Gardening

[Morrus]

Man, it's such hard work.

In April, May, June, we spend 3 months getting the garden presentable. We enjoy it for 3 months through July, August, September. Then it gets 6 months of heavy bombardment of rain from October through April, at which point it has been utterly destroyed and we have to start all over again. Every year.

Today is the day we started all over again. Here goes...

 

[Aellic Mornbringer]

I'm in full agreement there.

We're trying our hand at a vegetable garden this year. We're still just setting everything up and nursing the seedlings inside the house and I'm already constantly having to pivot around mistakes I've made (note to self: next year make sure to start the seeds in the right sized compostable pot so you don't have to transplant them when they outgrow the small ones a month before planting time.) Our main weather concern (besides the lovely drought conditions we're starting the year in) is really nasty summer hail storms.

Gardening, like many things, is a labor of love. Good luck on this year's garden!!

 

[Koloth]

My location in Oklahoma USA means winter is about 3 months of dry often cold weather. Sometimes Siberian cold that comes over the pole to visit. Don't really bother with a pretty garden. It freezes in winter and is a fight to keep watered during summer. Been growing gourds for some friends that make interesting things out of them. Adding cantaloupe, food pumpkins, and other edible stuff this year. Use old garden hose with small holes drilled into it for a drip irrigation system. Probably going to plant some seeds today.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I live in the Pacific Northwest, so our climate is much like yours, and we face many of the same challenges. Gardening is probably my #2 hobby behind gaming, so I do sympathize and empathize. I don't know what kind of garden that you have. Growing up we just tilled a large section in the back, and did the same thing as you describe. Now I do much less tilling and more sustainable mulching. I still need to till areas for corn, but for most everything else I try to do mulching like in this photo. It requires a bit more initial set up and takes a bit longer to sow the seeds, but it keeps the weeds down and when it rains during winter, doesn't get destroyed or turned into a mud pit. It also reduces how much watering you need to do as there is less soil evaporation. And I mean it reduces watering by A LOT. Probably by 75%. Depending on the mulch you use, you can also nearly eliminate any fertilizer use as well, as each year the bottom lair composts down a bit on its own. All you have to do every early spring is add a fresh layer.

I also find it helpful to grow things year round (winter crops), so I have something to enjoy while I'm doing all that work in early spring before the rest of the main garden is growing.

 

[Morrus]

I don't know what kind of garden that you have.

A couple of (multidog and rain decimated) lawns, with various things round the sides. Rose bushes, a vegetable patch which I have failed at 3 years running, a few trees (apple, plum, cherry), and random flowers. It basically turns into a giant mud patch every year. I had the lawns re-turfed last year as my attempts to save them amounted to nothing, and I suspect I'll have to do the same again.

This is it in June after 3 months of labour:

This is it now (not really, it's Glastonbury festival after a torrential season but you get the idea):

The thing is, gardening is not a hobby for me. It's a chore so that I can have somewhere to have BBQs in the summer. But the mowing and cleaning and digging and weeding and stuff isn't fun for me. The bits I enjoy are going to the garden centre and buying stone ornaments and stuff, or ready-grown plants I can just put in place.

And two active dogs make it really hard. That 6 months, where it rains constantly so you can't really do much, and they just destroy the lawns, is devastating. Other than keeping them out of the garden (which is really not fair, and we would never do that) there's not much to be done. I guess I'll be returfing again this month.

 

[Sacrosanct]

A couple of (multidog and rain decimated) lawns, with various things round the sides. Rose bushes, a vegetable patch which I have failed at 3 years running, a few trees (apple, plum, cherry), and random flowers. It basically turns into a giant mud patch every year. I had the lawns re-turfed last year as my attempts to save them amounted to nothing, and I suspect I'll have to do the same again.

This is it in June after 3 months of labour:

View attachment 433942


This is it now (not really, it's Glastonbury festival after a torrential season but you get the idea):

View attachment 433943

The thing is, gardening is not a hobby for me. It's a chore so that I can have somewhere to have BBQs in the summer. But the mowing and cleaning and digging and weeding and stuff isn't fun for me. The bits I enjoy are going to the garden centre and buying stone ornaments and stuff, or ready-grown plants I can just put in place.

And two active dogs make it really hard. That 6 months, where it rains constantly so you can't really do much, and they just destroy the lawns, is devastating. Other than keeping them out of the garden (which is really not fair, and we would never do that) there's not much to be done. I guess I'll be returfing again this month.

Ok, judging by those two pics, we do have the same climate Your garden looks great, I can tell you've put in a ton of work. I'm sorry it's been so much work, especially if you don't particularly like it.

Sounds like you have major drainage issues (of which I am intimately familiar with living in the PNW where it rains every day from October to April). I think a few options could be to have drainage solutions installed (which is a lot of work and pretty expensive), or since you don't particularly like to garden, replace the grass with a more durable surface? Pavers, gravel, wood chips, turf? Large wood chip landscaping options are popular around my parts for the reasons you give. And I don't think they look bad, but I'm not you obviously.

Obviously I don't know your preferences or walk in your shoes, but I do empathize. And wish you find a solution that works for you.

 

[Cergorach]

The thing they forget to mention when they sell you a house with a big garden is that you have to maintain the bloody thing!

The bit of grass we have also tends to drown during certain rainy seasons (=all of them), that generally has to do with not having enough drainage (in the layers of soil below) and what drainage you have gets overwhelmed. I'm doing the equivalent of CPR and life-support on my garden (after I bought the house a year and a half ago). I'm still stuck with what the previous owners had (and didn't maintain the last couple of years).

Getting some good (electric) tools makes the work go faster and often a lot more enjoyable (zen-like), yes, it's still not my hobby, but it's a lot better then using not so great tools. I've also learned not to overdo stuff. It's better to do 3x 20 minutes (with 2 hour breaks) then doing 1x 1 hour, especially when doing heavy work, often in unnatural positions.

@Morrus Maybe invest in a good robot lawn mower? That is my long term plan, while I still use my electric lawn mower for the small patch of grass we currently have.

The most issues I have is with all the weeds that show up between all the bricked areas (including parking). I've considered large patches of concrete to solve that issue, but those will crack eventually with all the subsidence we have (I live in a 'polder', reclaimed land, kinda wet). Using a 'flamethrower' does not help...