What is your favorite TV show?

Nature (public TV channel) is my favorite TV show but I forget to watch it as much as I would like. GW keeps me too busy. lol.

What is your favorite animal?

What is your favorite backyard "creation", be it plants or decorative??

What's your favourite colour/texture combination to go with a purply-bronze foliage background in summer?

Which would you like roaming around your neighborhood, dinosaurs or poisonous snakes? Why?

What's your favorite botanical garden?

What plant can't you live without in your garden?

California...yep, we garden year-round. It slows a little in the winter, but we're still mowing, trimming and watering. However, being nearer your son and daughter, now THAT would be a reason to move to CA!

Next up: Are there flowers you consider sort of old fashioned? Flowers that maybe you remember your grandmother having in her yard?

What's your favorite lazy-gardener tip?

What is your favorite blooming shade perennial?

What prevents you from having a beautiful Koi pond? :)

Which room of your house would you rather have situated outdoors in the garden? The living room? The kitchen? Or perhaps the bathroom. It could be any room. Which one will it be?

Do you have a bird feeder in your garden? If yes, what kinds of birds come to visit?

How do you get enough energy to do all you want (and must) do in your gardens?

What's your favorite shrub or tree?

If you could only have a garden that was 25 square feet in size (a perfect 5'x5' square) what and how (layout) would you plant in it?

If you could only plant one vegetable, which one would it be?

What's the bane of your garden, be it insect, animal, human - or other ?

How many times a day do you just sit and "smell the roses", instaed of working in the garden.

As you walk around and peruse the massive grounds of the estate. (tiny 1/8th of an acre.) It’s about enjoying what you’ve just accomplished today – what you didn’t because you just had to get one more thing planted, and what you’ll get to tomorrow. And in ANY case, it’s all ok with you as you smile – your adult beverage as you relax – your legs are sore, your back has a low, nagging ache, you lick your lips and still taste salt from the sweat, you mindlessly pick at the fresh band aide you just put on while you ponder the tools that you didn’t put away, but doesn’t that bed look marvelous? And it will be even better when it blooms!

Ok – my question: How many times do you plant something you know won’t grow in your zone before you come to reality and absolutely give up? (or do you? That’s an answer also)

My question is somewhat related to yours: Do you have desires ("plant lust") for particular plants that are out of the question as viable subjects for any sane gardener in your region or zone? For instance, New Zealand tree ferns in Alaska? Alpine saxifrages in Nevada? What might your desires be, pray tell? Have they ever surpassed your sanity such that you've actually tried to grow those plants despite your near certain knowledge that they'd be doomed to failure and death?

Hey...this IS fun!

cranebill

Entling, do you have any seeds to share from your KY bean tree? I love to grow unusual plants & trees from seed.

What's your favorite shrub?

What is your worst story about an aggressive plant or tree that has taken over your yard and that you can't seem to get rid of? Or worse, has it ever damaged your property in any way?

What is your favorite local wildflower and in what region (not zone) is that???? I love wildflowers and would like to know if the same wildflowers grow in other places that grow here in southern Missouri.

How do you keep your garden interesting and attractive in winter?

Dirty fingernails - do you mean Yellowwood seeds? It didn't bloom last year, so I might get some seeds from it this year.

And now, the question: when does your garden look its best, is at its peak, when you would be willing to let the public see it?

My garden is currently a work in progress, since I just moved to this house (my first!) two years ago. I had to contend with 7000 square feet of boring sod and a post-war tract house. The garden was lovely last year, given the aforementioned qualifications, although I anticipate even bigger and better things this year!

Given its appearance last year, I'd have to say that early fall was the best in my garden. The foliage and colors and blooms all came together in a lovely fashion. But my goal is to have something interesting and lovely all year round, with foliage and texture that would invite a garden walk in any month.

I loved chickwit's response...born and raised in Alaska, I share the love of fireweed and dandelions! One of my favorte family vacations was spent in Homer, Alaska. We tried to camp in early June, but it was freezing cold and pouring rain, so we stayed at a dinky motel after clam digging in Clam Gulch. That motel had the most gorgeous swath of brilliantly blooming dandelions that I have ever seen. My sisters and I spent HOURS creating dandelion chains and adorning each other with them! :)

My question: any suggestions for squirrels that take a solitary bite out of each tomato? Or rabbits that eat Casablanca lily buds? I really don't want to go to the extremes of encasing my plantings in chicken wire...

My favorite frog is the singing one from Bugs Bunny. It is the episode where Daffy finds the singing frog that sings "Hello My Darling, Hello My Honey..." and everytime Daffy tries to show someone, the frog does nothing but croak! Too funny!

Okay, my question:

What type of climate would you prefer to live in? One that has all four seasons, or one that you can garden all year long with no problem?

Answer: All year! I actually grew up in So. California where we could garden year-round, but I never did any kind of gardening at all!
We moved up to the PNW a year ago and really got into gardening big time, now I'm wishing I could garden year round - I love the seasons up here as opposed to just spring and summer in California, but I do wish I could be out in the garden almost year round!

Question - What plant did you just have to have, only to end up not liking it so much after all?

