Do you 'garden' yourself or...

...or get all the help to attend the garden chores?

It is a fancy, esp. of those 'rich' and wealthy people here to show off a garden usually with sprawling lawns and few plants. You know what they do? They sit in the armchair and see all the work the servant does -- and boast of owning a garden. They never remove a dried leaf that has fallen or do anything, but expects the servant to do all that. Even watering!! They will never soil their hands too! They have no idea how much pleasurable it can be! It is understandable old people doing that, because they are physically weak to bend down or carry water cans. But somehow I cannot tolerate fit people sitting in armchairs and doing such a thing. May be they want to show that they employ a servant (another method of showing wealth??). They don't know the pleasures of doing things ourselves. I am talking about a general habit that I notice while passing by the streets. Rarely I find people doing themselves.

According to me, we can claim to be gardeners only if we do all the things ourselves. Ootherwise, we never can fit into that category nor is it fair to claim to be one, however best our garden can look. That is the work of a hired labourer. But here on DG, I think most of us are fit to call ourselves as gardeners (proudly). Agree?

Well, Dinu, I've always dreamed of having enough money to hire a gardener, but know I'd have to be in there helping out as well. I can't imagine not getting my hands into it. It's a love, hobby, passion for me - not a job. So as it stands today, I garden myself - and if I could someday afford a gardener, I would still be out there, with him or her, working along side with him or her, just getting more done in one day.

:)

There may be a little hitch if someone is hired for help. We have to accept the way he or she does because others will not be able to fully satisfy certain things like quality of work. As a result we tend to get restless and shout at him or her. No doubt external help sometimes becomes a necessity, like chopping the branches of trees or big branches, clearing dry leaves, weeding and things like that. But we should be doing the actual gardening ourselves, as long as time and strength allow.

For Fathers Day and Mothers Day combined, we get a day's worth of yard work from our kids and their friends. We agree on a date and they all have to RSVP and must have a good reason not to come, even their friends. They come early in the morning, we feed them lunch and I cook a mean BBQ for in the evening. They have a wonderful time. They leave with cuttings and pots of plants.

I have made a 'Plan of Action' since we usually have about 20 people and to make it work, it needs to be organised. I am the Supervisor and usually by mid afternoon it is all done.

The rest of the year I can manage to keep up the weeding, etc.

Everybody is always looking forward to this day. We even have some that do not mind working the poison ivy.

Every hour I blow the wistle, we all gather together and then we tell jokes for about 5 minutes and then we go back to work.

Miserable work divided by a lot makes for a bunch of fun.

No self-respecting gardener would ever work in my yarden. It is named Lou's Chaos for a reason. My DH and I have done all the work, laid all the stones, dug the pond and planted all the flowers ourselves, and believe me, we get more than our hands dirty in our little spot of heaven on earth. It is our pleasure to watch the smallest seedling or plant grow to wondorous size and beauty. We have birds, rabbits , squirrels and hummingbirds to watch and it is a relaxing place for us. Lou

There is nothing I like better than playing in the dirt. When asked where I am, hubby always replies "Oh, she's out digging holes again!" I love it. He is really quite tolerant of what I do to the yard but doesn't want to help. I think I like it that way-if I want it done right, I do it! If I had someone else working in the garden, I would probably follow them around all day to make sure they were doing it "right".

A lot of people around here hire gardeners to mow the grass and run the leaf blower. (All I know is whatever they do, it makes a lot of noise.) Gardeners usually come once a week. Usually people around here have the gardeners do the grunt work and the owners do the more fun stuff like planting. (No one here has a yard bigger than 13,000 ft2, so we're not talking Beverly Hills estates here, just regular suburban yards.) I can see the point of hiring someone to do the grunt work, but in our yard, mowing the lawn takes up such a small portion of the yard work time, that it wouldn't do much for us to have a gardener.

See, that's the problem. THEY're not gardeners, they're leaf blowers and mower pushers .... and usually they blow the twigs and leaves off the paths or sidewalks right INTO the gardens. Now how is that helping? Just got the garden looking the way it "should" and someone blows the mess into it??? A 'really' gardener is hard to find, meaning someone who knows a plant from a weed.

Mostly we gardeners dig our own dirt, water our own plants, and chase the bugs away on our own too. Maybe somebody comes and mows the lawn and if it's a big space we're gonna garden fresh, we get someone to come till it for us.

We don't really have that many people around where I live who even want to hire out for the grunt work and knowledgeable gardeners are busy in their own gardens. But that's small town America.

We do literally everything ourselves. It may not be perfect but it's ours.

