Extreme gardeners, 'fess up: have you ever?

I snatched some seeds at an outdoor wedding this weekend, saying "i will start a plant for them to remember this day". When they move out of an apartment, haha, I will give one to them (if I remember).

I've done all of the choices. My Dad showed me how I could pull up a seedling and plant it in our yard when I was 3. That tree is still growing to my knowledge, so I guess I got the bug honestly? LOL!

I wanted "click each that apply" and like many of you, I am guilty of all of them! I have also walked thru the neighborhood looking for the perfect size wood stump to put my garden art on. I then knock on the door and offer to buy the piece of firewood. So far, I have always been given the piece of wood for free. I always invite them to see my garden and see "their piece of wood" in it's new home.

When my son was 4 I used to weed at the school where he had speech therapy. He was only there for about 40 minutes at a time. Once the grounds keeper figured out what I was doing, she TOLD me which weeds she wanted me to concentrate on. Some were harder than others to get out and were very difficult for her aging hands!!

The most "extreme gardening" thing I've done was to plan a trip going back roads so that I could stop at old cemeteries to take cuttings of roses. The route didn't turn out productive, but it was fun, and I did get one rose out of it.

You would think that I fit into one of those choices, but I can't say that I've done any of them. I guess I sort of enjoy my privacy and treat others the same.

OOoh...that is one Dave missed...Seed Snatching. I love to go to nurseries and nip the seeds off plants that have finished blooming. Hee hee hee hee hee... I figure as much money as I have spent there in the last two years more than makes up for the seeds they would toss out anyway (they don't have the staff or the greenhouses for nurturing seeds.)

My mother used to swear the only boston ferns that ever grew for her were ones she 'stole' a piece of from other people. If she bought a fern, it would die. But if she plant napped it, and nurtured it, she would have it for years and years....

I would never actually steal someone else's plants...but I have no problem with rescuing dying plants from abandoned houses, roadsides, etc....nor do I have a problem with asking folks for a piece of something that I admire.

I've had serious thoughts about knocking on doors, tracking down owners and playing Johnny Appleseed, but I've haven't done any of them yet.

Weeding and dead-heading are things that are physically difficult for me to do for my own yard so I've never thought about doing it for someone else. I've also never thought about re-arranging plants for other people, but I have set plants upright that have fallen.

edited for typos

This message was edited Oct 1, 2007 6:03 PM

I voted "Yes" to:

Knocked on a stranger's door to ask about a plant in their garden

But could just as easily have said "Yes" to the following -
- Pulled weeds growing on a public sidewalk or path
- Dead-headed or pruned a stranger's plants
- Rearranged plants at the nursery to give one better light or water

Probably I pull public weeds more than anything. (Or even weeds in a friend's garden). LOL

Ann

Where's the "All the ABOVE??"

My DH says I embarass him, cause I can't keep my hands out of other people's plants. LOL
but, but.....all I want to do, is make 'em purdier!! heehee

I preach flowers and gardens, I Teach flowers and gardens....to everyone and anyone who will listen. Guess it's just hard for me to fathom someone NOT being even slightly interested!

Truth be told, I've met very few people in my adult life, who weren't interested in at least some aspect...although a few needed a little more persuasian than others. :-)

Sasha

I've done some of the above, but THANK YOU for all of the ideas!!!! (whisk- running out the door)

I chose "other" b/c I (no, not me, my Evil Twin) has a habit of seed snatching and occasionally poaching a cutting. I would be afraid to knock on a door.

One Extreme Gardener habit I have (that hasn't been mentioned) is to poach cemetery trash cans!!! Is that doing good or evil??? Sometimes folks put beautiful pots of mums and annuals, then they are tossed when the blossoms fade. I can usually revive the casualties! Is this sick behavior???

Jax--now you are giving the rest of us ideas! That is a great one I think, except that I think they are all toast in my dry climate when they put them in the trash.

Jay, heaven help me, I have 2 cemeteries on my daily routes. I guess now I will have to swing into their lots every day. Thanks a lot!! I do know they don't normally put live indoor plants out there, they got to the local nursing homes and hospitals.

I am too busy with 4 kids and a business to be an extreme gardener - I look forward to becoming one when life slows down!

Sasha,

I was just today telling a friend that everything is interesting, if you explain it the right way and with passion and love.

xxx, Carrie

Okay okay I'm fessing up, I do everything on the list except scatter seeds! I've knocked on doors, deadheaded plants, weeded in public, moved plants, pruned plants and taken seeds when necessary.

DH does clean up on homes that have been abandoned or had an eviction and always finds plants that have been left to fend for themselves. Besides that, he always bring plants home that he found on the side of the road or that have been discarded (dumpster diving was mentioned right?)!! The garden center guy at WalMart calls DH when it's time "to take out the old" inventory.

On bike rides I carry a pruners, a digger and baggies. I have the same in the trunk of my car, in the truck, and in DH's work van.

Can't help it - I am proud to call myself an extreme gardener!

i'm guilty of all of the above, but i said other because i have been known to have someone push me into a plant to break off part so that i can have a cutting. i "clean up" the mess made and take it away to the "trash" (my yard) to propagate it... i'll also take other people's yard scraps and plants they are killing that they gave up on that are out by the street or in the woods to rot!!! lol

Carrie,
I think you hit the nail right on the head!! :-)

Sasha

Thought they were part of my OCD symptoms. Hey, please tell DH, I'm normal.

This message was edited Oct 1, 2007 9:45 PM

Yep, all of the above..lol

Voted 'other' cause I qualify for the first 6 choices ;-)

This is so interesting. . . 'cause what I notice is how few of us can pass by a plant-in-need without stopping to rescue/revive it. Must be something about the nurturing. . . it feels good.

maybe it has to do w. my name.... my last name is miller which somehow means "caretaker".... thats what i blame my plant loving disorder on.....

