Moi? I do it because I got in the habit of digging holes whenever I felt stressed in the Army during the 1991 Gulf War. I came home and still wanted to dig holes, so I hid my compulsion by putting plants in the holes. I also like watching plants emerge and grow in spring, and I like hunting down and buying/trying unusual plants.

One of my friends had hit what she called her "hormonal prime". To spare her husband (he was simply exhausted), she took up gardening. Now, she moves large boulders and small trees around her garden the way other people move furniture around the living room :-)

I think the one common thread is that we all just go nuts when we see chlorophyll.

Lisa

I just love to sit on the patio and look and my beautiful flowers in the gardens, that I have worked all spring and summer on and enjoyed doing every bit of it. Love the exercise I do while doing it also. Keeps me in shape, its not easy work but I love the challanges. Plus if I have any worries, once I am out there digging, or whatever I forget everything else, a great mental release. Thats just some of my reasons, hope you do too!!!! Tricia

I do it because I love a good mystery. I never know what I am going to get!

It is art and science, design and nurturing, and it is never the same from one season to another. I get to enjoy the birds and the cool insects, and I feel an exhilaration from the physical work.

I learn something literally every day, and I am humbled by the magic of it all.

I do it because I like seeing things grow. I like being out there in the dirt, seeing the fruits of your labor, but I don't consider this work hard, crazy at times, like buying wagonloads of plants, and then figuring out where to put all of them. I simply enjoy each aspect, with the exception of battling the slugs, but I'll be ready this year.

I call it "leaving my mark".
Answer number 1: Flowers and Plants were made by God. Nothing man makes come close to the beauty of the things we find in nature. So I just gather as much of it around me and try to arrange it in a pleasing way.

Answer number 2: I don't paint. sing, or sew... this is how I express myself creatively.

Answer number 3: That's the way I deal with stress.

I would have to say gardenscout said it all....

the mystery, the learning, the birds - and I agree also, a stress reliever

I daydream about what to do in the garden when it is raining - it may be an addiction!

Carrie

I do it to for all the reasons above but also to relieve stress. Here it is March and I am itching to see some green in this sea of white outside! I am noticing I am getting easily irritated and annoyed at everything lately. I think I need gardening to calm me down!

Maybe if I do some serious planning and list-making this weekend (I've been putting this off all winter...), it will help. Maybe some online plant purchases will help too... yeah... that's the ticket. Feeling better already !!!

Why do people spend so much time, effort and money: playing golf, deep sea fishing, collecting stamps, hunting, visiting Civil War battlefields? It's a hobby and for many a passion. And gardening is probably a better one than most.

because its cheaper than weekly psychiatrist visits and a gym membership ..

ken

Apparently I like to suffer. I can never get things to work out the way I want, I loose plants for reasons unknown, I make poor decisions about grouping plans together and forget to figure different bloom times, I go the garden center or nursery and can't seem to decide what to get, I dont' have enough sunny area or enough shady area for the plant I want, I get busy for a couple days and forget to water all my pots, I start some new big project and run out of time to maintaine what I have.

But for some reason I figure if I just try one more time, that maybe, just maybe this year my garden will look like the cover of Fine Gardening.

So other than that, I just love it!

Simply, it just makes me happy! When I garden, I breath deeper, I smile, I get satisfaction from growing things, I love eating from my veggie garden, I love seeing things return each year and I love being outside.

Heavenly!

I do it because it is calls me to exercise. If I don't go out each day and till and plant and water and pull weeds an trim then the yard gets scraggly and appears unkempt.

If I hire a landscaper or gardener then what is calling me to exercise? The walk around the park or the exercise machine just doesn't call out to me.

It's an addiction . . . . but I don't want to be helped.

I used to tell DH, "Be glad I'm not into jewelry". He used to agree, but after seeing the bills for the trees, shrubs, hardscape, endless bulbs, etc. he's not so sure. Perhaps some diamond studs would be an easier way out - and they wouldn't die, be eaten by the deer or struck by some fungus or weird disease.

We don't pick our hobbies (addictions), they pick us.

My mother's father's family were farmers, and she claims that's why my sisters and I are dedicated gardeners. Actually, one of my four sisters doesn't garden now, she lives in an apartment; she's the crabbiest, unhappiest person I know. In any case, I think there's a genetic component to this obsession, the modern day equivalent of "working the land".

The better question is, why are many people NOT obsessed with gardening? What's not to love? :-)

Deanna

I really loved all of your posts.... the intensity of your feelings and the sense of humor about yourselves. So many of you described this need to garden better than I ever could.Probably there is a psychological aspect to gardening, even more than the stress reduction benefits, even more than the elements of creativity, it does seem to lift me up to a higher place. Working in the earth.... it may sound crazy, but there's just something that happens to me when I'm out in my garden.

And it is a real need that I have to get out in the yard, especially in early spring. Is it a link to man's past? A connection with something greater than myself? A biological thing? I can't quite figure it out, but I liked reading all of your thoughts.

Molie

The simple answer for me is that it is the most fun I can imagine having in the world. There is nothing else I do that gives me as much pleasure, and satisfaction. It is an opportunity to be creative, to nurture, to cajole, and to get completly filthy at the same time. I love the anticipation, I love the challenge, I love digging in dirt. I would probably still enjoy all the diggging etc without it but really I also love they way my garden seems to sing to me sometimes. When I look out the window in the morning and see my back bed of tall perennials and annuals leaning towards the house (and me) in full flower I smile. I feel very connected to the Earth and to the cycle of life when I garden.

