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 :)
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.