I've scattered seeds (and plan on doing more of that this spring), and I only very recently started collecting seeds from suburban public places, but I wish I had the guts to ask strangers for cuttings, etc. I am so chicken.

The choices didnt include take cuttings/seeds from public places. I've obtained seeds from plants at churches, zoo's, and other public places where I was pretty sure they wouldnt be missed. On my most recent vacation to New Mexico, I had my brother take a cutting for me of a real pretty white Oleander; sure hope it roots. On my way home by way of El Paso, I was eyeballing alot of the cactus alone the highway. If anyone sees my mug on the 10 most wanted you'll know why........ :)

spidra, that's me...the 'chicken' gardener. I had to pick 'not extreme', but only because I haven't had the guts to do any of these of things yet. In fact, before DG none of this would have occurred to me. But yesterday I found myself eyeing some ripe seed pods on the hosta at the car wash. so I guess I'm 'extreme-in-training'. my eyes have been opened and there's no telling what I might do now LOL

I have done more than one, although I don't dead head other people's plants anymore. I used to be a freak about doing that to daylilies untl I started hybridizing. I shuddered to think that i might had popped off someone cross but I know there were never any tags! lol (They could have been like me though and though.. oh I will remember what I put on that)

All my life i watched my 'Grandma' stop, knock on the door and ask for cuttings...............still do it everytime I see something beautiful and don't know where to get it...................people are always so kind and help me take cuttings....................
Have been known to take small cuttings if owners don't answer the door......................

Never pass up an opportunity to meet a fellow gardener. Do stop and ask.

Years ago I had watched an old time coral vine. One day the timing was right. The elderly lady was in her beautiful yard and I was alone (DH was at home) so I went around the block. Got my first start of coral vine and tater vine and cannas and ... She enjoyed it immensely and I will often think of her. She has gone to the great garden in the sky. Her home has sold and they have mowed everything down but her plants and memory live on.

I was mulching my beloved garden late in the Fall last year, using a bale of hay. (I live in the western N.C. mountains where it gets very cold in the winter). Anyway, I had finished mulching with the first bale, and was pretty tired. I put my head on the second bale since I had to rest for a moment. I was more tired than I thought, I guess. My husband missed me around midnight, and came out with a flashlight to wake me up! He said my arms were stretched out over part of my flower garden like I was attempting to shield it from harm. I pobably was! Do you think this would qualify me for an extreme gardener, or what? Sunbug1

What a sad world it would be if we gardeners didn't do out bit to help it along, we make it a beautiful world to live in and spread a little happiness along the way - That's how I look at it.

Is it really considered extreme to knock on a stranger's door to ask about a certain plant, or for a tour of their garden??? I do it and I guess I always assume the person will be happy that someone took an interest in their garden. In fact, when I'm driving, all I do is look at other gardens in hopes of finding another person's garden I like enough to want to visit.

As for the other options, I have deadheaded plants for other people, but only to show them how it done on a certain plant. I have enough work of my own than to worry about someone else's!! :)

If there is barren space - fill it (preferably w/ a plant) - sorta like, "if it moves salute it, if it does not paint it". Old ways die hard, but if you can make them fit the current times they will work just fine. IMHO.

While vacationing at a relative's home in Miami, Fla., my SIL and I took a butcher knife, after dark, and walked around the block taking cuttings from Plumeria trees that were hanging over the owner's fence!

While doing so at one house, a guy dropped down from a Mango tree and nearly scared the bejesus out of us! He had been stealing fruit! LOL

Yep, grampapa, I can be pretty rules-bound. Comes from having a very authoritarian father. It's been hard to be like what other people tell me "Easier to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission". I'm not very assertive. Anyway, I wouldn't take cuttings or seed from just *any* public place. For instance, I'd love to get some miner's lettuce and thimbleberry and I know they grow in Golden Gate Park, but I'm not going to take plants from a protected park area without explicit permission. However, I was walking by a real estate office parking lot a number of weeks ago and they had some planters in the parking lot with wildflowers. They were adjacent to the sidewalk so I didn't have to go onto the property to access them. I harvested some of the seed. Nervously. Even then I was afraid someone was going to walk by and interrogate me! Yep, I'm pretty gunshy.

How about just out-and-out stealing? Technically, that is what I have done, but I don't consider it stealing in spirit. My primary source has been from neglected landscaping at work and houses that are for sale but empty. At the houses, I don't trespass, I just take cuttings or offsets that I can reach from the sidewalk. I got an Agave attenuata pup from a house on the next street up. After the house was sold, the new owners took out the agave, so I did a good thing, right? I took a Portulacaria afra cutting from a house on the next street down. At some later date, the P. afra was removed, so I did a good thing again, right? At work I got cuttings of jade plant and an agave pup. A couple years later, that building was remodled and all of the landscaping was gone. Again, I did a good thing, right? There was a clump of neglected irises at work that never bloomed. I wanted to take a rhizome home but never found the right oportunity to pull one. Eventually that courtyard was roofed over and the plants were all removed. I am not learning the right things about stealing, am I?

All that being said, if anyone walking by my house wants one of the Aloe saponaria down by the sidewalk, help yourself.

I am enjoying all of these stories. This is a great thread to learn about other gardeners' mind-set. Sometimes I laugh so loudly at what I'm reading that the rest of the household has to come over to my computer, read, and then laugh themselves.

What a great bunch of people we are!

I've done them all except tracked down a homestead's owner for permission to dig plants.
I think my biggest thing is tidying up, dead heading and pulling weeds, I just can't resist.

It's very important to be tidy, isn't it ;)