Help! What I want to know is why I fall hopelessly in love with nearly every plant I see. Today, while out at the nurseries ostensibly hunting for 4 4" or 1 six-pack of pink or lavender snapdragon plants, I saw a weeping Eastern Pine and a Witch Hazel. The specimens at the nursery were too big for the trunk of my Toyota Corolla, in too-large containers (anything over 3 gal. is larger than the hole I'm willing to dig), and too expensive (the pine alone was $120). So what did I do? Not finding any suitable snapdragons, I bought 3 six-packs of stock (hey, they like a mediterranean climate, so they should do just as well as the snaps), tucked the stock plants into the containers destined for the snapdragons, and sat down at the computer to order the pine and the witch hazel. Since the shipping would be the same on 2 1-gallon plants or 4 1-gallon plants, I duly found two more plants I'd been hunting (a Berberis stenophylla and a weeping Juniper variety) and placed the order.

I may not know WHY I love gardening, but I love everything about it, from the dirt, the digging and the doing to the observing, inhaling and simply enjoying the fruits of my efforts.

Yes, the fun of 'getting filthy' is definitely an important aspect, don't know how we missed that earlier. After being made to stay clean all our early years, it's just fabulous to be able to get mud all over - and not have to come up with an excuse.

I agree with so many of the posts above, and like jackied said, it is simply the most enjoyable thing I can imagine doing. Sometimes it could be described as downright blissful.

Gardening combines so many of my deepest interests. I love nature and connecting with the earth, and what better way than creating a natural habitat for the wildlife in your own yard? It's right there to enjoy everyday. I get such a thrill when I see the birds, butterflies, bees, dragonflies, etc. flitting about in the gardens. I'm even fascinated by other insects that people might consider creepy, and know that where there are insects, the birds and toads, etc. will follow. The more little critters in the garden the better (well except for mosquitoes and ticks and a few others, hehe).

I am also creative and artistic, and enjoy creating my own little organic "Garden of Eden" in the midst of a sometimes ugly world. And by removing the invasive plants and replacing with natives, which are being choked out, I am doing a little bit to help the ecological balance.

I don't spend any more than I would with a membership in a golfing association. I also find gardening can be as challenging as getting that little ball in the round hole in the ground. Al

We missed something else: gardening grows a sense of humor. It's always good to laugh :-)

Lisa

I wholeheartedly agree with all that has been said, but here's another wonderful thing about gardening. We moved into a brand new neighborhood five years ago, and homes are still being built all around us. As new neighbors come, I am out in my yard "doing". It's easy to say hello, and strike up a conversation since you're out anyway. As a matter of fact, I planned a streetside flower border for that express purpose. I want to know my neighbors! I am very proud to report that although this is a pretty pricey, gated community, so far every neighbor, but one, does at least part of their own gardening and lawn care. I believe it's "peer pressure". I was here almost first. I enjoy it, I'm proud of it, and I share plants and tips. Gardening has brought us together as a community. Just tonight the OB/GYN across the street who had never owned a lawn mower till he moved here, brought me two bare-root DAYLILIES that he and his wife bought at the garden show they attended on their vacation last week! He bought a dozen for himself and has already planted them! I personally consider that a triumph! :)

Gardening is about the perfect hobby in my opinion. It can be expensive, but it can also be very inexpensive. It can be exotic, spiritual, AND practical. Virtually any age, gender, educational level or social class can do it. There's a place for the artistically inclined, for the o-c collector, and for the totally practical types. You are never too young and (almost) never too old. You can garden if you own acres of land, and garden if you only have a single pot.
And finally...I feel very close to God in my garden. After all, that's where life began.

Here are just some of the reasons for spending so much time (not necessary so much $$$) gardening:

Culinary - nothing beats fresh herbs, vegetables and fruits from the garden.

Psychotherapy - it lifts the weight of the stresses and strains of everyday living off my shoulders more effectively than any psychotherapist and psychiatrists can. It embodies the deepest of relaxation.

Physical therapy - done properly, it provides good exercise for the heart and muscles, and physiotherapy for the joints.

Aromatherapy - no explanation needed here.

Economics - Why would I have to pay someone else to maintain the garden regularly, when I get so much out of it doing it myself?

Spiritual - This is the third closest place to God that I get. (The first is His House, the second is His own Garden.)

Nature Hugging - So long as one learns to work with nature, and not fight against it, this is one of the more enlightening way of getting to know nature and it's mysteries.

Addiction - And that's fine, because I am not a slave to any other temptations.

Optimism - I believe in maintaining a positive outlook, even under the most adverse conditions. Gardening is the quintessence of optimism. We garden, because we know for certain that there is an exciting future ahead.

Gardening is a great reminder to be humble. An opportunity to socialize with the(good)neighbors. To be self sufficient and grow my own food. Think about how our actions affect nature and watch my fat kitty take a sweet nap in a patch of cool grass in the shade. Stimulate the local economy by buying from a privately owned nursery and something to do other than clean house, channel surf or spend too much time working and spending time on the Internet. This weekend the weather was finally cooperative enough to go outside and trim my roses. When I came in I was muddy, bleeding, cold and I felt great. My husband was again sure I was crazy but it was wonderful to get out there.

Basically a needed buffer between myself and the occasional madness of the world:)

Kate

I like that Kate - "... a needed buffer between myself and the occasional madness of the world."

Can't say it any better. :O)

I have to agree with everyone...

To this day I get a thrill out of planting a seed, watching it grow and then flower. I feel as if I'm an integral part of nature.
Mariann