You Know you're a gardener when....

momof2d, Jeremy and all the rest . This has been wonderful , funny and delightful. I hope it goes on. so many of them sounded to much like rear life and that is what has
made them so funny.

You know you are when in Jan. you are planting bulbs in the rain and cold because the garden club has put your yard on tour in May and the spring bulbs will be gone but
someone might come by to see your yard early.
Joan

Hap - I'd have found a way! Bought 4 full bags of groceries and a large bag of taters at HEB in TX once, forgot I was on the bike... LOL Thank goodness for bungees!

I only had a Hondamatic 400, so in a way, I guess you'd think I was cheating LOL. Decided other day, I'm not getting any more standard vehicles after this one croaks too. And, IF I ever get another bike, I think maybe it will have to be a trike. With my knee (mostly past) and back probs (both past and present) I cannot safely handle a bike any more.

Have driven cars/trucks over half million miles, both here and overseas. But, not too many on the bike. Lived in TX; drove it around TX mostly; took it to Ohio and back once. Sold it to finance my trip to Korea after then spouse got trf there in 82. Kept the license, but never bought another.

As for memories... a few come to mind: my accident on Good Friday 2001 (only 1 stitch, but w/ helmet I would have been dead!); his "hit and run" when someone hit him 3 days later, the day after Easter (2 stitches and scared the heck out of me); having to FedEx a valve from Warehouse #6 in NJ to me in OH, only place they could get it for my bike; and the trip to Ohio that was supposed to "save" money. Ended up costing 5 nights in hotels, a slip on oil with my forearm landing on his muffler, lots of pain, etc... Hmmm Thought these were supposed to be happy memories! Well, I survived it... lol, and survived him too... LOL ~ Suzi ♥

You know you are a gardener when...

Before you throw things away you ask "could I use this for something in the gardening arena?" as DH looks on with a scared look in his eye. I am after all the same wife of his who saves 2 liter soda bottles to cut down into pots (the drainage holes I poke in with a woodburning tool...my husband shudders) I drink a lot of diet coke (about a 2 liter every 2 days) so I've made many pots for the ever growing number of plants I start and have waiting.

Throw Away #2
My youngest is out of diapers (as of June!!!!!!! YEA!!!!!!) and we have a baby wipes warmer (my son was always getting horrible diaper rash so having the wipes warm helped in the comfort area, it wasn't just a needless luxury) whose lid hinges are busted. I'm sure someone else would toss it for sure and just buy a new one for the next baby to join the family. Rather than toss it I had a brain storm. Hmmmmm, the wipes were always just nicely warm, not hot, hmmmmm, I bet I could use this as a nice little seed germinator since I am trying to start just a few perennial seeds at a time rather than a whole greenhouse full.

As a wipes warmer it was always plugged in and never overheated even though it was on 24/7. Filled it 1/2 full with peat moss, moistened it up and popped in some seeds. Plugged it in on my kitchen counter top so I could always keep an eye on it and it works like a charm! Even better I found a little rectangle plastic container that fits in perfect so I could pull this in and out to water and allow the water to drainout.

Edited to add:
The busted hinges on the lid just make it so I have to lay the top on rather than have it lift up....the lid has to be used though to keep things warm and humid.



This message was edited Aug 1, 2005 12:22 AM

Gartiy...

You make us girls proud!!!!!

Hap

Hey, Garity. How much does a baby wipes warmer cost? I noticed in another thread that people mentioned seed tray warmers cost $25 - $30. If a baby wipes warmer is cheaper than that, you may have found a cheap alternative to post in the "Dirt Cheap" forum (another of my favorite forums!)

Jeremy

You know you are a gardener when... seeing that the city is trimming back the Bradford Pear trees on your street and shredding them as they go... you make 3 different trips out to the road looking for the supervisor to beg for the chippings. I still am not sure if I am getting a load but I am keeping my fingers crossed. It was a good sign when the supervisor walked with me to see where they could dump it. (right off the road, plenty of room to turn around...why wouldn't they dump it there right?)

Hey, Kerry. I did the same thing when my neighbor hired a tree company to remove about 30 oaks from their property (at a major expense, I'm certain!!). The tree company was shredding them at the curb side in one of their huge shredding machines. They were very happy to drive only about 20 ft to dump the mulch instead of having to drive about 30 miles to pay to dump it at our city compost facility. My resulting problem was the only place I had for the dump truck to unload was in my driveway. It took me about 2 months to find time to move the huge hill of mulch before I could get our vehicles off the road at curbside and back into safer parking in the driveway!

