Any of my fellow greyhairs cutting back on gardening as the years march along?

[SPedigrees]

I realized my limitations this past year and scaled back the areas I can realistically maintain. Three perennial beds were first to be abandoned this spring. This shows them in mid-summer back in their earlier days:

and they exist now (below) as part of this fenced off section which also includes the large apple tree on left of photo.

I feel vaguely guilty for giving up these 3 gardens because of the work my late husband went through to move and transplant all the phlox, daylilies, and others from the front yard back to this remote area in back, but at least I can't recall him specifically remarking on how nice these gardens looked. Hauling gardening utensils out there across that great expanse of land just finally got the better of me.

On the other hand, he did specifically say that he liked this garden (below) with its small brick patio area (I call it my orange garden because only orange flowers seemed to ever be happy there). Also he reiterated often how well he liked the gardens alongside our brook (as I do too), so I see no way out of maintaining these beds as long as I am alive and physically able to do so.

So I've wimped out at least partially, I guess. The (former) horse owner in me still regards this property as misused/unused pastureland, and mowing the better part of it as a waste of good feed.

So on to my UNabandoned garden endeavors this year:

My SubArctic Plenty tomato plants that I started in this cool grow light kit gifted to me:

and out in their raised bed (below) together with pinwheels protecting soon-to-sprout crookneck summer squash seedlings.

Also I planted up a variety of containers for the front porch which will grow into nasturtiums, petunias, poppies, dwarf sunflowers, strawflowers, and geraniums. All planted from seed, and geraniums are already up. On the hill behind the house tall heirloom sunflowers are up, inside their protective curtains of deer netting, and in the orange garden are orange cosmos and marigolds sticking their heads up out of the dirt, along with orange geraniums planted earlier this spring indoors.

The most welcome surprise of this gardening season was that my presumed dead and drowned crabapple tree sprang miraculously back to life! It suffered mightily from the endless rains of the past summer, and has been colonized by lichens, and it looks pretty ratty, yet still it lives! It leafed out and even managed a few blossoms. In the picture, it is the tree on the left in the front yard. I'd been depressed about the loss of this tree, so this was a welcome turn of events.

 

[flowerbug]

i am gardening more as Mom is able to do less, but there are some things that i don't care to do at all so they can go by the wayside for now...

what is helping is that i've been able to make some gardens simpler and much easier to care for.

 

[Marie2020]

Your gardens look spectacular to me.
I like your raised bed.

Unfortunately I've not been able to do so much in my little garden and the old guy that used to come to help has given up his work as a gardener in my area.

I've been telling myself all week too pull out a huge amount of weeds. I hope to get around to it tomorrow, we shall see.

I potted a couple of pots of thyme a few days ago but my naughty chicken all but destroyed one of these pots this morning. Hopefully it will still grow

There is no chance for my raised bed while I still have princess, she keeps on wrecking my plants, besides my back garden has become totally her domain now, except for the two cats that she enjoys bossing around.

 

[Alasgun]

@SPedigrees, i don't have nearly as much under cultivation as you but the concept of cutting back is thought about, a lot!
This year i’ve hit on a workable solution and we’ll see how it all works out. Previously id be all in a tither if i had to fill in or replace anything in the spring. Our winters being what they are many of the “perennial” stuff isn't really perennial! So i got to thinking; i think they call it “Attrition” when the old guys retire and they don't replace them. Why cant that work for gardeners as well? Going forward i’m gonna tell people this or that empty spot was caused by attrition and leave it at that. For me that would be Mint, Strawberries, Comfrey, Asparagus, Self Heal, Rhodiola and the fruit trees.
After im gone no one will continue any of it anyway, heck i should probably just build me a raft and go float down some river like Huck and Tom; they didnt worry about stuff like that!

 

[Shades-of-Oregon]

@SPedigrees After exploring thru your journey of down sizing thru your garden posts, I feel lucky to be a member of the grey hairs down sizing our gardens along with you . And I am very sorry to read of your DH.

The title caught my interest that read …”Any of my fellow greyhairs cutting back on gardening as the years march along?”​

In your beautiful garden and illustrations in your posts that are living proof you still got it. Even as aging catches up .
Your pics show a garden full of flowers, shrubs, trees, vines and veggies. And especially enjoy your humor in garden accessories. In my late 70’s my motto is, “Anybody can be young , but only the lucky few can be old.”

So here we are some of the most experienced gardeners still going strong.