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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

The I Hate Gardening support thread

6 replies

UnquietDad · 17/06/2007 13:45

What do you do if you have a decent sized garden which needs attention - and you a) hate gardening and b) don't have time for it, and c) can't afford a gardener?

I don't know a lesser-spotted fritillary from winter-flowering jasmine. I can just about tell you what a rose looks like. I HATE trimming hedges. I LOATHE mowing the lawn. I find plants and flowers nice to look at but so, so boring to maintain. We bioth work, and the last thing we want to do at weekends is go out and do back-breaking garden work.

Next door one side (young couple) are the same and employ a gardener on a regular basis. We had him twice, and it cost an arm and a leg.

Next door the other side is retired and his garden is his pride and joy - he spends every daylight hour in it, making it look wonderful. Neat lawns, lovely flowers, boxy trimmed hedges.

So it's us letting the side down with our jungle!

We have a lot of shrubbery-cover, so the weeds don't get too rampant. But they are pretty bad at the moment. The lawn was looking awful, but I've been out to mow it and it looks OK now. Still a bit ragged and amateurish compared with next door, though!

OP posts:
JackieNo · 17/06/2007 13:47

Ours is a bit like this (actually probably worse in the borders). Think of it as a haven for wildlife...

franke · 17/06/2007 13:52

Decking? I think lawns are hard work, it really isn't just a case of mowing them. If you really hate gardening, but want the benefits of a garden I would do a rethink of what you currently have - as you've pointed out, hedges and lawns are a real shag to keep in order. Think about low-maintenance alternatives or at least pay for a gardener to cut your hedge once in a while (shouldn't need doing more than a handful of times every year.

BishyBarneyBee · 17/06/2007 13:55

buy packet of wild flower seeds so you have an overgrown meadow type affair and then you will get loads of butterflies in your garden and you can pretend you are supporting wildlife whereas is actual fact you loathe gardening (which is infact housework outdoors)

UnquietDad · 18/06/2007 14:53

We have decking on part, but I don't fancy decking the lot.

I'm with the "housework outside" definition, BBB!

OP posts:
MissMaverick · 22/06/2007 16:20

Could you do some sort of swaps with the keen gardener? E.g. offer him booze/help with something he doesn't like doing in exchange for him doing a bit on your garden?

Mirage · 22/06/2007 22:11

Hey-I'm a gardener & my garden is a disgrace.It had been untended for years before we moved in,the paths & steps are disintergrating & we have a serious weed problem.In the past two years I've barely scatched the surface.Plus after doing other peoples gasrdens all week,the last thing I feel like doing is mowing my lawn.

Don't worry what the neighbours think.If it bothers them enough,they may take pity & do some of it for you.

Otherwise,is there a local student/kid who'd mow the lawn for a fiver for you?

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