gardening is hard work

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our MD neighborhood is about 50-50 with people who use services versus doing in themselves. It's always clear who has a service (very tidy, but no plant variety and trees always over-mulched), who is a gardener (lots of beds with flowers all seasons and native shrubs but lawn often scraggly), and who does their own but doesn't care either way (lawn mown, beds often weedy, and basic shrubs). It's fun to walk around town in the evenings and see the variety as it warms up and everything starts to bloom.

LOL our family is in this category! I can't bring myself to care about the lawn, I just can't.

[Anonymous]

I'm in 22207 and we have a yard service but also do a lot of our own gardening. This is true of MOST of my neighbors. Maybe they have someone come and mow their lawns but they are out weeding, planting flowers and herbs and so forth. I seriously doubt that anyone is looking at you like you are some kind of freak. You must be super self-conscious to think anyone gives a damn what you are doing?

I call humble-brag. "People of DCUM-land, look how down to earth I am compared to my pretentious and snotty neighbors who throw their money away."

[Anonymous]

Many have given up doing our own yard work because of horrible allergies. My husband and I do not mow our postage-stamp sized yard because we are lazy or above it, but because after doing so we will have to spend the rest of the day in a Benadryl-induced haze or suffer the misery of extreme itchy eyes, runny noses and sneezing.

The pollen around here is a bitch.

[Anonymous]

**Meant to say we do not mow NOT because we are lazy...**

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DH and I bought a house on a half acre in Fairfax County a few months ago and neither of us has a clue about how to maintain our yard or a large veggie garden plot in it. And we really don't have a budget for landscaping (certainly not to hire someone). Anyone have suggestions about how and where to start?

For $75 you can have a landscape designer from Merrifield Garden Center come out to your property and walk you through what you have and give tips on what you can do. You will end up with some good DIY tips just from that and some ideas you can implement if/when your landscaping budget increases.

[Anonymous]

I'd be interested in learning more about your wife's garden maintenance job. I have fantasies about doing something like that. I love to garden and have enjoyed helping friends and family members build gardens over the years, but never quite sure on how to turn it into something more. How did she get started? Does she have any special training?

Thanks!

And to the OP, yes gardening is hard work, but it's my favorite kind of hard work. I love finally being able to get my hands in the dirt again and falling into bed at night exhausted by satisfied with all I have accomplished during the daylight hours.

[Anonymous]

WE bought a .35 acre lot last year and its INSANE how much maintenance and gardening we have to do and how much time it takes.

For the past 3 weekends we have had a minimum of 20 lawn bags filled with crap.

Previous homeowners sucked at it and did not pay to have their yard tended to. Too much money to have someone help us ao we are DIY people right now/

I must admit though, its nice to see all the effort put it and then seeing it pay off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in 22207 and we have a yard service but also do a lot of our own gardening. This is true of MOST of my neighbors. Maybe they have someone come and mow their lawns but they are out weeding, planting flowers and herbs and so forth. I seriously doubt that anyone is looking at you like you are some kind of freak. You must be super self-conscious to think anyone gives a damn what you are doing?

I call humble-brag. "People of DCUM-land, look how down to earth I am compared to my pretentious and snotty neighbors who throw their money away."

No, I don't think it is "humble brag." I don't care what people do with their own money.

But I do like to see people outside doing yard work in the spring and summer, because it reminds me of my childhood neighborhood and it makes it friendly and warm.

Again, I don't care how people spend their money, and I am not making a moral judgment. It's an aesthetic. I don't care what people's lawns look like, but I do like seeing people out and gardening. It's just the kind of scene I like.

I'm getting kind of tired how people can have an opinion or a preference without some defensive person accusing them of being arrogant. No one said anything here about pretentious or snotty neighbors. They are just saying they like doing yard work and like seeing other people do it. Relax.

[Anonymous]

Sometimes I hate the time suck at certain times of year, but most of the time, I love gardening and mowing. A couple of my friends keep asking why I don't hire a teenager to mow. It's partly because there WAS a teenager doing it before (and owners who weren't paying any attention) that it needs so much upkeep now. Teenage boys are generally not that detail oriented and won't do any weeding before they mow, so the weeds and crabgrass spread. whereas I put in the time to get the dandelions and crabgrass out before I mow, so I'm only mowing grass. Once the weeding is done, the mowing itself doesn't take long.

[Anonymous]

is gardening/DIY a white person thing?

All of the asian and indian families i know use services and landscapers.

[Anonymous]

Bonsai trees....that's gardening and they're from Asia

[Anonymous]

Well, 15:27, I'm white and I hate gardening. And mowing. I'd love if most of my yard was hardscaped.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:is gardening/DIY a white person thing?

All of the asian and indian families i know use services and landscapers.

My next door neighbors are Chinese and they work on their yard and planting beds about 10 house each day. I think they pull weeds the minute they pop out of the ground. I've never seen people more fastidious about their garden.

[Anonymous]

LOL. Only DCUM could turn something like gardening into debates about work ethics, class, and race. I like gardening; other people don't.

[Anonymous]

PP here, fair enough. i am asian myself who is dating a gardening-lover but i can't stand it and just thinking of when i grew up and now, i never remembered or knew any asian or indian families out digging away in their yards on the weekend.

i like nature a lot but hate the weeding, mowing, planting, raking...just anything to do with outdoor home maintenance/beautification.