My husband digs great holes!! LOL He also helps me move dirt & make new flower beds. He'll pretty much do anything I ask him to do in the yard, but I don't think he
completely understands my gardening style (which is if I think it's pretty I plant it). He likes for everything to be even and symmetrical. I have a new bed right beside our sidewalk. I bet he has told me a hundred times to be sure I plant something short there.

My hubby makes me more beds when I fill up the ones I aleady have. He weeds a little, edges a lot, cuts down stuff, trims shrubs. Best of all, he built me a beautiful arbour and a deck to enjoy it from!

Sally

DH HATES weeds, so he pulls them whenever he's out in the garden. He therefore likes to mulch to supress weeds. He also helps with hardscape projects. DH mows our front 2 acre meadow, but he loves riding around on a ZTR mower.

DS1 digs holes, plants, and helps with hardscape projects. He has planted most of the large shrubs for me. He also helped plant the butterfly garden last year during his spring break. He's an archaeologist who is living local right now. He teaches at a university, but also works part-time in a garden shop for fun. At his request, I started my gardening blog when he was living in London so he could keep up with what's happening in our garden. He sent me an IM message yesterday to say that he really enjoyed this week's blog post.

DS2, when sufficiently bribed...um, paid...will help. That involves so much complaining, but then he's proud of his results...always hardscape. He's better at pain reliever advice since he's in pharmacy school. He's good with the visual aspect of garden design. He laid all my stepping stones in the outer garden (to correct DH's arrangement! LOL).

DS1 and DH helped me build the dry stream bed. DS1, DS2 and DH helped me build a flagstone patio. DS1 helped me create an outdoor shower area.

I do all the gardening, digging, making beds, planting, choosing plants, etc. DH could care less but secretly loves what I create. He indulges me with hardscapes like sheds, greenhouses and just recently two very long pews from an old church in the area. He does nothing as far as gardening and has done nothing to stop me from indulging myself in creating a landscape. I would love more help with the grunt work but I am good at it or at least I enjoy it, so I don't mind. I couldn't build a shed if my life depended on it. Adele

My wife could care less -- hates the outdoors and thinks mowing the lawn (not my favorite chore) is fun-time for me no matter what.

DH will do most anything i ask. He's not so into gardening himself- though much more than he used to be, but he takes time to appreciate it more than i do. He does some of the heavy work i won't like trimming big limbs, anything with a chainsaw, involving climbing 30+ feet into a tree or other power tools, etc. I can and will run them if i have to, but don't enjoy it much while he does. I do like to run my tiller, though. He's great about digging holes and helping dig beds if i want him to, though i do my share of grunt work. He'll go get mulch and manure and help truck it around in wheelbarrows. He always cuts the grass since i'm allergic, and mows down the leaves after we rake them into piles. He'd probably prune & trim if i let him, but he just wants to whack away, and so i don't let him. :) Ditto on weeding. He's great at making me stuff if i ask or need something- be it metal or wood, it just sometimes take longer than i'd like. He likes stuff really neat and clean and so is happy to help with anything that furthers that. He's happy to help harvest and even spray if i tell him exactly what i want him to do. What he doesn't really do is plan or plant or water & stuff like that. Strangely, he gets more into the gardening aspect of it with our fair plot. Maybe because it's temporary, i don't know. Just happy he's so willing to help, and makes me slow down to enjoy the roses sometimes!

The kids pretty much have to be bribed into helping at this point (or punished- weeding), but mayhap with time... They're pretty good at raking leaves, spreading mulch and the like. They do enjoy planting seeds sometimes. They, like him are more helpful at the fair. Maybe it's because we get paid something for our efforts, and they get a share if they help? Bribery again.... They love helping TJohn with whatever disgusting task he sets them up for, though. He's just cooler than us.

Very little. In recent years I'm lucky to get him to mow half of the yard once and run the trimmer twice. He will unload heavy bagged goods for me when I get them home-if asked. I do everything else. He has been known to seed the lawn and apply weedkiller when the mood strikes. He's very good at building things but his time is spent on his hobbies as much as mine is spent on gardening and I can't really complain about that.

My husband would be perfectly happy letting it all be natural and would probably not do anything but mow and rake leaves if left to himself. But like Adele's husband, I think he's secretly quite pleased with the results. He does pitch in whenever asked or sometimes when I'm just out there working hard on something, partly because he always likes to be busy and productive. He rolls his eyes at some of my more ambitious projects, but goes along as long as they aren't pricey. I have a good track record of them turning out well so he trusts me... most of the time. His biggest complaint is spending money on plants, so he LOVES the swaps. He is pretty encouraging other than the expense because it keeps me busy. I'm sure he'd rather I be cleaning or (preferably) baking sweets, but that doesn't happen even when I'm not gardening. -Ais.

