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Gardening

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

What's your least favourite garden chore?

43 replies

CyanLemur · 03/05/2024 15:27

Picking up dog poo

OP posts:
KohlaParasaurus · 04/05/2024 20:33

Weeding the cracks in the paving.

TheDandyLion · 04/05/2024 20:39

Weeding between patio slabs. I don't mind doing the beds and boarders because they come up easily but trying to scrape out a foot deep dandelion roots between cracks is futile.

EatCrow · 04/05/2024 20:55

TheDandyLion · 04/05/2024 20:39

Weeding between patio slabs. I don't mind doing the beds and boarders because they come up easily but trying to scrape out a foot deep dandelion roots between cracks is futile.

A U&B weed scraper is really handy, got them on Amazon.

TheDogIsInCharge · 04/05/2024 21:01

attempting to control the bindweed that comes in two sides because one neighbour thinks it’s a pretty climber and they other doesn’t give a fuck.

EasilyDeterred · 04/05/2024 23:07

I love weeding, I will sit for hours winkling out couch grass and bindweed from my allotment, I find it relaxing and satisfying. I also love grubbing out weeds from between my patio slabs since I acquired a special right-angled double sided knife for it.

I hate planting out seedlings, love nurturing them in the green house but find the actual planting out awkward and faffy. it's ok at home where I have shallow borders and kneel on the grass, but at the allotment it's awkward especially as it gets full as spring progresses so you can't kneel and have to step very carefully around other plants.

The thing I hate the most is hacking back next doors spiky horrible rambling roses which come cascading over a 6' fence borne by a tree canopy so high I can't reach most of it and then swamp the shrubs on my side of the fence.

SnapdragonToadflax · 04/05/2024 23:18

Hate planting out. I love almost everything about gardening, love weeding, love tending seedlings, love pruning, don't even mind mowing the lawn... but I hate planting out. I'm on clay soil and it's just such hard work, impossible even in dry weather.

I constantly have a small collection of plants that need to go out but I can't quite face doing. By the time I manage to do one batch, I've either bought or grown more.

AlisonDonut · 05/05/2024 10:37

I never get on my knees to do anything.

I squat or use my old kneeler as a seat. It's been with me 20 years.

I enjoy all gardening. I don't particularly like weeding, so I only do it in beds where I am growing fruit or veg, or where I have new stuff to put in.

The weeding I do in the lawn is with the dandelion picky puppy and launch into a trug thing. About £40 but it means you can get rid of loads of weeds that make the large wide leaf pattern with a heart, such as ragwort, teasels, dandelions, thistles and daisies and creeping buttercups from the middle. I usually do it when it is raining with my headphones on listening to a podcast and so the time flies and it clears them with very little effort.

I love turning the compost because I usually have half a dalek of compost to use to put on the veg beds.

I probably hate the process of putting new beds in, and levelling the ground around them most, but that's a one off job and once set up they last a decade. I've done 20 3mx1m beds this winter, on the odd days that we had less rain, and that was heavy trying to level the clay soil and putting the excess into the beds once it was level.

Notthatcatagain · 05/05/2024 12:45

TheDandyLion · 04/05/2024 20:39

Weeding between patio slabs. I don't mind doing the beds and boarders because they come up easily but trying to scrape out a foot deep dandelion roots between cracks is futile.

Try pouring a kettle of boiling water on them, very easy to get out a few days later when they have died

Beebopwasthebest · 05/05/2024 14:42

SnapdragonToadflax · 04/05/2024 23:18

Hate planting out. I love almost everything about gardening, love weeding, love tending seedlings, love pruning, don't even mind mowing the lawn... but I hate planting out. I'm on clay soil and it's just such hard work, impossible even in dry weather.

I constantly have a small collection of plants that need to go out but I can't quite face doing. By the time I manage to do one batch, I've either bought or grown more.

This is me! I like tidying, weeding, sweeping.
Hate digging in my rubbish soil and having that feeling that the plant won't be there next year. I love buying plants and force myself to plant them within 48 hours.

deplorabelle · 08/05/2024 15:38

The lawn. I hate having one but husband can't live without apparently. It's a complete waste of the lightest, best growing areas of the garden. I try to turn it into a meadow for wildlife but it's really quite unsuitable for that so I'm fighting a stupid losing battle and I know my in laws judge me for growing a dandelion field (in flower it looks amazing. Awful the rest of the time). The grass romps through the borders and paving, looking shite. I hate grass so much!

GrandHighPoohbah · 08/05/2024 15:41

Dealing with brambles. Also rolling the hosepipe back up. It's really long and takes ages.

BigDahliaFan · 08/05/2024 15:42

Emptying pots of spring bulbs or summer bedding.

Weeding, I plant very densely to try and crowd the buggers out, others I leave for the bees or birds. Saw a video of goldfinch eating dandelion seeds, so know think more kindly of them. Also dandelion clocks are amazing...they'd be grown for their beauty if they weren't so prevalent.

BigDahliaFan · 08/05/2024 15:44

GrandHighPoohbah · 08/05/2024 15:41

Dealing with brambles. Also rolling the hosepipe back up. It's really long and takes ages.

I've immeasurably improved my gardening life by splashing out on one that sits on the wall and retracts automatically. It's saved me hours of rolling it back up in the year we've had it. hose

Gardena 25m Wall-Mounted Hose Box RollUp M/L Automatic

Gardena 25m Wall Mounted Hose Box RollUp M/L Automatic

Gardena 25m wall mounted hose reel. Hose automatically and smoothly retracts back in the hose box after use. Premium quality with Frost protection and 5 year guarantee

https://mincost.co.uk/collections/wall-mounted-hose-reel/products/gardena-25m-wall-mounted-hose-box-rollup-m-l-automatic

Sameratdifferenthat · 08/05/2024 15:47

Also slug management. Never again in bare feet 🤮

DrJonesIpresume · 08/05/2024 15:47

I'm happy pruning large shrubs and things, but I hate having to chop up all the branches into smaller bits to go in the garden waste bin. Horrid task. I get DH to do that bit, and he quite likes it so win/win. I get to prune things the way they should be done, DH doesn't butcher stuff (I've still not forgiven him for the camellia incident) and there's no tidying up for me to do afterwards.

BigDahliaFan · 08/05/2024 16:05

Hate pricking out seedlings, I get annoyed and lose patience with it. So I try and do just a few at a time while listening to something good on the radio.

GrandHighPoohbah · 08/05/2024 18:28

BigDahliaFan · 08/05/2024 15:44

I've immeasurably improved my gardening life by splashing out on one that sits on the wall and retracts automatically. It's saved me hours of rolling it back up in the year we've had it. hose

Ooh, that looks good! Thank you. (scurries off to find one near me...)

BigDahliaFan · 08/05/2024 19:11

@GrandHighPoohbah look at reviews though. We got a hozelock one in the end.

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