Is gardening a hobby or a lifestyle choice or a necessity or a luxury - what do you think? For me it was my income. Not now though. I have changed countries. So is gardening a hobby for me now? Nope.
Is parenting a hobby? It sure is expensive... happy granny nannying in Melbourne - glad you are getting the garden growing (though I run from Kale) looking forward to seeing what fruit you might grow there as well
I asked her if she would pull the wheelbarrow for me and she yawned HUGELY and laid straight back down. Dogs could be so useful- but I fear they are more ornamental. Dogs are definitely a hobby!
I love reading your thoughts on gardening and its place in your life. For me as well writing and gardening are intertwined and completely essential to my way of life. Without them, I suspect, I would struggle to know who I was.
Well, well. Whoda thunk it? I read you're coming to Melbourne, coming to Melbourne, and I think suburbs to the north probably, and you wind up down the road in Sunbury. I'm in Riddells Creek, edge of the ranges, fifteen minutes away, on 5 acres of clay with big river stones.
As a vegetable gardener, I would say gardening is for the pleasure of hands in the dirt, number one, and then, for the pleasure of of not being ruler of everything. Being servant to, which could be a burden I suppose, but if you love a garden, you sign up for the work, and the work is your excuse to be out in the garden. .
And look, the taste of tomatoes got from the vine before the currawong carries them off, and ripened a couple more days, and cut into a bowl with basil, your own basil, and olive oil, salt - that tastes different to what I buy in from the supermarket. Revelatory. Haloed by the months of tending. And a wedge of cucumber from the vines I grew for the first time this year, and am cosseting through our dry summer - who knew that cucumber could be like this?
So welcome to the neighbourhood. It's a fine old mix of country town turning rapidly to city down where you are domiciled, and a little more country this way. Come up for a visit and to get your bearings.
Good morning Ross and what a surprise you are - just down the road!! I love how you say being a servant to the garden who will mete out wondrous gifts if we work hard enough. So true! And a fresh tomato with fresh basil!! Divine. I do look forward to it next summer. I have questions about growing in this new country so I am so grateful that you introduced yourself. What seeds are you sowing this week? Is it too late to sow greens? (I sowed them anyway!!) We sow nothing at all in the fall in Illinois - everything gets frozen solid - even the earth. I am quite out of the habit of a year round garden.
Love this newsletter and everything that is happening in your world. I recall thinking it would be so wonderful if you read something by Lucy Maud Montgomery but I didn't get around to asking you. (At least I don't think I did) You can imagine how delighted I was when I read that the next book you will read to us is by LMM! I can't wait to start listening.
Anne of Green Gables did come up in discussion but I have never read it! The Blue Castle has always touched me profoundly so I am happy as I read. PLUS - Canadian. My small encouragement for the Canadians.
I have known you for what, almost 3 years now and I know your garden is your LIFE hahahaha
so much more than a hobby for you.
I love how it is coming along too.
As for baby showers, I can definitely relate to your sentiments. It’s funny, I’ve never quite found my place at them either (feeling a bit out of step with all the excitement). Maybe it’s because it often feels like an overwhelming amount of attention on things that seem a bit… unnecessary? Also, I am so not the motherly type, so I feel odd. I wrote an article about it some months ago.
Wishing you all the best as you prepare for this new addition to the family—and enjoy the garden Cecilia!
I find all gatherings like that terrifying. Even hens nights. They are just too exclusive. And all about the gifts when really what do we need. Nothing. We have a washing machine. And a cot. Lots of hand me down clothing. That is the main thing. Actually the main thing at the moment is health, fitness and good diet for Mum, baby and Granny Nanny. We are in training! Aunties are super important but I do get how you feel a little odd at the party. Otherwise I bet you are a wonderful auntie.
I read somewhere recently, but now can't find it, that a lot of activities that are traditionally connected to women are considered hobbies in a way that perhaps diminishes how important they are to the family and community. Like gardening! I think Pastel Pieces's comment asking if parenting is a hobby connects with that thread so well.
