TAMERA,
when I am working in the garden I do feel less stressful. Especially if a big project is going on. Often I remember my Mothers words "Idle hands are the devils workshop"..I don't know about the devil but I do know that staying busy with something you want to do is very thereupetic.

Here's a couple of shots of the side yard garden at my house. Sorry to say it dosen't look that good this year because of my illness......the addiction thing, you know daylilies, pollen dabbing, lily auction....

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Hope you get a lot of response, I love seeing everyone's garden. I have seen some stunning garden pictures posted here.

Wendy

Sometimes I find gardening will relieve stress...well most of the time, actually. But not in the fall after being so hot and dry all summer. Now, I'm running around like a headless chicken wondering how I'm ever going to get all this done before cold weather and saying 'Help Me Lord' constantly! Ida

I find most aspects of gardening to be very theraputic. My strength is growing plants - my garden design leaves much to be desired!! Doesn't matter though. I merely have to walk through my gardens after a stressful day at work to feel better. It's as if the stress just evaporates as I stroll - looking at new blooms, observing plant growth, plucking a few weeds.
My husband often arrives home from work before I do. It's gotten so he sees stress on my face as I walk through the do and says. "go and look at your flowers." A few minutes later, I can walk back into the house with things in perspective and a whole new attitude. Needless to say, he is always willing to create more gardens for me.... : )
Of course, working in my gardens is even better than strolling through them. I can't really explain it - I start digging in the dirt and my mind just goes to another place. I'm concentrating on what I'm doing in a way, but when I reflect back on gardening time, I realize that my body has often been on auto-pilot and my mind has wandered all over the place. It's the same sensation I get when meditating....I'm present in some aspects, but in many others, not.
Perhaps this is why my garden design needs so much improvement!!!

Great topic, Tamera. If I can find images of my gardens, I'll post.

Meg :)

PS Hi IDA!!!! :)

The entire process of gardening de-stresses me - from designing and planning my annual beds, to spending time at the local nursery, to planting all the goodies I find. Before Katrina, I spent most of my days outdoors in my yard, even if there wasn't anything to do. Could always deadhead or weed. I have missed it more than I ever thought. We will be in our new house by mid-October, and I cannot wait to get back in the dirt! One day soon I might even have some pictures to share.

Oh, Wendy your garden is beautiful. I hope you get well real soon.

Gardening and stress goes hand in hand I think. At times it feels great working outside, then others times it seems like pure torture. Let me start at the beginning of the season Spring. Last spring was pure torture this year, after working in the gardens for two years this spring I had an abundant of weeds everywhere I felt like crying how in the world will I ever clean out all the weeds. Well, as it turned out the weeds were easy to pull up. I don't know what type they were but their roots were barely in the ground so with a simple raking they were gone.
Once everything was cleaned up and spring was getting well on it's way the rains came and oh the joy of having rain to water the gardens and not because it's free water and it saves me time from having to water, though I do have soaker hoses set out so I'm not out there for hours watering, Theres nothing better than rain water for plants.
Awe, but then the rains would not stop and if it wasn't raining it was cloudy so everything came to a stop. Nothing was growing right, if at all. Then one night we had 7 inches of rain when in a few hours and it flooded our town and others around us. With to much rain most all the roses I have and others I've seen about town lost all their leaves. They are blooming but mostly bare of leaves. A lot of us lost plants because we were trying to do the right thing by planting drought tolerant plants, ones for our area HA that turned out to be a big disappointment to loose so many plants.
For some of us it becomes an addiction, we fall head over heels in love with a plant or a species of plant like daylilies. So then comes the madness of making our beds bigger to get our fix.
It can be disheartening when you try to grow a plant and it does not work for you. I cannot tell you how many plants I've killed most likely from giving it to much love or buying it on impulse and not knowing how to care for it. Live and learn the hard way sometimes.

It feels good to get my hands into the dirt planting something and then sit back to watch it grow, see it get larger as time goes by. Then all of a sudden you realize that the plant does not have enough room and will have to be moved or move the ones around it. Another leanring curve.

Then you have fall coming and you start planning for winter, this means more cleaning up, feeding some plants so they'll be really for spring. Trim ones once frost has killed it back. Easiest ones are evergreens or dormant plants. Dormants like Esperanza (yellow bells), salvias you don't trim till spring, so you have dead looking sticks (as my husband says) all over the yard. Roses in Texas don't get trimmed till February because of our spells of warm weather. Gardening is pretty much a year around job but with breaks in-between.
When working outside or just sitting out there I feel a calm most of the time. I've been going through some trials the past 5 years one thing then another happening and I can feel as though the world is weighting down heavy on me but once I get outside and can enjoy just puttering around thinking up of what I want to do next, how I'm going to do it keeps my mind off troubles for a while.
We have Canadian Geese that fly over our house in the spring and fall and it is the most beautiful sight to see and hear them honking over head. There's nothing like seeing the little humming birds come to feed off the fruits of my labor. As well as butterflies fluttering about the garden.
There is a great feeling knowing you've taken a small piece of land and made it into something that others enjoy as well. My husband was very surprised when he saw butterflies and humming birds come to our yard and he didn't know why we had them now when we had none before. I had to tell him that I planted plants that attract them.
It's also a great feeling to see it come all together where before there was nothing but dirt and weeds.
It's is a great feeling when your small grandson walks with you in the garden telling you how pretty the flowers are. Showing him how to grow thing's from seed.
I don't want to leave out how wonderful gardeners are, they love to share with others. They are very helpful in the knowledge teaching you how to grow a plant. It is a feel good thing to give to others and a joyous feeling when you receive a gift of a plants or plant's from another gardener.
A gift from a gardener is a very special gift indeed.

