Funding our obsession

Thanks for the explanations. I'm suffering from tired eyes due to checking out dahlias.

Dave - not to mention all you save by not hanging out with wild women!

I only hang with wild women on DG.

Dave, I have used that rationalization with my wife for years! I added hanging out at the bar with the guys as well. Or smoking. She still says I spend too much $ and time. She's a gardening widow.

Victor

Victor, I agree that the time investment is the bigger issue than the money. My wife is mostly very patient with me. Thank heaven.

lol... I tell my family the same things... I don't smoke, no drugs and no wild parties.... I don't even go out and buy clothes anymore... with all this plans for a new garden, my friend just asked me when am I going to be a nurse? !!!!! priorities .... I will probably be hanging IV's to prevent plant dehydration...

dave, she knows as long you are outside you are out of trouble and in-sight!!!!

I do well if I keep our very active 7 year old out there with me.

let me try to use it then
http://davesgarden.com/forums/p.php?pid=3140429

is this right?

That's it. But it wasn't the post I was expecting you to referrence.

What about this one... http://davesgarden.com/forums/p.php?pid=2055359

Errrrr.... Why is someone from Virginia responding? I was raised and have family still in Massachusetts!
I'm very bad... I can't resist buying plants, seeds, etc. When I need a fix I can't justify I end up buying a plant or bulbs and have them shipped to my mother or sister-in-law. I guess that way my own household can't point to the garden and say "Stop it!" It doesn't help me fund my garden, but it certainly helps my mom and sister-in-law save money!

Any port in a storm!

Ok, I promisssssseeeeeeeeeee not to buy any more plants in January 07! I will behave myself!

Thirteen hours and thirty five minutes to go.

oh such a long time to wait!!!!

This thread is not helping . . . (well, it is . . . because some very nice people have helped me to acquire some plants. :-) ) However, what I (and possibly others) could use is a sure fire to resist the irresistable.

Like others, I try to justify what I spend by not smoking (but I never did - so does this count?) not hitting the bars (never did this either!), and having a very limited selection of shoes (1 pair of sneakers, 1 red pair, 1 pair of crocs, 1 pair of boots).

Even so, when first starting out, the cost can be expensive and the temptations are everywhere!

So . . .'fess up. How do you resist (yes, I am aware some of you never resist . . . but that is not an option for everyone.)

Currently, I am trying a "garden diet" - for every three pounds I lose, I get to spend $12.00 Unfortunately, I have already spend 25 pounds worth! And there are still fertilizers, etc. to buy . . . .

What are your suggestions?

One sure fire way is to save each picture of a plant you want and compare it to Plant Files. When you see what it looks like for others it may not be all it seemed to be. There's a rose, Ebb Tide, which so many people believe is that very, very dark purple to violet color but, here, it's just a dark red rose and doesn't even have the fragrance of Mr. Lincoln.

I also eliminated a dozen dahlias (and a dozen daylilies or more) by comparing the photo online to DG photographs on Plant Files. We will NOT talk about how many I did order.

lol.... ok we will not... but is good to know about ebb tide... I was going to order it.... see it's already helping me...

well, I hope that once my rose garden is planted this year i am going to behave... my mom will be here and she is not a spender like me... but what I think I really need is accountability... someone to ask me questions like why, how much $$$ I spent and do I really need the new plant? where is going to be? what is going to do for the garden? can you get seeds and start from seeds? can you get it from a friend and exchange for something else???

I don't know....

STOP! We gardeners do NOT need to answer to anyone but ourselves. Take hold of yourself! You'll spoil your own fun.

Can I quote you Pirl when the bills come in? lol

Of course! Glad to be of service.

Pirl, I need help... I don't think I can spoil my fun... it will force me to think!!!! I buy things that I don't need and have no place to plant!
I have gardening carved in my genes....

my entire family is involved in gardening.... my grandmother was crazy about dahlias and herbs... my mother's oldest brother worked for years in Brazil with a goverment agency called Embrapa - doing what? gardening! he was one of the first people working with soy... my other uncle works at the bigest university in Brasilia - also for Embrapa but in the research department, and another uncle worked for years for a scientist traveling all over Brazil and getting samples of all kinds of plants ... so plants are something really that runs in my mother's blood....
and some of my cousins are also avid gardeners!!!!

on my dad's family things were not different... my grandmother was a native brazilian and she loved fruit trees, my dad's favorite sister was crazy about vegetables and herbs, and my other aunt had many orchids... all growing in trees - mango trees...

I had a huge veggie garden all my childhood... all sorts of greens.... collard greens, mustard, chicory and many other greens that we don't have it here... and to top it all my mother collects ferns .... she is so sad that she can't bring them here...

so I am helpless... can't really go against my nature!!!!

