Anyone else's spouse think they are bananas?

DH is a great guy...but just does not understand the whole gardening thing...why I'm out in 40 degree weather digging up the yard (hey, the ground thawed, time to put in a new garden!), why I can spend hours and never mind how much $$ at the local nursery (I NEED that new iris!), why I religiously compost anything even vaguely vegetable (reuse, recycle, and feed my babies!), why I grow at least eight varieties of heirloom tomatoes every year (they're all different!), and why I've taken over most of the cellar with seed flats (more plants! and cheaper, too!).

Thank goodness for DG, I'd feel even more oddball without it. :)

pam

Yep, a very similar thing going on here. I rofled last week when I said to the guy, "do you want to take a ride with me to Rarefind" He went beserk. Spring is here, spring is here! He got so excited about going to the nursery. We were there for all of ten minutes and he told me to make up my mind quick. All I could think was at least we had made some strides toward getting in the car to go to the garden places together. I will give him HUGE kudos though, he picked up the tab!! I told him it was his contribution towards our slice of heaven. He didn't exactly buy that. He is actively anticipating the Fairweather ride. He doesn't give a rat's behind about the plants, he just likes the ride. But for that matter, so do I. Today I got home from work and went into a couple of beds to clean up and do some weeding. After about two hours he came out and asked if I needed help. I said "sure you can bag up that stuff there. you want dinner don't you?" Yes he did.

My DH didn't at first, but has come to appreciate everything.

There's a learning curve that has to be extended for some creatures (usually male....sorry) sorry sorry! Today the man said......I swear THIS IS ACTUALLY TRUE.......There's a bird living in the hole in the fence. I looked at him...what hole in the fence?? What he was actually referring to was a birdhouse that has a hole as the opening for the birds to nest. Do we really have to wonder why NOW came into being??

Yes and the genders are reversed!

I once dated a Man who, while I was out in the veggie bed admiring my Potato plants, actually asked me "where are the potatoes?"

they don't grow on trees?

Same here!! We ripped out ditch lilies last year and he asked why I was putting more daylilies in if I didn't want them in the first place!! Why didn't I just keep the ones I had. I tried to put it in terms he would understand (refereeing basketball): orange ditch lilies are like refereeing a modified game and the lilies I was planting was like refereeing a varsity game. He just looked at me weird and shook his head!! Eleanor

Because I have such a great relationsip with my guy, He has read every post on this topic. He laughed his hiney off. But he hates NOW. So I will assume that he will get along with Victor just fine ^_^

I like now. Then, not so much.

I like then and now, but I'm ecstatic that I made the smiley face. That's a now feature at Dave's

Yup I am in the same boat although I think my dh is much worse....he doesn't care to help with any yard work - doesn't care to ride to the nursery, doesn't care to sit and admire my flowers**sigh** He just has no interest.......

In my next life I am marrying a gardener LOL

Watch what ya wish for dawn, it ain't all it's cracked up to be ^_^

My wife doesn't think I'm fully bananas. She's accepted most of the things that come with gardening just like I tolerate her scrapbooking and stamping hobbies that seem to be more about collecting stuff than actually using it.

Give her flowers for the scrapbooks!

Yeah, 2 gardeners might not like the same plants, glad I have my choice.

I'm kinda glad DH isn't into gardening. I like chosing my own plants. I buy them and get them planted before he gets home and he never notices that there are more plants in the garden. He will do heavy lifting for me. Sometimes he can anticipate when I want him to do a job and he'll go into hiding - I get my revenge when I fall asleep just before dinner and there's no dinner ready. (I don't actually do that on purpose - I sit down and I'm sound asleep) Can't you just see him in this pic saying, "what do you want now"!! Eleanor

Dawn, he may not realize his appreciation for the flowers, but if he chose to live somewhere else he would would soon wonder where the flowers went. We rarely appreciate what we have till it's gone. Sounds like a song!!!

Eleanor--my DH has EXACTLY the same look, LOL. :) He will help if something mechanical is involved--he's pretty handy with tools and I can barely tell one end of a screwdriver from the other--but whenever I try to show him my plants he looks like he's going to fall asleep on his feet. Plus I think he'd rather gouge his eyes out with a fork than go to the nursery with me. I actually do almost all of the heavy lifting associated with yard work...it's good therapy for me, and I'm not exactly...well...petite. I think I just fail to understand how something that inspires passion in me just causes extreme boredom in him.

But, he fixes everything around the house, does the grocery shopping, and changes diapers, so altogether I think I came out ahead.

As Joe Walsh said...I can't complain, but sometimes I still do. :)

pam

Now, now ladies... chauvinism in reverse?? I'm the gardener in my garden, DW admires and always offers to help. Although of course males are always the expert at these things.... just as all the best chefs are always males! ☺

- Exit stage door left... (quick) !

My DH don't mind the gardening I do. I get up in the morning - yes very early just about every morning Maypop. It is very gratifying that you take a seed and grow it. Then you take care of it. Then harvest it and it ends up on the table!

Eleanor - I come in the house and do get supper and poof the lights go out when the sun goes in.

