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Post by jlottie on Sept 8, 2006 22:26:44 GMT
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Post by 4pygmies on Sept 8, 2006 22:48:13 GMT
There doesn't seem to be a happy medium with OH's! Either they don't lift a finger or they just interfere! I've been married twice and neither one has been interested in gardening. First one - just a backdrop to BBQing and drinking, current one (not intending to replace him....!) it's a backdrop to drinking and smoking his funny baccy.....although he will mow the grass sometimes and shoot rats. I've always regretted this but actually I have a feeling I would be very very cross if someone was doing any real gardening in MY garden....
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Post by Main Admin on Sept 9, 2006 7:17:13 GMT
My wife doesn't do anything in garden apart from lay fag ash, but I'm quite happy to potter about on my own. I get bored when my tasks run out and I've got to find something else todo and that could mean going back to the old place and getting another tree for the garden.
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Post by Plocket on Sept 9, 2006 9:01:54 GMT
I think I've got OH pretty well trained actually. He does the mowing for me, is more than happy to help with serious jobs (like making our patio) and will weed between the paving stones for me without being asked. He'll trail around garden centres with me occasionally, and on really rare occasions will offer to buy the odd plant. In return I try and plant some of the things he likes! ;D
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Post by sweetleaf on Sept 9, 2006 9:28:39 GMT
My OH likes lamposts, so has reconditioned and erected two (front and rear) He doesnt interfere with planting schemes and wouldnt recognise a weed if it jumped up and introduced itself, but he loves british plants, particularly the toxic ones for some reason, but leaves me and my gardening happily alone.
He is actually outside at the mo repairing my shed......................
Oh, and he does bring me hard landscaping materials, and is sourcing some slabs for my path at the lottie. ;D
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Post by jlottie on Sept 9, 2006 15:39:07 GMT
OH doesn't interfere with the planting and is great for helping when I need it, but, just every now and again ...... Stained the decking a couple of years back and has now decided it would look better natural, so this afternoon I got to "play" with the sander and the drill with a wire brush attachment (that was after 3 hours down at the allotment). We have made a dent in it but what a job, and of course I got the fiddly bits on the "banister" Mind you I did enjoy myself and I am quite impressed with the distressed look  |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2006 18:57:54 GMT
He's great. He'll do what's asked and has come to some shows and had a good day but he understands that I make the decisions. If I had a gripe (a bit churlish, I know) it would be that his DIY isn't up to much.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2006 9:35:10 GMT
My OH will cut the grass and trim the edges and hedges He has laid gravel pathways, erected a trellis and best of all re-sited the compost bin - not a nice job. He has also put up lots of brackets for my hanging baskets, and does all the jobs requiring muscle power  BUT he is NOT allowed to do any weeding as he pulls up seedlings  I banned him just after I made him search the compost bin for a Cranes Bill geranium seedling he pulled up - he thought it was a nettle |
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Post by Rosefriend on Sept 10, 2006 14:14:18 GMT
I don't know whether my OH is an asset in the garden or not - it depends what he does I suppose. He always mows the lawn and when we have changed the shape of the garden throughout the years, he can "see" before we start - I have problems. He isn't very good with plants so that is my job - we work well as a team - well as long as he plays "gaffer" and I am his "mate".  Actually when I think about it most of our rows start in the garden - him telling me where to put the yellow thingys and he doesn't like the blue whatsits etc etc Years ago I said (half in jest) that had there been another sex I would have married it... Someone replied - there is and you wouldn't have!!! ;D Very true Rosefriend |
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Post by beejay on Sept 10, 2006 14:57:48 GMT
Well I have to say that Mr beejay is close to perfect.  He does most of the work on the allotments (in fact I first did my horticultural training so as to be more help to him), with some peripheral assistance from me, except the fruit which is mine! In the garden, deasigned by my goo self of course, he only does what I ask him to do really, but does get invoved in picking plants & loves spending money on them or other bits & is a coplete dab hand at DIY complete with sweat & bad language. What more could I want. |
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Post by chickadeedeedee on Sept 11, 2006 0:40:02 GMT
Well, when we need to get the muck out of the wildlife pond and I am hanging precariously over the water and dredging up leaves and general crud from the bottom of the pond, my husband holds onto me and hasn't dropped me into the water yet! LOL!
C3D
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Post by sweetleaf on Sept 11, 2006 0:55:22 GMT
I dont think Ill ask my OH to hold on to me when I clean the pond...notoriously accident prone ;D
Once he walked us through a swamp in our local park which sucked the shoes off our feet, and he still thinks that was hilarious, scared me a bit to be up to my knees in slime but he was laughing like a drain, he`d probably think it was funny if he dropped me face first in the pond!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2006 6:13:02 GMT
The garden is mine all mine .......... until I yell for assistance. He did build all the retaining pallet walls separating us from next door I suppose.