Oh, dear Kassia! Thinking is important but it's what you decide to think about that can make you smile or frown. No space? Try pots, wall hanging baskets or hanging baskets from trees, flower boxes, hayrack planters, pretty triple planters (just saw that in J & P's catalog) - let your fingers do the walking through catalogs and you'll find more.

Never go against your nature and don't try to deny those gardening genes.

Pirl, You are like the little devil talking into Kassia's left ear!

Kassia, Are you really messing yourself up with your spending?

Hi, my name is Anita and I'm a gardeneraholic

Oh Dave! How can you call yourself a help when you question Kassia?

Anita - congratulations! We're all peas in the same pod. I got up two hours early so I could scroll through Hull's clematis list. I started with Z and I'm now at W, having viewed 56 pages. A few thousand more to go.

Dave, I am almost out of trouble... I am selling my condo (finally) and this will get everything smooth... yes, I spent all my savings last year in plants and all other related stuff... that includes paying for someone to come a do a spring and fall cleaning, and cutting the grass and laying gravel in a small area... I don't regreat too much... I am just upset that I don't have more money to spend in flowers as much as I need!!!! I have to do my taxes soon.... I see that the refund this year is not going to change colors... from green to green!!!!

but there is hope for me because my mother is moving here and so is my youngest sister Karla (she is a Biologist) and these 2 are absolutly the most generous people you can imagine but they are the best "savers" you can also imagine! how is that possible???? they are so talented for plants that they can plant anything from seeds and it will become a tree... they will be good to me... so there is hope.... and I hope to share the garden with them... it will be fun... not that I think we are going to agree in everything but, it will be fun!!!!

Pirl,
my co-workers are all telling me that I have issues... "plants and weeds issues" lol... this is all because I told them that I am so happy that when I finally start working as a nurse I am going to garden every morning! And because I told one of them that the only guy I am interested is the delivery guy that will bring my roses in march/april!!!! all I ask is that he is careful with my roses, leave then in the shade and just go away! I am happier when I have my shorts, t-shirt and outside planting.... lol.... and of course to top everything the only people I chat on the internet are other gardeners... so I guess I have issues...lol...

You have good issues! I used to garden for an hour each morning before getting ready for my 9 to 5 job. It's great to wake up and go right to the garden!

Yes! Good issues! It's okay to be a garden addict! In fact, it's great!! What a better way to honor Mother Earth, God, the wildlife, your own soul, or whatever, by being a gardener!! I'm with you Anita. Hello. My name is Harper and I'm a gardenaholic.... and proud of it!! I don't do anything else. No smoking, drinking, partying... well, I played poker for stakes last week for the first time... and won! $42 went straight to my garden fund. I don't shop for nice clothes anymore. I hardly go shopping for groceries anymore... beans and rice suffice!

I spend waaaay beyond my budget, especially when I first moved in. (acorn vs. oak syndrome) Just this year I'm going to have to seriously reign in my spending... so I'm starting a compost pile, building a seed growing area in the basement. On the practical side, I have the bank automatically take out $20 a week from my checking and put it into a savings account... Now I just have to learn to not tuch it.... let it grow... Hey, if I could learn to grow money as well as I grow plants, I'd be rich!

Harper

Oh yeah. My mother sent me this affirmation and 5 step guide to thinking wealthier. She's kinda new-agey with many contradictory earthly desires, but this seems harmless enough. What can it hurt?

The 30-second grow rich method:

1. Catch yourself. (Be aware of a thought - or spoken words - that you are lacking in money.)

2. Center your awareness in the middle of your forehead. (Let go of the negative thought and allow your consciousness to drift to your forehead.)

3. Say: "Money is constantly flowing into my life." (Say it out loud or silently to yourself.)

4. Feel the emotion of a richer you. (Visualize yourself with abundance in family, relationships and money.)

5. Say: "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." (Express your gratitude, silently or out loud.)

I am an plant addict too!!...there, that feels better now that I said it. I am also an enabler, in the worse way. I get all my closer friends going too, lol.
I can't ever possibly afford everything I dream of, so I try to choose what I must have, and then after I buy it, stare at my husband blankly when I get the money lecture, lol. Seriously, I clean houses to make extra cash, and every cent goes to the garden. When I am scrubbing someone else's bathtub, I am thinking of what to spend the money on.

Sounds like the power of positive thinking. Some of us may be gardening and thinking we should be cleaning our tub!

LOL, Thanks, Pirl.

Jackie

Kassia, good luck to you and your family on your new venture!