Yes, I have done that. Literally working morning to nightfall. It is good exercise. Better than vegging in front of the TV for 10 hours.

Lately I am trying to do more relaxing and observing the garden in a non judgmental way, not to fix things as part of a daily mindfulness practice. It is difficult and after the allotted time is over then I go back to fiddling and fixing.

It is too easy for me to feel pressure from my gardening to do list. That was not my intent when I started to pick up gardening

I get comments like that. It's not unusual to find me out there at 10 PM. But when everything is blooming those people are the first ones to tell me how nice everything looks.

my favorite thing is comparing photos from year to year and seeing how things have evolved in my yard and flower beds :)

This year I am determined that at least one day a week I will enjoy my garden without criticism , being able to sit , enjoy , and relax without jumping up to deadhead something or pull a weed.

We will see how that works out .

You're certainly in good company. I spend as much time in the garden as I can find. It's 'work' but I find it very relaxing and extremely rewarding. Your neighbor doesn't know what he's missing!

Tell your neighbour there's a lady in England who plants roses in the middle of the night...[I got lights]…

My neighbours go away a lot, when they come back, they see a whole different garden...

@Ashley .. exactly.. I love to do that!!

Congrats on all your hard work. You go girl! Yes! We want pictures!

You are not alone! I've been removing an entire front yard and turning it into a rose and rose companion garden and I'm out there even in the rain transferring half inch tall seedlings of flowers I've grown into the yard lol.

Im always going out in the yard late at night. I have a moon garden of sorts, lots of night bloomers so I'm sure whatever nosy neighbors can see me think its nuts.

I’m impressed you can go at it for 10 hours! You must be younger than I am( or in better shape, which I‘m sure you are:-). I’ve enjoyed seeing your progress, and look forward to seeing your new plantings.

I too, garden at night. I know the neighbors think(or I should say, “know”) that I’m crazy, but I don’t care. If I feel like doing it, I seize the moment. It’s cooler at night, and I‘m interrupted far less frequently. One of my neighbors gave me a headlamp, after seeing me plant by flashlight. Lol. I loved having my hands free, and light pointing at whatever I was looking at. I was going through batteries like crazy, so I broke down and ordered a rechargeable one on Amazon. I seriously LOVE that thing. I keep it fully charged, and use it often. The only negative thing is that it attracts flying bugs to my face. Thankfully, we don’t have too many fly bugs here. It’s a must for “stealth gardening“. Lisa

I'm too wimpy to do a lot in the garden, but I'm another one who can't just sit still on the bench. I'm also a "crazy" lady who's out there after midnight with my flashlight squishing aphids between my fingers or changing the water for the wild animals, or just making sure the roses are still blooming. Fortunately there's no one close enough to judge me, or they're indoors and in bed like normal people. The owls are keeping me company lately and that alone is reward enough.

Thank you so much for such lovely encouragement! I feel much better knowing I have great company in the “crazy” gardener category! I really do love it, but sometimes wonder if I’m a little too obsessed.

Several of you posted really great advice, to make time to just sit and enjoy it. I think this can be the most difficult part of gardening. Its often so much more spectacular in my mind than in reality, and I can slip into fixing mode. I always see things I need to fix...a few weeds, a dead bloom, and then if the tools are out, well then, I might as well get something done. I need to learn to just “be” in my garden, too.

It doesn’t look like much right now, but I’ll take some pics to post soon. I need to photodocument. Thank you again for your many kindnesses! :-)

“Do you ever feel you need to cut down on your drinking” is one of the CAGE questions.

Perma n’ Posies/9A FL

I really do love it, but sometimes wonder if I’m a little too obsessed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAGE_questionnaire

I woke up with some sort of bug today- the kind where you have to keep a trash can very close by.

I’ve had a low grade fever all day, but after keeping some lunch down I thought maybe I could water the roses I planted yesterday, since I didn’t have time to then.

