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 know I will...I love compost.

I secretly feed mice and other creatures too! It's their one life here on planet earth, just the same as us. 🙂

My bird table, birdbath, bird boxes, wildlife pond, bee and insect friendly plants, watering holes for all the mini beasts, mixed hedge, trees and my hammock.

We moved for the huge garden and it needs soooo much work.

But so far I love that I have a pond with lilies, finally room for chickens, I have a raised bed for veg, I have a lilac tree, I have plums, and I have dreams for what it will be. But the absolute best bit - the huge stone fire pit space. Great for burning waste and s'mores!

What a lovely thread!

Op, how does the trough work? Is it piped?

I like a productive garden, not one I have to dog and weed a lot, but one that does it's own thing. My tiny apple tree has just started to produce, and my plum tree has finally worked out what it's for!

My blackcurrant was disappointing, but the red and white currants always do well.

I love eating the raspberries off the cane, while I water in the evening. I rarely get enough left at one time to do anything with!

My garden is a tiny handkerchief sized affair.

My agapanthus, my foxgloves and my beautiful white hydrangeas

I love the agapanthus too. Like fireworks.

I have a cornus contraversa variegata with bright red sweet williams underneath it - love the contrast.

Mostly I like a quiet sit out there in the morning or evening - listening to the birds.

We're on heavy clay here, see lump on spade. So I grab everything - grass clippings, bark chips from tree surgeons, horse manure....
Who ever inherits my garden better appreciate the work that has gone into it. Worth it though, nothing thrived until I really started making the effort.

and that's my new compost area, just sorted. The last one eventually composted itself.

And now I've worked out how to take low Res pictures.....Here's my concrete dunking tank. My next project is sorting out irrigation.
The solar panel is powering a water pump in the stream which is brilliant. Have just ordered drip hose and need to find a cheap ibc (water tank on a pallet) and it will be amazing!!!

The tap does work but it's normally topped up from the roof of the potting shed.

We have a bog standard weird shaped new build garden with no character, but last year we had it all dug up, new patio, new turf and raised beds. Being a new build there hasn't been much in the way of wildlife but I've planted tons of plants and this year we've got LOADS of bees, butterflies, dragonflies etc and we've got birds nesting too. Brings me joy to see the life in the garden now <3

The seats.

I love the hammock chair under the massive willow for shade and the lovely sound of a breeze in the leaves (and the brawling squirrels, and the battle between robin and dunnocks for a particular branch.)

I love the south-facing bench with arms wide enough for a big mug, up against the kitchen wall for moments of sunshine and (relative) warmth on cold winter days while I look down the garden and imagine next year's planting.

I love the large table and chairs under the wooden gazebo next to the pond for eating all our spring and summer meals outside unless it's actually raining.

I love the recliner next to the hen run, for reading books while listening to them chat to each other and me. Very friendly birds, chickens.

I love the changing scents as I walk down the garden, from the herb shelves to the lavender, past the roses to the raised beds with sweet peas planted among the beans.

I love the wild area with something for the pollinators from February to November, and the increase in moths and butterflies we've seen.

When we bought our house 18 months ago the garden was one big, uneven lawn with a small pebbled area. No plants, no trees, nothing.

Now we have a patio with comfy furniture, big herb pots, lavender, a big planter full of wildflowers, potted fir trees, full and growing potato grow bags, strawberry's, chillis and sunflowers.
We get lots of bees and butterflies visiting and I love sitting to watch them. Also, my dad made me a potting bench out of pallets and it's lovely.

We've added a shed and fitted guttering that feeds water butts and put up some bird feeders. We started with 2 fat pigeon visitors but now have a variety coming and going.

Next year we're going to paint the shed and potting bench (and maybe the walls) and possibly putting in a raised bed so I can try and grow more food.

This morning I sat in the garden with a cuppa, watching the birds and insects - i think my favourite thing is just the feeling I get from being out there.

Love your dunking sink and tap @GardenHome - now I want to see the rest of your garden 😆

Would love solar panels and an irrigation system myself but our energies and finances are focused on the house itself (a long and gradual overhaul of an old stone cottage) but it's on my list...

This thread is perfect. I am sat in a chair, positioned in dappled sunshine watching dragonflies and thinking about all these little perfect moments we find.

Have a lovely evening everyone, hope you all manage a few moments enjoying your own spot today.

I've sweating buckets after having my third go at mowing the lawn today. I hadn't done it in a month, so it was too long for the little mower to manage easily, which meant I needed three charges of battery. I'm waiting for the fourth, and that should finish the small area I keep as lawn.

I'm planning to turn the front into a densely planted cottage garden so I don't have to mow it next year. At the moment, it's shortish grass with a knee-high layer of cat's ears, and it can stay like that for a while.

I'm gradually working on making the front left bit into a shrubbery, so I don't have to mow that. It'll take a few years to fill it in though, it's quite big and also things keep dying. The recent heat killed of a hydrangea 'polar bear' that I was really looking forward to. I'll have to put another one on my wishlist.

Basically, we bought half an acre of lawn and my aim in life is not to have much lawn.

Might I suggest a robot mower.

We got one with half that, and are intending to put loads of beds in, with large swathes of lawn paths but honestly the robot mower is the best thing we've ever bought. He took a good fortnight to get on top of it but it always looks flawless. Otherwise it takes my OH a full day to mow and as we mow the neighbours lawn as well it takes two. And he was doing it once a week. The robot has literally changed our lives.

Although I do love the mulching material you get with mowing...but I still wouldn't lose the robot, not now.

Love my garden and the joy it gives family and friends. Hard work but very rewarding. Have started to propagate a lot of plants and to accept that some plants can't thrive due to my ignorance if I have planted in the wrong place! Gardening is a life long learning course. You can never know enough and you have to lean in to nature and accept what she gives you in terms of sunlight/water/soil. You can easily make your own compost. Clay soil is good for a few plants but not many. Manure in the autumn is your friend. Gardening should be on the national curriculum.

Lovely trough, Gardenhome!

My fox visitors!

All of it, we’re fortunate to have two homes and two largish gardens with completely different climates and soil types. Couple that with my plant addiction. I love going around open gardens, NT gardens and just walking long looking at other front gardens.
This morning a neighbour asked me when I was just going to sit and enjoy the garden! He obviously doesn’t get it!

Same here although my garden is much smaller. I have mature trees, lots of fruit trees, lots of weeds too, but flowers everywhere (no lawn) and it is full of wildlife.

The birds and the insects. We've recently moved and new house is on an estate. The small garden is a WIP but we've planted 3 climbing roses and a dozen lavenders. The Gertrude Jekyll rose has bloomed in it's first year and the scent is glorious. The bees are loving the lavender. Have plans for the borders next year which definitely include foxgloves.

Our neighbour's garden contains a beautiful oak tree, luckily with a tpo as there have been noises made about cutting it down because it's unsafe for the children ( they have 2 swings attached to the tree which the kids play on regularly so they can't actually believe it's unsafe ). The tree has loads of birdlife which is lovely. We had a sparrowhawk on the bird feeder a few days ago but it flew off when I shrieked to DH 'There's a sparrowhawk on the bird feeder '..........

I'd love a robot mower, but they seem awfully expensive. Also, I've a lot of trees and shrubs in awkward places breaking up the lawn which is only going to get worse defeat the lawn monster. A robot would be quite hard to train.