Compulsivitygardeningimmediategratifcation biggest bang 4 $

ok...i am a compulsive, immediate gratification junkie, gardener.....need i say more?? i made myself a promise this year that i would only buy perrenials and a few annuals that are staples of the garden...petunias, impatiens, begonias....; so that being said; i came i bought ....and i am not ready to go!!!! i wanna plant plant plant!!! i want my stuff to GROW!! i wanna be doing something constructive while watching my stuff GROW!!!!; i wanna buy!!
i wanna go drag in some more plants!! i need to like i need a whole in the head...SO...that being said....do you suffer the same malady? what do you do when you get to my point? part of me thinks it is VERY constructive to buy something that will rapidly multiply ....that way i can divide and plant more.....; i can get more...MORE MORE MORE MORE...whats a girl to do??? HAAAYYYYLLLPPPP

me too me too me too me too me too me too!

sticks, you're a daveholic. I know it hurts to hear it, but admitting you have a problem is the first step. No one here will intervene -- we feel the best therapy is ENABLING!!!! Now get out there and buy! Go for it!!! So you don't know where you'll be able to put it! Doesn't matter! You'll find space!!! Get on that trading forum!!! GO GO GO!!! GROW GROW GROW!!!

You see, I don't have this problem. I don't. Really, I'm not kidding. I DON'T HAVE A PROBLEM. Just leave me alone with my seed catalogs, guys. My visa card has space, and I don't have a problem. I can quit anytime I want. Really.

I can quit any time I want also - like when I go to bed and can't be on the Internet or looking at catalogs.

What do I do when things get totally out of control? Well, I buy something, of course. Silly girl, Sticks, just buy something!

Murmur, would you not agree that the answer to sticks's question (what do I do when I get to this point) is: take a deep breath, smile, and say, "I HAVE ARRIVED."

Bridiglily, lol - that's perfect!!! Then add a sigh of contentment and maybe even an "Amen!"

hallelujah

yall are so BAD; i am trying not to buy anything right now cause if i do it will have to be containered...or something dug up to be containered...OR i am going to have to start the new flower beds?(oh my what is a girl to do)?? (grin)

i tend not to make good decisions when i am being compulsive...those wrong decisions make me buy something else to balance the situtaion and on and on and on.....sound familiar?

so yesterday i plant daylilies that i have had sitting in containers cause i wasnt' sure where to put them i finally got them in the ground and realized that the little vignette is NOT balanced....so i am truly going to have to buy something to balance everything.....waaaahhhh

i get so mad at myself cause i am CONSUMED with the whole process....and then i buy stupid things cause i half to have them.....like the hydrangea that i bought the other day....i had never even researched it much less dreamed of owning a varagated one....but by golly i bought it ...i planted it...and it is MINE MINE MINE MINE; did it POP the look of the bed i put it in...NNNNOOOOOO; did i reallly love it ??? nOOOOOOO...

and the pot addiction is almost as bad....i keep buying these dang cute pots...(small ones)....rather than not buying a bunch of small when i could buy a huge one for the
$ savings of not buying the small ones but do i stop buying them??

whew!....It's refreshing to hear I am not the only one.....yard itsfull of pots, stuff is in the mail, ordered, etc...still not enough, though! I know I gotta get to work on those new beds...lol

Sticks, Welcome to the world of never having too many plants.

Back in the Fall I overheard my hubby saying (to himself, but loud enough that he KNEW I was listening) We have too many plants. MUAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA Get real!! Every day I see some photo that someone here on DG has taken that I just fall in love with and I just have to find!!! Can I grow whatever it is in my yard? Who the heck knows? Not me. Unless I get one and try it. :-) Having a sister here in town that loves plants as much as I do gives me a support system and someone to share plants with. We buy lots of things, especially coleus, and split them up when we get home.

Like you, I have many small pots. I put Jade in them and set them on my Jade Deck and admire them daily. At the thrift stores, I just can't seem to pass them up. I'm always thinking outside of the box and trying to come up with a way to "make a planter" out of whatever I'm seeing.

This year, I've decided to let the ground cover I bought many years ago, as a hanging basket, take over my center island. It's done it's thing now. Each morning there are miniscule flowers all over the island as a background for my tropical plants. I can park all of those ugly black pots in there amongst the ground cover and no one is the wiser because in a few hours the ground cover covers up the pots.

I've done a lot of container gardening this year. I'm really loving it! I remember a few months ago seeing someone's "collection" of coleus and thinking to myself... Good Lord, that's a bit extreme. Now that I've started collecting them, I don't think that at all. Unfortunately, this also means having to buy waybigo pretty pots. Awwwwwwwwwww.... Poor Pitiful Me! HAHAHAHAHA Check with your local grocery stores that also carry plants. I lucked out and bought all the waybigo planters they had for $3 each. How could I possibly pass up that kind of deal?