Well, I finished watering but it was a graphic ending that I’m hoping only the lawn care people across the street noticed.

I think I’m done being a crazy plant person. For now at least.

Influenza A is going around right now. Missed it for the flu shot this year. Take care of yourself!

Well, I can’t like your bug or your graphic ending, lol —-I’m really sorry to hear you aren’t feeling well, JC! I’m sure once you are well again you’ll be right back on the horse so to speak! :-)

And rifis, no I don’t think I have a gardening problem. I don’t need to cut back on my gardening, I need to quit my job so I can garden around the clock. :-)

Ha if I dont laugh at myself, I’ll cry!

My order from HCR shipped a week late but now I’m very grateful I dont have 13 more plants to baby.

Thank you, Jin—you are a great encourager! I will keep imagining how it will look next year. Today I planted Nastarana, Leonardo da Vinci, Barbara Kost bougainvillea, and Jasmina along the chain link fence. They look so tiny, it’s almost impossible to believe they will cover it in a year or two. It’s miraculous, really, and one of my favorite things about gardening. :-)

I'm a crazy garden lady, too, but I call my time out in the garden "living". So much of life is just chores and obligations.

Were I a more successful philosopher I would be able to appreciate doing paperwork and cleaning the sink as living, too; but in my limited state of enlightenment the time spent in the garden, active or idle, seems more significant.

I had to rationalize all the time I've been spending lately in the garden just looking. Well, if I spend so much effort to make a beatiful garden, isn't it reasonable to spend time enjoying it? Otherwise, what's the purpose? Currently the tree peonies are in bloom, and one of them has blooms the size of soup plates. Those flowers require me to look at them. Idem for all the early roses that are in bloom now.

Long and careful looking is also the basis of further planning, of course: getting an idea whether a planting works or not, and what might improve it; getting to know better the plants that are already present. It takes time to absorb the garden and come up with ideas.

I don't know if all addicted gardeners feel their garden as a creative project and artistic expression as I do. It's necessary creative expression; I'd be unhappy and frustrated if I didn't have a garden.

Barbara Karst is a beautiful monster. She will probably cover the fence and eat every one of her neighbors. You will have to keep her trimmed back. Sometimes bougies are killed to the ground by hard frost in N FL so that may help. I have B Karst and 12 other varieies of bougainvillea at last count. I love them and their wild colors.

Melissa, how I wish I could grow tree peonies here!! They are so beautiful.

Here's some visitors to a few my moon garden plants. Its fun to go out and see them going crazy flitting from flower to flower. They really do act intoxicated lol. They get way up into the trumpet flowers then, shoot out straight down, backwards, almost hit the ground and shoot up to the next flower. Never knew they did that! The things you see when observing stuff late at night!

Sultry, I love your description of the behavior of the moths. They can't exactly turn around inside the flower, so backing out like a car out of a garage is very sensible.

The CAGE questions immediately made me feel defensive, but since I don't drink liquor I think we all know what that's about. In my defense I'll say that my "habit" probably won't land me in jail, wreck the car or break up my marriage. So there!!!

The CAGE questions were a joke. There are good passions, and they're a part of what keeps the world turning on its axis.

You are not alone, Perma, as evidenced by all of the above. We're all as afflicted as you. There have been times when my husband has stuck his head out the back door at 10 pm and meekly asked if I was planning to make dinner. And, other times when he comes out with a flashlight looking for me. Our obsession does no harm and our marriages will stay intact if we can get dinner on the table a few nights a week, at least.

And, I agree, it is miraculous. So much so, that it brings tears to my eyes to see the winter garden burst into color in spring. It just doesn't seem possible.

Thank you so much Sultry for the bougie info...I realize now that I misspoke. I put BK back in the South corner by herself, because I read how big she’d get and that she needed some frost protection, and it was Raspberry Ice I put out with the pink & white roses.

I also wish we could grow peonies here! They're definitely right up there with roses in my book for stunning beauty.

