Why do you garden?

It really looks like everyone wants/needs fun & relaxation. That's definitely what I get out of gardening. I love to watch things grow. The excitement of watching for a seed to sprout. The anticipation of the first time a plant blossoms. The satisfaction of keeping something alive over a frigid northern winter. Having that much beauty in one's own back yard (or sun room). I'll grow anything and everything. Veggies that I don't eat...fruit that I know the birds will get to before I do. I let houseplants flower even if you're supposed to cut off the bloom spikes just because I want to see what they look like first. btw, purple passion (Gynura aurantiaca) is rumored to have orange flowers that clash with the foliage and STINK...believe the rumors!

I have been growing for market for 22 years now. Always give on a rush to be able to provide something that makes people happy. After all these years, I am changing things this year. No plants sales this spring. With the very few hours available to sell & weather,(rain, wind,etc.), conditions at an outdoor market, we decided it was in our best interest to discontinue plants. We will still be raising our own veggie starts in the greenhouse. We are going to add cut flowers to our offering at market. That will be interesting & hopefully worthwhile. Our gladiolus have been gaining popularity.
Brought home the seed potatoes yesterday. Will probably plant some next week. I bought 700 lbs of Cascade, a white potato, 300 lbs of Red Norland, & 250 lbs of Yukon Gold. Yukon Gold sold real well last year. People kept asking for them after we ran out.
Best to all for this growing season.
Bernie

I grow for fun mainly. I like to see if I can improve my partial green thumb every year and it's a good excuse to be outside when it's nice out.

I garden to achieve satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment, I find it challenging in many ways and I love a good challenge. I am an outdoor person and spend time out regardless of the weather.
Candee

What better way exists to reach out to the Divine than to dwell in Her surroundings?

I garden for all of the reasons posted above and then some. I garden because I am addicted, I eat, sleep, breathe, gardening! Since, I found you all I've gotten worse! Or I'm getting better depends on how you wanna look at it. There ought to be a twelve step program. NOTT!!!!!!!! Gotta go, the gardeners diary is coming on!

I picked other too, as most of the choice's applied. I garden because I love it and it's relaxing. I also grow the food for our family, neighbors and anyone who needs some help, after all I always have more than enough. I really haven't sold anything though, I give it away! LOL I do trade seeds and plants and hope to sell some of my daylilies someday, but for now the enjoyment is enough!

I garden for enjoyment. It so exciting to see things grow. Last year was my first attempt at a veggie garden. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the fresh squash blossoms I prepared. There are some things you just can't get at the grocery store. And fresh peas that don't even make it out of the garden . . mmmmm.

Other for me .. all of the above except food for the family.

X

I checked other, because it isn't just for fun and relaxation. I want to FEED NATURE'S ANIMALS AND INSECTS TOO. Plus I want a beautiful to the eye yard, with native plants for those years when the weather is our enemy.

Other for me to. For us it's all those reasons except for sale (but that is in the future) AND a big reason CURB APPEAL! A nicely done yard is always worth it's cost if you need to sell your home.

I do it for the fun and relaxation. There are days when it is neither, but that's how life in general is.

I like color and fragrance and lots of bouquets in the house. Its also my way of escaping the tensions and stress of every day life. I like the birds and the butterflies I get with my gardens and I like to think its my way of givig back to the earth.

Fun and relaxation is certainly a big part of gardening but, I choose other because it is also hard work - so good for all of us - in age related doses. I also want to surround my family with beauty, have privacy, and last but still important to increase the value of our home. Crash mentioned the ADDICTION FACTOR, I guess "other" covers that but I think it should have it's own catagory.

A thumb of green is what I need
To raise a flower from a seed.
What fun it is to sow and strew
And see the seedlings peeking through.
Alas--too many wilt or drown,
I fear my thumbs are far too brown.

I chose other because I garden to beautify my home, and because I love beautiful flowers and interesting foliage. I feel that this is different than fun and relaxation, although it is that also. I agree with daisycat that it is also hard work and very addictive. But my primary reason is still to beautify my home. I also love to share with friends and family and DG-ers so I try to raise extra for them.

I garden primarily for fun and relaxation, even though "relaxation" for me usually involves hard physical labor (breaking sod, hauling rocks, etc). (I guess the relaxation is more mental than physical!) I love watching my baby plants sprout from seed, and the return of perennials in the spring is nothing short of miraculous to me. I also grow veggies and fruit for home consumption, yum yum.

I checked "other" because I garden to get exercise and just to get outside, to watch the birds and butterflies and to improve the looks of the property. Food I can get from relatives and neighbors who grow that sort of thing. The sight I can get from flowers is more spiritual and calming. I don't grow flowers to feed caterpillars - but if they come, they come and I enjoy watching them eat their fill and then morph. It's also fund just to see if some of the seeds and plants I buy, etc. will grow but I don't obsess over any of that. I take care of what I grow, naturally, but if something seems to be a lost cause, that's life ... and death.

