Hi Bloomingannie!
You are exactly right about being in the garden changing our mental state.
Which means I'm out there tending the garden FOR ME.
If it was just a matter of making the garden look great, I confess I would probably let it go to weeds.

Unless there is a thunderstorm, if I have a free moment ANYTIME, I'm in my garden. Rain, heat, gloom of night etc. I go galumphing out there in what ever footwear is handy, wearing what ever outlandish outfit I can throw together at the moment. This is due to the sense of urgency I always feel about "getting out there" (and to my tendancy to procrastinate about things like laundry during gardening season).

In between I do the annoying stuff of "real life".

Good morning Annie ~ I'm out there whenever I can be. The gardens are for me also, mentally, spiritually and physically. I love being out in them. Mine aren't the best looking gardens around but they make me happy. I work part-time, plus we are doing some remodeling inside our cottage. I love to go out in the mornings even just for a walk to see what is going on in the plant kingdom. Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised to see what is blooming, other times I see what all needs to be done. Gardening is a real pleasure, even though it is a lot of work too.

Happy Gardening ~ FlowerLady

My dogs head for the door when they hear me turn on my camera or when I change my slippers for shoes.

It is a VERY rare day - and usually only when the weather is really awful - that I don't "take a turn" through my flowerbeds at least once.

I believe it is the only way to keep up with things. How else would you notice that aphids have invaded or that the coleus needs water? And it's the little daily primping that keeps things in order without having to do a marathon weeding or deadheading job. A friend of my dh's asked him how on earth he could keep his vegetable garden so weed free. Dh told him, "I'm out there at least a few minutes every day. When I'm there and I see a weed, I pull it out. Do that often enough and things look good." The same goes for my flower beds. A little deadheading here...a bit of weeding there...it really pays off - without being a huge chore.

And, of course, it's very good therapy for me! If not for gardening, I'm sure I would have snapped long ago.

9 times out of 10 when someone leaves a message on the answering machine they start out with "I know you are out in the garden .........". My husband and I would live out there 24/7 if we didn't have to come in the house and take care of it once in a while. Does that answer your question :):). If I didn't get out there everyday I might miss some little fleeting moment in the garden that will never be captured again plus it is the BEST therapy in the world both physically and emotionally........

Lynne

oopppsss - I didn't actually answer your question - "Do you think it makes for a better garden??" I have seen just as pretty gardens with weekend gardeners so I don't know if it makes it a better garden but I do know it makes me a better person - keeps me 'grounded" (pun intended)....

Lynne

Yes, I am in my garden each day, whether for a few minutes or hours on end. The morning is better for me, but I usually go out depending upon my sun pattern and which garden I am focusing upon. I try to avoid working in the direct sun, especially in summer.
One of the reasons I am out is that I raise rabbits outdoors, so it is a must for me to be outside daily, bad weather included. Even if I didn't have bunnies, I'd be out there daily. Sometimes I pinch something, other times I prune, dig or weed. For larger, time-consuming projects, I have to schedule them and it's usually in the early evening or on a weekend morning.
I don't think being out there daily would make a better garden in the sense of more beautiful. Good planning and right plant, right place techniques conserve time and make for good gardens, period. There are some advantages, though, from being out in the garden daily, even if briefly. You can monitor pests and disease and catch it early, plus you can keep up on weeds before they become larger problems. A daily check, so to speak, is more for prevention and early intervention, but that goes hand in hand with better gardens.

No. I am not in the garden EVERY day. In the winter I don't really tend to things as much in December. That is such a busy month, so I tend to take it "off". I also work a lot in December, or at least I try to as people need to get ready to seed for Wintersowing, or do hardscape work in January.
January I am out all the time wintersowing and of course doing any hardscape work to be ready for spring planting.
In the heat of summer we are not actually IN the garden per se every day. We sit on the front screen porch and enjoy it. The main garden now takes up very little work time so I try to let it "do it's thing" and not interfere too much.
The vegetable garden is one place I do try to visit every day since we eat out of it every day! Even if it's just to pluck an onion and some radish. YUM!

GGG

Absolutely! :-) Like you, I am fortunate to be able to garden year round so there is always something to attend to.

