If your garden is messy, do you still sit in it and enjoy it?

Such nonsense. Ours is tidy and it’s full of insects, so many butterflies, bees, dragon flies, and everything in between, my husband trimmed some wisteria today and was concerned as it was so full of bees he’d get stung.

are people so ill informed they actually think if you’re garden is tidy it is a sterile wasteland. The grass, the plants, the trees, the shrubs, the insects love it all.

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Couldn’t do it. Can only just sit out here when it’s pristine. Don’t like UK muggy sweaty sticky weather. This helps though….

Depends on your definition of messy. My neighbour thinks my garden is messy, I've overheard them whining about it but it's a wildlife garden so the grass is tall and I've left things that have self seeded to go into flower. But it's beautiful and well looked after just not sterile.

Normally no, I would sit down & then see little jobs that need doing but the fact that that there have been so few opportunities to sit outside I have & just ignored everything!

It'll be raining again tomorrow so I've decided to make the most of it!

Yes, I sit in mine. I do want to make it look nicer, but I’m going to try and do that in a fairly natural kind of way. As long as the grass is short enough to walk on, I don’t mind dandelions and daisies in it and I’m going to plant low maintenance perennials and dig a nature pond.

Nope.
our front garden we keep fairly neat-ish but it’s completely open to the street so no privacy at all, but I’ll sit out there to supervise the kids playing.

our back garden is a disaster. Overgrown and full of cat poo - none of us go out there. I won’t even hang the washing out there.
DH is gradually digging it up to level it and lay patio instead. Once that’s done we’ll have a table and chairs to sit out there.

I have a small scruffy garden. I like it that way. I do cut things back and plant nice flowers but for the most part I like having it as a little nature reserve and letting things grow naturally. So to me it isn't a mess, but others may think it is.
So I'd say yes :)

Our garden is rewilded (see the Ark Movement) and I get so much joy from watching all the bees and butterflies feeding on the wildflowers. Can’t stand a tidy garden - they are tidy biological wastelands.

No, which is why I got a gardener. £25 per hour- he does 2 hours a fortnight between April and October so around £350 a year which means the garden is always under control and I can potter - I'm not a fan of gardening but find it easy to keep the garden tidy if he's been.

What he does in an hour would take me about 6 (and I'd hate it).

No. Much as I wouldn't sit in a messy house.

Relaxing to me is in a space which is calm and tidy and that includes the garden. I have a large garden and it takes me less than an hour to edge and cut the grass and hoe over the beds. Doing it regularly makes it an easy job. Much like a house that stays tidy if everything is kept in its place, then a quick mop, dust, hoover and plump sorts it.

Our garden generally looks like a war zone as the kids spend so much time out here kicking a football around. I have learned to ignore it and just daydream about how my garden will look when they have left home & I have retired. My retired neighbours' garden is just beautiful.

I hate gardening and the weeds love it. I'm happy to sit in it whilst overgrown but I do need to get on top of it.

No, I couldn't relax in the garden if it was a mess, likewise the house.
I'm not a gardener by any means so, although large, is fairly low maintenance. I cut the grass, weather depending, weekly and it doesn't take that long.
Pots rather than borders and 2 patio areas that take little looking after

Yes. I love spending time outdoors. I don’t always have the energy or bandwidth for gardening but since I’ve got involved in some biodiversity initiatives I've come to appreciate the weeds!

I used to torment myself with negative self talk about what I hadn’t got around to. Switching to self compassion and appreciation of nature has done wonders for my mental health.

No, to be fair I would need to deal with it, and it’s a very large garden. I reminded my husband that we need to also enjoy it, not just take care of it, but we actually do enjoy taking care of it, we are always out doing stuff.

i couldn’t sit in amongst weeds, a dirty patio and overgrown stuff, just as I couldn’t sit in a messy house.

Currently sitting in a garden with an unmown lawn and enjoying the sun.. Have patches where I am trying to reseed new grass so can't mow it.

Nope...its a shitheap.
Currently fences are about to fall down, its totally overgrown and also has a bunch of builders rubble and an old sofa in it as I havent called a collection person to take it away.

Id love to be able to sit out in it and actually garden again , unfortunately I have issues with my (alcoholic, drug addict, mentally unstable) neighbour and as a terrace we are practically on top of each other.
So I just dont go outside at all...🙁

We have half an acre, gardeners do 4 hours pw April to November.

We love the garden. Sitting in it is 20 mins over coffee first thing and a g&t after work. The rest of our spare time is spent looking after it.

Ours is more overgrown and mature rather than messy - there's no rubbish apart from the pile of old cupboard bits that need to go to the tip - and yes, I like to use it.

We have a bench and table that are rotting so we use them as a potting area and currently has several plants in pots and several others waiting to be repotted. We have a summerhouse that's in need of a good sanding, treating and painting but I still sit in it every opportunity I get.

The grass is half way between long and short but the daisies, buttercups, dandelions and clover look too lovely to cut!

Absolutely. Dog and children running around mean it’s never going to be pristine, I cannot be fucked with weeding, hey Ho, life is too short to sit inside!

Depends how you define messy. Wildlife is our priority so grass is long, lots of huge tangled areas of honeysuckle and ivy which are left untended but house hedgehogs,small birds and toads.
Pond is almost hidden under growth and foliage but teeming with tadpoles and frogs and attracts damselflies. Lots of flowering plants in pots.
So,not tidy by any means but a joy to sit in

Oh thats lovely! Very envious of all your established trees and shrubs. Despite living in an old house, I have almost nothing in the garden except the lawn and my half hearted attempt with the sole bed. I think when you've got lots in there like you have, you don't need to keep everything immaculate as it just looks so lush and natural. Whereas a sparce affair with a scruffy bit of lawn and some rubbish just looks like no one cares.

Mine is a new build garden, just paving and grass. The grass isn’t long but it’s patchy and failing to grow back. I won’t sit in it like it is.

My next property will NOT have a garden that is laid to lawn. A small courtyard will do me just fine, with stone and pretty pots.
Grass is the bane of my existence. I can't sit in a messy garden, yet the bloody grass grows like Billy-oh because of all our Scottish rain.