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linda_brookes

You know you're addicted to gardening when ....

Linda_Brookes
10 years ago

You know you're addicted to gardening when every container at the dollar store, regardless of size, shape, color or intended purpose, is viewed as a potential plant pot.

Comments (44)

  • Michael AKA Leekle2ManE
    10 years ago

    ... when every time you take a break from gardening, you are checking the forums, blogs or websites for updates or re-re-re-reading the same gardening books/magazines for the billionth time.

  • judo_and_peppers
    10 years ago

    ...when your new wife starts worrying that you'll be wrapping your kids in bubble wrap because of how attentive/protective you are with your plants.

  • sultry_jasmine_nights (Florida-9a-ish)
    10 years ago

    ...You have more photos of your plants than your kids :P

  • greenie1_gw
    10 years ago

    People ask nicely how you're doing, and you launch into a diatribe about the powdery mildew on your tomatoes.

    This post was edited by Greenie1 on Tue, Jun 11, 13 at 19:35

  • bradisha
    10 years ago

    You come home after a long stressful day at work, but as soon as you hop out of the car instead of heading inside you wander around the garden to see what bloom since this morning and totally forget the days problems..

  • Rhonda
    10 years ago

    When every day on your lunch you hit Lowe's, Home Depot, the UF butterfly plant sale or Garden Gate looking for that clearance plant you can't pass up (even though you have no idea where you'll put it) or that plant you don't have. Then, you wait til hubby goes to bed to unload them from the car and hide the pots in the middle of a garden. Lol. Never works, the dogs always to manage to sniff them out.

    Bradisha,
    How did you know what I do EVERY evening? :) I leave for work at 6:30 in the morning and don't get home until at least 7:00. But, I HAVE to walk around and check the growth, pull the weeds and sit and watch the hummers til the sun sets.

  • shear_stupidity
    10 years ago

    You take pictures of your garden every week or two and compare them to last week, last month, last year.

    You find yourself trying to force your passion into other peoples' hearts and ears to make them understand WHY the fact that that particular plant having a bloom on it is SUCH a big deal... but you try to do it quickly before their eyes glaze over.

    Your daughter draws pictures of you surrounded by plants and labels them "Crazy Plant Lady."

    No one gives you gifts any more that don't belong in the yard or shed.

    Robert... let's call him "Robert," from Leu Gardens crooks a finger at you and asks above the din, "Ma'am? Can I talk to you about your CUTTINGS?"
    (But then he turns out to be awesomely cool... and explains their 6-cuttings-per-adult-per-day policy... yet lets you keep the 8 you'd already claimed.)

  • thonotorose
    10 years ago

    You can't wait for your comfy shoes to get a little ratty so they can be used with your shovel instead of all those other needs.

  • shear_stupidity
    10 years ago

    You get a little giddy as you toss Virginia Creeper and Artillery Fern into a blazing campfire, roots and all!

  • garyfla_gw
    10 years ago

    Hi
    When remodeling the bathroom, the bath ended up full of gingers while the sink harbors club mosses . Did draw the line at the toilet even though it will hold soil. Did use the tank though lol Will admit that it looks suspiciously like a "bathtub " rather than a "designer" flower pot . MORE planting lol gary

  • bradisha
    10 years ago

    Hi rvir01 I guess our priorities are garden first everything else next LOL :) We are all wonderfully addicted .

  • amberroses
    10 years ago

    When you hear the soundtrack from the show Hoarders when you go out into your yard. You know, the single piano key stroke.

    If you have to be addicted to something, there are worse things.

  • KaraLynn
    10 years ago

    When you take out the days aggravations on the weeds growing in your garden and just feel the stess melt away!

    I'll never forget the time when I was still living with my parents and they came home one day to find me out in their garden muttering to my self and yanking out weeds with a vengence after I'd had a fight with my much younger sister. They thought I had lost my mind but wheren't about to argue with the free yard maintenance! lol

  • KaraLynn
    10 years ago

    When your neighbors catch you outside giving your plants a pep talk, either praising them for doing so good or asking why they just won't grow!

