How many hours a week do you spend in your garden during growing season?

Especially during iris season, the garden is where we live. After bloom, weed & dig plants--move them around & discard those we didn't do during bloom season. More difficult to discard after bloom. Most of the time some daylilies give us color after iris are finished.. Late bloom on those this yr.

I'd spend more time if I didn't need to work to support the "habit".

At least the time in the garden is spent not working.
After all, where would I rather be?

whether it's on my deck, tending the potted plants, in the back planning and tending, or projects that I am in the midst of, I LOVE MY GARDEN!! (and who doesn't?????)

-Susan-

People know if I don't answer the phone that is where I'm at. My close friends and family automatically walk around the back when they come because I'm not answering their knock or bell I'm out back in my own private heaven.

Current project(s) - clean up the back yard from previous woodchip pathway (read - the whole backyard), and plant grass around the bushes and perennials (Waterton mock orange, saskatoon bush, and bleeding heart, plus the carrigana bush that's really tree-size). Nothing has been grown there for a very long time, until I started with the small bushes, etc. The Carrigana is the only thing that's survived the onslaught of the previous owners! They used to use the backyard as a bonfire pit - I found all sorts of things they'd burned - disposable razors, tin foil, chicken bones......... quite a cleanup from that!
I have a potting table that I'm expanding on (when I have time!!).
The back is a peaceful, area I'm hoping to make a "get-away" area that's "my secret garden".
I also have my little side garden that's sweet and a nice little area to walk by.
My front garden is what I'm working on, constantly lol
Although all of them are small, they're pieces of "art" that I find a great deal of pleasure in, and want to spend all the "leisure" time I can in them. They're my quality-time/rejuvenation places. Without green spaces, I wither.............

-Susan-

I used to work many more hours in the garden, but now it's mostly maintenance and an occasional new bed to dig and plant. After putting in so much time I just love seeing the results every year. We live in a sort of depressed area, so flower gardens are a great uplifter!

oh Kristi - I love your irises! They look like delicate dancing fairies! So beautiful and ethereal.....

-Susan-

Not as much as I would like due to broken leg.LOL

Oh Hayu..........at least you can sit outside and enjoy your garden, I hope.....
Take care of yourself!

-Susan-

Eight hours or more daily when it's not raining. There's no place I'd rather be.

After I get off work in the afternoon I go to the garden. I do a little work than I get in my chair and enjoy. Im always in the garden when im not at work are at the garden center.
Greg

I voted for the last choice because living this far south, one can spend many hours year round outdoors in the garden. Something always seems to need tending, even in winter months. I'm just thankful to have maybe 90 days of the year when I don't have to mow the lawn!

This Senna was blooming last year, mid to late November ...

My house may be a disaster but my garden always looks good. I completely lose track of time when I'm out there, but now its just too hot.
Lisa

During growing season the big thing in the middle of the garden exists for the coffee machine, the shower and the bed. I live in the garden. Too bad my DH won't let me bulldoze down the big thing in the middle of the garden, well at least half of it could go methinks.

Less than two most of the time, but several hours a week controlling the monster I call a "yard."

hahahaha Leslie - that sounds like MY place - except for keeping us warm in the winter, why DO we need that structure in the middle?!?! (mmmmmm coffee machine keeps me going in the garden lol)

From April through November, i live in my garden, and my house is only for sleeping or as a cover from rain or storms. I figure my house gets enough attention during the other 5 months. It isn't that I am 'working' all those days in the garden, there is just no other place I want to be.

if it's not during working hours, daylight, not pouring rain, I'm in the garden

I learned to run the John Deere today! This is the first time I mowed the yard with it, and it was fun to see the garden from another perspective. Usually I only see it from the front or side, not from the property line in back. The red Jacob Klines and yellow black eyed susans with the purple salvia (colors I never thought I'd use together) looked like every butterfly's dream.

my favorite time is about 6:30am when it's quiet and cool and I'm the only one awake. I like to take my coffee outside to see what's blooming, what needs watering and tlc. It's usually an opportune time to take pictures while the wind is calm and the light is subdued.

Since gardens are for joy, my DH and I try to spend lots of time in ours.

Happily, both DH and I get to spend a lot of time in the gardens these days... can't think of a better 'job' than keeping the gardens and yard beautiful! Hayu, I can relate, broke my foot a couple of weeks ago, but I'm just starting to get back around on my "walking" boot. Heal fast!