I'm sure he'd rather I be cleaning or (preferably) baking sweets, but that doesn't happen even when I'm not gardening.

I do bake sweets but I only clean enough so that the house is presentable.

Later I have a story to tell about a plumber who came out to my farm to do some work and gardener wife. The plumber doesn't come out looking real good in this story, not in my version anyway.

I have learned to ask VERY little of my hubby! Last time he mowed, he decided that the leaves (used as mulch around trees & shaping beds I was laying out) needed to be ground up & blown into the woods. He did that by riding the mower over every inch of ridable space. He hugged the trees with the mower and even mowed under the azaleas! That was the end of quite a few things I had just planted, including alot of my fall swaps, ferns, hostas and a small Japanese Maple... All of which he thought were "weeds." So he has been restricted to only wielding the chainsaw - under my direct supervision. Hopefully, once my starter plants fill in, he will come to see the difference between a Hosta & a weed. For now, that's the best I can hope for.

My DH loves veggies and fruits so he is in charge of the orchard, grapes, and the straw-blue-black berries. He stays clear of my figs though because he doesn't like to eat them. I do the veggies and flower gardens, with my DD's help, about an acre's worth or so. We don't have any lawn but we do have orchard grass that he mows once a year. Would like it to be more like 4 times to keep down the 8' waving weeds but that is wishing. We have a lot of tractor paths and gravel driveways which he keeps in good shape, the rest is woods - a la naturale. I need to put new mulch down around the house and garage but don't know if I can do it alone and he's just had surgery so it may be paying some out-of-work person to do it for me. The last time he graciously drove the truck and swept it out for me when I was done since the first truckload he shoveled 2' high around the viburnums. When I explained that it wasn't quite right he said that I could do it my way and he would help. We've had a laugh or two over that one. He does help me with the canning but usually only is interested in harvesting tomatoes and green beans. Carrots and okra and such are not his thing. Isn't it funny that I like to do it all and he gets to choose? He does a lot of building with some help from me and is quick with the shovel since I am not supposed to wield one. And, fences? He does wonders! We differ on a lot of things but he'll help me if I ask, the same as if he asks for my help. I think I would go stark raving coo-coo if he always worked along side of me. I do enjoy the solitude sometimes, which I think you all know what I mean, but it is more so when you're retired.

Nancy the nancedar

My husband is in charge of the lawn. He mows, and edges. He also takes care of any limbs that need to be trimmed, or trees that need to be taken down. He's graciously put together some wooden fences for me so that I can stake out a little wildflower garden on the edge of my property. He also will be redoing the edging we have around some of our rock beds. These things he will do without being asked. Other than that, he is "HAND'S OFF" by choice. He doesn't have any interest in gardening.

So I basically do all the weeding, and planting and digging and pruning and watering and planning. Steven will rake leaves, actually he loves doing it being out in the fresh air and getting exercise, but actual gardening is crossing the line for him. I'm not complaining because I love to do it and he doesn't so it doesn't bother me, although I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish that he would dig some holes for me when I plant shrubs because it takes me hours, if not days to dig holes big enough, and I know it would take him so much less time.
My daughters love to help me water the plants, which is very helpful because I have to hand water everything. They'll enjoy it for about 15 minutes and then grow bored and want to play, which is fine by me. They're still so young, only 4 and 3, and that's all I can wish for at this point. Sometimes, I can get them to find all the rocks that have escaped from my rock beds and get them to gather them up and put them back in the beds for me. Again, they're only good for short periods of time, but as far as I'm concerned, every little bit helps.
It always amazes me that even if you do a little bit of raking, or pruning, or weeding, that the little you do has such a big impact. I'll be overwhelmed, like the thoughts of all the weeding I have to do this year, but I'll go outside with the girls for 2 hours, and I'll weed while they play. Today, I did one whole side of my yard, leaving only two very large rock gardens to weed. The task seems daunting, but I know that if I spend just an hour or two, I can make rocks look pristine again. I just wish there was more time in the day!!!!

