You know you are a gardener when:

Melissa I will put it simply "You are a genius". It shows you passion for the banana. LOL

Now now, soferdig. Careful there... LOL! I will accept, with proper humility, the genius part. I got those babies wrapped none too soon. It's cocooollled this morning.

You know you're a gardener when you use portable construction lights to work on in the dark because the days have become too short.
You know ... when you buy your water resilient gardening clothes at the army surplus place. This stuff is almost bullet proof and still you've worn it out in only 2 seasons!
... when you come into the house only to pop a couple of arthritis pain killers, and then back you go!
... when the neighbours think you're crazy, but in a harmless way. ;) Little do they know that I've noted every stray plant that has escaped neighbourhood fences and are now trying to make it on their own. "oh, you poor little thing! I'll give you a good home!"
... when you volunteer to "fix up" a neighbour's dying rose bush -- and you've never actually met these people before. Then you spend 2 full days working like a Trojan warrior digging, picking out grubs, adding compost FROM YOUR OWN COMPOSTER, and replanting the tangle of bulbs you've found there choking each other. Then, when you're done, you have to discipline yourself to NOT "fix up" other plants in the yard.

What did I do with my life before I found gardening???????

Hi and welcome to PNW, the forum for happy gardeners.
Those were all good ones and I under stood every one of the situations. ^_^

There is life before gardening???

And to think.... we all thought we were alone out there in the dark, gardening by worklight.....

You know you're a gardener when~
your *OTHER* bible is the Sunset Western Garden Book~ and it goes everywhere you do.

when you wear boot-cut slacks to the company Christmas party.

when latin becomes your second language.

when you have no weekends~ just sondays, reapdays. sowdays. weeddays. etc.....

when spring cleaning means sharpening your tools.

when your buddies look at you funny cuz you gotta go find a bigger *ho*.

Want more...?

You're a poet! MORE.

ROFLOL

Most Impressive view Alby, of being a gardener. Maybe you should seek some help. LOL

I thought that was why we logged onto this forum... for help! LOL!

Unfortunately (or fortunately) this site is a bunch of enablers. I think that's why it's so popular. :-)

Yesssss my precious ^_^

I know where to go to get my fix. ^_^

How did you know I used to be. LOL I spent 12 years in Codependency 12 step.
I often wait now at least for someone to ask for help before I give it.

Yes I once told a neighbor who offered to help me with my computer that I would help her in her yard as a trade. She gave me a funny look like ' what?' Don't think she thought she needed help. Excuse me!

Willowwind want a be, LOL. You are so funny. I have a neighbor directly left of me who has a landscape disaster. I could fix it, with laborers, in a weekend. She actually told a neighbor to tell me to back off. She likes her landscaper (mow & blow) and everything is fine. So I did back off. But I help everyone around her so she should be getting the message. Just does not want to hear it. I am free so I do not understand. Bu I have not brought up the subject. Oh, I am wrong. I did tell her in the summer when her grass was dying that her landscaper should probably look for a large group of roots from the street scape tree. Well when the majority of the lawn was dead, they were out there digging up all the roots. She is an attorney and her husband is a cardiologist. We are actually friends she just does not want to believe I know something she does not. Well. I have had on hands training self taught college in Las Vegas landscaping. But I did not graduate from USC...

Whoopsie!! LOL! I've learned to keep my mouth shut most of the time. It's ssoooo hard, but I do it. Otherwise I end up doing everyone's pruning and giving them Gardening 101 lessons, which they then fail to follow through with because they are not gardeners at heart, because if they were they wouldn't be asking, .......

That last statement is very true.

Oh, no, you have it wrong. They call you and tell you it is looking bad. Can you comeback and show them again. Then you are showing them, you turn around and they have gone back in the house. If they are friends I really do not mind. Actually, I do not do it unless they are friends to begin with. Even better is when the landscaper asks for an opinion, you are showing him and he takes off. I had this happen one time. I called him and told him, if you are not here, neither am I. He came right back.

As Art said,"People are funny".

Willowwind2, I expected a comment on Willowwind what a be. Are you asleep?

Nope, went to have lunch. It is now snowing here pretty good.

I am up in Petersburg AK and the snow is billowing off the Marina and the downtown looks like a postcard of Christmas for Nordstroms. Lights everywhere and people dressed up like elves and stopping to talk to me a perfect stranger asking where I am from and when I tell them they are so nice and warm. I llove Petersburg. Such a wonderful town. No difficult people here. I talked and talked today to many people with dog and cat problems and each one thanked and thanked me for coming here to help them with their animal's problems. It was so fun. It is a big joke here if you are not Norweigean you aren't very valuable. But they accepted my German and Scot because I told them most of our women were plundered by the Vikings.
I never help my neighbors any more. The ones who asked me for a plan did nothing but plant more Junipers and Spruce. Oh yeah and put up terraces made up of concrete block.

Sounds like a good place to be Sofer. But explain the people dressed as elves please.

I found out when my neighbors asked for advice what they actually wanted was for me to do it for them. I actually had one of them ask me to take care of an orchid for her, then give it back when it was ready to bloom. She figured I had so many, one more wouldn't be a problem. I told her how to care for it.

