I'm the opposite. I dither until I have all my appropriate tools on hand . . . and then feel silly.

Ouch sounds painful! Sorry to hear, and wish you speedy healing!

But no, you are not alone haha. I go out with intentions of completing one task and end up spending most, if not all day out there.....

I could be your twin. I'm always stepping outside in slippers and sweats to take a look at some new plant, then find myself wandering all over the property which is all cactus and yucca. Not a good idea. I pull some of the worst weeds with bare hands - not a good idea squared. By the time I get back, I'm scratched up and have to pull out cactus needles out of my slippers. I'm sure I look pretty silly too.

Cheryl

I do the same thing. While everyone else is running around getting ready to go where ever, I'm wandering through the yard. So, when they're all ready, I have to go back inside to wash (scrub) my hands. Slippers and coffee, also.

Martha

No, I know exactly what will happen so I do not allow my eyes to even twitch in the direction of the garden. Out of sight, out of mind works well for me.

Lol Camp...what will (not) power!

Used to do this...now I mostly gear up first for whatever tasks I'm planning to tackle. I tend to break up the beds into sections so it doesn't seem overwhelming. I take that section and weed it and do whatever pruning or editing I think is necessary then plant or go onto the next area that needs attention.

Sometimes I get the gumption to weed the entire place before doing anything else...

I cannot stand the feel of dirt or pebbles in my shoes so I wear knee boots--even in high Summer! Crazy, huh? I'm rarely without gloves, too.

...we obviously have a lot in common Mary.... I relate very much...

I never go out in my slippers but I've been known to go from one thing to another and end up spending the day outside. Then 2 things happened. I got old and I had sun damage on my face. The dermatologist took care of the sundamage and I made the decision to slow down. I would work until I was exhausted and be out of it for a day or 2. Now I use sun screen and a hat and I work no longer than an hour at a time. I still may spend the day outside but I will have a 15 minute break for every hour I'm out there. The work does get done but it just takes a while longer and I may be tired but not exhausted

My slippers are basically my gardening shoes at this point but I'm able to stay on paved surfaces and stepping stones for the most part. In any case, I'm sure the neighbors (who have a good view of our backyard from several windows) think I'm a nutcase shuffling around all day in my slippers and jammies playing in the dirt.

All of the above, except I have a basket of gloves by the back door, and hardly ever wander out without a pair, because I hardly ever wander back in without using them.

I'm famous for getting ready to go somewhere, thinking of a quick garden-thing that needs to be done, slipping on garden shoes, then leaving the house in dirty garden shoes.

I can relate. The garden is a place where time stands still and 5 minutes can turn into hours. My husband tested me once. I was about to start supper and said my famous words - "just going outside for 10 mins." I'm used to him coming outside after 20 mins and giving me a reminder. This time he just let it go. It turned into 1 and a half hours, a very late supper and a miserable husband.

This made me chuckle. I get the mail when I get home from work and without fail on my walk down the driveway to the mailbox, I always find a weed that needs pulling, spent flowers that need to be removed, etc etc and in my dressy work clothes, there I am doing what needs doing :) I need to borrow ruth's idea and keep a basket of gloves by the door.

Hope your bicep heals quickly, Mary

So yesterday my husband had the day off because we had to go to meeting. We got groceries and pick up a few plants since we were in town. When we got home I unloaded the plants near the front garden. We have a fine gravel driveway and I noticed weeds coming through. I started pulling them and after about the 10th one, I said to my husband with a laugh, "why am I doing this right now?" It made me think of your thread. So I stopped pulling the weeds and grabbed the rest of the groceries to take in. Focus, I just need focus.

lol Tiffany, sounds like me. A "quick look" at the garden before work and I'm halfway down the road before I realize there's dirt all over my pants.

I will garden in my nighty in the morning , garden in my party clothes in the evening, , garden in my out to meet a client clothes on a work day. I am hopeless. I garden in barefoot, garden in good shoes, garden in gumboots, sandals, hiking shoes . I go with the flow and I am often oblivious to the details.

You guys crack me up!! So glad I posted about my impulsive gardening - clearly, I am not alone. Sometimes it just seems so much easier to just do it right then, rather than go inside and change my clothes and get my tools out! And of course there's always that fear that if I don't get that weed right now, it will overtake the garden by the next day.

