Wondering how others feel about this. When I’m walking around my fruit trees and gardens I don’t feel a sense of relaxation. It’s always more of a ‘crap, I need to get this done yesterday’, or I notice another new problem, be it disease, insect, or animal, that needs my attention.
Now don’t get me wrong. I love both my garden and orchard. And I love being outside, working with my hands and keeping busy. What I do feel is a sense of purpose and fulfillment. Peace and tranquility though? Nope.
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RIght now I find it sweaty
I have an arbor with a comfy chair to sit and relax, but I never do it - there’s always a weed in sight
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You’ve summed it up pretty well.
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It depends on the time of year, right now I am fully relaxed, autumn is around the corner and the nights are into 4C, so I look at the little weeds and know that they will die before they set seed and feel no need to address them.
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Life isn’t easy. It’s hard to be a high achiever while having much time for peace and tranquility. For those who can my hats off to you. I call it satisfaction in a job well done. A person could do a lot worse. And life does have more peace and tranquility after the kids are on their own and the responsibilities are less.
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Part of my tranquility when the kids were at home was the knowledge that in my garden I was left alone. Any one who approached me might be wrangled into a job. LOL
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Counting days till that day…
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I don’t even have this anymore. My kids (5 and 7 yrs old) are getting so into gardening that I just gave them their own beds to plant whatever they want. For the most part they follow me to the garden. As much as I like that I do get enough of it sometimes and sneak out and ask daddy not to let them out…
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So true. Yet suddenly the kids are gone and you wonder why you are still growing so many fruit trees or raising so many vegetables? My wife and I cannot eat them all yet out of habit I continue on. I cannot cut any of my fruit trees down. Then it is time to share with friends and neighbors. Church pastors too!
The craziest thing of all is a patio. My wife enjoys it yet I seldom use it. When I get home (after selling plants all day at work) then I get to take care of my own plants. Maybe the patio will be used when I turn 67 and retire? Right now I am too busy watering, weeding, canning, freezing, spraying ect.
I still enjoy it and would not give it up for anything. Each new variety tried is a lesson and an adventure.
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The only thing i have left close to any peace for me is among my plantings. Blood and sweat included.
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Good post. I keep waiting for the “joy and tranquility” to arrive. Usually, it’s (expletive deleted) NO! Something is dead, dying, broken, infested, overwhelmed with weeds, half-eaten, gnawed, suffering unknown disease, etc.
As some sage here said years ago: Most surprises in gardening are bad ones. Every great once in a while something goes right, but it’s rare here.
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I find it relaxing until my neighbor Al comes out from his rear door with his prosthetic legs, pulled up a chair and watched me…it is the creepiest thing to feel, having the creepy guy watched me garden.
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That would bug me too Courtney, 
. What about putting up a fence?
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Al is trying to dictate how I should spend my $ so the fight continues with him…lonnnng story…but he is really nutty to say the least. He’d tried to apologize for our “fight” and then asked me to “throw a tomato!” Sometimes, I put on my headphone and tune him out…he tried to ask my husband if he can borrow stuff like a screen window…who does that! So, my hubby too tuned him out by putting on headphones…it’s just crazy with Al
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We had a fence at one point but he didn’t like that fence. So, we took that down and not have a fence out of spite
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Noticed that my mild hypertension seems to disappear on weekends when I garden. Oddly, I think it’s related to fooling with the large compost heap more than anything for some reason. Go figure. 117/69 right now.
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I am happiest when I’m outside working in the orchards or in the woods. Is it relaxing? I don’t know. I do see lots of work to get done…but it’s work I enjoy doing.
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i enjoy the work, but that’s mostly spring n fall. my grapes are done n my figs are bearing.
they have found the water table so i no longer have to water.
my cats are protecting my stuff,
i’m working on fall veggies. but mostly, i’m reading under my arbor.
gardening calms me.
that’s worth the work,
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Every once in a while I feel like everything is going right with the garden, and when that happens I can just sit in it and feel peaceful for hours. But those episodes are few and far between. More often it is how you describe it. Interestingly, though, when my friends come over they always remark about the peace and tranquility. I guess being the person responsible for the upkeep makes a big difference. Right now I have a gopher in the lawn digging tunnels toward all the expensive plants I just planted, and the shrub borders need pruning. But I can’t even go out there and deal with those things, because my yard has the biggest infestation of chiggers ever! I have ordered insect spray for them. It is supposed to arrive today. I already dosed the yard ornament chickens with various pesticides because they were just crawling with chiggers too, poor things!
No peace and relaxation for me 
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Yes, I do find working in the garden/orchard relaxing. I have the smallest yard ever (1/16 acre, and most of that is house & hardscape). Landscaping with edibles is my “thing” and I’ve shoe-horned in edible perennials, both fruits & vegetables, wherever I can. But we don’t live off this garden or rely on it for income, so it is purely a labor of love. We eat as much as we can, and share the rest. Successes and failures alike are sources of joy, amusement, and conversation with gardening buddies. I’m fortunate that I don’t have to stress over the failures. If something doesn’t thrive and I can’t rehabilitate it, I pull it out and give the space to something else in the hopes that I’ll make a better match between plant and micro-climate. Living in 7b we have a full 6 month growing season, but summers can be brutal. I have the luxury of being kind to myself. So I get as much hard labor done in the yard while temps are in the 70s and below, then I coast and enjoy the garden from the deck and the porch when it gets hotter. In the summer I harvest and do needed maintenance in the cool morning and evening hours. My only wish as I get older (approaching 70 now) is that gardening centers would offer mulch, soil, and amendments in smaller bags that I could manage alone as my hubby does not garden. At all. LOL
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