Diana has called me the best dressed gardener on the block because if I spot a weed on the way to my car in the morning, I will drop my purse & tote and pull weeds while wearing my business clothes, which includes heels and pantyhose.

I also have a gardening nightgown for those early morning inspections. :-)

I am primarily a weekend gardener due to my schedule, but find that if stay on top of things during the week, then I can enjoy my garden, and the weekend, even more.

It's always enjoyable to come home from work and see that another rose has burst into bloom from the bud it was that morning.

Marilyn

I am a daily garderner unless the weather is just awful. I walk the whole yard usually taking in everything as I go. Its therapy for me, so its easy.

I love my gardens and I think in the next 2 years they will mature to what I have pictured in my head. Right now I check on my bluebird eggs, my fish, my roses, and even pull weeds. Sometimes I do this in my business clothes like Marilyn...my neighbors just shake their heads LOL

My helper is always at my side and loves our time in the yard. Macie:
{{gwi:651551}}

Ronda

Oh, Ronda, Macie is such a sweet little doggy. I love her bow.

I'm not in my garden everyday. Being a northerner we only get about 5 months per year of gardening weather. I try to tuck things in around late Septermber and then I start looking at my feet sometime in March or April to see what's coming up. It's mid May before any planting can take place. Living on a ranch makes my days long and often I don't get out there at all because of my other duties. I just do the best I can and tend to things when time allows. The combination of weather and farm chores make it difficult to get a lot done in a season so yes, I do think it has a direct effect on how a garden looks. The majority of my gardening time is spent in the vegetable gardens since my family depends on the produce that comes from it. The pretty flowers though are what keep me interested and striving to improve my yard over all.

MeMo

My garden sometimes looks like a tornado planted it, but I love it, & I do my very best to at least "tour" it every day.

Unless I'm deathly ill, or the weather is dangerous, I'm out there.

It's a paraphrase of what someone has said already, but I think it makes a better garden & a better gardener.

wisht I had a gardening nightgown...

Most days but I would say not every day. Maybe I'm just a fickle person but there is no thing I want all the time. I have other loves -- reading, sewing, hiking and walking, visiting with friends -- that draw my attention as much as gardening does, and sometimes I'm paying more attention to those than to the garden.

Even though I am just getting more serious about all of this, I have always had pots of things . I am a very early morning runner since 1979 so I "see" my garden as I head out and then on return . I find myself stopping to pinch or pull while I am still dripping with sweat and then realize an hour has passed ! I swim every day from Mid April to Oct. and find myself looking at the plants and getting out between laps to pluck off a dead leaf or water something. I agree that this is therapy and I think the plants appreciate it too. Caroline

Yes, every day - even if just to smell a rose or two :-)

Anne

Not every day, tho I'm sure my garden would look better if I did!

And I'm realizing one nasty thing (well, *another* nasty thing) about not having sold our old house yet - now I have TWO yards to weed!!! Which is going to SERIOUSLY impact how much work I'm going to be able to do on new projects...

Do I work in the garden every day, no, but I do wander around it every day making mental notes of what has to be done. I'm one of those unfortunate people that has to stay out of the sun. :o( I've been known to putter around in the garden still in P.J.s (thanks to 6' fence) But on cool or cloudy days I get a lot of gardening done, I often hear from the house, are we ever going to eat today. I can't take the heat in the summer either, now don't laugh, it works for me, I have a halogen light and a long extention cord so I can garden after dark, after the sun goes down and it's cooler. When there's a will there's a way. Fess up now, am I the only one who's out in her garden in their P.J.'s

A......

Of course I am. It's what I do. Even when bad weather comes I find myself sitting in the garage, or staring out the windows. Winter brings a respite from all this, but I still get out there just to see what everything looks like. Plus, I am always looking for picture opportunities.
I get antsy during the week because I am the one who has to fix dinner and do all the cleanup. I just want to get out there!
I have other hobbies, but thats just it. Their hobbies. Gardening is far more than just a hobby. It is a way of life. If only more people would turn off the stupid television and get outside. I'm convinced the world would be a better place.
*steps off soapbox*
; - )

Mrmorton, amen to that, the world would be a better place, that's a fact.

A......