I‘m ”resting” today—no planting, just my day job of teaching. But we’re reading the Transcendentalists, so my mind keeps wandering back to my garden. There’s so much to enjoy and discover. I just need to hold onto this moment, because each leaf truly is a gift. :-)

I know exactly what you mean Melissa, about creative expression. I imagine that is the case for many of us. I know if I’m addicted to anything, it’s the creative process. I’ve been creating things as far back as I have memory. I’ve tried just about every art there is out there. I feel like it took me a while to really know my own heart, and now I’ve finally found it. Gardening brings all my creativity to its fullest, and the growing part allows me to keep creating. Whether it was a play, a ballet, an art show, a house reno, or Christmas decorations, the saddest part was always when the “making” part was over. With gardening, I get to keep making over and over again, and Nature gets to be my collaborator. It really is the most joy I think you can find in life, ever. :-)

I am a little embarrassed by my obsession with roses . All of my neighbors don't garden .

I try to sneak garden work early mornings to avoid the heat (and people ) . when they see me they start asking questions . One time I was spraying fungicide and my neighbor asked me :Is that water ? ( why would I put water in a pressure sprayer anyway ?)

Agree that garden design is art too! I too spend a lot of time analyzing things from an aesthetic perspective to see if I can improve the color composition or spacing. I have to remember to turn my brain off and just enjoy it.

I wish so much that I could have a little cabin out at my land so I could spend much more time out there. When I do get out there, I spend WAY too much time just working, working, working, and not nearly enough just in looking. If I ever do get caught up with cleaning up after all this long period of neglect, I must focus on creating sheltered resting spots in which to sit and look and think. It's a big challenge,since the land is such a sharp slope, there are few if any flat areas, so I'll have to make them (more work!). Sad to say, after chemotherapy and all the rest, I get tired so easily and just can't get out there more than once or twice a week any more. I hope things will get better,though I really should not complain...

I also spend a lot of time just looking. Last night I was just pacing around with my yardstick imagining where to plant things in my front yard work in progress. My front yard looks like a chess board because I'm removing all the sod but doing it one section at a time as I'm ready to plant something so that I don't have a big mudpit in the meantime. I remove it in rectangular ish sections for each new planting since its easier to remove that way with the tools I'm using. So there are patches of grass and patches with dirt and patches with baby roses just a foot tall and then me pacing around with a yardstick. Then since I'm growing so many rose companions from seed there are areas full of popsicle sticks where I mark where I plant a baby seedling so I don't crush it and I can water it. I'm sure I look crazy but in a couple of years it will be amazing lol.

Bart, I would think that after all you’ve been through you deserve to rest and just look at nature. I think carving out a space just for you to enjoy it out there is a fabulous idea! Maybe when you do feel like you can, you could terrace off an area that included some seating?

I heard someone speak once about how we design for others first, and ourselves second. They mentioned how we orient the best views from the street, and create vignettes to please others, but seldom create for us alone. They challenged us to look at our design as something we alone will experience. This was very liberating to me, and for this new garden I’ve really taken it to heart. I’ve walked all over and created little spots to stop and enjoy my work. I’m much more experimental this way too.

Pippa, your project sounds really cool! I’m so glad to hear that you are walking around with your yardstick...I’m forever walking around with my tape measure and little orange cones (leftover from flag football days!) and measuring, and moving cones. It probably looks pretty crazy, lol—-but it helps me visualize everything. I’m a paper and pencil planner, too. I have stacks of drafts of plans, that I’m sure my family doesn’t really understand.

Pippa, please post photos of your project! I’m so impressed that you are replacing all that sod...it is going to be amazing! :-)

Oh those orange cones sound perfect that's a great idea. I'll snap some pics of the work in progress so far this evening. I'm sure my neighbors are thinking I'm nuts at this point it really is a weird looking scene right now. And since my seedlings are so small I think it just looks like random popsicle sticks lol. The roses in my neighborhood are always grafted HTs so I doubt many people even realize what the little baby roses from bands even are.