Ann

It's time to gardeners on ground... More raining come up soon as ground wet... I have to project for my yard!

None of the choices really fit so I chose "fun and relaxation" - even though my back is broken this morning and I can't remember enjoying too much of the digging and raking I did yesterday. And have to do again today! Looking back, I can see that my gardening goals are changing. It used to be I'd be happy if the roses bloomed and didn't croak from powdery mildew, it the sunflowers weren't eaten alive by aphids (ugh!), and the 'perennials' lasted for one season. Now I find myself leaning more to vegetable gardening. Why? I am soooo disgusted by the quality of 'produce' in the grocery stores! I grew broccoli this winter and I was stunned at the *real* taste of this veggie. Nothing from the grocers came close. I'm not giving up on the roses, the sunflowers or other 'ornamentals'; I'm just striving for a well-rounded garden that is a feast for the eyes - and tummy!

I garden outside to make the place look nice. I raise plants inside because I like them.

I like to garden for fun and relaxation, plus I try to grow vegetables for food for our family and, if I'm lucky to be blessed with lots of veggies, I share with our neighbors.

Our neighborhood is a little tired-looking. Flowers just brighten everything. We also raise herbs and have a salad garden, but in the end I garden because I just can't help myself :)

I vited other because both of the first two choices apply to me. I love gardening and it relaxes me, but I also like having fresh produce throughout the spring, summer and fall.

I too love watching things grow & know that I have done the right thing to help them thrive.

I do enjoy gardening mainly for the beauty! I honestly look forward to getting most of it finished & sitting down with a deep, contented sigh to enjoy. When we moved into our home, there was nothing but Ixora planted in the front planter of our house, 2 palms along the back of the property & some overgrown, diseased bushes/trees. It's starting to really take shape now & we've been here almost a year.

My DH & I were working for several hours this morning in our yard. I had told him that we desperately needed to get some things planted before hurricane season came because I could not possibly bring all the pots into the house, of the cuttings & starts I had going outside in small pots. He agreed so that's why we worked so hard getting some things planted. We want it done to enjoy it while we can!

Playing In The Dirt is My Therapy! I enjoy my outdoor garden plants as well as my inside house plants! Just can't imagine not having at least one green, living, growing plant. The older I get, the more my creaking bones don't like a lot of the hard work outside, but it is satisfying to see the finished product and something that you planted with your own two hands, grow and thrive.

i garden for the pure joy i get from it. i also like to experiment with how i try to grow things. like sometimes i would use a smaller container for some plants to see if they grow the same as in larger containers. last year i started tomato plants 12 weeks and 8 weeks before my regular planting date and they both grew the same height and produced the same amount of tomatoes

Other,All of the above

Other: Choices 1, 2 and 3. And there was no choice for "as an excuse to buy/trade oodles of seed that I shan't be able to plant if I live to be 120 but will have fun trying" :D

I picked Other because my answer was all of the above. Simply put, I just love to garden! Smile...

Although I voted for fun and relaxation, I also grow a lot of vegetables and fruits for my family to enjoy. I can't think of a reason not to garden.

I chose OTHER.

I only do flowers, plus 2 tomato plants (I dont have room for a garden)

while most everyone in my neighborhood uses a landscaper to do their yards, and have pretty boring plants that come up year after year with no color....

I like it when folks comment on my beautiful flowers and all the color... and i can say "I did it myself"

I'm doing a lot more with seeds this year (first year winter sowing) ... plus finally getting to my "shade garden" and my flower beds will be stunning this year.... mostly with a bit of hard work, some luck, and help from the great folks on DG.

also like others have commented... it gets me outside with nature, fresh air, with the birds and bees, etc.

I voted for fun and relaxation, but I also ~try~ to grow veggies. For me, gardening is therapeutic. I come home stressed out from work, go into the garden and water or just check my plants out, marvel how much the roses have grown, plan my new additions, and before long I can't even remember what I was so stressed out about. Seeing all my hard work pay off in a beautiful yard is so satisfying for me.

I'm an "other" - I find plants fascinating, I love to decorate inside and out, I love to propagate life and living things & I connect to a sweet, warm place in other people that would be out of reach were it not for our plants and gardens.

'Sides of which, I get bored indoors.

I also garden because I am obsessed. My husband use to tell me he didn't want me to buy plants(he thought they would die). So in one year I only bought 4 plants since they are all beautiful. I slowly started buying plants, then I begun buying about 3 a week. Then he made the mistake of telling me he didn't notice my plants. So that day I went out and bought 3. And was going to garden centers several times a week. Ever since my car accident 2.5weeks ago I haven't been able to go out. I have bought at least 34 plants off the internet.

A garden is where the soul feels at home. Also a good place for the cats to lounge in the hot afternoon.

Fun and food~

I love to lie in the sun like a lizard and warm my bones and I like to do it somewhere beautiful. Plus I come from two big gardening families, so I can't help it!

When you're having fun, it ain't work. Everyone likes fun better than work.