Can you think of any hobbies that are directly related to gardening?

If you can't tell, I'm writing blog articles.  

Can you give me some suggestions for hobbies that are directly related to gardening or food forestry?

I'm thinking of hobbies like beekeeping, basket making, food preservation, cider making, etc.

Thanks,

Scott

I don’t know if this counts, but I love having & using my tractor.  A lot of the time I am using it for the garden in some way.  

Recently I have been cutting and collecting brush that I load and stack with my tractor.

All 3 of my garden beds used to have oak and hickory logs for garden edges.  I got them in place using the loader and bucket.

I moved most of my woodchips into my garden beds using the loader and bucket to scoop from a huge pile of wood chips.

I still pull stray fallen logs out of the woods to use for the garden.  I would be hard pressed to move them otherwise.

If I am going to do a lot of work in the garden with several tools, I almost always load them into the tractor bucket.

Should any of these count?  I could go on.

Eric

Establish a small hobby permaculture vineyard and produce natural wine..

brewing
herbal medicine
dyeing/painting/pigments
tool maintenance/production
creative repurposing/recycling
water catchment
birdwatching/bugwatching/critter watching

Gardening can satisfy anyone with any interest.

The science guy can brew compost tea and use a microscope, root things from cuttings, calculate the proper dilution ratio for seawater to mineralize the soil.

The woodcrafter can build cold frames, raised beds, trellises, etc

The tinkerer/weekend project guy can do the above plus turn 5 gallon buckets into wicking beds, build a solar dehydrator.

An organized person can record planting dates, harvests, frosts  etc

The serenity guy (give me my private time) may simply water the garden with a hose for an hour, or pull weeds.

In the end, the gardener will be well rounded and talented.

Plant breeding.

Photography, as you just proved.

Lovely photo.  I'd put it in my collection of "wish to be there, you betcha."

Eric Hanson wrote:I don’t know if this counts, but I love having & using my tractor.  A lot of the time I am using it for the garden in some way.

So maybe your hobby could be greasing and maintaining your tractor? I've been waiting a year for hubby to repair the parking brake on ours. The parts he needs to get to are hidden up under dashboard and that's enough to discourage him. I'd *really* like to use the back-hoe, but I don't want to do that alone if the parking brake isn't working!

I have been doing much more experimenting with the many uses of bamboo. It's a great, renewable resource if you've got a little extra space and it can be a good privacy shield as it grows to specific heights based on the variety.

Ok, I came up with a better answer.

My daughter has a beloved rabbit that needs kale and other greens from time to time.  I like to grow a “rabbit section” in my garden for my daughter’s rabbit.  

Actually, when we got this rabbit, we made it clear that the rabbit was hers and her responsibility.  I told my daughter that the rabbit was her rabbit and was my grandpet

Eric

Thanks for the great ideas guys:

Here's the list I've come up with including some of your suggestions.  If this sparks an idea let me know.




Beekeeping,
Basket Weaving
Tool Husbandry
Brewing
Cider Making
Baking
Flower Arranging
Wine Making
Flower Pressing
Seed Saving
Pickling
Hot Sauce Making
Herbal Medicine
Recycling
Dye Making
Bird Watching
Bug Watching
Green Woodcraft
Canning
Photography
Animal Husbandry

Plant Breeding

Tomato Breeding

Vegetable Breeding

Plant Tissue Culture

Backyard Wildlife Habitats

Photography of plants

Photography of insects

Insect Collections

Plant Collections (Living)

Seed Collecting and Trading

Cooking

Natural Dying

Growing Giant Vegetables

Backyard Birding

Canning

Dehydrating Foods

Grafting

Bonsai

Various types of gardening: Vegetables, Fruits, grains, Ornamentals, alpines, houseplants, succulents, tropical greenhouse conservatory, orchids, irises, Natives, Dye Gardens, Chicken Gardens, Beer Gardens, herb gardens. Are both gardens as a hobby and hobbies within gardening.

