Hard work

Gardening is really enjoyable and rewarding but it's also damned hard work :D

I've been in the garden today digging up and seperating some perennials and my back really aches

In a way it's good to have a break during the winter as you can actually do things other than gardening: don't know about everyone else but during the summer all I want to do is garden but I think I'm nearly ready for a rest.

Stingo

 

The trouble with a winter break Stingo is that it makes getting started in Spring that bit more painful.

 

where does everyone get their icons?

 

Many get them by making their own from digi photos Shamrock.

 

I'm of the opinion that if you're a passionate gardener or plantsperson then whatever the season you'll find something garden orientated to occupy your time.
In the winter it may be leafing through seed or plant catalogues, designing a new bed, watching reruns of gardening programmes on the box or best of all eating the fruits (or veg.) of your labours.
It's not all back breaking hard work some of it is relaxing and pleasurable.
What other hobby gives such all round variety and pleasure and pays such dividends.
Once a gardener always a gardener.

 

Hard work? Yes it is and harder as you get older. I hate mowing the lawn and did it yesterday for what is the last time this year (I hope)

A major labour saving tip is not to cut down and tidy up perennials in the autumn. Leave them for all the good guys like ladybirds. lacewings and beetles to hibernate in. Then they will come out in strength next year to gobble up the nasties. Leave seed heads too - they look fantastic when frost is on them and they feed the blue tits who will then survive the winter and eat up to 300 caterpillars a day for you next year plus loads of greenflies :D .

Don't take my word for it - Mathew Wilson who is Head of the RHS garden at Harlow Carr in Yorkshire gives exactly that advice in this months BBC Wildlife magazine

 

I am leaving my garden as it is..my husband has been sent out to remove any nettles and keep the lawn mowed..its supposed to be a wildflower/herb garden so i dont want it looking too tidy.. :D I leave all the berrys on for the birds..and because its been so wet all my seed heads are also still on..I am ready for a rest as well ..

 

You mean that weeds actually STOP growing! Wish I lived where you do then, 'cos ours grow all the year round, especiially in Winter when there is less competition from garden plants. We leave cutting down until mid winter, but in a garden this size you do need to start early or it does not get done before the Spring starts. It is like jogging or a daily visit to the gym or whatever, if you don't go and do Something in the garden, boy do you miss it, or certainly I do.

 

My hubby mowed the lawn for me yesterday but he never does the edges! so I'll be doing that in a moment; what a lovely day it is today.

That's a good tip Hornbeam about leaving the perrennials, I always thought you had to do them in the Autumn, you see that's the beauty of this site you learn something new all the time. The ones I haven't done yet will stay like they are now.

And yes I do pour over gardening books and seed catalogues during the winter, don't get me wrong I do miss gardening in the winter, I am not a fair weather gardener and always find something
to do out there

 

I know what you mean. The garden is a good servant, but a bad master. If you are not careful you finish up doing things because they NEED doing, not because you WANT to do them. It takes over and it becomes hard to just sit back and enjoy the garden itself, there is always something "I must just " do. I am sitting here now, having my morning coffee, my back and neck and shoulders are so painful and I cannot garden as much as I would like to. The trouble is, if I go out there, I will ignore the pain and the consequences and DO something. What a sad case eh?

 

Agreed, I hate mowing the lawn and doing the edges, but love messing about with the soil digging it over and tending my plants, very rarely do I just sit and admire my handiwork.
As for weeds I must admit I seem to have them under control (mostly!) but maybe I have a smaller patch than you
I felt quite proud when talking to my neighbor, I said that we hadn't really been away on holiday this year and she said "well you don't need to with a lovely garden like yours" :D

 

Following on about aching backs etc. that was me yesterday Palustris doing heavy digging and lifting knowingly with my back aching! funnily enough it seems better today.

 

I only cut out the stuff that have really gone manky and leave the rest for the wildlife too I love to see the frost on the seedheads and grasses, its magical

 

You know all those pics i posted recently of the cosmos at allotment(there were plenty)well,Mr. fiz has decided to rearange my flower garden for next yr to give him a better vantage point,look-out kind a thing for his pigeons.Give him his due,he did ask permission to "remove a few plants"and of course i said yes,if it helps ya darlin.He`s taken down one gh and is building a shed,come gh, in it`s place.(i`m gonna post pics)In doing so my Virginia Creeper has disappeared along with the fence,half the cosmos has gone,and i`m in a pickle as to weather or not i can lift my crocosmia bulbs etc.and separate now, instead of in the spring.Anyway,as you can imagine, i was a bit flabbergasted (and sad) to see all my hard work disappearing(the manure i dug in and over by hand was nobodies buisness)and to tell the truth i felt a bit overwhelmed at the thought of starting all over.Then i thought,well they had to go sometime soon and better to do the graft now rather than in the freezing winter months.There is nothing on paper yet,but i can see where he`s going with it and i`ve decided to go with the flow and look at at as a new challenge.Wish me luck folk`s.

 

As they say, 'no pain no gain', just seems that there is a lot of the pain, especially at this time of year what with widening borders and moving plants etc. Still, I'm sure it does me good and I certainly don't need those slimming drugs that strange people keep emailing me about.