Specialty Gardening: By special request., 0 by wallaby1

wallaby1 wrote:
pmulcaire, the time I spend depends a lot on the weather, this winter I have managed to get well up on the cleaning up, the autumn also gave me opportunity to do some jobs. Some years if the weather is continually cold as happened last winter, there was such a rush to do what really needed to be done that some things got left, the plants grew and things weren't a lot different.

I have so many seeds to sow, then they have to be pricked out, potted on, some planted out. Compost has to be mixed, pots found, emptied, filled, it's a good way to deal with 'dead' pots when you need more all the time. I would say the time I spend actually growing plants well outweighs the time I spend keeping the garden in order. I whip it into shape and make it stay easy to keep and well behaved, each bed really doesn't take that long to clean up after or during winter, once plants are growing not a lot needs to be done. The compost has helped keep weeds down on most beds, edging has to be done at least twice but gets easier. I can do nothing for 2 weeks at times, then have 2 or 3 days where I spend a couple of hours in whizz mode.

Summer time is when I spend a lot of time with camera in hand, then the pics have to be downloaded etc., and I can take a lot in one day when there's butterflies around. It is all a consequence of gardening, enabled by digital cameras and computers, I'm not sure where the line should be drawn when all these things are so connected in terms of time spent due to gardening. Now I am going through my folders and deciding what should go where, then what can be deleted (2nd time around). My winter time is so much more enjoyable, carrying through these tasks which started all because I garden.

Some people view gardening chores as a necessary nuisance, I did too for a start having to keep clean what little there was, which was not of my making, some neglected, none really to my liking. Once I started to create my own beds, and it all came together much better than I could have imagined, everything I do is a pleasure which increases with each new task I undertake. You might say I am a fulfilled gardener!

I have Anemone blanda on the bank under the edge of the tree, it has self seeded and the bed is becomiing crammed full of plants. When they die back, there is Lespedeza thunbergii above them which tumbles down and fills the space. Tricyrtis hirta at the bottom at one end, beyond that Lily of the Valley fills the space.