One thing I've done this year that I think is the most beneficial is to buy a BALE of sphagnum moss. I've put that stuff on top of any plant or container of plants that is drooping before the end of the next day after I water. It really helps to contain moisture in the pots and my plants have grown tremendously since I've done it. Especially the coleuses, or is that colei! I figure the cost of the bale (about $35) will be much less than the having to water since I'm cutting my watering down by half.

Little did I know when I signed up here that I'd become addicted to plant collecting. But hey, don't worry Sticks. You're in the best of company here on Dave's Garden.

Janet

unique you are talking my language when you say COLEUS....i had 500 coleus cuttings in my sun room this winter .....was that enuf?? OOOOHHHH NNOOOOOO....so i am busy collecting others so that i can start the cuttings so that i can have 700 cuttings in my GREENHOUSE (yup...i WILL have a greenhouse this year...) IF IT KILLS ME....then we will see who is NUTS!!!...

GULP! 500??? Oh my Goodness! I remember seeing that thread and the photos you showed.

I'm planning on getting plenty of cuttings and "renting some space" in Connie's greenhouse. (She doesn't know that yet!)

Or else, I will have to get hubby to make me one. We've got the beginnings of one on the Jade Deck. 2 Sides already boxed in, lattice roof, etc. I overwintered my plants there last year and was amazed at how many survived with no roof over their heads but a few squares of lattice, and no water from November to March.

Connie helped me to put some plastic around all of the sides. There wasn't a speck of floor space left in there. I can just imagine how great it would be with organized shelving! Whoa Baby!!! I've got twice as many containers this year to have to worry about. Did I say WORRY??? Uh, I meant love! Yeah, that's it! Uh Huh. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! :-)

Janet

janet ...we are so bad!!! the only reason for the quantity of coleus was so i wouldnt'
have to buy any....so i must say i am an economical girl....i also did 50 geraniums...20 to 30 ivys...so at least i was able to do those without bucks being spent...and as for my pots....i pic up those that are 2-3 bucks...at least it is not full price....but if it is a nice quality vintage pot then i buy the durn thing as that is just too cheap to pass up....and then i will have them when i need them....

well get busy on the cuttings....i keep some going all the time as our waste (west) texas wind destroys them as fast as i can grow um....so get busy!!!!

Janet ~ you may have seen this thread but it you scroll down to Dec 6 starting with post # 2974480 by BigBubbles... this is the quick and easy way to provide a plant shelter. She has a description as well as a series of photos.

It sounds like it might work well on your deck and in your climate.

Take a tour... http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/674265/

signed... the enabler

Thanks Pod. Great thread. I've been trying to find a photo I took of it when it was covered, but haven't put my eyeballs on it yet. We left the roof open with only the lattice up there, just so God could water when He saw the need. :-)

pod...you are an enabler...dang, now i want all all the tropicals!~!!

But we need to talk about this pot addiction. I know, I know... y'all are all thinking about how if you just stay at home and don't hurt anybody with the pot then what's the harm...

BUT! This leads to ROOTING!!! And then TRANSPLANTING!! Before you know it you can't do without cattle panels for arches!!!

Give me the serenity to accept the plants I have the sun for...
The strength to refuse the ones I don't have the zone for...
And Dave's Garden to know the difference...

Too cute BL ~ The Daves Gardener prayer ~ I like it!

Oh, Boy! Do I know how this feels. I stupidly left a lawn area in my yard when I redid it. Who needs grass? It's just sitting there being green when it could have been sacrificed for more interesting plantings. I should have only left enough of it to be pathways between planting beds. I really messed up by having a sprinkler system installed and now I can't add more beds without having the sprinkler lines dug up and modified. What was I thinking? The sprinkler guy even asked me "Are you through putting in all your beds?". I said yes. If hubby had been here, he'd have said "We can never have a sprinkler system because you'll never be through adding beds!" He would have been right.

I keep looking at that swath of green (that's at least interrupted by beds) and thinking "tiller..."

brig...i think YOU are the reason why i have planted lemongrass!! i bought and ordered lemongrass....i pull up any other grass in my beds but i bought, planted, and nurture lemon grass!!! then you have the audacity to say a prayer that i can relate to??!!! (grin)

i too have a problem with a sprinkler system...whats a girl to do?? i have got to have more flower beds.....i have have to have themed flower beds...and one group of themed ones is shade...and one group is sun...one is part sun and one....well, it is a 'if you are gonna grow then grow cause this is the last bed in the yard'....

then talk about pots pots pots pots....division division division ...propagation propagaiton...THEN to add insult to injury...everything must be balanced....if it is
not well then, you have to find something to balance the dang bed....

yall are NO help either....you feed my addiction ....and this is only year 2 for me...

Hey! I think we're doing a GREAT job enabling you!! muah ha ha ha ha

Well, I just couldn't leave well enough alone - this is my latest "expansion." I am building a short wall of stones in an attempt to even the flower bed out just a bit. There is quite a slope there - DH measured once what it would take to raise it high enough to truly make it level - lol - it was something like four feet!!!! I don't think so! But this will help a bit. Of course, I suppose it could have been done without enlarging the bed, but y'all know how that goes!!!

