You know you are a gardener when:

Good Luck to him and the mess he has created. I have some messes like that in my new yard. Much to be done.

Willow
Sure like to see your new yard. I think you said your camera cable is lost.

Rick, I hope that's not the neighbor for whom you had high hopes as a gardening comrade?

>> Rick, I hope that's not the neighbor for whom you had high hopes as a gardening comrade?

No! But I do have some hopes of encroaching on his unused soil ... if I can ever ctach him out of the house and willing to talk. I already expanded one bed 6-8" over the undefined line between my yard and his (done before he moved in). I had planned to offer cut flowers and tomatoes, but he could win a casting call for The Invisible Man.

The potential gardeners bought, but haven't moved in yet. The prior owner on that side let me run a narrow raised bed along our shared sidewalk, so I offered to "share" that bed with the new people, leaving it undefined whetehr it was in their yard or mine already (entirely perennials, so it's moot unless they wnat to uproot thigns and replant).

It's a manufactured home park, where we own our building, but the park owns the land and we pay rent for the space. Thus property lines don't really exist. When I asked the park managers where "the line" was, she just looked confused. They don't even know where the water cut-off valves are for each block of spaces!

For most of the spaces, the distance between buildings is "code": like a few feet in deep shade, so who cares? But we live in a corner with some slope that was hard to shoehorn buildings into, so we have bigger lots (and vague dividing lines).

Corey

Yes! Take over and encroach on unused soil as much as possible! It is just crying out to be planted and cared for.

You know you are a gardener when you take a break from piles of school work and ....go out to weed, and it make you happy.

I like the way you think.

It's not "encroaching", Your Honor, I was just "enhancing" it.

Very good word! Enhancing!! Who could object to their property being enhanced, and with no cost or effort on their part? You are indeed doing a service to the community, with both beauty and utility of food production in mind. It's a win-win for everyone.

>> You are indeed doing a service to the community,

MUCH better than doing Community Service for trespassing!

You know you're a gardner when
1) You hunt down the manager of the local COSTCO store, point out several dead shrubs in the "Return" area then point out there are more than a few plants wilting in his store because no one has been assigned to water them, and even when they do they probably could be permanently damaged. Definately plant abuse.

2) You pull weeds wherever you go--friends houses, near neigborhood stores, the school, out of nursery pots--wherever you are --especially standing around or waiting for someone. Probably no one else even sees the weeds, but according to your husband, you are addicted.

22 -- I got a laugh out of the weed pulling. When we were in Hawaii a few years ago, our companions wanted to check out the local school library (teachers) and I opted to sit outside only to find myself idly pulling weeds. Had a good sized stack by the time they came back out, and yes, they thought I was nuts.

If they tease you TOO hard, you could tell them it's baby Wacky Weed that you're collecting, and they should dry some and smoke it.

No, I guess some weeds might be toxic.

You could just as easily tease THEM about going to visit schools on their vacation from school. I would have been befuddled between my two addictions in the same circumstance...should I pull weeds or look at school library books?...hmmm, which obsession to sooth.

Look for books about weeds!

Is this thread dead? Hope not! It's a long one, though. I knew I was a gardener when I dug up about fifty pots full of rocks in order to plant my new bed. Now I'm starting to dig up some of the lawn edges where rocks prevent me from uprooting the weeds! So far the results have been worth it.

Any ideas, BTW? For my rocks, I mean. I'm thinking maybe a dry riverbed.....

The backhoe found tons of river rock during my pond and landscape project last summer. When the crew went home I dug through the dirt piles and picked out each rock one by one and filled small buckets and moved them to a storage area until I decided what to do with them. I have moved them so many times..but in the end they have become borders between the paths and my flower bed.. I had enough to do bothe front and back yard. I kinda like how they look. I even relocated some to the pond area this weekend to fill in some areas that have settled and need just a bit more rock. Love river rock!

They do have a million uses over the years. A perfect size to level a pot or to go over the drain hole. Filling in around iris or succulents or lewisia.

You can even use them for craft projects. These were cute that I found at a sight on facebook.