I walk the garden every morning and every evening, even in the pouring rain! Like Ronda, I have my dog Won By Her Wits (aka 'Charm') by my side.

I'm not necessarily tending the garden. Rather I'm enjoying it, planning what to plant since it's fairly new and I do bend down and pull a weed or two. When I worked full-time I had a smaller garden (at another house) and tried to tend it even though I only saw it up close in good weather.

Yes most definitely! I'm out there everday. Just last night it was nice and the DH and I were sitting outside...I had to take a stroll around the new beds and make mental notes of what has to be done, moved, planted...Whenever the weather is nice and as much time as possible on the weekends I'm out in the garden. When I get home from work, I usually spend 30-60 minutes outside before I come in to cook. It helps me relieve stress, it makes me happy and I waited for years to have a house with some of my own land to garden in! :)
Estelle

In spring, summer and fall. All day. Every day. My garden takes intensive care. I only do a bit of pruning and clean up in the winter.
(except this year. It's been the wettest winter/spring on record)

Libby

I am outside as much as the weather will allow. At my old house my garden was in the front yard and one of my neighbors came up to me one day and actually said -- "you know, you can buy one of those roll out gardens and then we wouldn't have to see you outside so much."

I told her that I spent time in the garden because I liked being outside. but i knew then that I was not made for the city and city mentality. shortly after that we moved to a more rural area. I'm outside almost everyday now, and here the properties are large enough that I don't have to see my neighbors. and when I do they comment politely on nicely my garden is coming along.

Ev'y day. Several times a day, the way we used to go in the baby's room to check on him.

There's always something that needs a bit of water, or weeds to pull, or something to deadhead.

The Rollout Garden, jxa -- my neighbor forty years ago had a different take on those. She'd buy a 'Rollout Thing' or two or three and carefully prepare a bed for it. Hundreds of little seedlings would come up and we'd be transplanting touch-me-nots, marigolds and all those other little seedlings to flower beds all over the neighborhood. Fond memories.

Nell

Aside from about six weeks in winter when there's nothing to really do, I "walk the yard" every day. This is a habit I got from my grandpa, who at 84 would go out every day and pull weeds, get rid of the rocks (although, how there were any left after 60 something years of picking them out, I'll never know)and check "on the progress" of things. It must be genetic, because I didn't even realize I was doing it until recently.
I'm not sure if it makes for a better garden, but it definitely makes me understand my garden better and I have a better connection to it. I garden for me, but I also garden for the birds. In addition to the plants for me, I plant things I know the birds, hummingbirds and butterflies will like. With their habitat diminishing, this seems like the least I can do.
But, YES, definitely I'm outside every day, and nine times out of ten you'll catch me in the grocery store in my sloggers and a pair of pruners in my back pocket. :-)
This was a great question!
Rett

Except for the absolute dead of winter, I'm out there every day, too. I always start the day filling birdfeeders, taking mealworms to the bluebirds, checking the martin house, and taking the dogs for a walk around the pond. Then it's a turn through the gardens, pulling a few weeds, making a mental note of what needs to be moved or removed, or trimmed or tended to in some way. Unless I need to spray, then I do that first thing before the sun gets too hot. I was out there tonite pruning bushes until it got too dark and I couldn't see a thing ! It really does keep me sane.

Carol

Truly, I don't know if my little area qualifies as a true garden yet. ;) But it's getting there. One of the first things I put in when I started gardening were the garden paths that meandered through our future garden areas. I walk those paths every morning with a cup of coffee in one hand. It's my quiet, reflective time before beginning a hectic day at work.

Absolutely.I spend most of my time in my Cottagey Butterfly garden weeding,seeding,pulling picking admiring. Then head to the veggie patch once a day I try to walk around my property,steal some mulberries or anything else edible from my trees. Pick up anything the wind blew in. Check how the fish and birds are doing,,,,,,,,,,,ah if it werent pitch dark I'd be out there.We even bought HUGE portable lights so we could garden at night.

foxsearth,

it wasn't the fact that she mentioned a rollout garden, it was her -- "then we wouldn't have to see you" comment that got me. As if my being outside in my yard was somehow offended the whole neighborhood.

foxsearth, I know what you mean, DH was in the navy when we got married so we moved nearer to his base, we rented an upstairs apartment in a older home. I stopped saying hello to the neighbours, they use to turn their backs on me and walk away. Hard to understand some city folk. Lived there for 2 years and didn't even get to know their names.