LOL Mara, when I first began gardening and was trying to control the slug population, (silly me) I'd be outside in the early morning in my pajamas and rubber knee-hi boots. I'd have a cup of coffee and was armed with scissors--yes I cut the slugs in half! Not many neighbors close by but the ones that drove by waved--no big deal!

oh, don't even get me started on hunting for slugs when I've gotten ready for bed - if my DH could bolt the doors from the inside, he would. I NEED to buy a cute basket to hold my gloves and garden shoes near the back door rather than in the garage.

I am up early looking for squash bugs and leaf footed suckers. They are slower in the morning. AH the combined smell of coffee and that sweet sickly squished bug gut smell emanating from your fingers.... "the smell of victory in the morning"

If I don't get that weed now, no matter what I'm wearing or supposed to be doing, I might not find it later, then it will set hundreds of seeds and I'll have many more weeds! So I'm saving time by pulling them whenever I see them aren't I?

I'm the same way! As soon as I get home from work, I like to take a quick stroll in the garden. I usually have my work attire on - usually a dress or skirt/blouse and I'm outside pulling one weed, but then I look around and I see another, so I pull that. And this continues for like 10 or 15 minutes, until my hands are dirty and I go in my mini-greenhouse and wash off the dirt. It's an addiction for sure!

OMG Catkin , my allotment neighbour has slug scissors too...and she smashes snails on a handy paving stone outside her shed. Dunno whether to be admiring or appalled (although the paving flag is usually covered in flies).
I too used to be ruthless until one day, I picked up a snail - I was about to toss it in the air and whack it with a rounders bat ( you might know these as small baseball bats, so quite sportif). The snail did that fizzing thing they sometimes do...and my deranged brain read it as 'fizzing with life' and I found myself unable to dispatch it with my usual callous glee. Since then, I have had to tenderly tuck these unwanted beasties (yep, slugs too) in a plant pot and walk to the local park - as I do this at the same time as a dog walk, it is a two birds, one stone thing at least...but I miss my old heartlessness...especially on chilly, wet spring nights (although I usually just deposit the pest harvest on the other side of the road, under a privet hedge if I am not up for a walk to the graveyard.
Year ago, when my daughter was small, we did homing experiments with snails - we painted a spot with nail colour on their shells then took them proscribed distances away...and recorded sightings in the following days/weeks. I was alarmed to see that they have a clear homing instinct, returning from half a mile away...so by moving them, I know I am merely delaying the chomping and munching rather than preventing it altogether...but what to do? I obviously cannot see off every snail in the neighbourhood and have adopted a bit more of a laissez-faire attitude...and use lids and plant covers a lot.

As for weeds - I am never, ever going to get out from under the 'one year seeding, seven years weeding', regime...so turn a blind eye until I am forced to act...and as long as pulling happens before flowering, I tend to let them fight it out amongst themselves first, then pull the victors.

Where does one buy slug scissors?

Any old pair will do - think my neighbour uses an old pair of kitchen ones.

That was a joke. I use the heal of my shoe if I have shoes on.

OK - I did it again. After reading the previous posts, I started thinking about the slugs, all the recent rain and my beloved ligularias. Now mind you, I'm already dressed to go out to see Jerry Seinfeld in Detroit. But I know that if I don't put out the slug bait before I go.....the innocent unprotected ligularias will be attacked while I'm sitting in the theater. So in my heels and one good skirt, I go out and get the hose ( and balancing a half glass of wine) - surely I won't get wet - spray the area so it's damp and then spread the slug bait and a fresh bowl of beer to boot. And of course, my shoes got a bit wet - but hey, those plants are now safe and sound!

Enjoy the show.

oh dear! there are so many of us!! I am notorious for going to sit with my DH, on the deck or the front porch to enjoy the lovely evening......for about 5 minutes, then I quickly proceed to get up, wander off toward happily growing weeds, deadheading that is crying for my attention and on and on......all the while, my DH is trying to carry on a conversation with me as I wander across the yard. I need to focus!!

Out and about in boxers...you betcha. Double bagged with jockey singing backup so I'm not a perv.