By the way, some folks caution that care should be taken in using mulch from chopped up trees. The trees might be diseased (and that is the reason they are being cut down) and the mulch may carry the disease to your trees. In the case of my truck load of mulch, the neighbors were over reacting (I think) to a situation where on of their trees dropped a limb on a neighbor's garage and they had to pay an insurance settlement. All the trees that came down were healthy, just part of the slaughter from fear of what damage the other trees might do to raise insurance rates. I bemoaned the loss of the life of the trees, but was happy for all the additional sunlight it let into my yard.

Jax - I did think of the disease aspect. These are pear trees that have been overgrown and needed cutting back for some time. Just about every time a large, overloaded truck would come through town a branch would get knocked off and traffic would be diverted till someone with a chainsaw stopped and dealt with it. I don't have any fruit trees and what I do have is in containers and won't be getting the mulch so I felt safe.

BTW - I did get the mulch. wooo hoo. It looks to be about half of a dump truck load and very finely chopped. http://www.kerrysgarden.us/?p=107

A baby wipes warmer will cost between $14-30 but only warm a very small size (about 5x8in). A good buy for a garage sale find though! If you buy a tray warmer it is much more cost efficient because of the larger size of course and the tray/pots can overlap the sides vs this which has to have the stuff fit inside of its cavity.

You know you are a gardener when...You get excited to hear that your friends are moving (even though you will miss them) because just maybe they will let you dig up some of their plants before they will sell their home. ("Oh Becky, I'm so sad you are moving...Could I have your Peony 'Kansas' to add to my garden as a memento?")

-gert

You know you're a gardener when.....

Despite being exhausted and sore and near blind from planting by floodlight, you still have to pull the Can-O-Worms out of the foo-foo garden tub and scrub the tub to be able to soak your tired bones .

After a haircut you ask your stylist for not only your own hair for the compost pile but for anyone else's they can spare.

You're late for a pedicure (from the garden of course) but freshly showered and the woman blanches at the site of your feet as you pull them out of your flip-flops. Dirt stuck to the underside of the straps leaves strips that she feels compelled to clean off with alcohol- as the water in the tub darkens. Amazing how much dirt those things will hold!

Maggie

When....

You tell your DH (who is a police officer) that you are going out to dig daylilies growing wild in the city limits...and if your not back in 15 to come bail you out of jail.

Note: No real arrest at this time. :-)



This message was edited Aug 20, 2005 9:11 AM

Maggie, I am a flip flop gardener too. I have the tan lines to prove it. LOL
I wouldn't dare take my feet for a pedicure!

I'm too hot to wear closed toed show to work if I can avoid it. I bite my nails so my pedicure makes up for it.

Maggie

You know you're a gardener when

After leaving for work at a dark 6 30 in the morning and coming home at equally dark 5:30 in the evening, you go out with a flash light to look at the pansies that are in bloom before you feed you spouse and children supper. I remain uncontrite about it.

Beth

You know you are a gardener when you have 16 women coming for BUNCO and it is 100 degrees outside and you are out there pulling weeds so the garden will look good and you should be cleaning the house.
Joan

Beth,
You are gone from 6:30 - 5:30 and you are doing the cooking? Sounds like they should be giving you much needed gardening time and taking care of you when you get home.

I second that!!

You know you are a gardener when you look down at your feet and see little upside down Vs that are white where your sandals were. You look up a little higher and you see where the end of you boots were from spring and being outside in shorts and boots. Then you look at your hands and realize they are tan to the wrist where your regular gardening gloves leave off and then there is another tan line from where your rose pruning gloves left off. This does not include assorted tan lines from sleeveless and short sleaved shirts or the tan lines from weeding in your bathing suit as well as assorted shorts lengths. My husband took a look at me and asked me if maybe I shouldn't get some of that bottled tan stuff to blend in all the different tan lines. Silly him... I tried that one year and ended up orange like an oompa loompa from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!
Pati

Ha ha ha! Patti! You must have tried some of that bottled tan stuff too! Come on, admit it! You had to go to work orange too now didn't ya!

Only my legs....I looked like some giant bird species! You only have to put up with the stripes in the summer. Here it's a year round problem. LOL
Pati

You know you're a gardener when .... you could easily pot up a small plant from the dirt in the tub after a shower. DH actually asked me if I had always been a "mud puddle" and we've been married 30 years. He has suggested that perhaps I should use the hose and wash off some outside - I DID!!!

Stownes...I know what ya mean, I often tell DH I should buy and wear fishing waders! LOL!

This message was edited Aug 21, 2005 9:18 PM

You know you are a gardener when 20 bags of dyed mulch are delivered and spread around and you realize there is only one thing to do... get the shop vac and suck it all up lest the chemicals in it leach out and damage your little pretties. The neighbors already think I've lost it so no biggie. I can't wait for school to start to get reports from my kids as to what the parents of their friends thought of me shop vaccing a huge planting bed for most of the day. The mulch was just put down yesterday. Easy come, easy go but it did look really nice and crisp for about 24 hours.

