What do you like best about gardening?

I'm with you cathy4. All of the above.

I voted seeing them boom at their peak but for here.. there is no PEAK.. just a bloom here and there.. and I am very happy to have those... every single bloom gets appreciated individually!

woops I picked the wrong one. I shouldhave picked seeing my flowers at full bloom. That is the icing on the cake.

Other, because I enjoy watching everything wanting to live & being involved by way of the rituals associated with the process.
& this makes it all worthwhile:

This year, I'm enjoying every new bloom that I've never grown before. I've started so many different things, thanks to fellow DGers trades and swaps. It's really a thrill to finally see something you've been waiting for all winter/spring bloom!

Other -- cooperating with nature, and getting so much out of it! Such beauty, such therapy -- and tomato sandwiches for weeks!

I get the biggest thrill when my first seedling of the season (usually a radish) sticks its head up out of the soil and says, "Hello!" Then you know another season has begun, and all is right with the world.

If any of the folks that enjoy weeding want a special treat, I have weeds enough to share. :))

Thanks weedwoman Sue, love your photo too!

I just love playing in my greenhouse this time of year, babying my seedlings along, watching them grow. My tomatoes are at last looking great and the peppers and eggplants are coming along, too. I have lots of tiny basil popping up, some broccoli and cabbage. I even start peas in my greenhouse and transplant them at 2 or 3 leaves. Also have marigolds and other flowers, but the veggies are the most fun for me.
It's been a cooler and wetter year than usual. Some years I have planted the tomatoes out by now, but they are not even hardened off this year. Generally this means we will have a long hot fall, so there is no rush.
By the end of fall, after harvest and canning and preserving, I am pooped and always say I will probably not garden next year. When early spring rolls around the calling begins and I am again lost to the art of growing my garden. Sort of like having babies, I think. God has a way of making you forget all the hardships so that you will try again.

I love seeing my iris seedlings every yr, even the ones which become compost, so voted other.

Spring is my favorite time of year because I can start tropical seeds for my greenhouse and eventually, outside after last frost. I discovered that after nicking & soaking hard seeds overnight (continually changing the water and keeping them warm,) that if I put them in a moist but not soaking wet paper towel & then in a ziploc bag, that germination is much better & there is little or no rot or fungus. I finally succeeded in germinating Canavalia rosea seeds that were dated 2005 that way. My very favorite is vines and have no difficulty in germination. But, I do have difficulty in germinating mucuna & other various beach beans and I am fighting fungus all the way. Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

This message was edited May 6, 2009 9:42 PM

I love primping the garden, deadheading, shaping shrubs and plants. It puts me in a good place mentally. I hate hardscaping, its too physical for me.

I love my gardens but the weeds this year have been so bad.

I just love watching nature at work. The anticipation and the seedling emerging from the soil and the long wait for the fruit to ripen. The sweat, blisters, aching back, and sunburn. Seeing the changes that only a day can make. The intoxicating scent of the roses, lilacs and lavendar. Seeing the joy in my children's eyes each time they carry cut flowers or vegetables to the neighbors. The satisfaction of seeing a symphony of colors, forms and textures play out through the changing seasons and knowing that I had a small part in the magnificent production.

I love the planning aspect of it and even have future plans waiting to become reality(maybe I should become a landscape designer). I also love to see all the work I do pay off, so love to see everything blooming.

One of my most favourite things to do in the spring and *All* summer is moving plants to different locations,,every year my gardens change..Heights and colours are always different each year...

I chose other because there was no 'all of the above'! :)

weslemkoon, that is my favorite thing, too. Moving plants. Oh, wow, this Tulipa tarda looks so nice with golden creeping jenny! Hmmm, that daylily is too tall for that spot... And on and on.

I voted 'other'. I just like to watch everything grow.

I voted 'other'. I can't contain my excitement for gardening in just one category. Even though I have arthritis all through my body, I take it slow and enjoy all aspects. I love getting cuttings from others or finding something growing in the wild that I can transplant into my yard.(nothing protected or in a state park,etc.) I have a field across the street from me with a small wooded area next to a lake. I'm always over there looking for a new plant. When my first veggie plant blooms, when I take that first ripe veggie off my plant, even seeing the first seeds sprout; these are all things that excite me! I love to water, weed and spend all day out in my yard trying to make it look better. I love sites like this one where I can get good ideas and get good info on different aspects of gardening. I love when the seed catalogs start coming in the mail. I love working my compost bins and making great soil. It'd be easier to tell you what I don't like and that's how hot it gets here during the summer. It drives me inside most of the day when all I want to do is go back out and play in the dirt!!

I find myself in agreement with the first poster, Kathleen . . . that freedom to destroy thingie can give you such a rush!

Seriously though, I find that my gardening time is also time for peaceful meditation as well as for contemplation of issues that are unrelated to me personally. It is a time during which I am caring for other living things, ones which have almost nothing in common with my own species save their need for water, sunlight and something to feed upon.

My garden beds provide me with infinite opportunities for wonder and to observe directly how, in some small measure, what I do as an individual really does affect other inhabitants of my planet and the environment thereof. Plus, the sights and smells are fantastic - - just ask all my bird and bee friends!

ATBTY !       ~       £az     ;--)

I went with other because my favorite thing is the excitement of having your hard work pay off when the flowers and plants are in full bloom! It is a wonderful sight!

I posted 'other' because all the options apply to what I love to do year round.

RADISHES!

Radishes Rule, Okay! :))

I picked "My first ripe vegetable". I grow diffent kinds of heirloom tomatoes. When i get that first taste of my first ripe tomato, i think to myself: "Ahh, such a refreshing change from those expensive cardboard flavored tomatoes in the stores!" I also love growing my Lemon Cucmbers :-)

Just being outside!!!

the thing i like best about gardening is that it is a great stress reliever, especially deadheading and pulling weeds. i'm a bookkeeper and work in an office all day long. the first thing i do when i get home is go out to my patio to check on all my flowers and shrubs, because they usually need watering, even though i water before i go to work. everything i have planted is in containers. and with the heat here in the sacramento valley, i sometimes have to water twice a day. then after doing a little weeding and/or deadheading, i can sit back, relax, and enjoy the beauty and fragrance of what i have planted, as well as watching the goldfinches that like to take a bath in my little fountain. and i enjoy using my fresh picked herbs in my cooking. i have yet to try container vegetable gardening again. i tried growing veggies a couple of years ago, and i wasn't very successful....maybe next spring!

I agree kathy, I am also a bookkeeper. I work at home and if something isn't balancing I just take a break and run out in the garden, everything usually works out fine when I return!

Oh i really love container vegetable gardening, its really great when you dont have much room for things--such as myself. But like kathy said, you usually have to end up watering twice a day. I love growing tomatoes in those huge 5 gallon sized pots. My yellow cherry tomatoes are starting to bloom now...YIPPIE!! :-D

You know where it comes from and what has or has not contamanated it. And proud of the accomplishment. Also it's fresher.