You know you're a gardener when you have to move a 2' x 40' raised bed, have nowhere to put any of those plants, but still won't let any die.


>> The potential gardeners bought, but haven't moved in yet. The prior owner on that side let me run a narrow raised bed along our shared sidewalk, so I offered to "share" that bed with the new people,

The new people finally moved in, and so far all she has done is to kill things, including two nice trees and a flowering azealea bush! Other than the raised bed I built, the only fertile soil they had was in a tiny sunken bed out front. She bought three huge, heavy ceramic pots and dropped them on TOP of her only soil, compressing it and occupying her only growing space with ceramic pots. Then she didn't even plant anything in the pots or around them!

The tree removers said "sure" when I asked if they would leave me their chips for mulch & composting. But she wouldn't even let them leave me the chips!

I had to move the bed I put in on her side of the sidewalk, and at first was really bummed because I had a row of perennial Lavatera about to bloom, and many other plants.

Now I'm almost glad, because I salvaged all the paving stones and the soil I had made for those beds. I made the soil from my clay and my compost and amendments I had bought, so it was MY soil!). Now I have deeper beds in better sun on my own property (where low juniper bushes used to be). And the chopped-up juniper branches gave me the biggest compost heap I've ever had, and recnetly when I dug down into it, it was discernibly warmer than its surroundings.

And all the plants I had room for are thriving. The ones that lost the game of Musical Chairs went into pots on the deck, where some are just surviving and some gave up. Apparanetly, when you move Lavatera several times in as many years, they learn to shoot their roots out as fast as they can, as far as they can and start new bushes in new locations. What used to be well-behaved bushes are now desperatly sending shoots into other beds, as if they paniced and are trying to spread faster than their gardener can chase them with his spade and wheelbarrow.

In the first photo, you can see the pink flowering Lavatera I had to move. (The white flowers in the foreground are flowering Daikon radishes in a different bed. They bloomed and then went to seed with never a radish-sized root.

The next 3 shots pan from left to right along the length of the bed that I had to move.

Glad you at least got to keep 'your' soil. Will be thinking of you trying to keep the peace with the newbies.

Quiet a chore and not even something you thought up. It's really true that some people are not gadeners.

>> you trying to keep the peace with the newbies

At first I hoped to share a lot of things, but now I just avoid them as much as I can.

That is so sad. One of my new neighbors is like that. I tried to say hello and ask if she liked that I had cleaned all from bushes back to my side of the fence. No responce. HUH?

Neighbors can make or break your quality of life.

That was a beautiful garden you made, Rick.

I have great neighbors and I am so thankful. I do not go over for coffee or tea but we do all chat when we are out in front. I make friends with all the little children. Especially the boys. So when they grow up they will leave Mrs. Winter off their mischief list.

Shame on your new neighbor.

Hey kiddo, how is Rose Lodge?

Sharon

>> beautiful garden you made

Thank you! It is nice when in bloom, especially when I have free time in the Spring to work out there.

>> I have great neighbors and I am so thankful.

I used to have good gerdening enighbors too, then they both moved. Mr. Silent replaced a lady who loved to garden and talk. He paid to have everything chopped, then laid down black plastic and mulch :-((. Well, his reasonj was bad knees and in ability to spoend ANY time out there woerking. I understand that, but he limps away any time I try to talk to him.

I wondered if your No-Answer-Neighbor might be hearing-impaired and too embabassed to keep saying "HUNNHH!!!" Or just courtesy-impaired.


The other good neighb or also loved to talk, but did NOTHING outside. But she was happy about my gardening and composting (even when it was messy for a few months). Whenevcer I asked if she minded, she said she grew up on a farm and likked seeing it being done arouind her. Then she earned my eternal love by letting put in a narrow flowerbed on HER side of the sidewalk. KISS-KISS!

Enough said about the Crazy Lady who made me take the flowerbed off her property, and her Zombie Husband. I think he gave up on life years ago and now is just waiting and hoping to die.

