Garden contentment....this is one of the reasons we grow...isn't it?

[patandchickens]

'Me too', to most of the above

Don't you feel that warm, proprietary feeling of, "this is mine and I helped create it and nurture it....and it is GOOD!"

I don't feel personal achievement so much as I feel major (stupid) amazement that things ever grow at all I realize that plants have been clocking happily along on their own for, like, millions of years... but somehow, every single year, when I see the first <whatever> coming up out of the ground, I have a very strong sense of "wow, damn, that perennial-overwintering business (or that germination business) actually *worked*, can you believe it?"

Yes, I realize this makes me a slow learner, but, hey <g>

I also start comparing other's gardens to my own in my area about this time of year. Is their's doing better or worse, if so, why? Feeling smug if mine is better, feeling a little embarassed if it isn't. Anyone else a little competitive when it comes to gardening?

I don't feel competetive about it in that sense... since my goal is to maximize the types of outputs I want -- both visual and utilitarian -- while seriously minimizing the work input , and since you can't tell how much work other people are doing (I prefer to imagine it is vast <g>), I *couldn't* really compare other peoples gardens with mine on the axis I really care about, anyway.

However I do notice peoples a) weeding, b) deadheading/trimming/etc and c) edging, and while I do not begrudge anyone a garden that looks better or worse than mine, it always makes me a little bit extra happy to see that my garden's weeds, dead bits and edging are pretty comparable to those in a lot of theoretically fancy gardens, like those on garden tours or Longwood Gardens or places like that. That is, we ALL seem to have a fair bit of unpulled weeds, things that haven't been lopped off yet, and grass sneaking into the bed edges. That probably shouldn't make me feel good but it does

Pat

 

[Beekissed]

I still feel that sense of awe and delight, after all these years. I think it is true, what they say....one is closer to God in a garden! I guess its one of the few ways of feeling like we created something natural and beautiful. Almost like childbirth.....at first you just had the shape and knowledge of the creature...then it is born and grows and you realize, but for me, it wouldn't be there in that exact way. That must be how God gets to feel all the time!

 

[bunch-a-chickens]

i'm where the "darn, If i knew those were cukes, I wouldn't have pulled them" and the "why didn't I make the garden bigger?" stages meet

 

[punkin]

I still feel that sense of awe and delight, after all these years. I think it is true, what they say....one is closer to God in a garden! I guess its one of the few ways of feeling like we created something natural and beautiful. Almost like childbirth.....at first you just had the shape and knowledge of the creature...then it is born and grows and you realize, but for me, it wouldn't be there in that exact way. That must be how God gets to feel all the time!

I completely agree with you I think growing a garden is just another way we can be good stewards of the earth. It gives me immense pleasure to plop a seed in the ground, nurture it and reap the rewards of the harvest.