A......

This time of year, yes, I'm doing something in the garden every day. So many things have to be dealt with from about February through June. I like to be done with the major weeding, amending, digging, planting, pruning, etc by the time the heat really kicks in. July through September I tend to let my garden coast with the occasional deadheading and thinning. We do a lot of just plain enjoying the space in Summer. There's generally a lot of activity in Autumn right through Thanksgiving, although I did nothing last year. I don't do much in Winter aside from complain about the fact that I want to get back in the garden.

Yes,I am in the garden every day unless it is extremely cold.I hate cold weather but since I discovered wsing,I am just as busy in the winter and this year have complained because it was not cold enough,go figure.I have over 400 containers done and am still planting.Now I am in a whirl wind trying to plant seeds,plant out seedling that are ready for the garden ,getting my vege garden in, weeding,tilling,mulching,moving this and that.I need more hrs. right now..lol.I do take time to meditate everyday and I do stop quite freq. to smell the roses.best therapy in the world.
moonphase

Yes.
Every day.
Year round.

~Annie

Not every day, but pretty close to it!

My cottage garden is chockablock with plants, so hand-weeding is a necessity. The neighbors on both sides have Bermudagrass and it is constantly trying to invade with rhizomes or just throwing grass seed into my beds (sigh). Well, it's good exercise, all that bending and stooping, right?

I love going out in the morning best of all. Trouble is, I lose track of time and it makes me late for work! I make up for it by bringing big bouquets of flowers every week, LOL.

Having gone back to the rat race (i.e. full time job) very recently, I go by the lines of Marilyn - basically a weekend gardener, but I don't miss a tour in the evening after work. Like her, as soon as I get home and *before* entering the house I head for the garden to check it out. Depending on what needs to be done, I may be hosing or doing some light weeding and deadheading in my business clothes and shoes too. Yup.

Eduarda

Everyone,

Thanks for all your responses, I love hearing about time in your gardens. Oh, I would be late for work everyday if I started my day in my garden!

I like to do my weeding a little at a time otherwise I procrastinate. Also, every once in awhile I get an inspirational moment that helps me to better plan my garden.

I think that stroll through the garden everyday does make for a better garden since all of you have such wonderful gardens. I enjoy your pictures so much.

bloominganne

Ronda, your Macie is adorable. I have a Shih Tzu named Rufus and he is the cutest dog I've ever had (please don't tell my other 3 that I said that!) And I'm not just talking about looks, his personality is adorable. I read somewhere that Shih Tzus will train you to do what they want you to do ... Rufus has me wrapped around his little furry paw.

bloominganne

yes, I am in my garden or the greenhouse every day after work. being as I winter sow my perennials I am out there potting something up or seeding something. Maybe I am organizing or cleaning. It is such a great way to physically, mentally relax for me. although, my 10 yr old is starting to resent it a little. so I have to be careful with her.. and to not be too selfish with my time and make sure I am taking time for her also. I think her little hormones are starting to kick in with the snottyness and My mom is the meanest thing on earth. boys are so easy! I already went thru this with my oldest two girls. anyway, I am heading out there in a few minutes, I found seeds in a bubble mailer I forgot to sow. I am potting up plants that have spread too much and am going to try to sell them when I have my garage/craft sale. I can never get enough time out there. I am going to say that God gave me the gift of a green thumb and I am going to use that gift to glorify Him.

This is the first place I've ever lived in where I didn't have a fenced yard to turn my dog loose for the potty-thing, so I find myself out in the yard many times a day to walk him. While out there I can't help but bend over to see if something else has sprouted.

This garden of mine, begun to get out of mowing the stupid weeds passing for a lawn, has turned into a huge part of my life. The satisfaction and pure quiet joy I've gotten from this little tiny piece of rental property is totally unexpected.

My California Poppies *finally* started to bloom yesterday and I spied my first blossom-in-the-making on one of my Nasturtium plants today. I honestly never thought it would happen!

Nancy