A few houses dolwn I have another good neighbor whom I call "Attila the Gardener". She has a corner lot with GORGEOUS flowers spring through fall. I tried to give her some seed trays, b ut she doesn't start from seeds, she buys plants. "Atilla" comes from her policy of giving any plant at most two chances: "If it doesn't thrive where I put it first, I'll move it once. Then OUT!", making the gesture that Atilla or Gengis Khan used to say "raze this village to the ground and kill everyone in sight." But she gets results!

You know you're a gardener when ...
your child starts collecting cuttings and seed pods for you with out being asked to.
your vacation luggage includes mesh bags for seed collecting, coffee filters for seed drying, rooting gel packs for cuttings, saran wrap to ensure no gel spills out, and a box for the car.
you're on a first name basis with employees of garden centers and nursery.
garden center employees update you on where to find broke branches and succulent bits as soon as they spot you.

Hi tiki, What nursery do you use around here? I have a few to buy for my new bed.

I use Valley Nursery in Poulsbo. I'm not on a first name basis with them though. The second to last one is based on my Mama.

I've been to Valley Nursery and I do love it. I saw a nursery over on the corner of Perry and Slyvan. Do you know anything about it?

No, I've only been to Valley for my own shopping. My mom has been to many many nurseries in this area and she liked Valley quite a bit so it's the one I stick with.

Hi Sharon! Rose Lodge has been beautiful & SUNNY for two solid months. I'm loving it & have kind of gotten the swing of keeping up with the main gardens. The 200-foot laurel hedge that came down during the ice storms, well ... it's not hurting anybody where it lies, right?!

But I'm Rick on neighbors. Sheesh. It takes so little to tilt a neighborhood one way or the other. Four months ago I had only one immediate neighbor, with 3 vacant houses to the other side. But then Greg, my immediate neighbor to that side, moved in with his wife Kay, who was dying & wanted to be here on the river for her last days. Now that she is gone, he is wigging out, yelling a lot & banging on his drum set. On the other side of him a guy moved in with a dog that is left out in the yard a LOT, barking all night sometimes. Then Kevin up the hill, whose dog Pistol never makes a peep, added some small yipper who gets going early. And someone down the road bought ATVs. So some days it seems as if the drumming starts at 7 a.m., followed by dogs barking, then kids roaring up & down the hill, then more dogs barking, some drumming, more dogs barking ...

Recently the Crazy Lady (I also think of her as the BND - whatever happened to my sunny disposition?) saw me cutting down my leaf broccoli after collecting seeds. They had looked somewhat ratty, and now were tidy, so I wondered "what can she be complaining about NOW?!?"

She wanted me to clean up my "yard waste". We're both standing there looking at a raised bed fronting a driveway / road, and there was no "yard waste".

She showed me 3-4 tiny bits of brown branch fragment slightly bigger than pencil leads, and 2-3 leaf fragments as big as confettii. These were wedged into the crack between a raised bed wall and the road.

It was cleaner than the rest of the road!
It was cleaner than my living room floor when I'm cleaning seeds!
It was WAY cleaner than where the mud washes off her dead strip and onto the shared sidewalk, or her scrubby weeds.

I laughed, but I did pick up my confettii. I figure, if she had already thought of a phrase like "yard waste", she was prepping to go to the park management to rat me out again.

Sigh. It used to be a nice place to live. I used to want to SHARE things with a gardening neighbor.

Now I'm wondering how long it will take her husband to go the rest of way crazy and push her down their garbage disposal in small chunks. When I would be PERFECTLY happy to let him bury her pieces in my compost heap! Neighbors SHOULD cooperate!

Oh, my!!! Heehee

Feelin' really bad for you Summer and Corey. Hope you get some relief over the winter.

I take it as a challenge to be polite, if not actually tolerant. But the resolution only lasts until she says something to me.

I have a lot of growing up to do!

You know your a gardener when your small city of Wood Village Oregon does not have a garden club and you cant let that be so you start one:)

Did that turn out to be a good thing?

I thought that Garden Clubs always and unavoidably turned into social clubs and status things.

I hope not!

You know you are a gardener when you are wearing a headlamp to work in the garden at night!