Parenting as a hobby made me laugh out loud. I do see what they might have meant about hobbies being seen as flippant and superfluous which just underscores out argument that gardening is not a hobby. Good morning Kasey!
one of my fave posts of yours ever, and there are many. I am called peaches by my 6 grandies, with 2 of them Aussies, where it sounds a bit different and I love it
it was my childhood nickname from the kids in my neighborhood, and I chose to reclaim it when I was going to become a grandmother, now my sons in law also call me that as well as many friends
Beautiful raised beds and that soil delivery is lovely. I am going through my saved seeds packets and seeing what I can grow in containers. We are in turbulent times and it’s going to get expensive. I can’t grow much anymore due to shade added by large buildings and it’s a short growing season. I am in Canada and we are just on edge right now. I am anyway. You really don’t know what can happen from one minute to the next.
I bet you are on edge. This is a dreadful attack. The world is being thrown into a wobble, like its axis is off. Big pots of leafy greens are a must - And I have grown good tomatoes and cucumbers in pots too. Add a pot of basil and you have a meal. Grow what you love to eat. We are sending heaps of good thoughts and love to you up there in Canada. . Don't forget to save the seeds from your plants at the end of the summer too - in case seeds get hard to find. Once they are super dry store them in the fridge. And stay in touch Lori!
Wonderful to see the garden growing. Gardening used to be about survival when I was a solo parent. Then it was about health, care for the earth, pleasure, and joy. The taste of a freshly picked carrot is beyond compare; or lettuce leaves straight from the garden. Now I live in an apartment I miss gardening, though I do my best in pots on the balcony. You can't keep a good gardener down!
PS I love the Blue Castle and look forward to reading it. Anne of Green Gables was my first Montgomerie book, and the one I've started my granddaughters on. Our 11 year old is just getting into it with my regular Zoom reads (family far away in Costa Rica)
I love that you read to your grandies via Zoom. What an excellent idea. It must be developing such close relationships! Gardening still feels like survival to me. It will only take a couple of days for the supermarkets to empty out in a natural disaster - if our gardens are spared we will do ok.
I too called my grandfather Pa, so I read it with fondness and nostalgia. I agree kids come up with their own names for grandparents, aunts & uncles. All those generic terms and repeated surnames are confusing! As in which Nanna do you mean?
Gardening for me is therapy, mental & physical, a tangible expression of my principles, beliefs and radical hope in the face of politics and the climatecrisis. It's a privilege... I worked hard to get to a point in life where the expensive luxury of growing food and flowers for mainly our household's personal consumption within a beneficial garden habitat is a priority I enjoy.
I have watched your journey for years now and your joy in working with the earth is a joy for us to behold too. Your seed saving is next level too!! Thank you so much for them. I am sowing this week!
It is something I feel the need to do. There is pleasure in watching my few plants grow and produce things we enjoy. The interaction of the soil and the plants and weather is marvelous.
I agree, maybe posting content is a job or a hobby for some but this is how I spend every day of my life, holiday or not! I get you. It's your entire lifestyle.
You're fueling my garden fever. I feel such a passion for the gardening and the farm animals. I am able to give my family better food choices. I get excited as the winter fads and spring begins. I can't wait to have the wind in my hair and the dirt under my nails.
I could do with your help today! Shifting all this soil in the most rickety wheelbarrow known to man on a warm day. You would love the sun and dusty breeze in your hair!
I love gardening, however, I’m absolutely terrible at it. I have a few pots, inside and out, that when I water them I feel so satisfied. But that is as far as I get..I’m clueless with the rest! I have a garden bed (still in its box) that I’ve been carrying with me from home to home for years simply because I have no clue where to start! Help!! So for me it would be a hobby!! P.s yay we’re in the same country! This is exciting 🥰😘
I am in the same country!! And probably will come to Sydney at some point. I will help you unpack that planter! I think that would be the place to start! At the beginning!
Are you on WhatsApp? I bet you are. I will email my phone number.
