Garden Achievement

Hello All

My apologies in advance as you may of been asked this question many times before (but i'am new to the GW forum) 

"What would you describe as your biggest achievement in the garden" - if any,  this could be anything from growing some plants to erecting a greenhouse to laying a perfect lawn etc, etc ?

I have a lovely lollipop bay tree which I grew from a cutting - I'm very proud of that 

I was also very proud of a good crop of sweetcorn last year - it was the first time I'd grown it and we had such a rotten summer I was surprised to get anything but we ate lots of lovely cobs.

Come to think of it I feel quite proud every time I pick something from my veg patch and cook it for our evening meal 

Persuading my husband to do something!

Dove, am very impressed by the standard bay, do you put it under cover in the winter?

I guess my proudest moments are when passers by stop to admire the garden (the whole of my garden lies alongside the pavement, so 'front' garden, drive, studio and veg garden are all visible from the road.) It all comes down to keeping on top of everything...now if I could just find a place to hide the sacks of compost...

Achievements: making my own compost, helping my builder assemble the greenhouse, growing fruit and veg, there are so many things where I feel I can pat myself on the back and somehow housework just doesn't have the same effect, even though a lot of gardening is not so different to housework.

' even though a lot of gardening is not so different to housework.', 

artjak,  I don't do housework outside in the fresh air, with the birds singng in my ears, the robin poking abut where I am working, the sun on my back or the rain on my head, so I personally think there is no comparison.  Actually, I don't do housework, or at least do as little as I can possibly get away with, and that is remarkably little! 

I didn't hit the bold button, so don't know why it has come out like this, and I have not been able to get it normal from the edit area either - apologies I am nt trying to shout at anyone!

My soft fruit cage is my biggest achievement, so far, I got a handful of fruit from the newly planted bushes last year and this year they're laden with buds so far.

indeed Saltski, fresh produce from your own efforts beats just abut anything doesn't it.  We have a new baby cherry tree in the fruit cage, it looks very good with healthy buds - just one cherry this year would be a wonderful achievement.

Thank you, some great answers and happy and proud gardeners, here's hoping this year is a good one for us gardeners ?

Nearly all involve persuading OH we need something like getting a man with a bulldozer to smooth out centuries of lumpy cow pasture and scoop out a pond for drainage; getting same man to build a retaining wall of railway sleepers so we could make a level potager with raised beds and paths; creating a woodland corner at the far end; buying a second hand greenhouse from a friend who was going back to the USA and then, after a couple of years; moving said greenhouse to a warmer, sunnier spot; buying a Mantis so he could easily dig over the big beds and the new beds in the garden...............

I get very excited when plants come through after a long cold winter but that's more "proud mum" than anything I do as I refuse to wrap the garden in unsightly fleece so trust to hardiness, mulches of compost for specials and stashing pots in the greenhouse for winter.    I did build a windbreak round my blueberries last autumn and they've come through this winter much better than last year so that's an achievement;

Still very much a work in progress but eradicating brambles from Father-In-Laws old garden will be the top of my list.  We live across the road and my ME/CFS has prevented me from tackling it before ...now feeling much better, and armed with secateurs, loppers, weedkiller, a strong digging fork and a dustbin incinerator thingy, I am slowly winning the battle.  I've uncovered a Ford Sierra, and got as far as the front of the Escort (his back garden was where old cars went to die).

Will be opening a bottle of Champagne when I reach the end of the garden, even if I've not managed to get ALL of the roots out - if I keep pulling the buggers out, eventually they'll get the message and do one.

Wow, Mummy MP, that's quite an achievement, especially for someone who has been so unwell.

I suppose our achievement has been to take up the awful paving that covered our entire garden (actual pavement slabs, very heavy and hard to dispose of) and replace it with topsoil and plant it. OH is not interested in gardening, but he has actually worked hard, wood-cladding an old breeze block chicken shed, taking the front off it, linking it with a pergola and calling it a summerhouse. It looks great! I've planted it with climbers and when they mature, it should be even better. We've learnt as we went along and made qwuite a few mistakes, but in another couple of years, we should have a genuinely lovely garden. And we've only been here ten years!

Thanks for the encouragement chaps.  It will be a lot easier when we move in, as at the moment I tend to get stuck in (it's very therapeutic, being outside and chopping things back, digging them out and burning them).  The trouble is, I loose track of time, and when I go back over the road, tired, scratched and in need of a cup of tea, I find OH the same way - he's been looking after two anklebiters, he's used to much bigger kids (technical college lecturer).  I then get told off for leaving him to cope for so long!!

Bookertoo; I loved your post, it reminded me of Joan Rivers comment about housework.

'I don't know, you wash the dishes and make the beds and six months later you have to do it all over again!'

I got loads of enjoyment last year from my snapdragons. I was inspired from seeing some some wild types in my mums garden, I bought a packet and grew them from seed and they filled my garden. Some might even make it through to this Summer.

"Actually, I don't do housework, or at least do as little as I can possibly get away with, and that is remarkably little"

'I don't know, you wash the dishes and make the beds and six months later you have to do it all over again!'

There was a concrete garage base were my veg beds and GH are now. It took two skips to take away all the rubble, it was so hard work breaking up the concrete. Worms still push up the occasional tile. Planted a lawn to start with and then slowly chipped away until it's now a third of the size it was and there's an edible garden in it's place. Being able to grow stuff was my big achievement.     

Indeed Artjak, I go along with Joan Rivers with that comment, also the one that the wonderful late Quentin Crisp made, 'if you don't dust, after 4 years it doesn't get any worse anyway ......'   However, the garden does not allow that sort of neglect, and I would not want to allow that anyway - never mind the windows, lets prune the dogwoods. 

I grew a 2 lbs potato last season

Hello  Jon Cob - here you are again with yet another ID