Different parts of my garden get changed each year in my bid to find satisfaction, yet it never actually happens. I even find I can be really happy with an area one year and the next year it just isn't good enough!

Is the problem, that I seek perfection and obviously never achieve it? Maybe what I expect from my garden changes with my moods, so bright might be wonderful one year and vulgar the next. Do I expect more from myself and my garden as we grow together?

Interested to hear what you think and how you feel about your gardens.

How boring to achieve perfection! Where's the fun in that? At least a challenge or two every season keeps the interest alive! There's only so much lying around in the sunshine admiring it with a glass of wine in your hand you can do. I get told off for getting up every few minutes and "tweaking", and mine's a LONG way off even vaguely satisfactory. I AM getting to the stage when we could wish for the money to get someone younger in to cut back the wisteria and prune the very tall trees and haul tons of manure round the vegetable beds, but the planning and the planting, the sowing and a little gentle weeding, the harvests and the scents, a little light pruning and the envy of friends, but above all the satisfaction of saying "That's mine! I did that!" are among some of life's greatest pleasures.

I help look after a sensory garden and people often say how lovely it is, but when I look at it I just see things that need doing or things I want to do but know I will probably not get round to. I know I should take time to just enjoy it but it rarely happens.

I think gardeners see differently from non-gardeners.

I think you're absolutely right, Caroline.

I am never satisfied with my garden, I am always swapping the pots and furniture around also I see gaps and mistakes but the pleasure gardening gives makes all the hardwork worth while. I would hate to get it right - what would I do then!!!

Bulba and I hold the view that a garden is never finished... you change, alter, move things, cut things down, dig things up. That is what creating a garden is about it isn't perfect any more than we are, or it is always perfect just as it is - depends on your point of view!

Gettina, your answer is so insightful. That thing about getting up and "tweaking", I thought I was the only one with that compulsion. Yes, I said conpulsion, I have to really work at stooping that. I had never thought about how perfection would be boring, however you are right. The fun in gardening is the journey, huh? I am also at the point where I need more help with the labor intensive jobs, GOD bless my son he takes care of that. I LOVE GARDENING, a hobby that lasts a lifetime.
Weed patch--->, you should take Gettina's words to heart, she is right on!

Caroline, Drc726 and Moon growe, just read your replies. WOW, everyone is so wise today!

I have phases when an area is 'stable' and I leave it be to get on with it as I'm satisfied at that period of time. then 2 yrs or so down the line i become dis-satisfied and started tweaking/revamping or total desolation and then a complete redo.

A new bed looks tidy but sparse and in my head I hear my inner voice 'next year this will look wonderful once the plants have grown and filled in a bit'.

Satisfied with the garden? Yes - but only in so far as it is a never-ending work in progress, and that's what I enjoy. Every year is different - weather changes, plants mature - or die - and so plans alter. Great!
NB I am deliberately not mentioning weeds, pests, mistakes etc - they just go with the territory.
And I am an inveterate "tweaker"...

I am satisfied with my garden, but I believe gardens should be forever changing and new projects every year keep me interested. Otherwise, I'd just feel like I was caretaking.

Sorry Bilbobaggins. I only drop by every now and again and haven't actually strayed beyond the questions section. Will check it out and try to put things in the right place in future.

I actually get most of my pleasure from rearranging my garden, changing colours, adding new things, even changing styles. I spend many a winter's night making plans and drawings and delight in getting my hands dirty as I set about bringing the plans to life.

It's true that gardeners find it difficult to just sit and enjoy their garden - we're forever noticing that this plant needs cutting back, or is in the wrong place, or that weed has got very tall behind those shrubs. It's the same for everyone who gets trained or learns how to do something - a group of students at the local film school were saying they could no longer go to a movie and just enjoy it, they were forever thinking about camera angles and poor direction, or how they might have done it differently.

And a garden is, indeed, never finished, and thank the Lord for that - watch any child with Lego, and its the building, creating something they focus on. Once they've built it, they lose interest fairly quickly, thus proving that static is boring, lol

That must be why I am bored with Flower Shows. Too much perfection - nothing to do !

I'm with you on that one Diane - don't like flower shows much, especially if its just flowers and not shrubs as well.

Did you ever go to the library, read a couple of books and say 'I've finished the library' ! Gardening is the same. There are always new plants being introduced or bred. We change our minds about what we do and don't like. And, yes, we can't sit still in the garden! My hubby is always saying 'Now what are you going to do?' when we are sitting in the garden and I get up after 2 minutes!!

Gosh I don`t think I will ever finish in my garden, there are times when its exactly how I want it then Mother Nature does her bit and changes the look of it as she is s`posed to and I add something and here we go again, a little tweak here and another there and everything changes yet again, as to sitting and admiring, well that never lasts long as I`m a fidget and always looking for that little something that needs adjustment, if in gardening mode I even resent visitors as they have to be entertained and are therefore taking me away from what I would much rather be doing, lol.....

I'm exactly the same, LL, which is why my guests are expected to arrive wearing old clothes and carrying a weeding fork.......

My property is about eight years old and we've only had it for four. So we moved into generic lawn and gravel areas with clay soil, and builders rubble under the first few inches of soil.

For me the satisfaction is in the changes I see every day.

A new bulb sprouting, something self seeding, or a shrub flowering for the first time.

Long term I look forward to seeing it evolve and bring me even more satisfaction every year I am here.

the human state is to be restless [since we are philosophers on here at the moment!] Plus the fact that a garden is not a canvas, and may look perfect one day and not another [after a deluge of rain all beaten down] and then eaten by slugs.In fact that always seems to happen if we have visitors arriving, to our annoyance. Also the plants themselves don't live forever and need replacing.As others say, the joy is in new planting

The tenacity of nature is one of the few things you can rely on and I think you are right Bilbo, that does bring hope. No matter how cold or wet the winter, dry or hot the summer, nature is still filled with eternal optimism and though battered, she not only soldiers on but puts on a wonderous display! No wonder we are delighted by her powers.