Oooh no I’m not on WhatsApp C! I’m in Brisbane but moving to Perth at the end of the year(yes planter is coming with hah) we will catch up of sure of it! I’ve always wanted to visit Melbourne 🥰😘
I don't feel that way about gardening, alas, but I do feel that way about my writing and to a certain extent, my stitching and knitting. I am a professional writer but even if I never got paid for it I would write. Not so with stitching and knitting--but I don't think calling them hobbies is such a bad thing. What's wrong with having a hobby? Why should activities that bring me so much joy and enhance my creativity be looked down upon?
Such a good question. Hobbies have a bad rap. They make me think of people who collect the matchboxes, or snow globes, writing, and gardening and knitting are definitely not hobbies. Making clothing - not a hobby. I am envious actually.
Lovely to read your news and thoughts. I garden because I like to have control over my food security and nutrition. I will always be able to eat something from the garden or the paddocks - even if it does get boring! My son was down the coast for the weekend and everyone was panicking because the supermarket shelves were empty (cyclone Alfred visited). We could survive months without a shop! Although I did stockpile butter before the rain set in! We could live without it, but it wouldn’t be enjoyable! Daylesford has a great market each week with a lot of local growers and the bread from Twofold Bakery is the best bread!
Having food in the backyard and in the larder is as old as the hills. A skill we must not lose. It contributes to a robust food security. Next level. I would HATE to have to depend on the shops for my nourishment. I do at the moment as I develop this garden and it is not a good feeling.
Is parenting a hobby? It sure is expensive... happy granny nannying in Melbourne - glad you are getting the garden growing (though I run from Kale) looking forward to seeing what fruit you might grow there as well
I never eat kale from the markets either. It is best picked young and sliced as thin as spaghetti. Same with Silverbeet I think.
I am almost halfway through shifting three cubic metres of soil - definitely not an enjoyable hobby today!!
The prep is always hard but pays off so well, hope you don't put your back out
Luckily I have a very strong back. (touch wood).
You can always get the dog harnessed to a wheel barrow it's the size of a small horse
I asked her if she would pull the wheelbarrow for me and she yawned HUGELY and laid straight back down. Dogs could be so useful- but I fear they are more ornamental. Dogs are definitely a hobby!
😹
Expensive, mostly unpaid, arguably unnecessary, and enjoyable when it goes well... Definition of a hobbie! 😉
I love reading your thoughts on gardening and its place in your life. For me as well writing and gardening are intertwined and completely essential to my way of life. Without them, I suspect, I would struggle to know who I was.
Yes! What would we do with our days!! I think gardening and recording our thoughts are ancient activities. Old. Full of magic.
Well, well. Whoda thunk it? I read you're coming to Melbourne, coming to Melbourne, and I think suburbs to the north probably, and you wind up down the road in Sunbury. I'm in Riddells Creek, edge of the ranges, fifteen minutes away, on 5 acres of clay with big river stones.
As a vegetable gardener, I would say gardening is for the pleasure of hands in the dirt, number one, and then, for the pleasure of of not being ruler of everything. Being servant to, which could be a burden I suppose, but if you love a garden, you sign up for the work, and the work is your excuse to be out in the garden. .
And look, the taste of tomatoes got from the vine before the currawong carries them off, and ripened a couple more days, and cut into a bowl with basil, your own basil, and olive oil, salt - that tastes different to what I buy in from the supermarket. Revelatory. Haloed by the months of tending. And a wedge of cucumber from the vines I grew for the first time this year, and am cosseting through our dry summer - who knew that cucumber could be like this?
So welcome to the neighbourhood. It's a fine old mix of country town turning rapidly to city down where you are domiciled, and a little more country this way. Come up for a visit and to get your bearings.
Good morning Ross and what a surprise you are - just down the road!! I love how you say being a servant to the garden who will mete out wondrous gifts if we work hard enough. So true! And a fresh tomato with fresh basil!! Divine. I do look forward to it next summer. I have questions about growing in this new country so I am so grateful that you introduced yourself. What seeds are you sowing this week? Is it too late to sow greens? (I sowed them anyway!!) We sow nothing at all in the fall in Illinois - everything gets frozen solid - even the earth. I am quite out of the habit of a year round garden.
