Yes,sometimes when I feel I am being picked on I go out and water the garden or fertilize.However getting caught in the thorns and ripping a shirt or bleeding like a stuck pig arouses my ire so its a wash.
Then I like to tell a joke since laughter is the best medicine however when it meets with a poor reception I go out and deadhead.Snap,snap,snap-amazing how that relieves the stress on the plant and me to or is that too .

I don't try to analyze why gardening relieves my stress. Perhaps it would be stressful to find out :) I just know that when I turn the corner and see our yard, I relax. It doesn't matter how hectic the day was (or how many truck drivers I didn't strangle even though they richly deserved it). My darlin' and I spend 2 - 3 hours in the yard each evening. About half that time is spent sprawled on the lawn acting like we are weeding. Some weeds do get pulled but we are mostly chatting, laughing and just being silly. I enjoy tending the yard solo but it is so much more fun with Deb.
I usually post pics of the central bed in the front yard
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but I did upload some of where we usually have our silly sessions
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We are almost always on one side of the windmill or the other
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Not much room to sprawl outside the fence
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The stepping stones are downright uncomfortable to sprawl on
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Our garden will never be finished so I would have to say that it is the gardening (and associated silliness) that I enjoy so much.
Didn't anyone warn you not to ask about garden photos where digger can see???

digger

Digger, I'm at a loss for words. What beauties! What do you feed those babies with? I am green all over with envy

Digger:

Your pictures left me speechless. A rare event indeed! Thank you for sharing those. Paint me incredibly impressed. So much beauty in such a tough winter climate.

Kate

Digger's garden pictures are stressing me out!

Well, my stress is gone. Digger, you can do all my gardening for me by proxy. You do good work! I enjoyed my visit immensely.
Sherry

Digger you have a beautiful garden. I wish mine were like that.

I find gardening a great stress buster. It doesn't matter if I'm weeding or pruning or digging or just sitting and looking at all my weeds. Its just something about being out and surrounded by green and growing things that just brings me back to earth. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the plants don't talk back to you or make rude remarks etc.

Gilli

P.S. Maybe I should have mentioned I have 4 teenagers at home. Hence the "talking back" comment. LOL

When I was still teaching, getting home in the afternoons and into my work clothes and the roses, was really a relief. There was no more squabbling and whining about assignments due or the like. I talked to my roses, and let the problems of the day melt away. After that a couple of vodkas and tonic mellowed out things before dinner. Now I am retired and the need for the V&Ts is gone, but I still talk to my roses, and love being in the garden with them. They are uncomplaining as long as they get their fertilizer and water fixes, are deadheaded and sprayed when needed. What more could I ask for?

Thanks everyone :) I hoped to see more garden photos when I visited this morning. One thing to remember... we have been here 15 years. I've grown roses for 40+ years and Deb for 22. The children are grown and Deb and I spend over 10 hours each tending the yard per week. Most of the roses are over 5 years old. The yard did not look like this 10 years ago... we thought it looked pretty nice even back then just not like it does these days :) We have been told we are foolish to be so patient with roses but we don't think so.

Kate, the yard was not quite as colorful back on April Fool's...
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Watching those stumps grow from April until June is as exciting as seeing the blooms. With a little luck, we will have blooms until the end of September.

Gilli, your roses don't talk back. Ours do :) They mind Deb but refuse to obey me. They love scolding me, LOL. Pascali must have been a sailor.... the language he uses with me I can't repeat here.

Here is a link that might be useful: Deb & Digger's Garden

There is something quite stress-relieving about being out with the wide sky above and a garden full of roses and such around you. The quiet of the garden, the soft scents, the array of colors, all seem to wrap you up in peace. And there's nothing more satisfying than to look back over the garden at the end of the day and see the progress of the weeding and planting and dead-heading.

I'm with you, Gilli. Plants are very kind- they don't talk back; they don't judge; the more you take, the more they give! They teach us how to just be, how to grow and adapt. Gardens are a wonderful investment!

This will suprise you: my garden actually stesses me out. I love it. It is my life's work, a huge artistic endeavor. I spend all day five days a week at least in the garden. Sometimes in the evening when I'm done working my husband and I walk around and enjoy the garden. Then I feel peaceful and greatly satisfied. What would stress me out more? Not working in the garden. Here's aphoto of part of it.
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I was hoping you would post some pics! Fantastic! Your garden at HMF is one of my favorite places to visit when we are snowed in during winter. Deb has mentioned several times she wishes we had known you when we used to ride to the coast from Roseville.

digger

Hope you didn't mind the link below to your HMF photos. Anyone that loves roses needs to visit.

Here is a link that might be useful: Red Rose Ridge at HelpMeFind

I get over many of the upsets in life, from home and work, while working in my garden, as I'm sure you all do. Nothing heals the soul like digging, weeding and pruning, and just plain stopping to smell the roses.
Here are a few pics of my little stress-busting garden (not many rose blooms in these photos though): (working my way up to diggerndeb's rosey paradise!):

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(sorry about the neighbours junky balcony)

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I do have a lot of shade, so it's getting tricky finding spots for roses, but where there's a will, there's always a way.

Judith

Beautiful and peaceful! I like that. Thank you for posting the pics. I enjoy looking at other gardens.

digger

It is funny to come across this post. I haven't been on the garden web or the rose site for a little over a year. I turned out to have lumbar spinal stenosis and one week I was at work and the next I could barely walk. Gardening was out of the question and I missed it badly.I missed the physical work, the satisfaction, the planning, the obsessing over what to buy, what to get rid of, the nuturing side of wanting every plant to be at it's best, the compliments of others and talking about gardening. And yes it was and is the best stress-reliever I've ever found for me. I am relaxed, entertained, physical fit and mentally occupied in my garden. I was able to do some work this year and should be more fit by spring and I enjoyed it even if I limped the next day or two. I have to re-think / reconfigure how and what I grow but I do need to keep this hobby/obsession because there just isn't anything to take its place on the satisfaction scale. Please no more jig saw puzzles, knitting needles or crochet hooks and anyone need a hooked rug kit or two? I have not been on the garden web or checked any catalogues but the heck with it I'm back and if it's higher raised beds or everything in pots so be it. Thanks for listening. Better days.

I meant to mention in my post how lovely everyone's gardens are. Digger, too bad you weren't able to come here when you lived in Roseville. That would have been fun. I bet you know my Sacramento rose friends.

Judith, great pics! It's nice to see what can be done in a small space.

Thanks Buford. It IS really small, and parts of it are way too crowded (you take your life into your hands to weed), but believe it or not, I have ordered 15 new roses for next spring (some plants obviously have to go to make room). I must be insane, but I'm happy:) Although, as you said above, diggerndebs' garden does stress me out a little, too.....you made me laugh with that comment!

Judith

I have panic/anxiety syndrome. Sometimes it lies low for years on end; sometimes it takes me out.

The one place that I can go and never ever be anything but totally relaxed is our deck (the rest of our "property" isn't gardenable). This is where I do a lot of container gardening. I go out there first thing in the morning, throughout the day and late at night and am always happy there. I love doing everyting - planting, watering, feeding, pruning, weeding and just enjoying the plants (right now - roses, lobelia, alstromeria, bacopa, marigolds, lavender, sedum and succulents and a few whose names I keep forgetting). Usually our two cats accompany me. It's heaven. Even my back stops hurting.