Gardening is considered to be moderate exercise by the American Heart Association, and you can easily burn the same number of calories gardening as you would at the gym ( https://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-18323/9-reasons-gardening-is-the-ultimate-mindbody-workout.html )

Antidepressant Microbes In Soil: How Dirt Makes You Happy ( https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/soil-fertilizers/antidepressant-microbes-soil.htm )

Hunting. If you don't think it's related there is a deer in my freezer who thoroughly enjoyed my garden before we caught him that might disagree.

B. Rey. wrote:Hunting. If you don't think it's related there is a deer in my freezer who thoroughly enjoyed my garden before we caught him that might disagree.

I agree, but if you even put the word gun or hunting in an article or a youtube video, it gets smacked by google and youtube.  

So call it acquiring natural meat.

Eric

Starting a small tree nursery.  It's simple, fun, you can start for free, you can scale up or down for use yourself or for income.

I need to add that that the rabbit’s involvements with the garden is a two-way interaction.  The garden provides some food for the rabbit, and the rabbit provides plenty of pellets and used bedding for the garden.  It really is a two-way, mutually beneficial interaction.

Eric

B. Rey. wrote:Hunting. If you don't think it's related there is a deer in my freezer who thoroughly enjoyed my garden before we caught him that might disagree.

And trapping if it's allowed in your area.

There are some cottontails I've had my eye on.

A forager who considers the world their garden.
A hiker who is studying the forest floor just as often as the scenic views.
Those gregarious people organizing plant swaps or other community events. (group hobbies!)
A foodie who grows and can recognize the best/freshest ingredients and has developed a widened flavor pallet and become really familiar with "weird" foods because of what they can grow vs. get in the grocery store.
That person who knows so much about herbalism you could swear they were raised by medieval witches.
A beekeeper who grows things not for themselves but to feed their buzzing friends.
An armchair entomologist who has ID'd every bug in their garden and knows each's niche in the system.
Someone who grows milkweed and tracks and ID's the butterflies who visit, or any other type of garden where the goal is to attract & support wildlife.
Someone who knows the ecology and genus loci of their area like the back of their hand and can tell when to plant what based on the swelling buds of native trees or the arrival of a certain migrant to their landscape.
Someone who brushed up on latin just so they could pronounce and remember the scientific names of things, because who even knows what "pigweed" is from one region to the next?
Ditto for those who are reading scientific articles and papers not because they ever studied that subject in school, or work in that field, but because they are interested in how it might apply it to their situation.
Keeping a journal about what you planted, grew, foraged, cooked, etc.
Blogging about any of the above.
Making youtube videos or podcasting about any of the above.
An artist who considers the landscape their canvas, or likes to paint growing things, or likes to make natural pigments... or all of that and more!

A G-scale garden model train & track! After discussing this garden hobby with my beloved deceased father-in-law at least 20 years ago, my train set-up is days away from rolling on the tracks! I just need more than 3 days without rain to finish the supporting landscape. Don’t know about your area but the rain has been relentless our in neck of the woods.

Botanical illustration!

I've been both a working artist and a dedicated gardener/horticulturalist for years (decades, but who's counting?) and for some reason I only recently decided to start combining the two. I'm focusing mainly on native plants, medicinal plants, and "lore" plants, or plants that have significant ethnobotanical history. :-)

Using gardening as a neurosensory exercise, as meditation, to increase capacity to feel safe and connected, mind-body-environment

L Allen... that rodey is simply stunning. I'm a big fan of coastal ethnobotany. I'm starting again since I moved North, but I still have a place in my heart for the temperate rainforest. Do you sell prints? Send me a PM if interested!

Scott:
I've found myself dabbling in lots of different aspects of growing such as:

Building + design (greenhouses, cold-frames, compost bins, pergolas, etc)
Wild gathering
Mycology
Preservation and canning
Solar tracking/astronomy
Tool maintenance
Small animal husbandry
Beekeeping

Then there's all they types of systems thought. They all have history, personalities and techniques to dive into:
Korean Natural
Permacultural
Bio-Dynamic
Organic (and all it's sub-genres)

My mom gave me a stack of her old Rodale's Organic Gardening Magazines from the early 80's. It's amazing how so many of the articles are about the same subjects, but with different terminology, that are still hot topics today. Maybe see if you can find some old magazines and find a subject that would update nicely?

