I hate gardening! Really, really loathe it! Anyone else??

[Twinsarehardwork]

It is without doubt the biggest chore of my existence. I just want to sit and enjoy my garden but there is always something needing done. I know lots of folk take great pleasure in gardening but it's just like housework but outside.
Not helped that my garden is actually quite big and mostly grass (moss). I thought moving here would make me feel inspired. It had a veggie plot, shrubs, etc. But it's so much work. I'd much rather be out on my bike or walking or meeting up with pals in my spare time, anything but bloody gardening
I long for a tiny sitting space with a few pot plants.

Loads of my peers seem to love it now and post pics of their blooms constantly on social media - I couldn't care less. I'm still waiting for that gene to awaken in me.
Just felt need to say so somewhere. Kudos to anyone who loves it. I can't afford a gardener. Am currently procrastinating on here instead of going out and cutting the grass

Well we're still in No Mow May so you have an ethical and genuine reason to procrastinate for another week.

Find someone like me who loves it and is frustrated by the constraints of a small garden. I’d do yours for the pleasure if you gave me free rein.

Me too, our garden is supposed to be a natural wildflower woodland but it's more overgrown mess at the moment. Like you i'd much rather be out on my bike!

I’m with you op! I love a garden to sit and enjoy nature. I quite enjoy pottering in the garden - watering, planting, dead heading etc. But omg I hate tree pruning and hedge trimming, shed painting and maintenance of garden furniture. Dh is sad that I see moving home as a good thing as the new garden is going to be so easy to maintain, compared to the current one. - he does nothing in the garden unless nagged and heavily supervised so that it does get done. Yet enjoys the benefits.

Sorry, OP, I love my garden. I’ve got a medium garden with a mix of trees, shrubs, ferns, bulbs and periennials, climbers, plus quite a few medium & large pots, as well as some lawn (maybe 1/3 of it).

Mostly grass is pretty easy, no? Just a mow once a week March-Oct. Not like you’ve got loads complicated beds to manage or weed, loads of big shrubs or trees to keep pruned, roses to deadhead or climbers to train.

Pots are lovely but high maintenance as they require watering, feeding and nannying much more than plants directly in the ground (even big pots). They aren’t an easy option if you don’t like gardening.

I assume you’ve retired the veg beds and whatnot?

If I said I'm not a gardener, it would be a massive understatement. I can barely keep an indoor cactus alive.

My parents treat their plants like pets. They don't have any pets but hundreds of plants which they lovingly tend to most days, feeding, watering, pruning, taking cuttings etc. That gene completely skipped me!

And please for goodness sake never buy me a house plant either. The poor things would just come here to die.

i loathe gardening. It’s outside housework but dirtier. I get a certain amount of enjoyment growing vegetables but hate the maintenance it involves. I just don’t get it. Sadly neither does DH! We have a gardener every fortnight for a couple of hours.

Op do you have children or local neighbours children who want to earn pocket money?

See where I'm going with this ? 😉

I don't get the appeal either. I have a few herbs in pots but that's as much as I can be arsed with. The previous owners of our house put that fake grass in the garden so it's all pretty low maintenance and I have ZERO desire to change that!

Veg patch grassed over, shrubby flower beds grassed over and wildflower seeds scattered. Three fruit trees planted. A patio and firepit made (I actually enjoyed doing that).
DH scarified lawn this year and ruined it. Lumps and bumps everywhere. You’d think dogs had pissed all over it followed by a stampede of sorts. It’s a bloody mess so it’s going to take even more time (my time) to get it done properly.

I have thought about some sort of ‘borrow my garden’ type thing but it would be quite an invasion of my privacy I think, not like paying a gardener.

I did actually cut the grass eventually and encountered a reeking cat/fox shit. Im away now for a walk in the woods - that’s my kinda garden

Get rid of the veg patch and let the shrubs go wild.

Either let the grass grow and just mow a path and a few circles for interest/ yoga or picnicking; or get a robot lawn mower.

Don’t plant anything which requires watering or more maintenance than cutting down once a year over winter or early spring - like hardy drought tolerant herbaceous perennials and ornamental grasses for the ground and agapanthus for garden pots.

You can have a fabulous no maintenance garden - but large expanses of grass with shrubs is pretty much the highest maintenance garden you can have bar an old fashioned classic cottage garden with staking, watering and dead heading galore.

It’s because it doesn’t look nice. I used to be like this, and now as the garden is huge and I know if I do the work it looks gorgeous I’m very happy to do it. Then sit with a glass of wine admiring it.