Who is your best assistant in your garden?

Goodness - first vote is mine!

My DH is a very willing helper, I am happy to say. I can even drag him away from the TV to dig a hole if need be.... ^_^

DW, not only my assistant but she holds 50% of the votes on the planning commission! ☺

Our 2 sons are my biggest helpers. They will do anything! Of course they are 40-something and 50-something. My poor husband doesn't like to get dirty! If it wasn't for Mike and John this place would look like ----- I don't think Dave would allow what I really want to say....

Ann

It's just me. My DH will help dig out a new garden but after that it's just me doing the planning, planting, watering, weeding and such. He does let me know when he really likes a plant... "plant more of those flowers on a stick" other wise known as Delphiniums.

Staceysmom , we must have married brothers . digger

they must have been triplets then...........:) My best assistant is my 3 yo granddaughter. She loves helping Nana water.........pic is with her very own plant that she planted the seeds and watered and took care of herself.

No, no, there were four of them! DH will sometimes help water the pots out front and has helped to set up my garden area, but beyond that, I'm on my own! Can barely get him out to look at the flowers, although he does like flowers. Bless his heart, though, he was the one who insisted on getting me a greenhouse, so I think I'll keep him. :-)

I didn't see an option for furry helpers...but my dog is my biggest assistant! His favorite thing is to lay down in the garden and roll over for a tummy rub...right on top of my favorite plant!

Sometimes I can "suggest" some work to my DH, but I'm definitely the Boss on this yard site.
If I REALLY can't do something major or heavy, I call on him to do it, but there's little I can't do - planting, watering, weeding, building structures, pruning trees, etc.
I've even been on our roof (flat) to get tree branches off it LOL

My DH loves to be outside in the yard. Usually he does his own thing (mowing, pruning, chipping) but anything I ask him to do, he's on it. He spent all this weekend fixing a broken pipe in the front potager so we can install drip irrigation. We may actually pay someone to come in and do the irrigation, but if not, he'll be right out there doing it all.

He also has more of a green thumb than I do. If I really like a plant and want it to live, I have him plant it. I've decided there's something about my skin chemistry that kills a plant as I plant it. :)

I say my son is my best helper, tongue in cheek. Outside of me, he is the only helper and is not self-motivated to the task.

I only have me, so it's all up to me :)

My grand daughter Emily (9) is my right hand. She loves to garden and has her own (at my place) with peonies, sedum, Russian sage, Zinnias, and 3 hosta varieties plus a 10' by 16' everbearing strawbery garden. She now has "drafted" me to help her landscape and place gardens at her folks new house.

My wife doesn't have the gardening "bug" but helps me by giving color suggestions and by reviewing what I have done. She also supplies the much appreciated "praise" when I have completed a project.

Just me, myself and I, but could use some help! The cats look on at the activity as though they're interested - maybe they think they're supervising.

This message was edited Jul 6, 2009 11:26 AM

DH is the chief hole digger, rock carrier, and lawn mower. He assists with major irrigation projects and loves to tinker with the irrigation controller, which I find rather tedious. I'm in charge of flowers, veggies, and trees. DH's been on crutches all spring so there hasn't been much hole digging or rock moving lately, though we did bring home some very nice volcanic rock from our camping trip this weekend. I almost have enough for that new patio now ;)

Well, besides me myself and I (and I'm surprised this wasn't one of the choices) my dogs are my best helpers. :-)

My cats watch me too Yuska. I assumed it was because I was messing with their sand box!

I don't know if I'm my best assistant, but I'm the only one!! (Well, other than the dogs, who will occasionally dig a hole, though never where I want).

It's just me. I have no one else to blame for all the weeds. Darn it! You guys have all these built-in excuses for the goof ups.

My dogs help dig the holes (usually in places I don't want) and my Wolfgang has transplanted some small pine saplings for me (without asking.. he just dug 'em up and drug 'em over to me as he'd seen me plant them about 2 hours earlier.. I guess he thought that people bury trees like dogs bury bones?). He's also great at picking out the best smelling flowers at the nurseries and is more than willing to go with me to any nursery that I want! Which is more than I can say for my DH!! (Wolfgang is the golden on the right.. on the left is Sebastian.)

Well I voted 'me, myself and I'
But I do have a couple of kids ( I call them my Time Share Kids ) that come over. Mostly they like to 'PICK" , but that's OK and one will even help me pull weeds, He showed me what 'Sour Grass' is. I love my garden, the Sunflowers are above the roof, How High Can You Go ?? ^_^

I wish I could get hubby to help in the yard/garden. He won't even mow the stupid lawn. :-/

My SO mows the yard when I whine enough about the weeds, but that's all. The dogs keep me company when I work in the back yard. They love to be outside when I am out there, but all they do is hunt, sun themselves, and stroll around checking out everything. I guess they consider their company to be enough help--"what more could you ask for, Ma?" Anyway, in spite of being terriers, they don't help by digging, for which I am grateful. So I voted me, myself and I.

My chickens are my biggest helpers. They keep the bug population down. Although, they are my biggest hindrance as well. They sure do love to scratch and sometimes my plants suffer the wrath of chicken claws.

My hubby loves to prepare beds and water, but planting is my duty which works out perfect for us. He loves "his lawn" and takes care of that, as I find that particular plant slightly boring but necessary. lol. i'm in charge of planning and he will execute all tasks that need more muscle than I've got. " can you move that oak barrel with a tree over there? oh no how bout over there..." he's very understanding and only gets frustrated with me sometimes.lol

Tallulah , I did all those things 50 years ago . On second thought , I did all those things and helped nail on the roof after setting the rafters 10 years ago lol . He does mow twice a year . digger

When my 3 year old is not filling up the kiddie pool he is my waterboy. He is a big help to me.