You know your a gardener when...

Your husband reports a two inch thick brown snake in the brush pile and suggests disposing of the pile. And you say, no, I really wanted to chip that pile for mulch, I bet if we google the snake we'll find its not venomous.

You KNOW you are a crazy gardener when..............

The hurricane that they said was not going to be bad, turns ugly about 8pm, so in the dark you start pulling the hurricane shutters close..................BUT you can't do some shutters because you might BRAKE OFF SOME COLEUS IN TRYING........ so those were left open.!!!! LOL

Sick but true.

Hap

Happy_1, I hope everything went OK for you. I saw that on the news! You guys need a break!

I'm fine, a couple of crinkled leaves and that's about it.....very blessed.
Hap

LOL Hap! I'm sure a lot of people don't understand the Coleus passion unless they've read the Forum! I was holding my breath until you reported. Apparently the record breaker came through undamaged! Hooray!
Paty

YUP,,,,,happy as clams..

Just talked to MollyMc and she is still without power but all OK...

glad you (and that coleus) are ok hap.

florida needs a new hobby--toooo much this year.

I sure agree with that!!!!!

Oh my happy1 -- glad your'e ok!

Good Morning..

Thanks guys.....beautiful morning here. Heart aches for the gulf coast. Katrina did terrible things during the night. It's terrible that it has so far to go and so much time to make it a cat 5. Dear oh dear oh dear.....prayers and prayers and prayers...

Hap

hap--

i am watching on the NOAA site. i have a cuz just north of alexandria and a friend's daughter right in new orleans. this looks to be a nasty one.

crossing fingers, eyes, toes.

hope they're all buckled up and make it through ok.

Me too....Check the Weather Forum....there is a link for Katrina...you will find it interesting..

Hap

I was outside pretty much all morning weeding. I don't watch tv but when I came in the tv was on and I got a look at the size of Katrina and I must admit that sent shivers down my spine. I seriously don't think I could live in any area that was prone to hurricanes particularly if it was below sea level. We have enough issues with tornadoes but we never experience the loss of life associated with hurricanes. My heart goes out to all of you who have had to evacute your homes.

ty hap. i just now got back here and saw your post. been pretty distracted with katrina. finally had email from cuz--she's allright *whew*.

hugs hun, wabi

Hello all, pretty much spent all day reading this thread. I'm a new, or maybe relapsed, gardener. I've lived in a cave like apartment for three years with my houseplants slowly dying or just not doing anything. I went to UK this January for 45 days and to try to make care of the house as easy as possible (two cats, and a dozen plants) I put all of the plants on the porch, with instructions to bring them in if it snowed, and to water them. We had weeks of snow in the UK, but record "hot" and dry weather here, my plants were sprouting new leaves when I got back in March. Which they haven't done since I moved here. Then I collected a few more plants, got a table, planted some of onions I got from the farmers market. I realized I could have a container garden on my porch (6 ft x 15 ft, well wind shielded, SS to FS) so I've been planning my garden for the last couple weeks. Looking for plant information is how I found this site. I've loved all of the stories and jokes made at ones own expense. So, here are a few of my own.

You know you're planning a garden when...

At school: Someone asks if you lost your keys because you've been walking around the planters looking at plants for the last half-an-hour (benefit of the college planters is that many of the plants have signs with common name and scientific name. They are also set up in themes like bug resistant, low water use, native plants, reclaiming ivy ground, etc...)

On the bus: You watch for signs for new construction site so you can morally dig up whole plants.

You have a fiction book that you've been reading for two weeks, but you've finished three books on gardening in the same time period.

You have set-up an excel file with common name, Latin name, picture, max height, light, soil, water, propagation, and notes information on all the plants you are interested in (I currently have 71, and had to create a twin of the file without pictures so I could sort by different categories)

You start ordering books from interlibrary loan, because your library doesn't have the books you need.

Without money: You start pulling things out of your closet that you knew you'd find a use for because they'd be perfect to put plants on. (cast iron bases for glass bowls I broke and milk crates)

Without money: You remember that you kept seeing discarded containers somewhere, remember where and bring them home.

Without money: You start asking friends, family and co-workers if they have any plants they'd be interested in getting rid of.

You start looking at recipes with an eye for what could be grown in your garden.

That's probably enough for now, I'm sure I'll come up with more later. :0)


This message was edited Aug 30, 2005 12:27 AM

Also, I've gotten the jist, but could someone spell out the verious D abbrivations for me, I can't figure out what the actual words are and it's not one I've run across.