Whaddya say 2 - What is your gardening routine?

We've touched on some of these on various threads, but let's get it all in one place. What is your routine when you go out to garden??

Do you:

Bring water? (I usually forget)
Wear a hat? (no)
Use gloves? (usually)
Wear long pants and sleeves because of sun/insects? (not if it's hot)
Listen to music while gardening? (never)
Take breaks? (not usually)
Wear special shoes? (old sneekers)
Bring all the tools you may need? (No - always have to go back to the garage!)
Do any warmup or stretching beforehand? (no)


Please add any I did not think of.

I have to keep coming in every twenty minutes or so to check on my mom so I do not bring water or listen to music. That I suppose would also count as a break here and there too. In the early spring I wear boots in case it is mucky and later my lovely pink garden clogs that were a present from one of my DIL. Use sunglasses only because my glasses turn dark automatically and occasionally wear a visor but usually forget. Usually have long sleeves and pants for bug protection and if it is too hot for that it is too hot for me to garden anyway. I never used to wear gloves but in the last couple of years I find always do. The new thin fabrics make them much easier to use because you can feel things better than the old clunky ones you had to get. Also they sell them in extra small sizes now which I need. If I have a task in mind I bring everything with me, but then I think of something else I want to take care of which requires another tool so make a trip back to the shed.
I have enjoyed this years mad dash so much compared to last year with all that cold damp relentless wet. The results are much more apparent too and I think that helps with the work at hand. Probably not much different than most everyone else.

Old tee, old shorts, grungy sneakers....in the house every 30 min. for drink & teeny bladder break. Use nitrile gloves for weeding, bare hands for planting...must feel the plant sitting right. No hat, sunscreen, but my face gets beet red anyway. Always forgetting one tool or the other, or bucket, or scoop for the rain barrel! My gardens are close to the house....my veggie garden used to be at the bottom of our steep backyard, but couldn't do that hike anymore, so the veggie garden is where our inground pool used to be.

I often pee where I be. ^_^

must be a guy thing - me too.

This message was edited May 30, 2010 5:43 PM

Yeah, well my neighbors are too close!

I always use gloves. Last year a got a cool apron that most of my tools I need now reside in. It makes it soo much easier. I have a bucket of some kind with me for the weeds, DH hates if I just toss them and have to clean up later.

I am constantly pulling weeds and throwing them behind me, DH is always telling me to bring a garbage can out with me.
I usually wear shorts and tees, sandals or clogs, occasionally wear sunscreen when I remember, try to take water out with me but usually don't.
I have to be careful because I get dizzy if I'm on the ground and stand up too quickly, and if there isn't something to hold on to, I have fallen.
Frequently I'll get the hose put away then see a pot or part of the garden I missed and have to drag it out again.
I keep doubles of some tools so they are close to both the front and back gardens.
I start out wearing gloves but often get too hot or wet, don't have a favorite pair yet.

I do that with weeds, too. I throw them where they cannot be seen.

I like the Bionic gloves.

DH cut a garbage can in half for me so that I can dump my 5 gal. buckets and make less trips to the compost bin. I also wear knee pads when weeding, doesn't hurt now if I kneel on a rock.

Bring water? (No, but I always have my iced coffee handy)
Wear a hat? (no- I hate hats...always uncomfortable with them)
Use gloves? (always, and my dog always steals them so I have a lot of pairs and half pairs laying around) I also have a box of disposable gloves handy for handling Hosta, thanks to my HVX paranoia.)
Wear long pants and sleeves because of sun/insects? (no, depends on weather only...I do use sunscreen on my face)
Listen to music while gardening? (not usually, but if I really don't want to converse with the neighbors I will don the easily visible, hot pink headphones and my ipod)
Take breaks? (as needed)
Wear special shoes? (Crocs...and my feet are filthy when I'm done. Ugh, wish there was a better option)
Bring all the tools you may need? (No - I go to find something, get distracted by another garden task, and then forget what I was going to get in the first place)
Do any warmup or stretching beforehand? (no)

I get the dizzy spells when I stand up from weeding too...hate that!

I have two garden hoses, and they are always left laying all over the yard. I HATE ROLLING UP HOSES! But I do have a really nice metal hose reel for one of them, so that one sometimes gets put away.



This message was edited May 30, 2010 8:45 PM

I'm with you on the hoses. Wish I had irrigation, but I'm sure it's way too costly.

i try to remember sun screen although i lather up only once and by the end of the day i still get a lot of sun.
have just switched to tevas after noticing the "golfers" tan on my ankles.
i usually have a milk container filled with something in the garage with a towel.
gloves are either leather or the sticky rubber ones you get at true value depending on what i am doing.
ball cap sometimes.

I'm not even sure how that would work for my beds...I have so many irregular shapes and levels, I don't know how everything could get watered well. I will say that I LOVE the rain barrel SongsofJoy gave me recently. I like filling up watering pots and watering some plants individually. Some of my hosta are so large now that they are like big umbrellas out there and are difficult to water overhead. Now if it would only rain again! We could really use some- what a dramatic change from last year.

