Do you garden?

If you don’t enjoy yardwork or do not have the time/energy to maintain it, outsource!

Yes, I garden. .. I supervise Jose and tell him what to do.

Gardening can be calming It’s like meditation. The point is not to hurry and get it over with.

I’ve gotten poison ivy three times. I hate gardening

Gardened for many years, a few tips: Avoid any fussy plant that you will have to replace in a year or two. Avoid the back breaking work of planting annuals in the ground by using pots.- perennial ground cover underplanted w/bulbs any place you would have used annuals before. Get all your gardening work done while it's still cool in your area- mid-June for me. After that- just let it go until the fall or when you want to be out there. Plant small trees, shrubs, grasses: really anything that has great foliage. These take minimal work and you can always cut shrubs back to within a foot or two of the ground when they get too large. Perennials in my last garden ended up being what naturalized- filled in the bare patches- so weeding wasn't necessary 25% of plants in total.

What R5 says. Just weed a patch at a time....don't think you can do it all in one day. I've got a 1/4 acre, I do it myself but.. get a lawn man in fortnightly and a hedge trimmer guy in once a year for the driveway and boundaries. It's very satisfying at the end of the day. Raised vegetable boxes are great to save your back and the veg tastes better! Good luck OP.

We have a yard service that mows the grass & edges, I just maintain the garden & small vegetable garden. I dont look @ working in them as a chore as is cutting the grass & maintaining a lawn. Our gardens are lovely & I love them so much. Its an investment that I can appreciate, but wonder if the next owner will maintain with the love that we put into it...... Im thinking not as it does take dedication, but you see the fruits of your labor. Subscribe to a good gardening magazine I like Fine Gardening- practical & good advice. Best of luck & have fun.

Having to weed and mow our actually very small yard as a kid was one of the prime reasons I now live in a high rise.

Yes. It is relaxing to me, and I like the physical work.

I always had to mow the lawn growing up. NEVER AGAIN!

Tried to weed one of my patches the other day before the heat hit but my neighbor let his obnoxious dog out to bark at me. All they ever do is yell commands at the dog. It’s some little white kind of yappy dog. They never talk to it, or compliment it, or say a nice thing to it like “good boy.” They just throw a ball and yell. “Go get it!” Now bring it back. Bring it BACK! Come on, come in, get it!”

I’ve lived here for 30 years and gardening is like meditation to me. I wear rags when I garden and get dirt all over me. I don’t take a shower or wash my hair before gardening, duh, I wait until after because I sweat. I do not want to talk to neighbors. If I want to talk to neighbors I’ll shower, put on clean clothing and scrub my fingernails. So when you’re dog comes yap-yap-yapping and disturbing me, I’m getting up and walking away. I don’t want you waving & deciding it’s time for me to update you with my life. Yes, I’m unsociable when I’m meditating while gardening. I didn’t yap & scream at you when you go for a run or bike or play tennis or whatever serves you as meditation-stress-release. I’m in my own goddamned lawn, leave me alone.

I love it. When my mother died unexpectedly seven years ago, my garden was my balm: I pulled weeds and trimmed my plants for hours every day while I was in shock. I’ve now created a huge pollinator-friendly and native garden and yes, it’s a lot of work but the result is beautiful. Good luck and check the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center for great info.

gardening has great rewards but is a lot of work. I have been trying to downsize my gardens. I have them all the way around the edge of my house, all across the backyard and all the way across the side of the house next door. I had plans to rip a lot of stuff out this year but then they started blooming and I thought I can't get rid of this so am not sure what I am going to do and I am in my 70's.

My suggestion would be to choose one area and concentrate on that. If you like the way it turns out and doesn't take up all your time you will start expanding. If you find that one small area is enough, just stick with that.

This is just a tiny part of my gardens and this is against the house next door.

Love the tree peonies r13. How long have you had them?

I think I have had them about 15 years. This picture is 6 years old and they are larger now. I have another one in the back and I lost a lavender one because it kept getting off shoots of regular peonies. I asked at the greenhouse about them and they had no idea but I found out this year that they are trying to revert back to what they started as and you have to cut them off as soon as you see them or they take over the tree. I can't find another lavender one locally. I have the cranberry, light pink and a pinky rose color. I think they are my favorites in my gardens but I'm always changing my mind.

Have you tried Peony's Envy r15?

R13, that's gorgeous

Here is some advice I wish I'd been given BEFORE I ruined our yard. If you can't ask the previous owners to walk you through what maintenance they do each season, hire a landscape firm. Ask them to look at the place and give you advice for what YOU can do each season. They may try and sell you on their services -- and that's OK, if you can afford it and don't relish yard work.

It's taken us years to get the front and back up to snuff after not knowing what to do beyond mowing.

I would hire people to do the maintenance and only do the fun stuff. We love it but it sucks to be hurting on Monday from doing grunt work on the weekend. Now we focus on herbs and aromatics, jalapeños and cherry tomatoes, lavender, 10 kinds of mint and basil and we use potted annuals, like r5 said. We think about the garden all the time. If it's not your thing don't force yourself. Life's too short.

I don't mind weeding but I hate when I spend hours weeding and no one seems to notice any difference!

I tell my husband that it’s all becoming astroturf after he dies.

Leave a bit of wild area that you can use for other things. You never know....

I hate all the insect bites I get!! Despite lots of anti-mosquito sprays and various machines, they still come after you.

R13 That’s really beautiful. I’m not good at planting plants of appropriate height to create a pleasing visual pattern the way you have but I do have a lot of color.

r16 no I haven't and yikes! $69 + shipping. One of the reasons I wanted it locally. I paid $22. I know that's a long time ago but I am sure they are much less here.

r17 thank you

r24 that was just luck. Sometimes I have move things around because I don't have them in the right spots. I think color is the most important thing anyway.

I used to have a watering can with a reversible spout arm. I loved that thing. Bought it in the 90s, made in the USA. After about 10 years it broke so I went on eBay & paid $40 for one. It just broke this year. My fault. I left it outside this winter.

I grow flowers but not vegetables anymore since there are lots of farmers markets in my area.

I don’t grow vegetables because of the deer & rabbits. Pus my husband is retarded and doesn’t care if fruit or veg is fresh. I used to ask him to pick me up a tomato, eg, when I made salad because we were having people over. He’d drive past 3 farmstands to go to the supermarket and bring home a pink tomato. I don’t eat tomatoes. He eats tomatoes. I don’t give a fuck if tomatoes are fresh since I don’t eat them.

Your husband is pus?

What r10 and r8 said. Growing up, I mowed the lawn so perfectly, my mother never wanted anyone else to do it. To me, it was yard jail. I hated it so much, I have almost always lived in an apartment since leaving home.

I had one foray with roses in a city townhouse. Why would anyone want to fuck with a flower that pricks you? Makes no sense.