Pleasure or chore

I know just what you mean. Yesterday suffering from a cold I spent 5 minutes reading in the greenhouse couldn't keep my eye's open so got a duvet and went asleep on the trampoline. Going in an hour later, the boys as they couldn't see me working in the garden had locked up before going out................Of course they found this very funny
It didn't occur to them I would be just relaxing. I think we should start a movement '4 weed free time'!
sandy

I know just what you mean. Yesterday suffering from a cold I spent 5 minutes reading in the greenhouse couldn't keep my eye's open so got a duvet and went asleep on the trampoline. Going in an hour later, the boys as they couldn't see me working in the garden had locked up before going out................Of course they found this very funny
It didn't occur to them I would be just relaxing. I think we should start a movement '4 weed free time'!
sandy

Gardening should be a balance of maintainence and enjoyment. I agree we do spend too little time enjoying the fruits of our labour, but then it depends whether you enjoy doing the maintainence work. I do actually get lots of satifaction cutting the grass and pottering in the garden. I'm, always planning my next project,border or redesign, and for me that is relaxing. I love nothing more than planting new plants and sitting back and watching the results... Hope you enjoy spending relaxing time whilst you recover .

I dont sit that often in my garden, i can say i'll just have 5mins with a cupper and spend most of the 5mins getting up to do something.

Hello Heron, I feel exactly the same as you. I basically can only see what needs doing, not what's been done.

firstly I hope you have a speedy recovery.
in answer to your question ... if there was one.
my garden is where i relax by gardening. I find it is the best place to unwind after a hard day at work. If i am cross the weeds get a drubbing and if I am not then plants get cossetting.

I love to sit on the hammock and read in my garden. If the sun is shining I am completely content. My eyes are on my book and not the weeds. I have to add that reading is usually a reward for heavy gardening!!

I can understand what you mean Heron...i have been out in my garden today
finishing of, topping the borders, with compost, and bark, ready for the hot ,so
they say Summer...i stopped for a cuppa, and biscuit, then carried on working
gardening is very hard work, i cannot say it is relaxing...more like exercise
which i get plenty of in my garden..after finishing that, i thought thats it for
today, but wait...i just had to do a bit of pruning, turned out it to be another
extra hour of exercise..LOL not once did i have time to relax and just laze in
the garden. There are so many things to be done in the garden, it is a never ending past-time, but i do love my garden...would never be without 1..

I too sympathise with you Heron. I dont spend enough time relaxing and admiring, at least not at this time of year. It gets better in a few weeks, doesnt it?
I would not like a large garden if my health was failing. - just a little courtyard maybe with some pots and climbers!

But its difficult if you dont want to move house. Sometimes its possible to get someone to take over some of a garden perhaps. But I guess they would only want to grow vegetables!

I hope you are soon back to 100% fitness. In the meantime, rest and relax and dont look too closely..at the weeds....lol......

as soon as I sit and look, I see something that needs doing, but I get ants in my pants, and so don't sit for long, as long as I'm in the garden, I feel that's my relaxation, now, housework, that's a different thing altogether LOL

I have two big clear outs a year, then the rest of the time is pottering. Every evening I walk around pulling up weeds or tying things in. it only takes a short while. but my garden is a relaxed style. The biggest job for me at this time of year is potting up. sometimes I dont get it done at the right time and the seedlings sit and sulk for ages. when I get home from work, weather permitting I have a cuppa out there and sit enjoying the bird song. Im sure during your enforced break the garden will look after itself

For me gardening is very therapeutic. It just makes me feel good, a sense of achievement if you like. I can`t sit outside for long because other bloggers I see something that needs doing and up I get, often with coffee and biscuit in hand...lol! I tour the garden first thing before work to remove the odd weed and to see what might have happened overnight. I have to stay on top of things so I can be ready for whatever the next stage will be which at the moment will be planting out Summer bedding, whenever that might be!
Hope you soon feel better. :o)

Thank you for your good wishes, I'm definitely on the mend though it's not easy watching Penny do all the heavy stuff, that is when she's not finding anything that wriggles and seeing if her new chooks like them. Today she found one that was scary so I had to step in, I think it could have been a Dragon fly baby. They love VW grubs earwigs worms snails slugs greenfly, the list goes on. I was interested and somewhat relieved to see that I'm not alone in not being able to resist that little extra task in the garden instead of relaxing, and that the 'official dress code' for inspection is slippers and a cuppa. I'm so glad to feel the warmer weather as the first thing I do is to sit on the bench with Barnaby, Pen too if I sit long enough, cuppa in one hand and hairy ears in touther (Barnaby's), planning the day while listening out for the as yet elusive Cuckoo. Maybe we all could learn from our four legged members of the family as no matter what the garden looks like, us too for that matter, they're always happy just to be there.

I do the garden for enjoyment only. If I don't like something I don't do it. eg I hate cutting grass and I think lawns look boring, so I don't have one. I don't care if the place doesn't look perfect. It isn't there to be judged by anyone so it deosn't matter.
I think we all want different things from our gardens so I accept other people's decisions about what they have and do.

Being 3 score years and ten+ I often think about this.......but not for too long!
I have just bought a lounger for a 'gazebo' GJ built years ago and am reading Beth Chatto and Christo Lloyd. Wedlock(scary book) and Piers Morgan's doings all at the same time. The house work gets the push at this time of the year Heron.The dust settles. Vacuum stays in its cubboard. I change over to salads, even though I don't like them. Just about have GJ's care needs under control. The garden is all, whether relaxing or making war on Allium Cowanii(yes I have the name of the thug at long last)

I always say my garden is my stress relief - the more stressed I am the better the garden looks! and I have to say that the last few years its been looking good!! I dont tend to sit in the garden much but now I've got a kitten that I've been out whilst shes in the garden and its looking quite tidy at the moment (although my cat thinks it funny to climb on my back when I'm weeding!!)

Hope you're feeling much better Heron, I can just picture you in your garden, body immobile, convalescing whilst steam comes out of your ears as you focus on all the jobs that need doing, all the weeds that need pulling! Thing is until you can actually work in it again, I advise you not to sit in it and torment yourself! Have a good read of your gardening books and relax, anywhere but the garden...:o))

Good advice Janey but I have a secret weapon called Penny, she knows what I'm like and has stepped into the breech, who's a lucky boy then!

Hywell that's a good answer, voice of experience no doubt.

Thats great news Heron.....I can see this recuperation period might take longer than initially thought...:o)))