You know, of the friends I have that have 2 gardeners in the family/partnership, they spend a lot of time squabbling over gardens. I think it's kind of nice when you have 1 who plans and it's their thing and the other supports but doesn't try to assert. It is certainly nice to have a common interest, but harmony is nice, too! As my SO has gotten more into it, we definitely bicker a bit more about his likes vs mine (neat and clipped vs freestyle and natural). We do our best to compromise. :)

I have to admit I'm rather glad to reign alone in the garden. I have a feeling that DH and I would argue about who did what (for credit), and he doesn't like some of the wildflowers that I like. I love Bidens, and I think he'd prefer to mow them down. For what, that shorn look? I ask him.

LOL!! I like bidens, too, even if it does look a bit weedy til it blooms. That's not the biggie we argue over, though- that would be perilla. I love the frilly purple accent all over, but he hates it and just thinks it's weedy. So we bicker each year til i weed out almost all of it or let him do it. I do try to get most of it out before it sets seed- it is a bit promiscuous. I love it in arrangements, especially with whites and chartreuse or a mix of warm colors.

Mine helps out by digging the holes, and built me a wonderful, beautiful sturdy garden shed till the tornado took it away a few weeks ago. He refuses to pass comments on anything but "monkey faces" which he loves till I get the finished product done. He always loves what I do in the gardens, he just can't visualize my theroy. He swears it's a "man" thing. LOL And he always brings me a cold beer on a hot afternoon when I'm wrapping things up for the day!! :-)

ok, i'll bite- what are monkey faces? pansies?

Tammy DH and I even argue about whether Bidens looks weedy until it blooms -- if it's in rich enough soil with enough moisture the foliage takes on a deep blue-green tint that I love. However it does look rather horrible in winter, but I leave it up for the birds. When we first moved here we had wonderful huge lines of Bidens all up the driveway, about 500' -- until he mowed it one summer. So I've been scattering seed every year to help it get re-established. We also have 2400' of ditch beside the road down to the creek beside the horse pastures that I have been letting Bidens grow in -- that way we only have to weedwack the ditches once. In wet years the Bidens display is spectacular. I always curse the person who put those ditches in however (not us), because they are cross to the main flow of water, and even mowing them once a year is a lot of work.

Ha, only when forced or he feels guilty.

Carla

My husband and I have a good working division/combination of labor where outdoor matters are concerned. I am in charge of the flower beds and he is in charge of the vegetable garden and berries. He helps me when I need help in the flower gardens and I help him when he needs help in the vegetable gardens. He does mow the lawn but I didn't have a fit when he bought a big, bright red riding mower to do it (like a very expensive toy and not justified by our limited lawn area). I used to mow the lawn with an electric push mower, which he hated, so he got the job along with the choice of mower.

That's a pretty good example of how we work it out - we both have our opinions and know that it's better if we mark out our territories rather than battle over each point. This way I am proud of his garden and all the wonderful produce (we work together on canning, preserving, and freezing) and he is proud of my flower gardens and enjoys the views from the porch and the deck.

He also prepares my containers for wintersowing (using a power saw and a propane torch - more toys!) but then I did teach him the method, which he uses to get his veggies started early. And he likes to encourage my seed starting because he is convinced it saves tons of money at the garden center. Win/win.

DH does anything that requires power tools, chainsawing, building trellises, string trimmer, mowing. Sometimes I mow, but I complain about it and that we don't need any grass and I'm gonna plant the whole yard so there is no mowing. DH wants grass so he mows. He has helped with hucking mulch under my direct supervision, same as pruning limbs with the chainsaw and a few other pruning jobs. He helps with the garden mostly. Pulling weeds, tying toms, tilling, and of course harvesting. Mostly, his main job is to come check on me and make sure I'm not over doing it. Last summer he came outside, and confiscated my shovel without saying a word. It was hot and I was 8mo preg. and planting on a slope. lol. He may not have the vision I do, but he does really like how things have turned out.

Tamelask, you got it. He loves pansies and I must admit, they are a favorite of mine too. :-)

My husband is a wonderful help. I think he truly enjoys planting the flowers and shrubs that he has in the past....HOWEVER....he does not see very well and he's pulled out just about EVERYTHING he has planted, thinking it was a weed.

SO.......I have to weed. :( (think he's doing that on purpose? LOL)

My DH helps me out by supporting any gardening and landscaping decision I make and loves what I come up with. He is disabled so he can't do a lot of hard labor himself, but he is wonderful about arranging for help if I need it. I recently decided my back yard was too small. So he got on the phone, and one of his friends is at our house this very moment with his backhoe, digging a pond right outside the yard (about 50' x 50' x 6' deep for raising koi) and using the dirt to make the newly expanded back yard level and building me a road aound the back of the yard so I can drive right up to my koi pond filters if I need to. I can't wait to get home and see what's been done!! YAY!!!