Bobberman
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2437
Joined: Mon Nov 15, 2010 10:31 pm
Location: Latrobe Pa.

Why gardening makes everyone happy happy & smile!

Lets take a look at all the benefits of gardening that are over looked by those who do not garden!
For me its like inventing something new every day in a new technique or trying to out do others by having the nicest tomatoes, peppers or even the best looking garden!
Exercise is a big bonus especially if you are not a couch potato gardener! From march to October I am a lean mean machine in the best shape of the year atttackling the soil to make it the best it can be for my new plants!
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I start my best eating from may to the fall in great greens!
The birds and bees are real in my garden and not a fantasy like you were told growing up!
The flowers brighten up the whole summer and the butterflies just add to the moving picture caused by a slight warm breeze!

Watching something grow from a little seed to a 6 foot plant is exciting to me and shows a climax to my efforts which I share with all my friends by giving samples for them to enjoy!
There no other feeling like giving a something you grew from seed to someone who will really enjoy it! Try straining dirt from your garden some time while mixing in some sand or compost it will make you feel like you are creating a something special of your own for all your planters and add a few worms for that special touch!

There is nothing like a sliced turkey sandwich with mayo and a fresh (out of you garden 5 minutes ago) tomato on rye bread my favorite!

Gardening is not boring with so many things to grow and so many ways to make the soil better every year!
The garden does not have a time line when you can do something different every day!

Plants don't talk back or get mad at you! If you treat them good they are like a golden goose that keeps giving till there last breath! Gardening is a hobby that pays back big time all summer long!

So lets hear from you and learn the rest of this garden story? What gardening means to you?

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PunkRotten
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Posts: 1989
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2011 8:48 pm
Location: Monterey, CA.

My reasons are similar to yours. I like the exercise I get and it gives me something to keep my mind clear rather than thinking about stressful things. The fruits and veggies I get are superior to the grocery store and I can get it really fresh since it is right out my back door. I also like all the bees, butterflies and other critters it attracts and I like all the nice colors I get out of the plants too.

Springfever
Full Member
Posts: 28
Joined: Sun May 26, 2013 8:24 am
Location: Zone 5 Missouri

Gardening to me is the thoughts of teaching my kids that they have control of what they eat. So many people take for granted the food we eat. There is nothing more satisfying to me to watch my kids get excited and reap the rewards of work they have done. A love for all life is the best lesson I feel I can teach.

imafan26
Mod
Posts: 13962
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Gardening for me is relaxing and peaceful. When I am in the garden, I take the time to smell the roses, gardenias, orchids and it is a wonderful discovery every day I go out and find that one of my orchids has come into bloom or the amaryllis or glads pop out these spikes of blooms.

When I am in the garden, I don't bring my phone. My mom gets mad at me because she says I am hard to get in touch with. It is true but when I am in the garden the last thing I want is to have the phone ringing.
It is great to be outside in the open air and hearing the birds singing, and seeing the geckos darting back and forth. It is a lot nicer than being in the house or doing housework. I'd much rather play in the dirt.

Time just flies in the garden when I am pruning, digging, weeding or just spacing out looking at the garden and imagining what I am going to grow next.

I actually don't think of gardening as exercise. It actually is a workout lifting bags of soil and buckets of dirt and having to bend to yank the weeds and reach to pick papayas and walking back and forth. I think of it as fun. Especially since I hate the E word. At the end of a long day of weed whacking and filling green waste bins, repotting, planting, propagating and harvesting whatever is in the garden, everything aches and when I go to sleep with my heating pad, I have a sense that I actually accomplished something and I am dead to the world after that.

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PunkRotten
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Posts: 1989
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2011 8:48 pm
Location: Monterey, CA.

Exactly IMFan, my back and arms still ache from all the work I did 2 days ago. And I was even wearing a brace.

PaulF
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Posts: 910
Joined: Tue Nov 09, 2010 5:34 pm
Location: Brownville, Ne

While gardening is relaxing, mind absorbing and all those "getting in touch with nature" peaceful things, it can as said above be strenuous, backaching, muscle tiring work. Gardening will provide benefits of lowering the blood pressure, raising awareness of nature, providing good and tasty food or a way to seclude oneself from the hectic world.

Since competitiveness is part of who I am, I see gardening as a competition: with myself to make the garden the best it can be compared to previous years, with Mother Nature in a competition to make the garden grow despite the weather roadblocks encountered during the growing season and competition with other gardens and gardeners in the area for the best and tastiest output from the soil. Is this an intense competition? Not really, just a mindset and a fantasy world I can enter when I am out in the garden.

Are gardeners crazy? To some extent, yes we are, but it is a good crazy.

imafan26
Mod
Posts: 13962
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

I learned long ago not to compete with Mother Nature she always wins. Instead I want to complement and while I will take on a challenge or two, for the most part I have learned to plant what grows best with the least amount of intervention in the way of pruning and especially the use of chemicals.

Juliuskitty
Green Thumb
Posts: 364
Joined: Sun Aug 18, 2013 6:13 pm
Location: South Florida

I had an applewood smoked turkey bacon BLT with a gorgeous Pruden's purple sliced 1/2 inch thick today.The slice was bigger than my toast. OMG my garden produces heaven. O:)

imafan26
Mod
Posts: 13962
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Sounds delicious. I haven't had tomatoes producing in the garden since November. I only have green cherry tomatoes now.



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