I do all of it myself, and as others have said I like it that way as I get to decide what we have and what goes where. If OH wants a particular thing, like the plum tree and the cherry tree he bought me for mother's day, I will find a space for it.
I sometimes need him to help with heavy lifting jobs, like digging a large planting hole in our rubble filled soil, or removing a deep rooted plant, and he'll do that, usually under duress! But he has also kindly sawed me a hedgehog hole in the fence today.
Slowly building a wildlife garden, in a new build in East Yorkshire.
I love working alone in the garden but love it even more when she's out there gardening too. Then we have really difficult decisions like who goes in to make the coffee.
Apart from our his and hers island beds in the front lawn, the rest of the garden is shared but I tend to look after most of the perennial stuff (apart from the roses) and she does all the annuals, most from seed, and all the hanging baskets, tubs etc. We clash in late spring when we've both got a use for the greenhouse - she with all her bedding in trays on the staging, and me ready to take said staging down and put my toms, chillies & cucumbers in their final pots.
Other than that she does most of the watering and I do the lawn-mowing, hedge trimming and any heavy pruning. And composting is my department too so shredding is something I do rather a lot of.
But I have to admit most of the colour and initial impact of the garden is down to her creativity with baskets & tubs.
Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
I do all the planting, flowers and veg, weeding, most of the watering, mulching, digging of new beds, rose pruning etc. OH does mowing, leaf clearing, DIY stuff, tree pruning etc.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
I come from a long line of gardeners on both sides of the family. When I married my husband had never been allowed to touch his father's gardener so I began teaching him. He was never passionate about it like myself so I joined a horticultural group and for the last 30 years have been a solitary gardener which suits me. I love being in my space, communing with nature, being helped by my canine and feline companions, and marveling at Mother Nature. I sowed seeds of a love of gardening in my son and daughter who both now enjoy gardening although not to the extent that I do so I feel I have given a priceless gift to each of them. We share and swap plants, produce, problems, achievements, and the excitements and disappointments that come with gardening as well as the competition of outdoing each other. Brilliant. The comfortable friendship found among gardeners is wonderful, sharing knowledge, plants, tips, commiserations etc. and it was the salvation of a huge number of people during the great Covid shutdown.
I inherited my passion for plants in my 30s, which made my perennial obsessed mother very happy. My ex OH was a vegetable gardener and I pretty much kept to the perennial beds. Since my divorce nearly 12 years ago I've built, planted, and tended my vegetable and perennial gardens alone. In 2018 I purchased my childhood home and built an addition onto my mother's house; she is able to live in her home and have her gardens on "her side", which is about 2 acres. I live in the attached home, and garden on "my side", which is about 5.5 acres. I'm still doing all the work myself, but last week it was a real blessing to be preparing my hillside garden for winter while my mother cut back one of her perennial beds on the other side of the stone wall. We were able to chat back and forth and enjoy the day together, both in our own gardens. To her credit my mother has always gardened alone, and is still going strong at 76 even through chemo. She's an inspiration.
New England, USA
Metacomet soil with hints of Woodbridge and Pillsbury
I garden alone and find the physical bit quite hard. It's also a pretty loud environment close to central London and I find the helicopter, plane, train, drill noises do distract from the pleasure of being outside. I don't really like wearing headphones. I have three mini ponds with fountains that does help soothe the soundscape under the flight path.
I run and grow for a garden group of neighbours - about 80 strong now in the immediate streets close by. I run things as an "enthusiast" rather than an expert (which I am not). That gives me as much buzz, I think, as the actual garden and always has. Encouraging and seeing little kids growing plants is just about the pinnacle of "the point" for me. We have an ever increasing circle of fairy gardens in the area, under street trees, and even though those kids have gardens in the back, they feel the fairy garden on the street is their spot and other little kids seem to love spotting all the little houses.
I love having a string of friends, artists and neighbours coming in and out of the garden most days to swap stuff or collect plants and tools. During recent cancer treatments neighbours have been a lifeline in keeping the garden going. I love gardening with other people at home - I find it joyful; I'd like to do more of it. I have open garden days for neighbours to come and eat cake - not this year but hopefully the next.
This forum has been invaluable for me to be able to help others. Five years of endless questions here has helped pass on your knowledge out through a chunk of north London.
@Fire You are very inspiring. I was so pleased that others have helped you with your garden in recent times. They have obviously appreciated everything you have done for them. Sharing garden Knowlledge is always rewarding for both the receiver and the giver too. Filling your mind with positive acts of kindness can help with both physical and mental pain.
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
Posts
I sometimes need him to help with heavy lifting jobs, like digging a large planting hole in our rubble filled soil, or removing a deep rooted plant, and he'll do that, usually under duress! But he has also kindly sawed me a hedgehog hole in the fence today.
Apart from our his and hers island beds in the front lawn, the rest of the garden is shared but I tend to look after most of the perennial stuff (apart from the roses) and she does all the annuals, most from seed, and all the hanging baskets, tubs etc. We clash in late spring when we've both got a use for the greenhouse - she with all her bedding in trays on the staging, and me ready to take said staging down and put my toms, chillies & cucumbers in their final pots.
Other than that she does most of the watering and I do the lawn-mowing, hedge trimming and any heavy pruning. And composting is my department too so shredding is something I do rather a lot of.
But I have to admit most of the colour and initial impact of the garden is down to her creativity with baskets & tubs.
I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
Good job that's not why I do it
The comfortable friendship found among gardeners is wonderful, sharing knowledge, plants, tips, commiserations etc. and it was the salvation of a huge number of people during the great Covid shutdown.