I am some kind of broken!

I got my start into gardening when a neighbor had too many tomato plants. We had just bought a house with a good sized yard and some one had put down timbers marking off a garden, but it was overgrown with weeds. I dug three holes, backfilled with manure and put in the tomatoes. They turned out to be my joy of the summer! I truly love tomatoes! They produced like mad. The next year I fixed up that garden and grew a bunch from seed, plus peppers and annual herbs. The following year I started all the same and flowers too, then I got a modem and discovered plant and seed trading. That was the start of my addiction! I gave up the potato plot-but growing them was fun. Gave up the bean rows-canning was a lot of work. My top veggie bed turned into my nursery bed. The tomatoes and peppers and onions still get their spots, rotated around. My herb garden has been with me for about six years. I just nuked it. All the plants are going up the hill to new homes. What replaced them? Clematis, peonies, Kerria and yet to be determined. I have decided I am forever broken! LOL The salsa garden is here forever, the rest we can buy at Kroger. Flowers have taken over my life, and my soil. My once large green lawn is now mower wide paths between gardens. Guess life won't ever be the same, but it sure is pretty.

Hmm, I thought that's what yards were supposed to look like!!! Guess I aid and abet your addiction just a little next week. Be prepared

Well Chele and when do you have the time for such deep and emotional contemplations...!! I believe you have gone through some progression is all. Some things we like as youngsters are a yuk thing with me now. I never used to like pelargoniums (geraniums) but my dad adored them. Now, I adore them!! I never liked hydrangeas!! I'll take all I can get now!! I believe your likes and dislikes will change even more as you get older (if you ever get older)!!
One thing that hasn't changed for me is perennials. Many people tend not to bother with these after a while because of the work involved and opt for all shrubs. By golly, you haven't even mentioned roses - oh my!! Just you wait!! OK Kerria - sorry but you got to go. Here comes La Rhine Victoria!!! lol!! You don't believe me Chele!! Just you wait and see!!

Oh Michele I know how you fill I have been slowly doing away with my herb bed too. Lots of the mints are going this year (or I will try to make them go )lol. The veggie garden we just have the one at the house now to eat from. I do can and freeze alittle from it but not much. I love doing that but not really any need to anymore. I think Louisa is right our taste change. And from the last 2 days fighting with my neighbors sounds like the dog will be getting chained up and there goes my prize spot for my vines that I like to baby and also means my flower beds close to where he will be will be goners again. lol ( before you start to say chain him someplace else just let me tell you I have no shade and that's the only place we can chain him so he can get on the porch). That's the one thing about gardening its full of surprises. lol You never know what changes you will have to make or want to make.

I grew a big veggie garden and canned for years. Ahh, yes, the work it involved. I even had friends that wanted me to can for them, they would even pay me to do it. I declined instantly, that is not something you put a price on. It is a labor of love for your family. My boys grew up, I went to work full time. We still grow 4-6 tomatoes, compared to the 46 tomatoes of years back. I turned my veggie garden into FLOWERS and HERBS!!! And I love it. Louisa, you are right, our tastes do change. I didn't like Daylilies, until several years ago, now love them, can't get enough of them. As far as Roses, love them, they don't like Iowa. Last winter was very hard on roses, I had to pull up 8 rose bushes last spring that didn't make it through our winter. They were established roses at that. So now I just have 3 left. And will drool over the pictures of everyone elses roses.

You folks are certainly playing a familiar tune, my DH asked my son if he wanted to buy the new riding mower we bought last year, because he said we're soon not going to need it any longer. I just called today for a couple of loads of topsoil to start a new bed. I used to have 2 veggie gardens and two freezers when my kids were small, now I only plant tomatoes for the hubby, and grow what I want!! He said to me today, well, there can't be many more things you don't have, and I told him I haven't scratched the surface when it comes to plants!! I think he thought I was kidding!!!! LOL L.

For me it was quite the opposite. I started growing flowers, but now I am growing more veggies. Flowers are always a payoff here in Alaska... beauty when you really need it! Veggies produce limited crops and are more work. I take great pleasure in picking leaves from my oriental veggies and lettuce for dinner. I am thrilled to find a zucchini on the vines, and a cherry tomato is a treat!

Having grown up in Indiana, I remember the copious amounts of produce one can grow in a season, so I can understand that veggies can take over your life. Here they are a special hard-earned treat!

However, I have many beds of perennials, many pots of annuals, and more flowers than you can shake a stick at!

The first thing I ever planted was cabbage and carrots. We were always on the move and didn't make sense to spend money on a garden that wasn't ours for very long. Usually there would be some sort of flower garden anyway but in those days eating was more fun!! Can't wait to start growing veggies again. Does that mean I'm reverting to type?? :-)

I too started with veggies and the flowers have taken over!
Im starting to grow more veggies-as I have traded for so many seeds over the past 2yrs! Rattlesnake pole beans-I mean you have to grow them just to see what they look like! Yummy sugar peas are a must-we just eat them out of the garden! Canning-No way to much time n work!!! I do make jam-its ez! My luv of gardening is my addiction and the flowers are my drugz! I dont ever want to be cured either!
I just keep adding on and on and on...........!