What makes a good gardener?.

[veggiechicken]

Another of my weaknesses has just landed on the doormat
Books
Do I really need another 7 gardening books? Will they tell me anything different to all the other (mostly unread) books on the groaning shelves?
You never know! It only takes one new nugget of information and the book has earned its keep! Anyway, they're cheap - cheaper than a magazine (sorry GYO) - and they give me ideas.

Watch this space for "Plants from Pips" - my next little challenge

[Kirk]

Small amount of thought.
Q: What makes a good gardener ?
A: How well they compost.

[muddled]

Get a thermos - I often drink mine when I get home.

Me too

I am loving this thread, I've been laughing out loud!
Which brings me neatly to my next failing.....

I just pop in here for a quick glance at what you're all up to.....two hours later and the kids are due home soon so I've missed my chance to get to the allotment

[1Bee]

So glad I'm not the only one with can't-kill-seedlings syndrome! I'm trying to be harder-hearted now we have a plot, as I know that the right spacing is really key... but it's so haaaaard!

[Lumpy]

After spending many hours in quiet contemplation of my navel (well I would if I could move my flabby bits out of the way) in a meditation pose that would put a bandy legged donkey to shame I have thought long and hard about the above question.

So.... for me being 'good' means not really caring if my fruit and veggies are perfect (or even alive for that matter) as long as I have enjoyed the experience of challenging nature to do her worst, her obliging and keeping me in my inferior place.

....appreciating the world of weeds around me and explaining their existance on my need to provide a wild habitat for bugs so that I can watch them as they try to avoid me.

....realising that to scream like a helium ballon being set fire to each time I picked a slug up illustrated the differences between the classes as any young lady going to finishing school must have lessons on inappropriate, outdoor noises

....a good gardener is a happy one.

...and finally that it is OK to talk in a normal volumn rather than mousy squeeks about warm, sticky horse poo whilst sitting in the pub full of the care home residents having their Sunday lunch.

[kris1960]

I also can't bear to thin and try to find a space for each seedling. I also relocate each worm I find while digging- hard on the back and increases time taken hugely.
Agree wholeheartedly with Lumpy. Am learning patience from nature- the more I take time to appreciate it, the more I get done. Trying to do everything at once and in a rush is not only not fun but you miss seeing things that you should be learning about.

[ESBkevin]

Small amount of thought.
Q: What makes a good gardener ?
A: How well they compost.

I'm planning not to be here when I finally compost ;-)

[Bonsai Si]

lol!!!!!

Very clever.

[JanieB]

i'm planning not to be here when i finally compost ;-)

I don't seem to be able to enter a row of grins, so take this as a row of grins.

[Martin H]

The really good gardeners seem to be those who lose all sense of time when gardening and become completely engrossed in it. They see something that needs attention, sort it out, move along, see something else, do that ... then suddenly realise it's getting dark and they haven't eaten since breakfast. This means that they nip problems in the bud, nothing ever gets completely out of hand and their gardens and plots look well cared for.

I know gardeners like that, indeed my mother was one.

But personally, I see something that needs attention, think to myself "must sort that out", go and have a cup of tea and promptly forget about the task. The next time I stumble across it it's turned from a small job into a big one: a plague of blackfly, an overgrown sucker taking over the tree, an infestation of bindweed, a tray of seedlings dying from lack of water, whatever it might be. So my own gardens and plots always have patches that are mini disaster areas where large-scale intervention has been necessary to sort out a problem that could have been sorted out quickly and easily if done when first noticed.

The "do it now!" mentality has never come naturally to me, I'm much more a prevaricator. I try and fight it, though.

[Bonsai Si]

The really good gardeners seem to be those who lose all sense of time when gardening and become completely engrossed in it. They see something that needs attention, sort it out, move along, see something else, do that ... then suddenly realise it's getting dark and they haven't eaten since breakfast. This means that they nip problems in the bud, nothing ever gets completely out of hand and their gardens and plots look well cared for.

I know gardeners like that, indeed my mother was one.

But personally, I see something that needs attention, think to myself "must sort that out", go and have a cup of tea and promptly forget about the task. The next time I stumble across it it's turned from a small job into a big one: a plague of blackfly, an overgrown sucker taking over the tree, an infestation of bindweed, a tray of seedlings dying from lack of water, whatever it might be. So my own gardens and plots always have patches that are mini disaster areas where large-scale intervention has been necessary to sort out a problem that could have been sorted out quickly and easily if done when first noticed.

The "do it now!" mentality has never come naturally to me, I'm much more a prevaricator. I try and fight it, though.

Overly tidy and organised people are often scary people with OCD. From my limited experience a tidy garden isn't always the best garden. I'd hope the same goes for allotments also?