Does seeing/working your garden help you relax

[Snoop Puss]

On the whole i'd say yes.... BUT...

I put up a "lacking motivation thread" a couple of weeks back as the weather was getting me down and Monty Don and pics and posts on here were making me feel like i was behind everyone else which was making me stressed and therefore not enjoying what should just be a fun hobby! Do we have a "disaster" thread on here? As with most social media, people here will tend to only post their successes. Maybe time to promote our mistakes as well?

Just to make you feel better, Stan, I don't have a single plant in the ground. Still. Not even my chitting potatoes. Life and work have got totally in the way. You could of course start a thread... We're all quite honest on here, so doubtless plenty of people would join in.

[JanieB]

This is the first time my garden is clear enough for me to use to grow things and I'm too bl00dy ill. 3 months ago I was fine and I went for a mammagram. Now I'm on stuff that is saving my life but I feel permanently exhausted. I can sit in the kitchen and look at a sunny garden which is just a blank canvas. I can pay for someone to come in and do the work but in my recent experience the ones who come in to landscape have their own ideas and are expecting to be paid for their design. I have my own design. I just need someone to do the work I was capable of 3 months ago.

[bikermike]

Ouch - GWS Janie B

I love being in the garden, for relaxation. I was out yesterday evening and had to call my wife out, just for the smell of the wisteria....

[JanieB]

Ouch - GWS Janie B

I love being in the garden, for relaxation. I was out yesterday evening and had to call my wife out, just for the smell of the wisteria....

One part that isn't changing is the patio which is just outside the back door. I don't understand why people are having theirs cleaned as they look better aged. Part of my plan is a sensory area around the patio and planned lawn area.

[Scarlet]

On the whole i'd say yes.... BUT...

I put up a "lacking motivation thread" a couple of weeks back as the weather was getting me down and Monty Don and pics and posts on here were making me feel like i was behind

I always post up the best bits! Even if it's just the flower and a rubbish looking plant (sometimes the rubbish bits are in the distance) but I always have areas that are work in progress.
I have different areas that are good at certain times of the year - it's never all perfect and I could never do it all!

I just like walking around and seeing something that I grew from seed myself
It makes me smile from the inside!

[bramble]

Same for me.
Cant wait to get domestics out of the way.
Out in my garden and greenhouse is like being in another world.
Seeing something g different every day.
Seedlings germinating.
Buds opening.
Butterflies and bees on the plants.
I do believe I am nearer to heaven when I am in my garden.

[rary]

Stan that's one of the things I don't like about tv gardening they never show the average garden and it is important to remember that "the average garden" the type of garden that most people have not the supper dupper gardens that very few people have, at present 95% of the colour of my garden comes from the boundary hedge with the fresh green of the emerging leaves the blossom of the Hawthorne and Rowan and the only touch of colour I have contributed to that is the Rowan, copper beech and a golden elder and the last two are there because I was to miserable to throw some hem away as I had paid 50p for them, the 5% of colour comes from a dozen fuchsia bought from lidles a couple of months ago as my own fuchsia are nowhere near ready yet, the veg garden is just starting to grow now the only produce I have used from the garden are lettuce, baby onions from sets and rhubarb so don't worry about what you read or see on telly, just go out and do what you want in the garden and enjoy yourself

[Lumpy]

Nope because OH has issues and everything is done in slow motion.
Sorry buts that’s the way it is.
X

[rary]

Lumpy hopefully you get some pleasure/relaxation from remembering when you had time to work in your garden, and its nice to see you still participate with the Vine, I do hope that helps you relax

[Martin H]

The "seeing" part is stressful. All I see is the jobs that need doing now, the jobs I should have done before now and the impact of not having done them in time.

The "working" part is relaxing. Once I'm stuck into a task I forget about all the other stuff and time just whizzes by, accompanied by the gentle, comforting sounds and smells of the garden.

[carolefu]

I think I have mentioned this before that I only have a backyard. At times, I panic a little (well, a lot to be honest), that everything that's going into pots, is a little late. But, now I 'step back' & look in what I have achieved so far - my herb seeds, lettuce & rocket are coming a long quite nicely. The first earlies (potatoes), are starting to look like juvenile triffids (eek) & probably be lifted in a couple of months. It's still a work in progress, but I find it's relaxing & a sense of achievement