We do it all ourselves. If we had gardeners and they left it in the mess we do, we'd not pay them ;)

I think those "lawn mowers and leaf blowers" are not gardeners at all. They are called landscape servers. Taking care of someone's grass is not gardening. We mow ourselves, but we do have someone come in and spray the yard for weeds and to fertilize. They have screwed that up more than once and it infuriates me when that happens (like over doing it and leaving big burn marks, letting fertilizer hit my tomatoes, etc........)

We would pay someone to mow the grass and do the trimming/edging if we could, but we enjoy doing the gardening ourselves.

LOLOL Baa, same here.

No help here, I do it all myself. I agree, those who watch somebody else doing the work are not gardeners, they are observers.

We mow, weed eat, and pull weeds over 8 acres of manicured lawn ourselves. We also landscape, clean and replinish two miles of trails we hand cut through our woods. We built three bridges (big enough to support a car) ourselves. We keep a formal garden and many small themed garden. We have a hugh orchard, berries of every kind and over 250 blooming trees and shrubs. Am I telling all this to brag about all the great things I have? NO!! Everything my husband and I have has been earned through back breaking work that we wanted to do. We enjoyed all of it-even the grunt work, but now we're getting older and we would be glad if we could afford someone to help us with some of the more difficult things, but gardening is something that we love, and as I've stated before-nothing is more enjoyable than seeing something you've nurtured growing and productive. I feel sad for people who don't like to garden-they are missing one of life's greatest joys.

It's my garden and I want to do it!! I surely love the D.H. doing some grunt work,but I could if I had to!!!!!
I love all about it,especially watering, when I can just look and remember how it was and how it has changed! Then I get lots of ideas of how it could be!
Should I mention that anyone can mow. However they want, I don't care what the lawn looks like,but I'll always be in the garden, as long as I am able !!
Bonnie

My DH does the weedwacking and mowing. He is not allowed in the flower beds. I hand weed them on my knees, because my feet hurt too much to do it standing. We have a small lot, abt. 70x150 and I have every gorgeous flower that I want that grows in this area, most started from seeds. When I was working in a high stress job, I pulled weeds to relieve stress (yank their heads off!) Now I am retired and planning more and more improvements. The weeding is done more carefully and thoroughly too.

I'm too poor to even think about a hired gardener,lol.

My mom has hired a gardener to take care of her gardens when shes away. I think shes helped her alot to learn about her plants. I have many friends who get paid to mow lawns and tend to flower gardens for museums and private clients. I do not think that gardening for hire is a class issue. I was thinking about this very thing tonight out in my yard.... and wondering if Id want anyone to touch my plants if I had the money.... I decided not.... but if I was to be away alot Id need someone to sustain them for me while I was gone.

;I do all my own gardening except the really hard grunt work. Since both hip joints have been replaced, one in 1992 and the other in 1993, and then both had to be redone again 94 & 95, I can do most everything except heavy digging. But now that I am older I guess I have too much garden, can't seem to keep ahead of the weeds.!!!!!!!!! Donna

Please tell me what does LOLO mean, never heard of it before?

Aria

Since I was 18 years old now I am 76 I have done my very own gardening.Three years ago for health reasons we had to leave our old farm house and build a new very much smaller one. I started a new garden, what a job that was nothing but rocks, stones and clay which meant no drainage worth a hoot. Slowly very slowly I replaced wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow with good earth. I transplanted some of my flowers from the old house and bought new ones, some survived some did not but my most treasured rose bush from my husbands grandmother ca. 1900 is doing very well. All this was three years ago, I must say it looks pretty good. I had a landscaper plant 2 15 foot ornamental plum trees to allow some shade since one of the gardens has all day sun. The other gardening I do not do is cutting lawns and etching plus cover with mulch, I am not as strong as I used to be.
I could sit back and have someone else do it but gardening and nature is part of my religion.
I'll try to send you a picture of the roses. I would like to send you some more but somehow I do not manage to get them done at one time.

Aria

More pictures: Nippon Chrysanthemums

Aria-Your pictures are so lovely, and your story is very interesting and inspiring. I am so glad you feel good about your new garden-it's very hard to leave an established garden. My mother moved into a condominium 2 years ago-leaving the most gorgeous flowers you could imagine from a home where she lived for over 60 years. I planted a 100 foot perenniel border around her courtyard and made a small raised bed for vegetables. You should see her garden today-it is breathtaking, and she just finished hosting a garden tour last Saturday. She will be 87 in September, and I know gardening has kept her young. She does all the work herself-but the condo people mow her yard. All the maintenance men treat her with such respect, and she has enjoyed getting to know them. They are always telling her if she needs to move anything heavy, they'll help her. All the older ladies she knows are always telling her she does too much, but as I said that's what keeps her going.