How exciting!
Love this newsletter and everything that is happening in your world. I recall thinking it would be so wonderful if you read something by Lucy Maud Montgomery but I didn't get around to asking you. (At least I don't think I did) You can imagine how delighted I was when I read that the next book you will read to us is by LMM! I can't wait to start listening.
Anne of Green Gables did come up in discussion but I have never read it! The Blue Castle has always touched me profoundly so I am happy as I read. PLUS - Canadian. My small encouragement for the Canadians.
I have known you for what, almost 3 years now and I know your garden is your LIFE hahahaha
so much more than a hobby for you.
I love how it is coming along too.
As for baby showers, I can definitely relate to your sentiments. It’s funny, I’ve never quite found my place at them either (feeling a bit out of step with all the excitement). Maybe it’s because it often feels like an overwhelming amount of attention on things that seem a bit… unnecessary? Also, I am so not the motherly type, so I feel odd. I wrote an article about it some months ago.
Wishing you all the best as you prepare for this new addition to the family—and enjoy the garden Cecilia!
I find all gatherings like that terrifying. Even hens nights. They are just too exclusive. And all about the gifts when really what do we need. Nothing. We have a washing machine. And a cot. Lots of hand me down clothing. That is the main thing. Actually the main thing at the moment is health, fitness and good diet for Mum, baby and Granny Nanny. We are in training! Aunties are super important but I do get how you feel a little odd at the party. Otherwise I bet you are a wonderful auntie.
Ah yes - I am the best auntie lol
“Actually the main thing at the moment is health, fitness and good diet for Mum, baby and Granny Nanny. “ - this is the main thing for sure.
You need to take care of yourself before caring for others :)
I read somewhere recently, but now can't find it, that a lot of activities that are traditionally connected to women are considered hobbies in a way that perhaps diminishes how important they are to the family and community. Like gardening! I think Pastel Pieces's comment asking if parenting is a hobby connects with that thread so well.
It looks like the garden will be gorgeous!
Parenting as a hobby made me laugh out loud. I do see what they might have meant about hobbies being seen as flippant and superfluous which just underscores out argument that gardening is not a hobby. Good morning Kasey!
one of my fave posts of yours ever, and there are many. I am called peaches by my 6 grandies, with 2 of them Aussies, where it sounds a bit different and I love it
Peaches!!! I love that! How did that name come about?
it was my childhood nickname from the kids in my neighborhood, and I chose to reclaim it when I was going to become a grandmother, now my sons in law also call me that as well as many friends
That is just delightful.
Beautiful raised beds and that soil delivery is lovely. I am going through my saved seeds packets and seeing what I can grow in containers. We are in turbulent times and it’s going to get expensive. I can’t grow much anymore due to shade added by large buildings and it’s a short growing season. I am in Canada and we are just on edge right now. I am anyway. You really don’t know what can happen from one minute to the next.
I bet you are on edge. This is a dreadful attack. The world is being thrown into a wobble, like its axis is off. Big pots of leafy greens are a must - And I have grown good tomatoes and cucumbers in pots too. Add a pot of basil and you have a meal. Grow what you love to eat. We are sending heaps of good thoughts and love to you up there in Canada. . Don't forget to save the seeds from your plants at the end of the summer too - in case seeds get hard to find. Once they are super dry store them in the fridge. And stay in touch Lori!
Wonderful to see the garden growing. Gardening used to be about survival when I was a solo parent. Then it was about health, care for the earth, pleasure, and joy. The taste of a freshly picked carrot is beyond compare; or lettuce leaves straight from the garden. Now I live in an apartment I miss gardening, though I do my best in pots on the balcony. You can't keep a good gardener down!
PS I love the Blue Castle and look forward to reading it. Anne of Green Gables was my first Montgomerie book, and the one I've started my granddaughters on. Our 11 year old is just getting into it with my regular Zoom reads (family far away in Costa Rica)
I love that you read to your grandies via Zoom. What an excellent idea. It must be developing such close relationships! Gardening still feels like survival to me. It will only take a couple of days for the supermarkets to empty out in a natural disaster - if our gardens are spared we will do ok.
