Being a newbie and spending so much time reading up on the board this week, something struck me.
Ive heard so many mentions of posters talking about enjoying sharing the enjoyment of the garden/lottie with their better half as a shared hobby.
Call me a softie, but i think thats really sweet to have a shared interest in the garden ;)
Mine, didnt know a thing about anything when i met him four years ago, and made it clear he was going to take no part, but now and then i hear him naming plants etc ;)
And he mows the lawn better than i can, so hes getting there, he just hasnt realised yet. :D
So do you do it with yours? ;)
Nope. He loves the garden and loves to see it full and lush, and loves to look at gardens, but it goes in one ear and out the other! He happily admits this fact. However, when it comes to a structure, or lighting, or digging ponds, he is a king, nay, a God! I am not complaining, I love my gardening and my garden and my allotment, and they are mine, all mine you hear! ;)
Ahhh a girl after my heart ;)
My better half isnt allowed to dig as he doesnt know his dandelions from his dianthas but i have to admit i was rather taken aback when he correctly named the passion flower in general conversation :o
Like you, he is better trusted and better suited as my lighting specialist and fetcher and carrier ;D
I've always been keen - almost went to horticultural college - so when I got married and got a garden it was natural to dig and plant.
My wife of one season decided to help out one day when I had gone to work by 'weeding'. Most of what she did was fine ... but the whole row of leeks were systematically removed. When asked where the leeks had gone the response was "Leeks ? - I thought it was grass!".  I have never found out why she thinks that I would plant a row of grass.
She has got better over the last 25 years, and its always nice to be together on the lotty.
QuoteMy wife of one season
:D :D :D
That tickled me BW, so i see you decided to kep her for many more seasons to come ;D
Mine is a self confessed "not the outdoorsey type!" The only time you see him doing anything in the garden is if it involves a beer and a sunny afternoon! ;D But I kinda like it that way, like EJ it is MY domaine! I like hammering old bits of wood to cobble something together for the plot, makes the gardening more varied, and if him indoors did it, it would take hours, would be beautifully put together and sanded and planed off, but would drive me insane!
He enjoys the veges I bring home though! ;D
my other half helps with the digging, and the clearing of rubble and that. he is keen to get his hands dirty but freely admits that the allotment was my idea and desire first and foremost. still, he is always happy to come out and have a look to see what has been dug/sowed/planted and it's looking goo datm, so he is full of praise for me :)
and hopefully, there will be lots of lovely veg at the end of it.
he has been very good with putting up with windowsills full of seedlings and a balcony now taken over with the 'hardening off' plants.
i do find it less boring though to be on the allotment the two of us. mind you, i was out there for four hours on sunday on my own - thank god for my ipod and some music :D
The 'Frenchstyle Courtyard' ;D ( i.e. the back yard) ::) is mine. I decide what goes in, what goes where and I do the work.
The lottie is mainly his. Thats why Im trying to get him to join here but he's not interested in putes. :(
My hubby's idea of what to do with a garden consists of concrete and agent orange.
Nuff said.
I always say if I forgot to water the cat he'd be awfully cross so why can't he see why I get cross when he forgets a plant. But then again the cat also gets awfully cross and LOUD so it's much harder to forget! ;D ;D ;D ;D
moonbells
The allotment is mine and I guard it jealously! It's my chill-out place, gym and thinking ground all in one.
I'm happy for other family members to have a look and help pick any produce, but they must not spend long. To be honest, they don't want to anyway!
I won't bore you with details, but I'm having a very difficult time at work ( :'()and I'm sure that gardening is helping me to cope. Certainly OH & daughter encourage me to go to the lottie so I think they must be able to see the benefit too :o.
Lillypad
the garden is all mine the weeding the planting the watering the pruning never let him indoors loose with a pair of secateurs would be nothing left, but he is very good with anything structural the plants he has not got a clue and has no interest in, but enjoys sitting in the garden and getting the pleasure from all my hard work
Officially the allotment is Mr W's but we say it is "ours". I was reluctant to start (many many moons ago) but now its my salvation! We do work well together on most jobs with the usual split of me doing the inspecting/tidying/deadheading etc and Mr W doing the most of the actual construction.
And its great because on those days when things are a little tense ( ::)) we can work at opposite ends of the plot until its time for a cuppa!
Some great stories here, I am so glad that i asked :)
Keep the stories coming in ;)
There is a couple, on my site who are always at there plot together.
They come down at various times of the day, and he just potters about weeding and planting.
His better half heads straight to the greenhouse to do her thing.
There is no plants just a chair and table and she sits and reads until he has finished and then off they pop.
i have a chuckle each time I see her sat in there
Ron
Those sorts of couples must be on every site. Its the other way about on ours. She gets her back into it and he kicks a ball around with his son. ::)
I'm the gardener in this family. I do the weeding, planting, sowing, pruning, etc. Hubby is the constructor, he loves making/building things.
