What do you love in or about a garden?

[GardenHome]

I've got a big water filled trough you can properly dunk a watering can in. Every time I use it - washing hands, dunking dried out pots, rinsing containers, etc I love it a bit more.

And I have a proper potting shed, for pots and tools, it's a__ce.

I'm gardenless but reading with a touch of envy - your descriptions are transporting me to Eden!

@GardenHome how do you fill you water trough?

The rainwater from all three houses in our terrace goes to a huge soak away/well affair in our garden and I have a pump so I can use the water in my greenhouse/garden for free.

Good soil and seeds germinating.

Last night when the rain started to cool down the garden I was pulling out the potatoes that I had grown on cardboard on a new patch, which had been very weedy, and I'd just mulched with mowings and weeds and anything else I could find around the place. The soil that is developing on top of the weedy patch, now that all the weeds have also died back, is wonderful and crumbly and full of worms. Gorgeous.

Love this thread as I am learning from it.

We have a generous garden which has never really felt like ours. It was done by the previous owners and is very much a mature person's garden with lots of firs and high maintenance rockeries and shaped areas.

My mum is a gardener and has helped but we are finally at the stage where I am able to say the big firs and shrubberies are not what I want with three young children. So I guess I love that I am ready to start planting and making decisions to make it ours.

First stop, native shade trees and lots of berries!

Love this. My sister painted a sort of vivid blue go faster diagonal stripe across the side of her tiny brick yard. It looks fantastic!

My small wild flower meadow that opens out onto fields at the bottom of the garden and views of the Welsh hills.

I love my tiled seating area with pergola over. I have a love/hate relationship with the tree above it - love it now providing shade and privacy, hate it in spring when it deposits sticky seeds and pollen all over my table and sofa.
I also love that I painted the fences black. Makes them kinda disappear and offsets the green plants.

Ooh, that sounds fun @JennyForeigner - I do think pops of colour can really lift a garden. A friend has a burst of yellow in her courtyard. It also creates zones, which can be useful. Someone else has mentioned black too. I love black in a garden. My partner built some Adirondack chairs we've painted black and they look fancier than they are.

I have a side garden that is fenced off (from our dogs) where I grow ornamental and scented plants. I euphemistically call this space the Lady Garden so my partner got a signed made for the gate. It's certainly raised a few passing eyebrows...😂

Bliss

My roses, especially the climbing rose that makes my apple tree look like it has bright pink flowers all summer. My chickens scratching about and sunbathing. The footy area for the kids on one side of the garden that stops them from smashing the roses. That I can hear the sea when the wind is in the right direction. My asparagus beds.
and especially my hammock, sling between two trees, from which I enjoy it all .

Some of your gardens sound amazing!

The big herbaceous border which has taken 8 years for me to finally get the planting just as I want it.
The acers that are beautiful in autumn.
The copper beech that gives shade to one side of our very sunny south facing patio.
The wildlife pond we dug out last year in which we have finally seen frogs and a newt.
The bats at the bottom of the garden at duck over the pond and my scruffy wildlife bit.
But mostly the birds.Endlessly fascinating and have now counted 33 different types- some only passing through once like a field fare and mistle thrush. But our resident house sparrows that love our big hedges and blackbirds make me happy every day. I count myself very lucky to be it's custodian.

I’m very new to the gardening thing so please be gentle!
This year we’ve planted a herb wheel and I love going out to get herbs to put on food or make tea. my kitchen smells lovely from the Rosemary that I cut and keep in there.

I also love our lawn, we planted it ourselves about 18 months ago. It’s now firmly situated and our retired greyhound adores zoomies on it and rolling on it.

I love pottering about barefoot feeling the contrast of hot tiles, cool grass, soft mud, spongy moss and feeling so alive. I love the wildlife too. I don't tell people in real life but I feed the mice at the bottom of the garden. I've planted a hedge of Rosa glauca that's been so beautiful this year and the mice live under it, the bird feeder is above it. At this time of year the baby mice are really active and will come over for peanuts. They are my secret mice. I also have a row of mason bee boxes and feel like a beekeeper too, it makes me so happy to see them arrive like hotel guests. I sow lots of green manures for the bees and a large patch of borage and phacelia gives off such a loud buzzing noise.

@RaininginDarling Love that!

Wildlife. Birds, bees, frogs and pond life. I love having a slightly messy garden that’s good for wildlife.

I have a medium sized garden, it have managed to plant nine trees over the past couple of years, they rustle in the wind, and sound amazing. I feel smug about them, because I'm surrounded by neighbours who like very clean looking gardens, mostly concreted over. I also have roses, around14 shrubs and 6 climbers, and I'm adding two more climbing roses next week. I have hollies, and lots for wildlife, I get all the butterflies and bees, bluetits, and bullfinches. My garden is always a happy place for me and my children. I've recently added an arch over a bench, with climbing roses and clematis either side. Everyone that comes here always comments on the glorious scent. I'm planning a mini meadow and more bulbs for spring too
I absolutely love every bit of my garden.

Thank you everyone, we've had a bit of bad family news, catching up on this thread has been a truly bright moment. And that's what gardens do, I was going to say your own or borrowed but actually whether you've inherited a perfect shrubbery or a filling a brand new garden with supermarket yellow label plants, we are all just living in a precise moment in time.

Garden Compost - I've been mulching under a hedge for 15 years now, occasionally i go and mine it, but only for my super favourite plants, you can feel the goodness in the transformed grass clippings, pond weed and lumps of broken clay. I might go and get a photo of it, I know you'll all appreciate it!

I just bloody love my plants! I love anticipating what will be in flower next, I love looking at and smelling the flowers. There are loads of different shrubs, lavenders and lilies and roses. This year I planted a job lot of snapdragons and it was fun to see what colours they all turned out to be - splashes of garish colour all over the place! It's a big garden and quite neglected in places but I could spend hours out there. I also absolutely love my swimming pool which is in my garden as of a couple of years ago but I'm not sure that's what you meant!

Thanks for starting this lovely thread. Sorry to hear you're dealing with bad news. I hope your garden offers some relief 🌺

Oh I have smiled a lot whilst reading this thread, Especially at the secret mice 😁
You've all inspired me to get started with gardening

i once picked up a packet of “mixed Acer” seed from Chiltern. Now some of those trees are giving seed themselves. I feel like I have grandchildren

@MereDintofPandiculation fantastic - how long do they take to grow? I'm a sucker for taking on poorly marked down acers and rehoming them.

That reminds me I have a load of Acer griseum seeds I saved from my old tree before we moved...I must dig them out and get them sown.