That's exactly what my neighbor did:
Posted on 04/03/2009 7:21:12 AM PDT by Gabz
How to tell you're a compulsive gardener
1. When stuck in traffic, you want to weed the median strip.
2. On a walk in the neighborhood, you look at the plants so much that you trip on the sidewalk.
3. You find yourself worrying about your neighbor's plants. Especially when your neighbor is doing something stupid.
4. You are tempted to adopt those straggly, mishandled plants at the garden center because you think you can give them a good home.
5. You want to collect seeds from half the vegetables you eat.
6. You find yourself pruning, pruning, pruning because it's just so much fun to be in control.
7. You wish you could prune your neighbor's plants.
8. Visits to the zoo are more about plants than animals.
9. You wish all plants, everywhere, had labels.
10. In winter, you ease garden withdrawal by reading seed catalogs like novels.
11. You pass idle time by imagining how to plant pots to get the right combinations, then replant them.
12. When passing houses, you rearrange the entrance planting for every doorway.
13. You wish you could "cultivate the weather," as Karel Capek put it, to make it behave: regulate the rain, decree the last frost, hush the wind...
14. You refuse to wear a watch in the garden, because gardening should always be the perfect opportunity to live in the moment.
Jo Ann Hofheimer is an avid gardener who lives in Virginia Beach
Uh-oh. I think I’ve just been diagnosed.
Howdy, howdy FReeper Gardeners Everywhere!!!!!
How do you know you’re a compulsive gardener???
I came across this article from back in December while perusing the closest daily leftist rag this morning.
The past few months have added a large number of new folks to our gardening “group” so let’s welcome one and all.
That’s a GOOD thing!!!!!!!!
:-) Pinging my daughter - who has been saving seeds. :-)
I want to plant my neighbor’s yards full of shrubs and trees.
Oh noes! Guilty as charged...
That's me! LOL.
Last year, my garden was just too huge, and I got hit with some unexpected time-stealers, so it looked horrible. This year, I'll scale back to something more manageable, like a 40'x40' garden, about 1/4 of last years.
Saving seeds is a GOOD thing!!!!
I’m lucky, my neighbor did that himself :)
Even better, he drives his tractor across the road and turns up my garden for me!!!
Guilty as charged on all of the above except numbers 4 and 13. Now, I am declaring my punishment —out to the garden, it is a beautiful day here in NC!
So am I!!!
My big spring event is my trip to Hidden Lakes Gardens for spring flower season. I Timed it perfect last year but this year I have a good camera to play with.
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/345793/index.html
I’m scaling back as well, only because it looks like I may have landed myself a part time job -— as a gardener at a museum in a nearby town!!!
Wow. Call me “compulsive”. We we go to a nursery, I am compelled to weed the plants in pots. My husband is mortified. :)
My neighbor is a grass rancher. He keeps a near perfect lawn but it looks like a golf course.
I am definitely guilty of #13, and I’m doing it right now. The weather is not beautiful today on the Eastern shore of VA, it’s damp, overcast and VERY windy.
Beautiful photos! I hope everyone takes a few to check out your pix. thanks for sharing.
“it is a beautiful day here in NC”
That’s another symptom. Growing zone envy. I wish some of the southern plants were hardy here. I don’t know how many things I’ve killed trying to get them to live in one zone too cold. On the other hand if it were warmer here I couldn’t grow some tempermental evergreens and a heath and heather garden to make the Scottish moors green with envy :-)
You sound like my 10yo, I just wish she were so “compelled” here at home :)
*****************
Heh. :)
Hidden lakes gardens is operated by Michigan State University and only charges about 2 bucks to get in. I recomend it for anyone who loves gardens and gardening.
That role sounds perfect for you! GOOD LUCK!
Sounds as awesome as your photos. Too bad Michigan is a bit too far afield for me :(
Thanks. I’ll know more on Sunday.
The husband and I did the spring “clean up” of the gardens earlier this week and they were “thrilled” with the work we did. One of their board members is a botanist who wants a gardener back (he’s about 80 and not up to doing it himself anymore) and both he and the woman who hired us for the clean up are pushing for me to get the go-ahead.
How do you know you’re a compulsive gardener???
If you have a shed full of old milk jugs, you could be a compulsive gardener...................
ROFL!!!!!!!!!
Not just milk jugs, but also steam table sized aluminum pans!!!
I’ve got a few symptoms, but so far I’m not ... Oooh, seed catalog!
HEY! I've done that several times. The wife just walks away and "hides", pretending not to be with me.
LOL!
Am I the only one compelled to leave notes on strangers doors asking them to please move the Hosta’s out of direct sun as they will be crispy critters by August?? And please mulch your trees in a bagel, not a volcano!!!
Sometimes it’s so hard! :)
I took the Master Gardener course here at the Missouri Botanical Gardens and now I make myself crazy driving down the street when I can’t remember the genera names for all the plants and trees that I see. It’s a disease, I tell ya!!!
That's exactly what my neighbor did:
i used to do what i call
guerilla gardening.
i’d transfer seeds and plants from one area to another.
I don’t want to weed the median, however, I do want to gather armsfull of the flowers they have planted there!
I fit way too many of these, and I am not even a good gardener! In fact, I am a very *bad* gardener, if keeping things alive counts. Perhaps I am just a compulsive gardener in my mind.
((((sigh)))) I promise to try harder this year.
If it weren’t for the white fence I would think you had posted a picture of my property!!!
Numbers 3, 9 and 13 are me.
It’s contagious. That’s me, too.
ROFL!!!!!
I wa at a friend’s house yesterday and we were talking gardening and at one point I commented “I don’t do flowers.” The look on her face was priceless, she was so confused, as we had just spent over an hour talking about soil and varmints and the good points and bad points about gardening in this area. To her gardening IS flowers, to me it’s food and seasoning, fruits, veggies, and herbs. We had a good laugh!
I don't have the time and when we go on vacation, I'm screwed. I never get caught up and the place looks terrible.
Not to mention, I don't like getting stung because I have a bad swelling reaction. It's never been life threatening, yet, but I don't want to take the chance.
# is rarely, if ever, a problem for me :)
Which #?
I have the same problem with getting stung. Heck, I swell when I get bit by a skeeter, and they are the official “bird” of this area!!!!
DUH on my part —— #3
Well, the sun is finally peeking out here and it is long past time for me to get my act in gear —— I need to hit the garden center and then head out to the greenhouse.
Be back a bit later.
She lucked out because I gave her as many tomatoes, cukes and zukes as she wanted.
I envy those of you test positive for compulsive gardening.......
One of my favorite places to visit is Longwood Gardens.....
The method to her madness, maybe?
Please, don’t envy us -— it’s a sickness, I tell ya, a sickness :)
It’s been years since I visited Longwood Gardens. Friends of ours went up just a couple of weeks ago and it was from a conversation on that drive that my husband and I were offered the garden clean up job we did this week and why I may be getting the gardening job where we did the clean up.
The sad thing is each time you are stung, the reaction can be worse. Seems like your body should gradually become immune to the stings.
But,.....
Good list of our habits.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.