We can all agree what puts a smile on our face is when you take a walk about the garden and see a plant coming up or being surprised by a bloom that you didn't know was soon to be there.
Gardens love to wander about the garden looking for signs of life in the spring. It makes me feel alive again after the long winter months.

I believe it's stress relief to be able to grow something and keep it alive. Being able to maintain it in it's full beauty is a wonderful thing. It's like being connected to mother nature but being a helper or a conductor in your own orchestra. It's sad when some things die but it's always a learning experience.

Gardening destresses me in lots of ways. I spend every morning and evening out in the garden weeding (I'm very on top of this all the time) watering, deadheading and just looking at things. I enjoy every part of the garden. This year I havent had any disappointments, everything I did was for the better. We've had a drought this year, and I keep up on watering, so everything looks really good. Thats the only part that stresses me just a little, getting that done. But the rewards are worth it. My job is stressful, so its nice to have this sanctuary to escape to. Next year I am planning a few more beds, including one with just daylilies.

Jen

My garden is where I do my best thinking....and communicating with God. If I have a problem that needs solving....I take it to the garden with me and talk it over with God. This gives me a sense of peace, and I feel as though the weight has been lifted from my shoulders.
I work harder out in my garden than I would at a "normal" job, but it's all worth it. When I'm just walking through my garden, looking at all that I've accomplished over the years, seeing the gorgeous blooms and plants, the stress of life just melts away. Sure, sometimes gardening can be stressful too, like this year with our severe drought conditions, but then I remember, "Hey God is still in control and He will take care of this problem in His time!" In the mean time, I'll continue to do what I can to help.
I do have a favorite place, my porch, from where I get a good view of my front and side gardens and from where I can watch the hummers and other birds feeding. I have several rocking chairs there as well as an ceiling fan, which makes for a comfortable place most days.
Gardening is a relaxing and rewarding endeavor for me. I hope God allows me to be healthy enough to continue gardening for years to come, and if I die out in my garden, at least I will have died happy!!
Jan

Gardening has been a life saver for Me.! As our world continues to Change I'm not sure of anything anymore. But just knowing I have my Garden to go to and relieve all the stress that's out their Helps me tremendously ! It has become my Security ! I feel If more people would give Gardening a try " Life would Feel better for them.
olgaflowers

Gardening ABSOLUTELY relieves stress for me! Actually, I don't really have much stress these days, because I have retired. Nonetheless, working in the garden, or just walking around in it and looking things over, is wonderfully calming for mind and body. This last couple of years have been my first real experience with gardening, and although it is a lot more work than I realized it would be, and I have failed with plants more often than I have succeeded, I love it.
This last Spring I had a reaction to an antibiotic that made me extremely sensitive to sunlight, and my doctor said that I must stay out of the sun for 2 to 4 months - I asked him if I could still garden if I did it in the dawn hours, and he said yes. I thought it would not be much fun at that hour, but it has been almost as good as working out there later in the morning. The air is very fresh at that time, and things are very quiet (it's also a great time for catching snails, a side benefit). Of course, it has meant that I have not had much time each morning, as there's just this little window of about an hour, maybe less, when it's light enough to see, but not any real sun. But it has all worked out really well, and I am looking forward to next Spring when things will be back to normal. ANY gardening is great gardening ( though of course, weeding is the least great)!

I garden because I can't stand staying in the house.I hate the house,and I am not able to do alot out in the yard any more because of severe back problems,but still do alittle along.The front yard use to be full of grass that had to be cut with a weedeater,cause couldn't cut with a mower so good,so I pulled out all the grass and planted roses in it,and now filling in between them with daylilies as I can afford to buy one or two.Being outside makes me forget all the problems.{{gwi:961712}}
Click on the picture to see a bigger version.

Jean

I, too, hate being in the house. Probably because the whole idea of house-work is stuff one "has" to do, vs. gardening which is stuff I "want" to do. I don't care if it's weeding or planting or collecting seeds, I go out, and just find something- anything that can be done.
Mostly I think it's because it's a lot like being on vacation: you don't have to worry about what is "not" getting done...you're simply thinking about nothing else but gardening things.
I do thank God when I'm surveying my little world; I've been blessed a million times over with the space I've been given to tend to on this planet. It's really amazing all the different varieties of life that have been placed on this planet, each with its own unique look, and style of recreating itself. It's a pretty amazing process this whole "life" thing.