You know you are a gardener when:

Other areas are trying this. Let's see what we can do.

You know you are a gardener when you deadhead the rhodys while waiting to tee off on the golf course.

You know you are a gardener when you keep gloves and a trowel in your car as standard equipment.

I do that. Boots also.

You know you're a gardener when you keep scissors, baggies and a marker in your purse just in case you happen upon any interesting seed heads while out and about.

You know you're a gardener when every coat and sweatshirt you own has cuffs caked with mud and there are 5 pairs of gloves waiting to go into the laundry likewise adorned with debris.

You know you're a gardener when there are so many pots of unplanted plants around your yard that friends ask, "Oh, are you starting up a nursery?"

You know when you are a gardener, when you stand in the pouring rain with 30 of your closest friends for a Green Elephant. And you say that is the best time you have had in months.

.....gardner when you are on vacation and your first photos are close ups of plants. and your suitcase has packages of soil for your house plants that origionated there.

THUD!

I found the link for the good ones we posted awhile back!

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/784733/

you know your are a gardener when you are always on the look out to do a little 'saving' of plants from abandon houses and buildings.

Yes. LOL

You know you are a gardener when you can eat snacks without washing your hands while you are gardening.

You know you are a gardener when there are nailbrushes at every sink in the house... and in the showers, too.

You go to work with twigs in your hair.

you have nothing to talk about with your wife in the winter.

You begin to develop a reputation at work and in the community as a person to ask for information about such things as tree identification, when to plant, what to plant, and if you have any more pumpkins to give away.

Very funny!

When I was working in the extension office as a Master Gardener, my neighbors would be real surprised to see me. Now they just call me at home. I do pruning and all sorts of stuff for them.

Willow, at least you were a bonafide Master Gardener and know how to prune. I wish I were your neighbor for help with that. I know native trees pretty well and can answer questions about veggie gardening, but people also extrapolate and ask me for help in areas I know next to nothing about.

You know you are a "red neck" gardener when you can have fun with a garden hose for more two hours.

When the patch of lawn besides the driveway always has 2 bags of compost and some odd plants, in pots or not.

I don't even want to ask about that one! LOL!!

You know you are a gardener when you can't make dinner because the counter is covered with seedpods drying out,, waiting to be relieved of their burdens of seeds. And especially you are a gardener when you realize you will never plant any of these seeds, you are doing it just in case someone else wants some, and to have an excuse to play with those little packets and labels. Your kids and husband just roll their eyes and don't even try to engage you in conversation. Then you feel guilty because you are spending every waking moment after dark sorting seeds and labeling them. (Why do it when the sun is up? That's when you have to be outside working in the garden.)

Willow, I do my neighbor's pruning, too. Pruning is very satisfying!

Say, Melissa... I've got this laurel hedge... :D

Steve, in the Winter, you get a bunch of colorful plant and seed catalogs and pore over them with your wife.

My advice on the laurel hedge: a chainsaw! One by one mine have been taken out because of their amazing growth. You can cut those suckers all the way down and they come back.

Holly, that sounds like a very pleasant evening!

I too was going to say use a chain saw, but thought the better of it, as some like their laurel hedge.

Are suppose to do something with all th seeds you collect. I just thought collecting seeds was it.

I'm one of the people who love my Laurel Hedge. Got it down to a good height, about 6 feet and give it a hair cut a couple of times a year. It saves the front garden from much of the weeds blowing down the street, And it is great for all my little birds. I have a little secret garden.



I'm going to thin it alittle this year. In Spring there are lots and lots of bees on it

This message was edited Jan 4, 2010 8:38 AM

Pruning do's: Never leave a stub. Always cut to the next node or the ring that grows on the trunk. And cut off only what you don't want left on the plant. ^_^

I was in the garden taking pictures on a nasty day.

There are buds on some hellebores.

Lots of berries on the Virginia Creeper

You know you are a gardener when: all you can think about is digging up your lawn to make room for more plants

Or you spend more time looking for a good name for that plant that you can't ID than you do looking for a decent job.

Good night sweet '''chariot, coming to carry me home, good night sweet chariot, coming to carry me home,.,,It is a very long story about me and my dog ''Ginger. It is a love story...

Oh but that is certainly understandable, analogdog. It's way more fun to find plant names than to look for a job.

Laurel hedges are great. I was serious about the chainsaw. Shape them any way you want with that baby. They'll grow just fine. They make great plant walls, as vanislandgirl says. ( I am SSOOOOOO jealous you live up there! We sail in the gulf islands every summer. I love it.) I actually did cut one all the way to the ground (well, more than one, actually). They grow back in a nice shrubby form. They are out of control in my neighborhood, however.

Okay, you know you are a gardener when you cannot pass up 75% off plants at Lowes, even though you aren't sure where they will go. To wit: 1 Mahonia japonica - $3.75, 1 purple crepe myrtle - $4.50, which I will probably never see a bloom on.

Secret to pruning a nice rhododendron : get inside the shrub. Prune from the inside out. Get out to check your work frequently.

Those are some soulful eyes.

It is probably a good thing I cannot easily get to a Lowe's 75% off sale. I already have too many plants that have not been situated in the garden and have needed to be potted up to a larger size to make it through the Winter,

How did this overabundance happen?
Being unable to pull and toss little plants that seeded themselves in the beds and needed to be rescued into 4 inch pots back in the Summer (that seemed to offer endless days for creating new beds and space for these babies).
AND requesting and accepting way too many plants at the round-up from many generous gardeners.
AND volunteering time for a nursery that needed staffing help one weekend...in exchange for ...well, more plants!
AND ordering irises at a fabulous co-op on DG which I didn't have a bed ready for, so I now have 25 irises in gallon pots on the back porch.

I tend to overestimate just how much raw ground I can dig up and add compost to in any given year. Even lasagna beds at my place have to have the grass rhizomes dug out or they will present continual problems for years to come.

This message was edited Nov 16, 2009 10:04 PM

A serious sign of a gardener: unbridled plant lust.

Aw yeah... plant lust... I know it well.

Tracy has learned that when we go anywhere that has a garden section, he will have to come find me there when he's done with his shopping.

Same here!