  • kayjones
    10 years ago

    You know you're addicted to gardening when you go to a box store and can't find ONE plant you don't already have!

    When the dirt in your house is really potting soil mixed with dust bunnys - who has time to clean?!!!

    When you are willing to pay more for mail order postage than the cost of the plant you're ordering!

    When you have so many potted plants in your yard and home that visitors ask if you are operating a plant nursery! LOL

    When your yard looks better, with more plants, than a botanical garden!

  • kayjones
    10 years ago

    You know you're addicted to gardening when you go to a box store and can't find ONE plant you don't already have!

    When the dirt in your house is really potting soil mixed with dust bunnys - who has time to clean?!!!

    When you are willing to pay more for mail order postage than the cost of the plant you're ordering!

    When you have so many potted plants in your yard and home that visitors ask if you are operating a plant nursery! LOL

    When your yard looks better, with more plants, than a botanical garden!

  • ckjudd
    10 years ago

    .........when the coffee cup goes out to the garden with you just so you can get an early start to the day.

  • shear_stupidity
    10 years ago

    You're outside gardening with that coffee, then glance at the time and realize: a) It's after noon, b) you are still in your pajamas, c) you haven't eaten anything today.

    This post was edited by shear_stupidity on Wed, Jun 12, 13 at 13:03

  • marly42
    10 years ago

    This is scary...I have every single one of these symptoms, and identify with every one of you!

  • wordie89
    10 years ago

    ... you're still outside after dark pulling weeds and your family keeps coming outside to call you in. ... you're making just one last trip With the wheelbarrow, you're dancing around on piles of freshly shoveled dirt, you've been outside longer than you've been at work, the neighbor has made two dog walks, you don't even realize your son has come out of the house, started the car and left for classes...and you're only 15 feet away from the driveway!

  • ladywingr
    10 years ago

    Your spend $75 on a twelve inch block to put under an existing birdbath.

    (A new shovel, two pair of gloves, a dozen or so plants, yard art.... and ONE twelve inch block)

  • shear_stupidity
    10 years ago

    You can feel your skin getting a sunburn, but are too focused on what you're doing to go get the sunscreen.

  • zzackey
    10 years ago

    When the first thing you want to do in morning is to go out and look at your gardens. If it was cooler I think I could stay outside with them day and night. I'm just so at peace in the garden.

  • vincesfl
    10 years ago

    When the google earth satellite image of your property looks like a rainforest canopy.

    When a tour of your garden requires notes in summary.

    When you have names for your obese resident squirrels.

    When there's more shade then sun in your yard and your lawn guy has to duck and weave as he cuts the lawn.

  • aharriedmom
    10 years ago

    I love this thread. So many apply to me - as I sit in here with my coffee waiting for it to get light enough to go outside with my coffee.

  • aharriedmom
    10 years ago

    Oh, I'm also surprised that no one mentioned fingernails... I also plan to wear gloves all the time, but often catch myself digging without them. My poor fingernails really dislike spring!

  • thetradition
    10 years ago

    When you drive home from Atlanta to Central Florida via Tallahassee to pick up a pecan tree, rationalizing that the extra 110 miles and three hours of travel time is "on the way."

  • Chaoticdreams
    10 years ago

    Tallahassee pecan tree???? We're wanting to plant two of them this year and the closet I can find was in GA. Tallahassee is only 2 hours away. (Eh, drove it often when I was going to FSU so not a big deal.)

    As for me...... telling myself this plant will be the last plant I buy this year, then going into a box store and not resisting buying yet another so that now, what was supposed to be a small temporary garden while we wait to move has become a massive jungle enclosed in chain link fence. Sigh.....

    And yes to the fingernail thing. I'm too lazy to put on gloves half the time and all ten hate me.

  • thetradition
    10 years ago

    Just Fruits and Exotics in Crawfordsville carries pecan trees. Call ahead and make sure, though. They reserved an Elliot for me last fall with a deposit.