And he did help his mate build the shed (although the window was put in the wrong way round).
And he did hold the various part of the g/h in position while I bolted it together.
And he does carry heavy things .... and he broke the grown on the front border over the weekened as it was so hard I bounced off it.
I don't encourage him tbh as it's my space. All that might change when I get an allotment and need him to show a bit more interest.
;D
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Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2006 15:35:50 GMT
What input.
When we bought the house he said the garden is yours, we have been here ten years and he has cut the lawn twice cut the hedge once never again. The lawn was fine but the hedge took a while to grow back. He does help me occasionally if a fence blows down thats if hes not at work. Bless him he hasn't got a clue whats a weed and whats a plant, i enjoy gardening so i dont mind doing it i think its safer that way.
All the best karenwl
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Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2006 16:13:12 GMT
We have a fair division of labour between us. OH does the veg and I do the ornamental bits. We also mow the lawn, prune the trees and trim the hedges together (usually he does the trimming while I do the clearing up!). OH also puts up trellis, maintains the fences (I paint them) and does any lifting. He's also the one that instigates new projects like giving me a flowerbed to plant up because his veg plot was too big to manage. I'm the one that does most of the picking and watering and I also do the weeding. The last time OH offered to do the weeding I lost my agastache plants because he thought they were nettles (I had to agree with him). I have trained him not to put out my plants into regimented rows - they just don't look right.  |
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Post by Chuckles on Sept 11, 2006 16:42:48 GMT
In the early days of our marriage we used to do the garden together. It all fell apart when he was digging out a large square bed that had been full of old roses that were way past their sell by date and he said he had dug up a load of onions. Onions I said  ..............yes you got it in one he had disposed of every bulb he had found, Dafs, Tulips, Bluebells etc etc. Then he took humbridge and only ever did the mowing, then that died a death so I now do the lot. Only time I get help now is for heavy work, tree pruning, constructing patios etc, i do as much as I can but always have to nag for anywhere from 4 - 12 weeks. (sorry we ladies don't do that do we ) |
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Post by obelixx on Sept 12, 2006 9:44:36 GMT
My OH has serious problems identifying weeds from treasures and this tends to lead to earth shattering rows in spring and autumn blitz periods but he does now ask about most things since I've taken to dragging him off to plant fairs so he can see how much his lack of discrimination costs!
However, in all other respects he's a star assistant gardener - lawn edges, digging, path clearing, raking the cut grass after I've mowed (grass collection feature doesn't work), weeding under the prickly holly hedge, disposing of my mess when I've been pruning and weeding, turning the compost heaps, helping erect trellis, hauling all the pots in for shelter in autumn and out again in spring, not turning a hair when I come home with 6 clematis I don't "need".............
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Post by Deleted on Sept 12, 2006 12:40:29 GMT
Well, when we moved into the house the 'space at the back' was covered with asphalt, a rusty old swing and a pile of car wheel hubs. Once the builders had removed the asphalt, OH got a pickaxe and shovel and levelled the wannabe garden over many days, then laid the patio and double-dug the borders ;D. He has no interest in the plant life, although enjoys looking at it all over a glass of beer  - but is happy to get on a ladder and chop back our wall-growing buddleia or do any heavy lifting - so I can't complain at all. And he doesn't even raise an eye-brow when I come back with yet more seeds or bulbs. So, I'd say I'm pretty lucky ... cheers ... |
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Post by chickadeedeedee on Sept 12, 2006 13:57:47 GMT
My husband is 6 ft. tall and I am only 5 ft. 2 inches (on a good day). It is no effort for him to cling onto my waist band as I hang over the pond. Plus it is far easier for someone smaller to get under that huge olive limb that is over the site. He dutifully, and so far lovingly, also steadies me as I rearrange stones on the border of the pond .
Outside we share the things that need to be done about 50-50.
He has relinquished his planty thing duties inside after an incident a few years ago. He was watering / misting the Tillandsia and other Bromeliads as well as the vast orchid collection to help out. Within a few short days things were turning brown and dying!
I had no idea what was happening. As I was misting the plants one of our children said that Daddy put some food in the water when he misted them.
---------->Insert look of shock here (x) !
I later asked him how much food he put in and he admitted to 20 or so drops in the quart bottle. Hmmmmm. I put 2 drops in a 5 gallon bucket and water the orchids weekly weakly!
~~SIGH~~ It was not intentional but the carnage was extensive. We lost 99% of the brommies and 80% + of the orchids and the other house plants that winter. LOOOONG winter.
We looked at the bottle of liquid plant food and discovered it was a different colour than normal. We now believe it was a contaminated bottle with something other than plant food in it. We have quickly recovered and again have far more plants than we need but somehow we "needed" each one of them.