He has attempted to weed a few times, but after digging up some much wanted plants >:( and getting a telling off by me ;) he gave up! Although he did attempt again recently but was forever saying is this a weed or plant! so in the end i told him to leave it as it would be quicker for me to do it......... bless him he does try  :)
But his construction skills are great, one of his best things to date is a well. We had quite a large circular slab of concrete in our grass which was access to an old, disused drain. As we couldn't dig it up and it looked so unsightly in the garden, he came up with the idea of building a well over it.  It is life size, with a slated roof. In the bottom half he put in a pond liner and has hung a bucket from a bar. He put a pond pump in the bottom so the water goes up a pipe, runs into the bucket, which overflows back into the well. Everyone admires it.
So all in all we make a very good team ;D
"Our" plot is "my" plot when the sun isn't out!! ;D
To be fair, I reckon we've both done as much digging as each other, but I look after the growing of vegetables (and most of the cooking of them too). Anne likes a nice flower, and so has a couple of her own beds for those. She does enjoy making the allotment look tidy though - I tend to plough through the beds, throwing weeds left and right, and she follows on behind with a spade, neatening up the edges and clearing up behind me!
When the weather's nice we both use the plot as a garden substitute, with a bench and garden chairs to relax on, and a BBQ. A lovely place to spend a warm evening with friends, as our flat is less than 5 minutes walk away.
I definitely wear the trousers when it comes to the garden!
I've been with Mr Aqui for 10 years, but have only been seriously into gardening for about three (since we bought our first house). Before that, I enjoyed pottering about and growing herbs in pots. When we met, he was definitely NOT an outdoors person. Now he loves it.
I make the decisions, what to grow where, when to dig a new bed, etc, he happily takes instruction and does not make suggestions (I'm really glad!) In fact he hates it when I can't work out how to do something and he has to come up with an idea.
I usually give him a big project to do, while I potter about doing the little and intricate things. He's good at digging, lifting, shifting, etc. All the heavy things. I would never let him weed (and he wouldn't dare to anyway!) sow, plant (I think I once let him plant something!), prune (unless it's the buddleia, but still under instruction!).
He really enjoys it and he does listen to me waffling on... I recently heard him tell his mum how lovely the wallflowers and daffodils looked (He remembered the names!!!) He has learned to recognise an aquilegia, even without flowers. (he often points them out to me when we're plant shopping - he knows where my horticultural heart lies!)
Oh and yesterday he told me he was really looking forward to being in the garden in late summer when all the new veg beds are finished, planted and producing!
My OH and Mr Moonbells should get together - concrete and agent orange sums up his attitude as well. When we were first married I did chivvy him out into the garden a couple of times. The first time he lit a bonfire, which was fine, until he wandered over and said, "I've just put your compost heap on the fire". He reckoned the elements were the same whatever.
The next time I asked him to double dig a bed. I thought I'd explained very clearly what this involves, went indoors and got on with other things. (To appreciate the next bit you should understand that he's an archaeologist). I went out to tell him lunch was ready and found him standing in a hole about 2 feet deep and 10 feet square, sections all neatly cleaned down, and declaring that he was now "Down to natural".
After that, I gave up.
Sue
my hubby is not interested at all - if it isn't a ball he can hit or kick it does not get a look in. Having said that he does have a fondness for strimming which comes in quite handy at the lotty.
I actually love going down their on my own and pottering about. With 2 kids (4 and 35) and a part time job it is lovely to go there and think my own thoughts without being interupted every 2 minutes.
The allotment is definitely a joint venture between me and my OH and I think we both work equally hard at it. He has built the greenhouse and is great for laying paths but he is also a good gardener. We both plant seeds, he can get anything to germinate, but I am better at the after care of them. I weed great and am more meticulous than he is. He likes the big picture and can't stand weeding. We are both quite possessive of our plants and there is a certain amount of competitiveness between us, in a small way.Â
He planted the potatoes but I chose the variety. He always grows the leeks and onions, but I am always in charge of the brassicas, salads and parsnips. We each grow carrots (or try to). We sort of share everything else, but there is always some special thing we grow that we are individually keen on. This year it is squashes for me and I get very uppity if he goes near my seedlings. Â
He laughs at my crazy ideas sometimes but on the whole it is a wonderful thing to share together, and we both love being there. There is our workng time at the lottie but we always have the leaving time, where we stand and stare at it from different angles before we go, and then we have to tear ourselves away because we could look at it for hours. It is a love affair! (how soppy am I?) ;D busy_lizzieÂ
:) Busy Lizzie,what a lovely tribute, a match made in Lottie Heaven, a very interesting read of sharingness (Probs not in the d ictinary) very much enjoyed the read ;)
Justy, that is quite an age gap between your kids! ;D ;D ;D
Its obvious she meant 34 and 35 ::) ;D