I work full time at a community college, and almost all of my vacation time is taken to do garden and yard work.  People laugh when I tell them I'm taking two days of vacation to dig out the summer garden, or an extra day here to put in fruit trees, but that is what I do.  I know it's been a good weekend when there is still a little bit of dirt under my nails on Monday morning.     As a bonus, winter is the BEST time to do heavy work in my CA garden, and winter is the slowest time at the college - summer is slow too, but who wants to do heavy work in the garden when it's 105 degrees outside?  Just this last weekend with Friday off, I did the following:
I dug out a new 4x8 bed, shaped and amended it, and planted potatoes. 
Pruned the lime and lemon trees, topped off the soil in their pots and put new mulch on them
Weeded and dug out an already established bed, and seeded some carrots.
Planted 3 new blueberry bushes, and placed the pots in the sunny corner of the garden.
Reshaped a dog-dug bed of mostly shredded parsley and shallots (sigh).
Cleaned out the remainders of plants, and prepped for the upcoming spring season 

I have part of next Friday off too, and am hoping to do the following:
cut down a tree that shades my primary garden area
complete irrigation to the new beds
pick out some bare root fruit trees - maybe start digging holes for them
move the brick pile and wood pile to less usable spaces in the garden

Can't wait for the NEXT weekend, a 4-dayer, when I can tackle more tree removal!

Any other garden crazies who use work vacation time to do garden work?  I can't be the only one.

Wow, congrats on all your projects!

I'm a college professor and have summers off so I use my entire vacation working in the garden! I'm actually a little bummed when we go camping and I can't do anything around here.

I only wish I lived in a climate where I could use every spare day off to be out digging in the dirt!

I've thought of taking time off from work to set up my garden... does that count? Haven't used any sick days yet, though as the weather starts to warm up that might be harder and harder to do!!!

I'm a college professor too, and do most of my teaching in the winter, when I can't do things outside here in northeastern Illinois. My philosophy is, what else can I do in the winter, other than teach? Don't get me wrong..I like to teach! But during the spring, summer and fall I want to be outside all the time...whether it's working in the garden, or doing research (I'm a field biologist). I think I would wither up and blow away if I could never be outside!

Gardening is my therapy. Watching everything grow is worth all it took to make it get that far. It is way to muddy and cold right now to do much but next month watch out it is time to start again.

A few years ago around time for our wedding anniversary, my husband asked what I wanted to do to celebrate. He thought of going away for the weekend and maybe taking in a garden tour (for my benefit, I love those.) I asked if we could stay home and spend the money on building a shade structure near the girls cottage in the yard by the roses. He asked if I was serious. Yes I was. He then asked if I would really help (and not get distracted by the children or the garden, etc.) I said I would hand him every nail and hold the ladder. Whatever it took. So, we did it. Together. The children mostly left us alone, cleaned the house and made us drinks and lunch. It was finished by dinnertime, and the kids helped wheelbarrow nice small gravel for underneath and brought a couple of lawn chairs for us. We were hot, sweaty & dirty. But the shade was nice and the structure made the roses look bigger and better. It is the focal point of our yard now with a cottage garden around it. We cleaned up and went out to a late dinner by the way. So glad we spent the weekend in our own garden rather than someone elses that year.
Come to think of it, the girl's cottage was originally mostly built one Thanksgiving long weekend...

Hi all,
I think I'm going to take a nap!!