  • thetradition
    10 years ago

    doublepost

    This post was edited by TheTradition on Thu, Jun 20, 13 at 13:04

  • Michael AKA Leekle2ManE
    10 years ago

    ... when it suddenly starts raining and "Are my windows down?" never crosses your mind, but " What plants are ready to be planted?" does.

  • shear_stupidity
    10 years ago

    When you're in the pool... supposedly to "relax," ... but you keep spinning in a slow circle eyeballing your plants and making to-do lists.

  • slopfrog
    10 years ago

    ...when you pull over on the side of the interstate to pick up a plastic pot that blew out of someone's truck.

  • thetradition
    10 years ago

    "...when you pull over on the side of the interstate to pick up a plastic pot that blew out of someone's truck."

    I have done that... I"ve stopped for wayward bags of mulch and sod pieces, too.

  • Rhonda
    10 years ago

    ...when you walk up to the cashier at the grocery store to check out and start talking about how it looks like rain and you whine about how much your plants need it. The cashier, a complete stranger, working at a store 45 minutes from home, says her plants really need the rain too. You both start talking about your gardens and you find out she lives just a mile down the road from you. She asks if you want some 4 o'clocks and you say yes. You ask if she wants some succulent starts and she says yes. So the weekend you meet at her house and now you have new plants and a new gardening friend :)

  • aharriedmom
    10 years ago

    Nice! ^

  • irma_stpete_10a
    9 years ago

    "Bump" from June last year (for anyone who, like me, missed this wonderful thread).

  • scents_from_heaven
    9 years ago

    When you carry your camera everywhere to photograph plants, trees, gardens, etc.

    When you go for a midnight ride in your power hair to do some pruning of plants along your way that just need the trimming and need to be rooted.

    When you travel five hours or more away from your home to attend a plant swap.

    When you would rather have fresh cow manure and composted dirt for your birthday along with that five hour trip to Crawfordville and all the other nurseries in Tallahassee that you are familiar with.

    When you dream about your garden and plants at night

    When the magazines around the house are seed catalogs with highlighted things you want.

    When you've been sick for a year and die inside when you see the plants and cuttings other gardening friends have shared with you crispy and dead because your non gardening housemate did not tend to them properly and you threatened to kick him out but punish him by forcing him to pull the year worth of weeds and air potato vines. The joy you feel when you see a little life in a plant and the pride when you nurse it back to good health.

  • bradisha
    9 years ago

    When your FB pictures/postings are all about the garden :)-Love this thread :)

  • Pyewacket
    9 years ago

    You are using the Interactive Zone map to try to find housing you can afford as close to zone 10 as you can manage ...

    Here is a link that might be useful: Interactive USDA hardiness zone map for FL

  • shear_stupidity
    9 years ago

    LOL@ "as close to zone 10 as you can manage"! So true! (Notice I'm 9B)

  • SusieQsie_Fla
    9 years ago

    You see your old friend's name in an old post on GW and it makes you smile . . .

    and then you see her name in a new post and it makes you want to write in all caps:

    BRIDGET - ARE YOU BACK?

  • Kalie
    9 years ago

    ... When someone new asks you what you like to do with your time and you say "Gardening..." and then of course they ask you what you grow and you say "Corn, beans, eggplant, tomatoes, okra, I've got about 100 pepper plants at any given time, of course the herbs, greens, lettuce, radish, root crops most of the time - I just love beets and parsnips and turnips and carrots don't you?, and my fruit trees and bushes are great... plus all of the beautiful flowers and the bamboo, and last year I started a bunch of coffee seedlings and they are actually growing, and I'm really looking forward to my garlic coming up, etc etc etc" and the person looks at you like "Okaaaaaaay... well it was nice talking to you."

  • organic_elizabeth_b
    9 years ago

    When out of shear travel insanity, you find yourself gardening at 3am, with a headlamp, getting that LAST plant in before a trip away from the garden (and forcing bug man R to help), and feeling like you are a graveyard digger as a side profession.

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