Murmur! That bed is beautiful and I love the "destination"... move over, I want to sit in that swing...

Enlarging the bed, hmmmm... you must have something in mind. : ))

Thanks, Podster - it is one of my favorite beds. My purpose is mainly to find a home for all the plants my Compulsivitygardeningimmediategratification has caused!

Just gorgeous, and I love the obelisk (if that's the right term).

You HAVE to enlarge! How else are you going to get rid of places you have to mow???

Brigidlily, you are sooooo right! I'm making progress - we bought the house in 2002 and this is what that same part of the yard looked like!

And this is an overall view taken last summer.

Fantastic! It's so pretty, and I'm glad I'm not the only Lawn Terminator. I agree you need a swath here and there, but not an expanse from h-e-double hockey sticks unless you're setting up a putting green. The only advantage I can see is that it really is easier to mow a big square than pathways and swaths.

Here, I do the mowing, so I do the sowing!

Same here - I do anything whatsoever connected to the gardens, including planning, the rototilling of all the gardens, the hauling of dirt & rocks, the planting & sowing, the mowing, the building of little rock walls, etc., etc., etc.

BTW, when I first tilled the oval garden I am now expanding, DH teasingly tried to get me to turn it into a putting green . . . no way, fella!!!

It doesn't really show in that last picture, but there are flower beds in front of the hedge, too - and where you saw the obelisk (yes, right term), that was just grass as well, now a second rose garden. Hopefully the climbing rose inside the obelisk will take off before long - it looks healthy, but not gaining any height yet (I just planted them in late March or early April, though).

Yup - easier to mow a big square, but so boring and no challenge . . . lol!

I have a little obelisk (I got it at a hardware store and I think it was meant to be a Christmas decoration) and I've planted a Joseph's Coat at the base. It's slow to get started, but hopefully it will take off soon. I kind of despair of keeping roses going down here, but I'm giving it a good shot. I won't give up for at least a couple of years!

Keep whacking away at that golf course! ;}

brig....what kind of josephs coat? is that the same thing as alternathera? but then there are several colors and kinds? wanna see a pic??

murmur...you are such a bad influence....grin....lovely what you have done...; we have too much grass but there is little money to dig out and plant other stuff so i have to slow go it...

so i had a little slip yesterday....i first went to home depot...filled my basket with white plumbago ...i had 2 pots that had nothing in them...whats a gurl to do?? then i got some grass shears by black and decker....only to find that they didn't have the moisture meter that i went for and bought from them last year(i tend to love my plants too much)...when i couldnt find that and then i couldn't find this stuff to keep the cats off my car that is covered with a tarp well.....i thought...forget it and left without buying a dang thing....

SO then i went to sutherlands...i was doing quite well..found the cat stuff, then the sheers were 5 dollars higher at sutherlands....so i was really mad..and they were not the newer model that home depot had...(i was being very cheap)....when finally, i notice all these people gathered ....i had to go look, WELL they were taking all these baskets off a truck....2.99 12 inch baskets....normally it is YAWN, they are not good....but i saw this lady with 2 in her hands...they were packed iwth HUGE snapdragons.....hey, i said to myself, i don't own snaps....i have never owned them...they are biennials...that is in my acceptable purchase book.....so guess what!!?? i bought 2 HUGE baskets for 2.99 each.....i used retraint...then got home and looked on ebay for my stupide black and decker things and can get them almost half price ....so i will get them there.....

seeeeeee:

niiiiice... right place, right time...

hey brig...have you done snaps....?? if so are they a 'wilting' type flower....meaning when they are in hot sun do they wilt and recover? i have some flowers that do that and so i don't get alarmed....but these are watered and wilting and so i pulled them out of the sun....but do they do that?? or should i be hardening them off more?

I just put in my first snaps a couple of weeks ago. They're blooming and they do get a little puny during the afternoon, but they bounce back. I have no idea what the cultivar is -- they're the yellow ones I found at W/M.

mine are probably the same cultivar......cept mine are pink....but anyway, i pulled them out of the sun till i can find out...

Snaps for me have only worked in early spring or cool fall/winter weather, similar to pansies. When it gets too hot, they die. There is a torenia also know as "summer pansy" or wishbone plant that has blooms similar shaped to snaps and they hold up well in the heat. Good luck with the snaps. Hope yours last better in the heat than mine have.

Whew! I thought I was daffy. I belong to the African Violet Society, just joined the Gesneriad Society, chew nails until my MAGAZINES arrive. Last year I bought a bunch of AVs on ebay, lost several, but am learning. Just ordered 3 Streptocarpus on line, 5 hoyas the next day. Ahhhhhh-spring. :-)

crow...and i thought you were going to say that ...'there is another plant...wishbone flower that tanks just like snaps...'.....; for some reason it wont grow for me...grrrrreat..i just love throwing my buck away