I can't remember if it was mentioned, but for those who have an interest in ecology and the environment, creating habitat and mini ecosystems is a great undertaking.

Taking the steps to become certified (certified wildlife habitat; certified monarch waystation; etc.)

Garden art--making things for the garden, like stepping stones, mosaics, totems, etc.

Landscaping, including things like making paths, cedar rail fences, etc.

Naming. I know that sounds weird, but the more I learn to identify specific plants, trees, birds, bugs, etc., the happier it makes me.

Soil science. And compost science.

Worm farming.

History--like learning about and recreating a victory garden. Or having the offspring of a rhubarb plant that was grown by your grandparents. Or learning the old ways: storing the harvest, barn-raising, threshing, etc.

Meditation, whether while walking the garden, or in a particular spot created in the garden especially for meditation, with perhaps Zen garden elements, the sound of water, etc.

Biology, like lifecycles of insects, photosynthesis, etc.

Grafting.

Sculpting. Topiary. Woodworking (garden benches, trellises, etc)

Oh, and one more idea... fairy gardening :) I made a cedar door for a tree, and I grow plants around it that are suitably sized and/or have a magical feel about them. You can add accessories too, and tinker with it until a real fairy moves in!

Mushrooms/mycology.

Pond gardening. That includes growing plants, raising fish or other aquatic critters, and soundscapes, among other things.

Sensory gardens for people with disabilities.

Chris Sturgeon wrote:L Allen... that rodey is simply stunning. I'm a big fan of coastal ethnobotany. I'm starting again since I moved North, but I still have a place in my heart for the temperate rainforest. Do you sell prints? Send me a PM if interested!

Thanks, Chris! I haven't set up to sell any prints or originals of my botanical work just yet; I just discovered how much I love drawing and painting plants in the past year. I'm currently working through a certificate program through Cornell's extension service, though I'm on hiatus with all the virus upheaval.

If you knew me, you'd know how silly it was for me to wait this long. I've been working in abstraction and mixed-media sculpture for a long time, and all the while horticulture/gardening/ethnobotany is my main hobby. I majored in botany waaay back in college but switched to the arts in my senior year after deciding that a career as a botanical scientist didn't have enough hands-on creativity for me (working a year as an undergrad research assistant will do that for you...no regrets, though.) Hopefully I can get a body of work out there in the next year or so, and sell a few things.

And thanks! Rhododendrons are one of my favorites too.

Grafting,  if not already mentioned.
Fruit fanboys get into grafting, scion swapping ,and  varietal collecting in a big way.

I love building for the garden/livestock.
I have never had more than 7 hens at once,  but they have had at least 4 iterative coops.
I'm planning on a 5th, but that's it,  I swear!

I recently decided to combine my love of dad jokes and building to declare myself a bedomancer, as in a weird old guy obsessed with raising the bed...

William,

I wish I had thought of it at the time but I too love to build in the garden.  I like to build in general and gardening is a great outlet for my building needs.

Eric

What about nature connection?
Especially now during the great pause many of us will be getting so much more time not just to fill up with chores but also to spend in our gardens if we are fortunate enough to have a small space? Even a 10x10ft courtyard can be a beautiful little oasis if you let your creative juices flow! Wherever you are in most places on this planet, even in heavily built up urban areas you don't have to look far too find nature if you start with the first principle, observing.
Nature connection too begins with observation, using all of your senses. This may start as an important hobby but may develop into a life altering alchemical practice that will literally change your outlook on life for the remainder of your life. If you want any pointers search for "what the robin knows" by Jon Young, one of the founders of the 8 Shields organisation and nature connection modelling practitioners and probably the world's authority on bird language. He is also one of the most incredible story tellers I've ever had the pleasure of meeting.