Dorothy

Hey Digger - youse can calls me Susan :-)
seriously though - my DH used to be a roofer, and I would get up on a 2 1/2 storey house, and help his do the "capping" of the shingles at the tippy-top. Picture this - me, having gotten up "ladder 1", moving across the scafold to "ladder 2", then across another scaffold to "6' ladder 3".......then straddling the roof and using a nail gun to affix the shingles. THEN, ladder 3 fell down, and I'm left straddling - at 1am Sunday morning, when it's Pitch Black out and my DH telling me to slide down and lower myself to "ladder 2" HA!! He had to stand on the top of the scaffold and lower me down - no other way I was going to do this when it was so dark I couldn't see anything below. Thing was - I could see at the top where I was, cuz there were steet lights, but the side I had to go down was on the dark side........ yikers!!
That was the end of my helping DH doing roofing.

Anyhoooooooo now that he knows I am basically fearless on the ground, or at least on a 10' ladder lol, he lets me do everything until I ask for help.......

It's tough being an independant woman sometimes LOL

Yeh , my dh told me yesterday , he liked it because I was independent . Wonder if that's because I seldom ask him for help ? I think men mess stuff up so you don't ask them to do it again .rof,lmao . I'm so old now , I can get up a ladder ok , it's getting back down . My knees don't want to bend that much . Why don't they make a ladder with 5" rungs ? I know I'm not the only one out there .
I think I would have just napped 'till morning up on that roof , straddling it of course .
Anyone is welcome to call me sally . D

My little grand-daughter is my best assistant because she thinks gardening is fun!

I liv e in Victoria Australia, Two years ago I lost my eldest of seven, daughter Jenny to cancer. Everything I found was a learning curve. youngest daughter had a baby at 38 and now is expecting a second. Little Miss 3 in October loves cooking. Her best effort is date scones. She calls it rolling up as she rubs butter into flour. The milk and egg goes on woosh in bowl over bowl and on table. She giggles and says doesn't matter we clean it after and proceeds to finish her scones. We make them a little wetter than normal and place in muffin tins which works so well. She is not a replacement for lost one, but boy does she keep my mind busy with lots fun and laughter. Cooking is my delight. Her mother who is now a qualified chef cooked at 14, I cooked at same age littley at 2 years 6 months is going to be a terrific cook. She actually looks at recipe book pics and decides what nest to cook

Like Ivory soap, I am the gardener 99 and 44/100ths of the time. I am a do it now while I am thinking about it and DH is an I'm thinking about it. Of course that doesn't stop him from wandering by and saying things like, "You need to deadhead the roses." or "Did you get around to picking any tomatoes?" When I suggest he do it himself, he says he has a bone in his arm and as soon as that gets better he'll get around to it. I knew I should never have shown him how to use the tiller to dig holes.....but, he does cut the grass and do the weed-whacking and edging. His favorite thing is spraying Round-up.....something I seriously limit for the sake of my plants.

As long as you're careful not to hit your plants, Round Up is the safest weed killing chemical you can use. (environmentally) It is virtually non-toxic. It blocks one leg of photo synthesis, simply makes the plant think it's not getting sunlight.

Edited for spelling.

This message was edited Jul 6, 2009 6:48 PM

My best assistant would have to be my iPod. Keeps my mind off the boredom of pulling weeds. And right now that seems to be most of what I do in the gardens.

I agree, DesertPirate, the round-up is safe.....the hubby is not. LOL

My DH is my biggest helper. He moves my heavier pots when I want them moved, takes down the hanging baskets, that I can't reach because I'm short, when I need to deadhead them, and he pulls weeds from the graveled areas. He also keeps the birdfeeders filled. However, I'm still waiting for him to fix the drip system in the front yard. He and his friend mangled several of the 1/4" tubing lines that go into my potted plants, because they were careless with the lawnmower and weedwhacker. So I have been having to water those containers by hand. He really hates to mow the grass (which is bermuda grass.....we can't seem to get rid of it), so he waits until I start nagging about the weeds taking over everything. I do everything else - the planning, the planting, the fertilizing, the daily maintenance, and the watering.

Our DS likes doing the hardscape. He has built me several large redwood planter boxes, so that I could plant shrubs, and a redwood box with a lid to hold some of my gardening supplies. He has also laid pavers in the areas I wanted paved.

The two of them together built me a little greenhouse lean-to last fall, so that some of my more tender plants would survive the winter.

Either this fall, or early next spring, they both will be busy digging out the bermuda grass and weeds in the front yard and building me some raised beds for a veggie garden and a cutting garden. Then I will have them put in some gravel or pavers in between the raised beds to help keep the weeds down. (Ha! They don't know it yet, though!) I intend on keeping them busy, busy busy!!!

Kathy

ME ^_^ I LUV ME ^_^ I sing and dance and muck about with seedlings and plantings and I totally understand me assisting in red satin pjs. I have to give a very close second and a HUGE speech about my true luv though cuz I have a bad back and although he is not a gardener he will dig out clay and grass and turn the compost and I would be in dire straits without him. Third place goes to the crazy ole cat who helps by flattening the cat mint and reports on the bird and bug population on a minutely basis which is important methinks.

Me myself and I. The three of us do very well together!

My furry friends (2 dogs and 2 cats) keep me company in the garden, which is help enough. Although my mastiff plants herself in front of my watering hose on a hot day for a squirt-down, or she chases the stream of water stepping on plants along the way. Ah well, she is the biggest 'flower' in the garden!

Susan