I completely understand how you feel Perma! I am the crazy plant lady of my neighbourhood. One night recently I was out late at night with a flashlight spraying deer repellent on the hedge by the road and one of my neighbours was out walking (who knows why, it was pitch dark!) and looked at me like I was truly insane.

People always talk about how it's so much work...as if I'm being forced to do it. hahaha

The thing that bothers me the most though is people who stroll by and literally don't even turn their heads to look at the garden. How could someone not notice a huge flower garden! Sometimes I watch people from my upstairs window and if they walk by without a glance, I have to fight the urge to open the window and scream out "Philistine!!".

I suppose I AM a crazy plant lady :))

Bart, someone who's been through chemotherapy and more isn't in a good place to think about terracing, otherwise that's what I'd be recommending. Like you, our garden's on a steep slope, and I find it's really important to have some flat, or flattish, areas. Of course we also have the threat of landslides to reckon with, which means that any ground disturbance must be limited and cautious. Stairs would help, or a flat spot here and there with a bench. Or simply a small flat spot. We don't have many seats in the big garden either (there are a couple of places that have been cut out as grassy "sofas"), but grass is agreeable to lie on, especially when it's been recently cut. I know, more work.

I wonder off and on about your garden, its character compared with mine. I was surprised when, in a recent comment, you said your roses were only just starting to bloom. This was a mild winter for us and there were a few roses that never entirely stopped flowering, 'Old Blush' and 'Sanguinea' chief among them. We sit in a warm spot locally, south-facing halfway down the hillside, at about 1400', and the big garden started out treeless and shadeless, though as the years have passed the shrubs have grown. Still the sun beats down in the summer. Your garden sounds colder, or your roses have a different flowering behavior. It's rather a pity that neither one of us is a photographer so we could more easily compare notes.

I'm glad to share in all this happiness in creative activity. What a charge!

Rosylady hahaha!!!!!

You would love a photo record of your garden's evolution, Bart and Melissa. We would all love it too.

It sure would be nice if I could persuade my DS to bring his girlfriend to see my garden when the roses are in bloom; she's a great photographer, and even said DS could take pics with his Smartphone and then just maybe Bart the Troglodyte could figure out how to post them...but the young ones are so busy with their own stuff; I'm not sure it'll happen. I would love to share...

Melissa, I think that bloom thing is very wierd. I see from Google that 1400 feet is 426,72 meters above sea level. I think mine is about 600-not that much higher up...

I have not heard anyone use the word "troglodyte" in a long time, and it gave me a good laugh!

By the way, Bart, do you have shade in your garden? That certainly helps in summer when you want to take a break. It's one reason we have so many pergolas.

The orientation of your garden would make a temperature difference as well. We're sheltered from cold winds here, and exposed to the sun. Our property has a reputation for being one of the warmest spots locally: where the snow melts first.

I'm a troglodyte, too, of course. Love my cave!

There is some shade from my oaks,but the garden faces southweat,so the summer afternoons are dreadful. Part of the problem is that I'm so "behind" in all my jobs, since I was pretty bad off with my hip for a year or two before i got really sick. And before the hip thing got bad, I"lost" about a year and a half just working on my antl-badger fencing . So first I have to clean up the overgrown mess of weeds, cut out dead wood, etc. And then, stuff always comes up-like the discovery of what I call this "Angelina Jolie" weed. No offense to any of you who might be a fan of hers-I am not-but this stuff is a vine that spreads like mad with snaky ,underground roots. It looks sort of like regular bindweed, but the flowers are much bigger, as are the leaves (this is why I call it the Angelina Jolie weed; it's just like regular bindweed, but with a great press agent,lol,and it pops up everywhere...) So I had to interrupt my pruning and dedicate myself to weeding and cardboarding this are into which AJ was spreading. I know there's more of this horrid stuff in the bottom area of the garden; I still have to get to that...