It sounds great, Steve.

I have some of neighbors that I'd like to help. They struggle to keep up with their yards. I envision them as unable to keep up - my other neighbors envision them as lazy. We don't know the story, but it's just as well that I keep to myself. I have plenty of work to do here to keep up with my 10-year plan!

Steve, I love the description of the town that you are in. I just love small towns where people are still friendly to strangers. When we travel on the bikes, we take back roads and it is like discovering a whole different part of the world.

Along the lines of helping, you know that you are a gardener when you are disapointed that your inlaws are coming up to stay with you for the holidays....not because you don't want their company, but because you would rather spend your Christmas holiday doing their yard cleanup at their home in Arizona. My inlaws aren't able to maintain their own yard due to physical limitations, and for the last several years we have gone to spend time with them for the new year, and I have commited to usually three full days of yardwork pruning and cleaning, etc. Last year, my FIL hired a couple of men to make sure that all the work was done before I got there so I could "relax" during my stay. He just doesn't understand that playing with unusual plants, pruning citrus trees (you would not believe how wonderful they smell if you have never done it....and they are one of the only plants I have ever seen that have flowers and fruit at the same time....dreamy!!!) and working in the wonderful 60 degree sunshine in January is heaven for me!

What is your ten year plan and what year are you on. I help my neighbors. I do take over but they must use my landscapers and then I tell them what to do. I do nothing but teach the landscapers or supervise. Very seldom do i jump in and do the work. Now if you believe that I have a bridge for you to buy.

The 10-year plan is just a plan to feel like the garden is a piece of art that I'm proud to show off. I'm one person who works full time and there's over an acre of overgrown beds. I've been here about six years and I wish I could say that I was in year six, but things ($$ and time) and dreams keep changing. So I just figure that I'd better feel pretty good about whatever it is that I end up with in year 10!!

OTH, much of what I've been doing is cleaning up. I'm hoping that the future holds a lot more bed-making and garden art placement. I've just started to move toward painting in larger brush strokes for wider impact - it's taken awhile for me to shift perspective (and be brave enough) to do that. Now if I could just focus . . .

If I had an acre I would really be behind. Actually, I would probably be dead. How close are you to Spokane. My DS and his family is moving there. He is an internist and is going to work for a hospital in Spokane. Big change for him. He is a desert gardener.

Some days I feel pretty close . . .

I'm actually across the state from Spokane. In many ways, it's desert, as well. We're affected by a rain shadow - as the weather comes in from the Pacific, it's forced over the Cascade Mountain Range and drops all its precipitation. So as you drive over the pass, the ecosystems change drastically. Eastern Washington is where our crops are grown - it's beautiful rolling hills.

That having been said, a trip from Seattle to Spokane is only about 5 hours. Here's a quick picture. You can see how the terrain changes from green to brown:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Woodinville,+WA+98077&daddr=spokane,+wa&geocode=FZHB2AIdecq5-Clb0Jp8mguQVDHKQ5rL4leDDg%3BFRw31wIdgTgA-Snl57swXBieVDGx2YQL1sn83Q&hl=en&mra=ls&sll=47.349989,-119.723511&sspn=1.79754,4.938354&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=8

Spokane's a university town and has a great veterinary school, so I imagine that the hospitals there are class A as well.

Katie59, thank you. That was great. You may be 5 hours away but it looks like a beautiful drive.

I don't think we all use Google Maps enough. It's amazing what you can see from there. Have you seen these sites?

http://www.greaterspokane.org/

http://www.spokanevalleychamber.org/

I'm thinking that you might want to combine a trip to the next PNW roundup at soferdig's in Montana with a trip to see your son. Or maybe he could come, as well? I think Steve would welcome more males . . .

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=las+vegas&daddr=spokane,+wa&geocode=%3BFRw31wIdgTgA-Snl57swXBieVDGx2YQL1sn83Q&hl=en&mra=ls&sll=47.348675,-119.726205&sspn=1.79754,4.938354&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=5

Here's the roundup thread Steve started:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1042646/

Thank you so much Katie. I have used Google but not like that.

Yeah. I have a problem . . . I can spend hours navigating maps with no particular destination in mind. Or jumping from site to site to read all about nothing in particular. Sites like the National Geographic Society site or NASA or National Public Radio can keep me busy for a whole night.e

You can download Google Earth from the Google site It's free and it allows you to travel all over the globe.

And have you used Skype? It's a great way to video visit with friends and relatives long distance. All you need is a computer with a camera . . .

http://www.skype.com/intl/en/getconnected/

Katie59, do you have to pay for Skype?

If you already have your computer, camera, and Internet service at home, Skype to Skype (computer to computer) calls are free.

Skype to telephone lines have a charge. However, the cost of that even looks reasonable.

http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=183901

I'm actually thinking of buying my dad a little camera for his computer for Christmas. Of course, I'll have to buy one for myself, but I think it's worth it. My nephew-in-law's laptop has a little tiny built-in camera . . .

I am on a Mac Book Pro and it has a built in camera. I will give it a try.

Cool. I'll be interested in hearing how it goes!!

I love google maps and SKYPE. I love to see the grandkids in OR.

It's amazing how much more personal it is when you can see eachother!