"i usually have a milk container filled with something in the garage with a towel"

Billspeak again??

propel or cool aid or the like:)

Same here, nor. Many irregular beds - up to 150 feet from the house. I have rain barrels but way too lazy to use them. I keep saying I will put a pump i them and use the hose, but...

Hee hee, Bill! If you were into boxing years ago, there was a trainer named Panama Lewis who became famous when he was caught yelling to his assistant, 'Give me the one I mix!'

juice!

I can only drink water when sweating - gardening, sports, whatever.

I love music but enjoy the quiet solitude of gardening. Love to hear the birds, wind, pond, etc. Unless my neighbor ruins the zen moment with his loud freaking riding mower he found that should have been shot years ago! He simply will not give up on it. Even when it works, he looks so stupid because it goes about 0.01 mph. The grass already grew by the time he would make it back.

The rain barrel is working for me because it's located close to one of my difficult to water hosta beds. I just fill one watering pot and then put another one under the spigot while I'm using the first one.

Victor, my zen garden moments are frequently ruined by either my chainsaw happy backyard neighbor OR those lawn crews that everyone else on our street seems to use. I hate that noise.

Yes, I get plenty of that too. Wish it could all be electric.

Or old fashioned non electric push mowers would be nice! I remember my grandfather having one of those.

No garden hoses left out here....son built a hose box for the front, my rain barrel is out back....I can't stand the noises either...usually it's a pack of motorcycles roaring down our hill, lawn service, my neighbor 2 doors down who mows his lawn every other day, or the dogs barking....mine included!

Bring water? sometimes
Wear a hat? no
Use gloves? depending on what I'm doing, using shovel, yes planting, no
Wear long pants and sleeves because of sun/insects? no
Listen to music while gardening? never
Take breaks? pottie break
Wear special shoes? Soccer sandals, old sneaks,
Bring all the tools you may need? If I'm in the gardens in the front I try to remember to bring everything with me, pain to walk all the way back around(one of these years I'll talk hubby into putting a gate on the other side of the house)
Do any warmup or stretching beforehand?no

Bring water? nope

Wear a hat? nope

Use gloves? on an official garden expedition, sometimes, except when I went outside for the mail, saw some weeds, or when I was coming home from work and just decided to pull a few weeds or when I was walking to the car to go shopping and pulled a few weeds.

Wear long pants and sleeves because of sun/insects? Sometimes, the long pants are because I didn't bother to change clothes from work. I'm bad, I usually think - hey, I'll go work in garden, regardless of what I'm wearing. I have actually pulled weeds in my bathrobe when I went out for the morning paper. And this is on a busy city street.

Listen to music while gardening? nope

Take breaks? Oh yes, to start dinner. Oh yes, back to official gardening - sometimes, maybe a bit of a DG fix, maybe research something. More like ADD gardening.

Wear special shoes? Except for my work shoes when I decide to weeds on the way from the car to the house, old sneakers.

Bring all the tools you may need? Snort.....

Spinoff question - do you return all of your tools to their original spot - I'm learning, I figure, if I need to be a role model for my 2 year old, I better learn to put things away.

Do any warmup or stretching beforehand? no

definately wear a hat--cause I sunburn. Try to think of all the tools, DD carries my kneeler to where I'm going to start. I hum silently to myself. Usuually pretty good in my head except if I get stuck on a song & have to shift to Gilbert & Sullivan. Carry hybridizing basket with material, it works better if I wear my apron with pockets. Wear Rockport shoes--commercial. I can't do more than an hour's weeding at a time.

This message was edited May 31, 2010 4:13 PM

Yes - I do return my tools to the garage when done. And yes, I've pulled weeds at all different times - including in a tux.

I know, high heels and a skirt, see one weed which leads to the next...

LOL - so we have bathrobes, tuxedos, work outfits, high heels and skirts - good thing nobody has admitted to weeding in their birthday suits. I'd get arrested since we're on a corner lot in the city - but, I suspect that if we polled DG at large, there is someone who'd admit to it. >;-)

Well, since you bring it up...

Only if you admit to doing it under a full moon....

I provided the full moon!

ha!

high heels and a skirt.............................................

Oh yeah forgot... I need to cart around a watering can with me in the back the hose connection needs to be fixed back there.

Oh, do I have some funny pictures in my mind!

OK now that I've got that picture out of my head...LOL

Bring water? No, that's my excuse for a break
Wear a hat? No
Use gloves? Almost always
Wear long pants and sleeves because of sun/insects? no
Listen to music while gardening? No and I hate to here the neighbors music! I like the natural sounds.
Take breaks? Lately I have to with my sciatica I need to sit for a bit but normally no
Wear special shoes? Old sneaks and sloggers or crocs in the summer, boots in early spring and fall
Bring all the tools you may need? LOL!!
Do any warmup or stretching beforehand? No

My hoses are always out unless I know ahead of time a visitor is coming! I have a gazillion pairs of gloves since I am always looking for the ones I just had, same for my spade! I have pulled weeds or watered in a dress, jammies, gym clothes, on my way out clothes.

Our drip line hoses stay in the beds, lose time carting them back & forth, although the rain the last 2 yrs has made them not neccessary.