Brenda

Like podster, I need to work to support my "habit", but if I didn't I'd spend all day every day out there. Not always working, sometimes I like to just walk around and say hello to the plants and the butterflies and the bees and the lizards.

In summer my schedule is work, garden and sleep and catch a bite when I have a minute, that's about all there is time for. I spend as much time as I can in the garden and I love it. If I'm not planting I am harvesting I am watering or tidying up the stuff that is blooming all the time. Seems a never ending absolutely the best time that can be spent on a hobby.
But I must say the end of summer and fall are the busiest times of the year for me, right now the biggest thing is watering since we have had almost no rain in months.
I even have my 2 year old grandson helping he feeds the fish and helps me hold the waterhose, that is just priceless and I hope I am cultivating another gardener here... I thought I had a photo of him planting but I can't find it now but anyway....

The photo is one of our Garden dishes he and I planted in the spring. We also do some mud work but he can get messy, imagin that.....lol

Love my garden! I'd spend all my time there if I could.

I don't have to spend a lot of time in my garden right now as they are so full I don't have many weeds there LOL I spend a lot of time wandering around and just looking at the results of the hard work.

I'm so glad you did this survey because my 16 y.o. keeps complaining that I spend too much time in the garden. And I checked the "much more than 7 hours" box, which was the most numerous answer! So, I'm just a typical gardener. I tell him "it's cheaper than therapy", which I would need if I couldn't have the pleasure of gardening.

As I always say, "The worst day in my garden is still better than the best day in my house"

I voted for 7 per week, but I don't really know. I do know I spend as many hours as I can squeeze out in my garden. This summer has brought lots of non-garden work my way, but I would guess I still spend at least 7 hours per week in the garden. The real answer, is every minute I can get.

My husband bought me a couple big halogen lights so I can work in the garden at night during the summer. My neighbors think I'm crazy, and they are probably right, but it sure beats reruns and cleaning the kitchen....grin

My grandson says that I love my gardens more than him, but I say spending time in my gardens allows me to love him more! My garden is my escape.

During the spring and fall, I spend ALL of my available time in the yard. However, this time of year is not a good time for this poll, as it is just too hot to do much outside.

Isn't this worth visiting a garden every day?

oops, forgot the picture. This is a beautiful japanese iris growing in my garden today!! It is a wake musha

that is beautiful Bonniekelley!

My DH and I start the day with coffee in the lawn swing. We discuss what we are going to do for the day. We do a few light chores like watering etc. then we go in around 7:30 or so to eat breakfast. We take another cup of coffee and head out to the garden. We harvest that which is ready and water or remove dead plants or weeds. Then we sit in the lawn swing with ice water.

We may build another bed or weed eat or water, but it is outside for sure. Around 11:30 we go in for lunch. We rest in the recliners (sometimes we nap, hey we are in our 60's! LOL).

After we have rested out we go again. Now sometimes we rest longer than other times. We go out to the shade shed and putter with plants or whatever the heat will allow us to do.

Then we go in for a while and watch the wheel while we eat dinner. After the wheel it is out again.

The heat has demanded we put in a full day everyday just to keep things alive. I am trying to get enough plants propagated to start doing some wholesaling. I got my license and state inspection along with retail tax certificate. That is just the beginning.

Would I rather be anywhere else? Not a chance!!

Charlene

This is only my second time on the sight. My garden is small,but loaded with unusual plants. My Iris bed is just finishing blooming.
I also have two small fountains to draw the birds. Tthe garden is also planted especially for butterflies. I moved just four years ago now.At my other house people would stop to watch the butterflies.
Sometims I'd have fifty or more at one time. Amazing to see.

If it weren't for work, I'd spend every day, all day in the garden. But for now I have to limit myself to evenings and weekends, every spare moment possible. DH has gotten used to not eating dinner until 9pm in the summer! I wish I had more time in the garden and less time at work, but then I remember that it's the paycheck that allows me to cater to the gardening obsession! I save all winter long and go crazy each spring!

Welcome to DG, butterflymary!

With a full time job and all the volunteer activities I'm involved in its hard to find time during the week, and so I must cram my time in during the weekend. This year I hired a master gardener advertising her services on craigslist. Its been wonderful. I get to spend more time planning, enjoying, and enjoying the garden -- and less time pulling weeds and killing pests. My DH says she is the best present I ever bought him.