Even as a kid growing up in Ann Arbor, I have cut the grass and done the gardening. My husband hired young guys to cut the grass and such, but got tired of hearing me complain about what a rotten job they do. So...when he was gone one day, I borrowed the neighbors lawnmower and cut it myself! Now I have a self powered mower, gas weed whipper and electric blower (I won't use it, a broom works better), tiller and power edger. Now I can cut the grass the way it should be (different angle every time) and looks as manicured as the flower beds. My kids tease me about being "anal" about how the yard looks, but I like the "golf course look" since I grew up on one! Besides, I find that the look of ones yard is a direct insight as to how they are in real life.
I have neighbors that I have barely talked to in 7 years and their landscaping shows why. Big overgrown trees near the doors and windows, no welcoming plants in the front...well, you get the picture.
Anyway....I do everything! I do get help in planning my rose beds from a professional because they know what will grow in our microzone, but I rip up sod, edge and dig the holes. As I get older, I'm planning ahead and giving up planting 13-14 flats of annuals and going for perreniels!
I too am infuriated with people who win awards or are praised for their landscapes and have not done one lick of work other than opening their wallets! But I know, and my neighbors know that all our landscaping was done by me...not the hired hands.
There, I'm off my soapbox on THIS thread! LOL
Kris

I could sure use a gardner!!! The weeds have almost taken over. I need help, but just cna't imagine someone coming in here & pulling my weeds. :)

Thanks for your compliments, LGW. Our old house and gardens some years ago now,were on the Garden club tour, what I remember mostly how shook up I was having been chosen. 600 people marched through but you'd have never know they'd been. What a polite bunch we are!

Below sedum from last Fall

My DH & I have a small nursery business, so we usually hire someone to come in and help for a couple days. This person rakes leaves, sifts compost, stores supplies, etc. As our business grows, and as we get older, we will probably need more help, but I have a hard time letting someone else do the 'hands on' business of sowing seeds and transplanting.

Even watering is an issue, since small seedlings can be drowned quite easily. I look upon all my plants as little children, even when there are thousands of them, so I'd have to have a lot of confidence in anyone I allowed to tend them.

I think most of us have dreamed of having 'Garden Slaves'. We picture ourselves sitting in a lawn chair, our feet propped up, a cold drink in our hand, issuing orders to some eager, young, strong-backed person. It's a nice fantasy, but beyond most of our means!

I love your picture Aria, don't you love sedums? This year I put a "grow ring" of my own making around my biggest clump as it always splits and falls in a heavy storm. So far so good-it's about 4 feet tall and is downright perky. And we have had storms almost every day for 6 weeks!!! Ours will bloom in about a month to six weeks, and I can't wait.

What I like a lot about sedum is the way it looks in the middle of the winter, I never cut the blosssom off till spring when the the first little knobs are showing and I know spring is around the corner

Mine are not as tall as yours guess I don't have your problem with storms though we have plenty of them. The Picture was taken last fall when they were two years old from 5x5 pots.
Maria (aria)
Below with my husband richard

My husband was a teacher at Rhode Islans School of Design and also was President of his own Company, his own hobby was breeding cattle and sheep. All this meant he was very, very busy but wished he could hel with gardening. He said when he retires the both of us will devote ourselves to just gardening. It never happened, he now has Parkinton disease and can barely move plus demantia. He needs 24 hour care.
This is why I still do all the work in the Garden by myself plus many other things I never had to do.

Maria

Bless your heart, Aria. You are such a good friend and partner to your husband. We all hope to be loved and cared for like you are doing. Lovely gardens are meant for people like you... the nurturers!

I love sedum. It does well here, though our climate is cool and moist. Some do better than others. Autumn Joy does very well, though the blooms tend to be more deep pink than the darker colors.

My thoughts and prayers will be with you everyday, Aria. Gardening is soothing to your soul, and being outside will reward you mentally as well as helping you stay physically strong. Every time I look at my sedum, I will think of you.
God be with you both.

aria
Great to know a lot about you. Admirations!

Have come to know that many of you have quite vast gardens that are unthinkable here in India. Such plots are mainly outside the city where farming is done. As far as gardens are concerned, it is restricted to small spaces available around the houses and esp. in newer localities even that is unthinkable because of crammed plots, almost measuring in inches, not in feet!! That is the pressure of population here. Luckily for me, there is some space to walk around and have a small garden around my house. Thanks to my forefathers! We are able to save it. As I had told in another thread, the house is 93 years old.

