Are you a real gardener? Take this simple test and find out. If you can identify every plant in your yard by its scientific name, but can't recall the name of your brother's firstborn child ... you might just be a gardener. If you have ever felt a pang of pride when someone pointed out the fact that "those grass stains will never come out" ... you might just be a gardener. If you have ever tried to transplant a shrub larger than a Volkswagen Beetle ... you might just be a gardener. If you've ever bought a piece of garden equipment that cost more than your daughter's braces ... you might just be a gardener. If you have ever approvingly compared the texture of your wife's chocolate cake to well-rotted compost ... you might just be a gardener. If your arms have more scratches than the cat wrangler at the free spay clinic ... you might just be a (rose) gardener. If your car has a bumper sticker that reads "I'll give up my hoe when they pry it out of my cold, dead fingers" ... you might just be a gardener. If you believe that the best part of your family vacation to Disney World was the tour of the hydroponics greenhouse ... you might just be a gardener. If you have ever missed a wedding because you were in the garden and lost track of time ... you might just be a gardener. (Bonus points if it was your own wedding.) If there are more charges to garden centers than gas stations and supermarkets combined on your credit card, you might be a gardener. If you only shower after you work in the garden, you might be a gardener. If your choice of vehicle is based on the number of bags of mulch it can carry, you might be a gardener. If you won't drive 20 minutes to your in-laws house for Sunday dinner but you will drive 3-1/2 hours for a plant swap, you might be a gardener. If every wedding, birthday, Bar Mitzvah and Anniversary present you give comes in a clay pot...you might be a gardener. If your office has more foliage than family photos...you might be a gardener. If you take a sick day off work because there are 2 flats of annuals in the garage… you might be a gardener. If your neighbors sit in their front yard to stare across the street at your yard instead of sitting on their back patio...you might be a gardener. If for your birthday, you asked your husband for gift certificates to a local nursery, instead of jewelry, you might be a gardener If your mother's day present included a mulch, garden gloves and a southern gardening primer, and were *thrilled* you are most definitely a gardener If you've stopped caring what your neighbors think when you're outside puttering in your old clothes, garden scuffs and straw hat, you're a gardener. If your hubby has to gently restrain you from lunging for that stray weed that is bugging you as you walk up to the front door of a residence, a restaurant, a church, a store, Disney...etc… you are most likely a real gardener. If you steal cuttings from your friend's, neighbor's or stranger's yards - you must be a gardener. If you have photo albums of your babies and I don't mean children - then you must be a gardener. If you steal cuttings from- uh, well, uh - restricted botanical gardens - then you must be a gardener so addicted that you do not fear incarceration. If your television and VCR are set to the gardening channel and set to record because you are too busy in your garden to watch during the day - then you must be a gardener. If your clothing consists of predominately floral patterns with botanical name imprinted - then more than likely you are a gardener. If you have to move a pot on a table to locate something - you most definitely are a gardener. You know you’re a gardener when on a frosty winter night you move half of your yard into your house, and the rest of your yard is covered with sheets with glowing lights under them. You know you’re a gardener when the first thing you do in the morning before you are dressed is go out into the yard to see what is growing or blooming or to just smell the air. You know you’re a gardener when you have just spent 5 minute washing your hands to get the dirt from under your nails just to turn around and go out and pull more weeds and dig a hole with you bard hands to plant something. You know you’re a gardener when you take off your shoes and a cup of dirt falls on the floor. You know you’re a gardener when you wished there were two of you so you could garden twice as hard. If you totally understood all these wonderful posts, chuckled, shook your head or called in your spouse to say, "see I ain't the only one that does that" ...YOU must be a gardener! If the first thing you do on vacation is visiting the local garden center/nursery you must be a gardener. If you leave personal items behind to bring home pots of plants and rooted cuttings from said vacation you must be a gardener. If you make everyone in your party that does not have their limit of carry on items carry on a plant from said vacation, you are definitely a gardener. You know you are a gardener when you take your sensitive plants on vacation with you so that you can make sure they get the appropriate care. I have two plants that have currently smelt the air in 13 different states. You are sitting in a business meeting, all dressed for success, and you realize with horror that you