I too called my grandfather Pa, so I read it with fondness and nostalgia. I agree kids come up with their own names for grandparents, aunts & uncles. All those generic terms and repeated surnames are confusing! As in which Nanna do you mean?
Gardening for me is therapy, mental & physical, a tangible expression of my principles, beliefs and radical hope in the face of politics and the climatecrisis. It's a privilege... I worked hard to get to a point in life where the expensive luxury of growing food and flowers for mainly our household's personal consumption within a beneficial garden habitat is a priority I enjoy.
I have watched your journey for years now and your joy in working with the earth is a joy for us to behold too. Your seed saving is next level too!! Thank you so much for them. I am sowing this week!
It is something I feel the need to do. There is pleasure in watching my few plants grow and produce things we enjoy. The interaction of the soil and the plants and weather is marvelous.
Add water, apply sun. Then hey presto - food!!
I once read "a hobby is something you do on the site. This... This consumes my entire life."
Your daughter is asking the right questions though, go provoke your writing! Looking forward to seeing the kitchen garden develop ☘️
It is good to field such questions - so we can look deeper into our intentions. And if it consumes your whole life then not a hobby I think. Yes?
I agree, maybe posting content is a job or a hobby for some but this is how I spend every day of my life, holiday or not! I get you. It's your entire lifestyle.
You're fueling my garden fever. I feel such a passion for the gardening and the farm animals. I am able to give my family better food choices. I get excited as the winter fads and spring begins. I can't wait to have the wind in my hair and the dirt under my nails.
I could do with your help today! Shifting all this soil in the most rickety wheelbarrow known to man on a warm day. You would love the sun and dusty breeze in your hair!
I love gardening, however, I’m absolutely terrible at it. I have a few pots, inside and out, that when I water them I feel so satisfied. But that is as far as I get..I’m clueless with the rest! I have a garden bed (still in its box) that I’ve been carrying with me from home to home for years simply because I have no clue where to start! Help!! So for me it would be a hobby!! P.s yay we’re in the same country! This is exciting 🥰😘
I am in the same country!! And probably will come to Sydney at some point. I will help you unpack that planter! I think that would be the place to start! At the beginning!
Are you on WhatsApp? I bet you are. I will email my phone number.
Oooh no I’m not on WhatsApp C! I’m in Brisbane but moving to Perth at the end of the year(yes planter is coming with hah) we will catch up of sure of it! I’ve always wanted to visit Melbourne 🥰😘
Brisbane is so far!! Why did I think you were in Sydney.
Possibly because I moved to Sydney straight after high school. But then I moved back home for a couple of years before moving to Brisbane!
I don't feel that way about gardening, alas, but I do feel that way about my writing and to a certain extent, my stitching and knitting. I am a professional writer but even if I never got paid for it I would write. Not so with stitching and knitting--but I don't think calling them hobbies is such a bad thing. What's wrong with having a hobby? Why should activities that bring me so much joy and enhance my creativity be looked down upon?
Such a good question. Hobbies have a bad rap. They make me think of people who collect the matchboxes, or snow globes, writing, and gardening and knitting are definitely not hobbies. Making clothing - not a hobby. I am envious actually.
Lovely to read your news and thoughts. I garden because I like to have control over my food security and nutrition. I will always be able to eat something from the garden or the paddocks - even if it does get boring! My son was down the coast for the weekend and everyone was panicking because the supermarket shelves were empty (cyclone Alfred visited). We could survive months without a shop! Although I did stockpile butter before the rain set in! We could live without it, but it wouldn’t be enjoyable! Daylesford has a great market each week with a lot of local growers and the bread from Twofold Bakery is the best bread!
Having food in the backyard and in the larder is as old as the hills. A skill we must not lose. It contributes to a robust food security. Next level. I would HATE to have to depend on the shops for my nourishment. I do at the moment as I develop this garden and it is not a good feeling.
I have started a garden everywhere I've lived, even if it was for less than a year. So I understand you!