Dinu-The information about your gardening in India is so interesting-I know you enjoy growing things around your house-it gives us all such great joy to see things grow. Keep us informed about your garden, and send pictures if you ever have a chance.

Dinu, it is so interesting to hear your observations on the sizes of our gardens. Here in Alaska, it is very true that we have access to large tracts of land to garden. On our property, I have areas I haven't visited all year. Your observations make me more mindful of our bounty and our stewardship of the land.

When I pass the narrow and crowded (with houses, cattle and people, kids....) streets (there are many such streets here, mostly old localities) on my scooter with my DW, I keep telling her about the fact that how unfortunate they are not to have known a thing called 'gardening' leave alone the opportunities. But such Hindu homes will have some place for a pot to hang in front of the front door (that directly opens to the street). That pot is for the "Holy Basil" that is worshipped daily. Some people who know a bit about the love for gardening but cannot, have a few more pots with plants hanging around in all angles. To me, a home without a single plant is not a home!! We have to live with nature, whenever we can.

All this pressure for space is due to the very quick growth of the city. Yesterday, the media reported that Mysore is the fifth fastest growing city in India. I don't know how far this is true. Mysore was not planned for such a huge number of people and the roads were not designed to take heavy vehicles (drainage pipes are laid many decades ago underneath) nor the volume. Esp. since two decades, it is on a very steep rise almost chaotic! Such a rapid pace of growth was never imagined by the planners of yore! It was designed to be a peaceful city with palaces, lakes, gardens, and all the good things.. but those are being eaten up by the virus called 'modernization' and now the authorities are seeming to wake up to 'preserve the heritage'. The street where I live is getting busier with traffic every week. The number of vehicles getting on to the roads are very high. Pollution is increasing. No proper checks on controlling it. Nevertheless, I want to keep my garden green as long as I can! DG is a great inspiration in this regard.

Yes, I always ecourage people to 'garden'. Sometimes my customers bring a friend who lives in an apartment. Even though they would like to, they feel they cannot garden. They content themselves with a hanging basket of flowers, or not even that. I've explained how to grow veggies in pots on the veranda, or even tomato plants on the window sills. They usually come back later to tell me all about their plants. It makes me feel good.

Dinu... to what do you attribute the unexpected growth of Mysore? Does it just reflect an overall population growth in India, or is there something that attracts them there... such as industry, cost of living?

The pleasant climate (no extremes), the cost of living(comparitively cheap), housing (ditto), education (and all those desirable attributes plus the nearness to Bangalore (140 kms or 87 miles away and well connected by road and air - now they are making 4-lane highway), the capital of the state and one of the 5 most imp. cities of India. Once people come here, they stick and root here! That is the power of the place! As such, there are more people from other places in the last two or three decades that have settled down here. Mysore was once a humble city but it has grown wide in all directions, linking the once far villages!! Still growing. From my house, which is considered to be in one of the oldest localities in the heart of the city, the distance to the farthest point around is about 12 kms. That is the speed with which it has spread. And in 3 decades! People just stay here without having any sentiments to the city, because they have been here to enjoy the benefits of the place whereas those who have been living all our lives (like me) here can't stand that arrogance! The Mysorean is generally laid back and sober, never given to quarreling. But things are changing in the competetive world, so alien to the lovely city.

I know how you feel when someone gets back to you to inform the success of growing veggies in pots in limited spaces. I can understand the joy one experiences. I have heard of those who grow quite a lot on balconies in bags.

Dino, I think Alaska is an undiscovered Eden, and many of us are happy to keep it that way. We are very welcoming of new comers, but we like our remote lifestyle. True, we miss out on some of the material benefits of larger populated areas, but we can keep things simple.

For many years, those outside Alaska thought we all lived in igloos and eggs cost $1 each. Summer vacationers think it cold here, even in the summer, and think the winters are solid ice for 9 months of the year. We don't tend to correct those conceptions!

Even so, Anchorage, 120 miles north of us, and our largest city, has begun having gang related problems, homeless, etc. I'm sure they don't fare as well here as other places, but the numbers continue to grow. Car jacking were attempted here, but after a couple perpetrators were shot by their intended victims, the trend waned.

Seward is a busy town in the summer, but shrinks back down to about 3,000 people by first snowfall. Most of the locals refer to it as 'Getting our town back'. I can sympathize with your sudden, unwanted growth.

We container garden here in Seward because we have a limited amount of soil, having a mostly gravel base. Containers also keep the soil warmer. Someday, perhaps you could take some pictures of your neighbors' garden containers and share them with us.