What was the most desperate or outrageous thing you did to scratch your "gardening itch"?

Question- Had you rather live in a rural or urban setting?

Let's see, my favorite fresh water fish is the German Blue Ram, what is yours?

What is your favorite way of preparing a potato?

What is your favorite time of the day? (and,if we can do a 2 part question....) Why?

?---- What is your favorite yard art/decoration that you either have in your yard now or just have to have some day?

What are your favorite water/aquatic plants?

Do you do spring cleaning?

How do you try to prevent backaches from too much yard work, and how do you make them better once they occur?

May be too hot of a remedy for this time of year but BenGay, Mentholatum Deep Heat, and Icy Hot all contain methyl salicylate. There are a number of different Tiger Balm products but only some contain any salicylate analgesics - check the label.

My favorite at the Asian markets is Wood Lock. When you feel like your back is "locking up" like a stiff piece of pine - reach for the Wood Lock. (Use as directed and if you can't read directions in Chinese, use in moderation.)

What is your favorite garden herb for tea (commercial blends do not count)?

Steve

What's your favorite plant to put in a pot right by the front door?

What is your favorite showy annual for pots?

What is your favorite Winter plant?

Favorite winter plant? It is hard to pick a favorite anything because I feel like I have turn my back on all the others, but I am very fond of Gaultheria procumbens, aka wintergreen, aka checkberry, aka teaberry. This classy little ground cover has deep green glossy foliage in summer, white/pink bell shaped flowers in spring, and in winter, the foliage turns a stunning burgundy and the bright red berries persist until spring. It spreads politely and does not strangle its neighbors, and is easily moved and/or redirected. The berries taste like teaberry gum, hence the common name.

Next up: What is your favorite deciduous woody shrub and why?

If you had to chose between a big mansion with no yard or a little old house with a huge yard, which would you chose?

Once I got so lazy, I didn't feel like sowing seed and just threw them outside and never bothered watering. They were the most beautiful cardinal climbers a few weeks later! :)

Have you ever grown anything by sowing or planting and forgetting about it?

Oh...wait....you meant plants...well, probably either my brugs or my plumeria.

What is your favorite container plant/combination?

Who do you think you inherited the gardening bug from and why do you think so? My mom and grandmother said I got it from my grandfather who died when I was 4.

Do you plant flowers to attract butterflies?

What is your favorite "suprise plant?"

One year a bird left me sickle pod seeds. This is a rather weedy plant. At the time I did not know it. I just let it grow. Then at the end of the summer I noticed that it was covered in caterpillars which turned out to be Sleepy Orange Butterfly larvae.

Aloe. 'Twas a gift.

I look forward to a time when surprises are volunteers.

Who is your favorite garden mentor...and why?

What singular gardening event makes you the most excited?

What plant has repeatedly failed to grow in your garden, no matter how hard you try?

Can we repeat questions? I'd like to repeat the one that asked "What is your favorite lazy gardener trick?" (I liked the previous poster's response of mowing leaves and grass together for mixed browns and greens.) If I have to come up with a new one, my question is, "Do you have a "moon garden" (white flowers), and, if so, what's planted in it?"

Thanks.

Verdant Croft

What kind of flowering tree is your favorite and why?

Question:

What plant that you love to grow did you have to forego because of an animal eating them every year?

What is the animal pest you have to battle most to keep from eating or destroying your garden?

What is the one thing you regret adding and growing in your garden/yard? Mine are privet hedges.

I think the one thing I regret growing in my yard would be either the mimosa tree or the day lilies. I say Mimosa tree because it's growing out of the foundation of the house and I should have had the stump ground out years ago...or it could be the lilies, because I've got new plans for the flower bed they're currently in, so I'm going to have to move them.

Here is my question: What is the one thing you are most likely to bring someone from your garden? Right now mine would be roses. Mine are just blooming like crazy right now, but come summer time no body gets out of a visit without a tomato or two:)

I planted a bunch of sunflowers in a seed starting kit and now have way more than i need. Ive been giving them away to the little kids in the neighborhood hoping to pass on the garden bug. The sunflowers are screaming to get out of those tiny squares.

How long have you had the garden bug?

Well, after money poorly spent, I took myself down to the garden center and bought a few flats of stuff, a few hanging baskets, and after looking at my work decided-
" Hey, I'm no so bad, and this is kinda fun!"

Then the obsession begins.

I'm poring over catalogs, finding online plants, raiding the garden center every other day. Then I'm pulling out ridiculous holly shrubs from the entryway, relocating blue fescues and hostas. Then I'm planting a moon garden where my annabelle hydrangeas are (good start), then I'm assessing the woodland areas, what will grow next to the creek, etc...

It's been fun. The most fun is recognizing plants, being able to name them and know something about their growth conditions and habits, especially roadside wildflowers (or some people's weed :) I expect to have an anxious winter wondering what will come back and what the garden will look like next year.

I have since learned a little constraint as the budget strains, but next year I am carefully budgeting for the wants and the must haves.

Next question- How far as the gardening bug pushed you? What's the craziest thing you've done/spent/said for the love of plants?