see i have to garden because its an incomplete task .
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Post by Tel on Sept 5, 2011 7:40:30 GMT
I just like a colourful garden and somewhere to sit on a lovely evening, just not enough evenings like that here. Did not bother with gardening that much, when the children were young, it was only when i had more time has they grew up that i started to bother about the garden more. I started to get interested in showing dahlias, after i went to see my first horticultural show with the then mother-in-laws boyfriend who had entered a few veg in a local show. When i saw the dahlias it brought back memories of when i was a kid and the next door neighbour had his front garden full of pom and decorative dahlias and seeing the dahlias at the show brought those memories back, that is when i thought i would like to grow some and enter them in this show the next year in the novice class, the rest is history. My Grandfather on my Mothers side loved his Garden, my father had no interest, i wonder if it came from him.
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Post by Rosie on Sept 5, 2011 7:50:10 GMT
I am guessing some gardening rubbed off on me from my father(only thing i would credit him with was being a good gardener). I used to live in a flat so had loads of house plants(which i still have : but mainly, my garden is my sanity,I can't work and I love being outside doing what i can, I get a sense of satisfaction when i see the rewards of the work i do. Be it flowers or veg. Next season it will be better as my raised veg beds will be in place, there is nothing better than having dinner with something just harvested from the garden. I just love it, all of it, every mucky moment is worth it ;D
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Post by Cherry on Sept 5, 2011 9:15:42 GMT
I do like eating out and put my guests where they will see the garden, although the view of the fens from the other side of the table is fine too.
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Post by blossom on Sept 5, 2011 9:31:28 GMT
I came to gardening in middle age.No one else in my family has ever gardened at all. When I moved house a few years ago, a large garden was a top priority - to give me a hobby after I'd taken early retirement. It has become an obsession. I love to show my garden to other people, but find that most people aren't interested, I'd love a gardening friend I spend several hours a day in the garden, greenhouse or potting shed, whatever the weather.I fight a constant battle against weeds ( which my husband always kindly points out to me!! :<). I do not find gardening relaxing, in fact, unless I have the radio on while I'm gardening, I find I worry, constantly, with problems going round and round in my head I love taking cuttings from herbaceous perennials and would love to have a little nursery - sadly a pipe dream at my age I love flowers and colour.
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Post by peony on Sept 5, 2011 12:11:38 GMT
I didn't garden much when the children were young, we had a woodland type garden then, just trees and lawns with a few shrubs, 1 apple tree, and a tiny flowerbed near the front door (which my Dad used to keep tidy for me!). We moved when the children left home and I inherited the garden I have now and just kept it tidy while I was still working full time.
After I retired I started doing more in the garden, and remembered quite a lot of things my father and grandfather had taught me when I was a child (they were both good gardeners, grandfather did it for a living after being made redundant). Then I joined our local gardening club, started reading books about plants, and became 'hooked'. I also enjoy the social side of our garden club, coach outings etc and have made new 'gardening' friends.
Now I love it, I've acquired a greenhouse, and gradually changed the garden to suit my kind of gardening - lots of perennials and shrubs. I enjoy growing from seed, taking cuttings, and just being out in the garden pottering about.
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Post by blossom on Sept 5, 2011 13:41:53 GMT
Our local gardening club is useless The committee has been in power for 20yrs and always veto any new ideas.Most of the members are the wrong side of 70 and the meetings are held in the afternoons so no one who works can attend - unbelievable
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