The poor dear. He still feels guilty for the deaths of most of our plants but I really think it would have happened to me had I been the first to use that new bottle!
ChickaDDD
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Post by Deleted on Sept 12, 2006 15:48:29 GMT
We dont have much of a garden, just a backyard you see, so it is a case in our house of us both doing bits, example like the boxes my dad and I did, i got the first one done, the mrs got the staining colour to match the decking and I painted it, once dry I put the soil and compost in it mixing it all up and then the other decided what would go in it.
So once that was done and finished, I asked if she liked it, she did lots, anf tehn said how about one here and one here, so i went and got the wood and made two others with my old man. It is all about a wheel barrow at the moment, i have yet to make a start, but it shouldnt take too long once i have got the wood sorted and got the time also. My dad has all the tools at his house so I have to arrange to go round and get the wood on the way and make it.
I have suggested the tower and we spent sunday going thro options, moving the box under the widow if the wheel barrow goes this way we have a triangle of space behind it next to the decking so we can drop the fir tree into the space therefore we have a good metre square of space on th decking to build the tower.
The better half then said ok, she knows i want to do it but also wants to keep a fair bit of space for her sunbathing on the decking. But she does know it would be good, so it is off to a DIY store to look for three pots and stuff, the biggest being no bigger than a metre in diameter.
The general gardening, I like planting, just a big kid, love getting m,y hands in soil. while the better half loves to prune and tidy, forever pulling dead leaves, also she buys the plants, I have chosen one plant, the massive orange tropicanna plant which flowered again this weekend.
So it is a joint effort really. Where I think of things to make and do while she does plants and colours etc......
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Post by Dutchy on Sept 12, 2006 19:24:56 GMT
Isn't it always so that one is the gardener and the other is its user? My OH loves gardening. Sit back, read book, drink beer, eat ice cream, wait for me to finnish........ We have no lawn in our 18 by 10 meter garden so he need not do anything there. He does help when I ask though. Cutting branches of the willows dragging the heavy bgrs off that kind of thing. Oh and helping with replacement of seating areas before the guests arrive, about by the time they ring the bell. And like Obelix's OH the difference between weeds and goodies is lost on him. Would not want to swap him with any one though. He knows what my poor back needs after a day of gardening Dutchy |
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Post by Cheerypeabrain on Sept 15, 2006 21:00:58 GMT
My beloved is very good.... He's built me a gazebo, a conservatory and a cold frame, always cuts the grass and will dig if I'm feeling pathetic.
He has a leaning towards megalomania if allowed to take charge of watering...starts calling everything 'his' 'I'd better go and water MY tomatoes', 'MY bananas'..'MY potatoes' etc which he's only allowed to get away with because he's soooo cute. (please don't barf...it's true!)
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Post by anneliesje on Sept 15, 2006 21:12:41 GMT
we have a bit an akward situation. We both have a garden... He helps pruning my plane trees, I weed his'. I do what I want in my garden, ask for his advice and neglect it (yes I'm bad ;D). He asks for my advice for his garden, but he also does what he wants. So we are both happy. And strange  |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 16, 2006 12:32:21 GMT
I daren't even let OH near my garden  He shifs stuff that's too heavy for me and will water if I'm away, but I can't trust him to do much else, he's lethal with loppers - his favourite gardening tool |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 22, 2006 11:04:13 GMT
My OH has little input in the garden, and that's just fine by me. He doesn't actually understand gardening and gets annoyed that I have covered all of this decking with pots. In fact we had a bit of an argument about it last night. He also doesn't cut the lawn anymore as his idea of cutting the lawn is removing x amount of the top and not making it look tidy, so he's barred from doing it now. However, as he spends so little time inspecting my work, he hasn't noticed my beds creeping out and overtaking the lawn (which he wants to keep).
- Constant.
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Post by MamIDdau on Sept 22, 2006 16:39:28 GMT
My OH will mow and strim but otherwise will leave the plants to me. He'll lift heavy things for me if I ask him to as he knows I can manage.
I try to get him involved by saying "it's that pretty/beautiful"
and he replies "Trace, it's a plant"...
So I try again "But can you not appreciate how pretty it is even though you don't understand it?"
and he concedes in a disinterested way "yes, it's pretty".
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I banned him just after I made him search the compost bin for a Cranes Bill geranium seedling he pulled up - he thought it was a nettle 
..............yes you got it in one he had disposed of every bulb he had found, Dafs, Tulips, Bluebells etc etc. 
- but is happy to get on a ladder and chop back our wall-growing buddleia or do any heavy lifting - so I can't complain at all. And he doesn't even raise an eye-brow when I come back with yet more seeds or bulbs. So, I'd say I'm pretty lucky ... cheers ...
