Do you have a gardening routine?

[Carrotsandcelery]

How do you manage keeping on top of the gardening? Do you have a routine in the same way many do for their housework or do you just pop out there when the mood takes you?

Do you do heaps of gardening in one day and then leave it for weeks or do you pop out there here and there all the time?

Do you spend time in your garden when you are not gardening?

Sorry, lots of questions

Yes, my routine is
I plant things and then they die. Without. Fail.
Sorry, would love to help but am marking my place, so that I can get some tips.

purepurple That is just about where I am!

I am trying to understand how people manage to keep their gardens alive looking beautiful.

I think they spend a lot of time in them and are very disciplined unlike me

But what does everyone spend their time doing? What am I missing?

I am out there every few days weeding atm, but that's because the whole garden was flooded with weeds when we moved in!

I am a dribs&drabs gardener though. And buy a lot of low maintenance regrowing every year plants!

How long do you go out for when you go out LaWeasel? Is it a 15 minute declutter, flylady style, or do you go out for an hour or two?

I believe the right time to do something is when you have time, for big jobs like pruning bushes, digging things out.

I think the key routine for me is to keep on top of weeding and dead heading. April is a key time for weeding, if you're not on top of 'em by the end of this month you are unlikely to keep on top of them in the coming months. The ground hardens and you can't get the roots out, whereas now it's still soft and you have a chance to get the roots out too, before they get too big.

I would say, depending on the size of your garden, try to go out once a week with a bucket and your tools, and try to fill the bucket with weeds. You should also dead head once a week, it only takes a few minutes and will keep everything flowering and looking cared for. For example, all your dead daffodil heads should be cut off, leave the leaves to brown and die down for good flowers next year

Watering, over the summer months, in the evening once the heat of the day has gone. Tubs and baskets must be watered everyday. If it's really hot then I will water new shrubs and perennials well, but not too often.

Very interested to hear what other people do, interesting thread op.

A few people are asking about how much time.

I have a fairly large town "cottage" garden (old house). ATM I am probably spending 3 -4 hours a week out there, and in May I will be busier planting up containers and putting some bedding in to give colour among the other plants.

DH does all our veg so I'm not counting that and he has probably done 3 hours this weekend, planting and hoeing.

I've spent probably two hours weeding, every few days, for the last two weeks. Same again this week I reckon.

This is weeding season though, I wouldn't expect to do that all summer long. We'll be moving into planting soon I hope. But this is a new garden and if I can get on top of it, hopefully won't have to spend this much time on it next year either.

Thanks mummyosaurus that gives me a good routine to aim for.

LaWeasel that must be an awfully big garden or mountain of weeds you are working with.

I have done about 3 hours weeding today and got round half of our lawn and patio area but that doesnt cover it all as there is the front garden and the gravel to pick through as well. It sounds like I am doing the right thing for once though

Dh cut the grass front and back too so it does look better.

I am very interested to read what everyone else does.

We have an old house with an unusually wide (for a small Victorian terrace, anyway) garden - around 50ft in length and a good 30ft wide. Most of this is lawned with borders but we also have a large decked area with lots of stone tubs and pots.

I must admit I do very little in winter other than the odd bit of a tidy up, but from April/May onwards I definitely have a routine for some things:

• lawn mowing / strimming lawn edges / weeding borders once a week
• watering (tubs/hanging baskets/new plants in borders) every evening unless we have had rain. Would also water borders during prolonged dry spells in high summer.
• dead-heading/pruning etc probably every week or so until the spring flowers have finished
• new planting as and when the mood takes me!

I would say on average I probably spend a couple of hours a week, but that's based on getting out there most days and doing bits and pieces. I have very deliberately planted a fairly 'low maintenance' garden though. Other than spring bulbs (mainly daffs, irises, crocuses and tulips), we never have any bedding plant flowery kind of stuff, and we don't grow any veg apart from a big terracotta trough of herbs. We went for lots of pretty shrubs with varying colours of foliage (hebes, azaleas, pieris etc etc) and greenery (ferns, box, mini conifers, bamboo and so on) with a few small trees in big striking stone pots (apple/cherry/olive) and a couple of acers to add dramatic colour.

So I think for me that's been part of the key to keeping on top of it - planting stuff that, as long as it's kept well hydrated, pretty much takes care of itself.

Regarding weeding - the best thing I did to help minimise weeds was to spread barkchips in between all the plants in the borders - as a result, I only ever have to pull out the odd weed here and there, like literally a minute or two when I notice them.

Oh and we have a lawn treatment company do the lawn maintenance stuff for us. Which is probably cheating but it does mean the lawn looks good for no effort on my part.

carrotsandcelery - mountain of weeds unfortunately! It's actually pretty small... my 2 hours yesterday was spent weeding the gravel. Weeds are not supposed to be able to grow in gravel fgs!!

We have actually turfed over paths to reduce the gravel in our garden as the weeds in it were the very worst to weed. We even have weeds down the edge of our tarmaced drive though - how do they do that?

Everyone else in the street seems to have an immaculate garden and I never see them weeding.

Is there a stealth, nightime weeding trend or something?

I go out and potter around whenever the weather is fine - I think little and often is the key once you have got the garden into shape. The biggest job is mowing the lawn once a week (I always think it's the garden equivalent of hoovering - everything instantly looks much tidier). Otherwise I just have a little wander round dead heading, clipping things back, watering or putting in any new plants I have acquired. I tend to go for perennials and bulbs - ie things that will come up year after year - with perhaps the odd bedding plant to brighten up a dull corner. I also love my pots - planting them up is obviously a bigger job, but then it's just a question of dead-heading and watering. The great thing about pots is you can add a splash of colour and give the impression of a garden in bloom even when there is not much else out. I think if you go out infrequently then there is much more to do to get the garden back in shape and gardens very quickly run wild especially at this time of year. I just love being out there and although I do spend time in there not gardening very soon something catches my eye that needs watering or clipping and off I go. I also rope the kids in - they absolutely love watering, especially with the hose.

I hate weeding so I have gone for the sprawling cottage garden look. It's still work in progress but the main thing that makes it easy (and progressively getting easier) is to have lots of ground-cover plants and flowers filling the spaces between the bigger plants (periwinkle, borage, ground cover roses etc). Looks nice and almost eliminates the weeds.

I also potter around, clipping things into shape and dead-heading, but don't look at any of this in the same way as housework because I enjoy it.

And yes, I do sit outside a fair bit when I'm not gardening. Our patio is lovely and sunny and secluded in the summer so we have breakfast outside whenever the weather is warm enough .

I have a fair sized garden and half an allotment. I am not good at routine. I know the weeding needs doing, and the adage little and often is quoted to me by my DH but I ignore that, really. I sometimes weed for 10 minutes, but more often than not, I'll get into it and do it for an hour or so at a time. With the allotment, its a solid hour or two always, you don't go there for a sit down.

Water every day when its hot, this takes about 20 mins at home. I did a lot of work a month or so ago, cutting back, weeding, sowing, putting plant supports in place, so if I can keep on top of the weeding and potting on etc the next month should have a good summer.