Sherrie

Sherrie - my lights go out before supper!!! LOL Eleanor

If there was nothing to eat I would be locked in the green house. Then that would not be new. There is a wooden latch that spins around to keep the door shut. Last year he walked out and turned the latch. After a while I realized I am locked in there! I am yelling and yelling "help" to get me out with no avail.

There was not a shade cover on it yet and it was getting HOT, I did not want to kick or tear the plastic, so I had to put my brain to use. He did leave one screwdriver. I had to literally take the glass out of the door to escape. grrrr - he was shocked but had a good laugh.

While my DW is houseplant savvy (does a much better job with them than I do) she cannot understand why I like to "play in the mud" (as she puts it) transplanting seedlings.

*hurling a rotten tomato at WC* :) :P

Sure it was a mistake, Sherrie??^_^

Maybe he wanted to change his last name to Lansbury. Get it?

My DH, Jack, was much more involved with gardening than I was when we first met. Now it's equal but I'm the one growing the flowers while he does the vegetables. He does build the compost piles, which we both use, and he makes the trips to the dump and he does the chipping, hauling of manure and 20 + bags of long needled pine mulch.

When I couldn't decide on which of the 25 or so Japanese irises to order (back when the computer was new) he said, "Order all of them", so I did.

We always stop at nurseries and gardens together when we're on vacations.

Though Julia Child was not a chef I wouldn't mind eating the type of food she made on a nightly basis.

After so many years DH just ignores the whole thing unless there is a need for power tools. He appreciates the hard work but knows nothing about plants, except that now he knows the plants with pretty colors on top should NOT be attacked with the trimmer. He does the lawn, I don't do grass. It is probably a good thing that he will help if I ask but doesn't care to make any decisions, then I think a division of space would be required.

LOL - I agree with the part about power tools! As long as there is a motorized implement to be used (hedge trimmer, chain saw) or even a bladed implement like pruners - he's out there helping - sometimes too much! But when it comes to the raking, bagging, turning of soil, weeding, picking up sticks., etc., he's nowhere to be found.
ARGH.
even the kids are not interested in gardening with me anymore (teenagers) so I'm outside alone ripping out weeds and pretending that they are the hairs off their heads!

My kids know that spring is "Garden Crazy Mom" time and fall is "Knitting/Yarn Crazy Mom" time.....
:)

I have one that is interested in gardening...he grew up on a large farm in VA and has it in his blood. But we fight endlessly over who gets the "primo" gardening space as I am a flower-gal and he wants to grow food. Best thing though, is once we finally do decide, he does all of the digging and I get to play!

DH is not allowed to get near ANY of my plants with a power tool, after an unfortunate incident involving some azalea bushes a few years ago (R.I.P.). He's allowed to mow the lawn and that's it.

pam

Mowing is what did in my Weigela (R.I.P.) so DH is not allowed to mow on that side of the house with his rider.

Last fall I bought the Wine and Roses Weigela and was so pleased to see it now has leaves. The azalea I planted very late (probably December) also made it through the winter as did the hydrangea that never did get planted, Blue Boy.

I think Jack has accepted that I'll buy plants until the stores close for the season so now he doesn't even ask where I'll plant anything...or when.

I like Wine and Roses, except that it can be floppy (or floopy) - especially when young.

It's floopy right now and probably will remain that way. It's not in sun at all but it is precisely where I wanted it so I hope it likes it there.

That dumb woodpecker is back at the vinyl shake siding again! I feel like I'll see his face though the wall any second now. You'd think he'd learn! I wonder if his beak is crooked.

I think my DH decided I was bananas when I told him I was going to plant a banana tree here in zone 5 and it would not only survive but would produce good fruit. He's getting used to the gardening, but he's not often thrilled about it. Then again, I wonder why he made me 9 window boxes last year...compost bins this year?? Every year he has a veggie garden. Yeah, right! He picks out the plants at the nursery and then digs the hole for them. Never weeds, never waters, never feeds...but brags to all his friends about how great "HIS" garden is, LOL! And they say women can't make up their minds.

He's not allowed to run the weedwhacker either. According to him, "everything looks like weeds" including shrubs. Have you ever seen a shrub that's been pruned with a weedwhacker? It's not pretty, but it IS memorable.

My 'killers' are the mowers - especially when they do the fall cleanup. Tags get blown or kicked all over. Plants get stepped on. They're like a bull in a china shop.

Labels will drive me to the grave. We do all the work ourselves except for cutting limbs high on trees so when our guy does it and stomps on labels he sticks them back anywhere at all. Yesterday I found the label for a daylily nicely propped by a Boulevard Cypress.

When we were on vacation, a few years ago, we hired the guy who does the mowing for several neighbors and the field of new daylilies, our hybrids, was mowed down when the mower made a turn but wasn't careful. They no longer mow for us when we go away.

My husband could care less about gardening. He doesn't even want to know the names of the flowers or hear anything about them. All he cares about is that the house looks nice with them and loves it when the neighbors come over and tell him that the yard has never looked this good, not even when the house was brand new. (Actually I like it when they do that as well.)