missed some of the dirt under your nails Relatives hate to show you anything in their yards because the first words out of your mouth are "can I have a cutting of that" (got kidding about it just today from brother and brother-in-law) Your spouse half jokingly says that they will have to put halogen lights in the back yard because you are trying to plant in the dark so often You have to explain that your feet are not dirty, but are semi-permanently stained from tromping around in wet grass with black leather shoes. You don't even quit when asleep, you dream in color about your flowers You have as many "gardening pants" as you do regular pants. You only have to apply sunscreen to the back of your neck By the end of a Saturday or Sunday you can't stand up straight, but you don't care. Your idea of color coordinating is having one hand stained red from mulch and the other stained blue from Miracle Grow If you pack a foldable carryon in your luggage to carry plants back on the plane, you are definitely a gardener. If you let unidentified plants grow in your yard because you can't remember if you planted something there or not, you must be a gardener. If you put up a fence around your yard because you have to have a place to grow more plants, and all you have room for are vines, you must be a gardener. If you spend 20 minutes gently guiding a bee back out of your house because there just aren't enough pollinators around, you must be a gardener. If you can't use your outdoor table and chairs because it's always covered with pots, plants, and soil, you must be a gardener. If you consider trading your car for a pickup truck just to haul bulk landscape supplies, you are definitely a gardener! If you have hooks in your dining room ceiling that are just there to hold the rod where you hang the baskets during storms and cold spells, you must be a gardener. If you always park by the garden center at the home store, no matter what you went to buy, you're definitely a gardener. If you carry clippers, a gallon of water, paper towels, and plastic baggies with you everywhere you go, you are definitely a gardener. If you have potting soil in the back floor of your car, and you don't care, you are a gardener for sure. If you keep an emery board near your favorite place to sit so you can file away the rough skin on your fingers, you are without a doubt, a gardener. If you see a sick plant and think, "Aww, it needs me!"...it might be that you are a gardener. If you don't know your neighbor's names, but know the names of the plants in her garden, consider that you could be a gardener. If people who know you bring fragments of greenery to you for identification, you could just possibly be a gardener. If your DH buys you a Garden Cart for Christmas.... You might be a Gardener. If you have to hide how much you spend on Plants and Seeds.... You might be a Gardener If you eye that Wildflower drooling till it goes to seed.... You might be a Gardener If your ‘to do’ list starts with Repot.... or Move.... Though you're not much for ornamentals you plant more flowers in one year than your entire life combined before that just so that you can improve the odds of interesting your young daughter in gardening you might be a gardener. When a friend of your wife calls and asks if you'd like a second truckload of horse manure? And maybe you'd be interested in a trailer load of mixed leaves and hay they could bring you, but she doesn't want you to feel like she's trying to push them on you, and you act like she'd offered you a hundred bucks you might be a gardener. When you get home and before your wife even says "hello" she says "what plants did you buy this time..." you might be a gardener. My, but it didn't take long for that purchase to show up in our account! When you go out to buy a nine pack of jalapenos and end up with fifty because someone was giving them away for free so that you have to enlarge your garden to get them all in because you cannot bring yourself to throw away good plants… you might be a gardener. When your wife and family wants to go spend the day at the pool with friends, but you choose to spend the afternoon spreading manure in the heat, rain, and lightning you are not only a gardener, but a nut as well. If you watch movies set in your zone, going "Got that, got that, want that, got that, for sure want that, what IS that, got that, got that!" you might be a gardener. When it's raining and everyone else is complaining about the bad weather but you are happy because your plants need it. In a similar vein, when it's raining and your neighbors are wondering about the crazy person happily transplanting because "it's the best time".
Are you a real gardener? Take this simple test and find out
Yeah............and if you have to take out a loan to pay your water bill!!!
"eyes"
what about your feet not being dirty but look that way from being in the gardening beds in scandals or bare foot ???
Or better yet
when family comes to visit you drag 2 of the 3 to an RU for a big chunk of the day instead of going site seeing ...hehehehe..but then my niece is thrilled and keeps saying thank you for everything she got Saturday..they had to put one seat down to have a place to put things for the ride back to Illinois no room to stretch out for a nap