Extreme gardeners, 'fess up: have you ever?

"guerilla deadheaders and weed pullers" ??? LOL.. I LIKE IT!! I'll have to remember that one! (Of course my sister already calls me the potato slayer... did you know if you "overnuke" a potato it can burst into flames?? OF course I would have to do that the night before my son's wedding...)

OMG - everyone's stories sounds so familiar...wonder why? LOL Could have also answered yes to most. Honestly think my teens avoid getting into the car with me while it's light outside. I have no issue knocking on someone's door to pay them a compliment and ask for cuttings or seeds...sad, I know - I have various zip lock bags in my car now why? Last weekend at my sons b-ball game - I noticed beautiful blue MG's growing along a fence...had to wait for DD to finish her food so I could ask for the foil to collect seeds in - how bad is THAT?

Chantell, that is so cute! And it's something I would do at the drop of a hat... and I'd drop the hat!!!

Chantell... ROFL!!!!

I could have checked off at least four of the six available answers. My daughters, now 7, 8, and 9... have learned well! They now know how to gather seed at public gardens, etc., without harming the plants or anyone seeing them! LOL!

Waaahhhh!!!! I've made garden criminals out of them!!!

;o)

Karen

Aaah! I've done them all! If there was a support group for gardening addictions, I would be in it. I live in Zone 3/4 and am still planting even though it's late fall here.

I thought everybody carried a shovel, a bucket and a pruner in their trunk! Heaven help me if I get pulled over and searched...

Signing in as another one who could have clicked all the options, LOL.

Even today, I spied a hot red Crepe Myrtle with branches hanging
down too low. I would have been doing the store a favor by pruning.
Then, of course, I would take the cuttings home. No sense in wasting
things, right?

I'm one that does not ask for things, rather I offer to buy. This way, I'm
making a valid offer and not asking a total stranger to give me a handout,
yet they always say "Oh, honey, you go right ahead and take what you need
for free."

"Hello. I couldn't help but to notice your beautiful (fill in the blank). May
I buy a few seeds from you for my own garden?"

;-) In all my years of doing this, no one has ever given me a price or asked
for money.

I've never thought to ask to buy cuttings. I like that idea---it's classy.

That is what I do at my favorite nurseries around here............. i buy lots from them.........but every once in a while, i really just need a few cuttings............i always ask if I might take a few cuttings and they always offer more than what i asked for...................we all trade plants...........right now, most of my new hoya baskets i took to a local nursery (where she loves to grow hoyas............) I asked her if she would start new cuttings from all these new baskets for me, she could start as many as she wanted.............she loved it.........she now has 4 new kinds of hoyas to start growing...................

What a lovely thing you did, gessiegail!

she gives me a lot..............she was making these giant 6 feet across spaghnum lined baskets for a restaurant in Austin...................she was making 13 of them.............she does this 3 times a year for them..................anyway...........she had ordered all these neat begonias, etc...............and she gave me little plants of so many things................

This is the joy of leaving the cities of Texas and finally coming home to my roots of a small town and small county................everyone knows everyone and has that friendly farmer mentality.............share and share alike..................

This doesnt exactly fit in the "extreme" category but I gotta tell u.....I met a man online, we had some real good conversations online. Then came the day we agreed to meet in person. We agreed on a Chinese restraunt. When we met up in the parking lot he told me he had something for me. He pulled out 3 little Black Fig trees. I've gotten flowers, candy and gifts on dates but never trees. Unfortunately we didnt hit it off after all but my fig trees are very health and growing by leaps and bounds and even gave fruit this year. I wasnt sad the relationship didnt develop cuz I got some good fig trees out of it........... :)

Anaid, that is cool! Thanks for sharing!

LOL, Anaid that is too funny!! Hummmmm I wonder what do two gardeners put on their wedding registry? Compost makers and garden tools?? Begonias and peonies?

All of the above for me! I actually got stopped at Lowes for pulling weeds out of a pot they were growing in and trying to take them with me by placing them in one of the pots I was going to buy. Hey, I just wanted to experiement what was going to come out of it - it was a cute weed, cute but a weed after all. I got really mad at the guy and offered to pay for the darn weed! He came out of his office or wherever he was and was waiting for me on the way to the register - as I realized when he came by once I started to put plants on the counter to pay. He came by and was quite rude, pulled out the weed out of the pot it was in and examined it top to botom...then realized that I was not a thief - and said " Oh, it's just weeds...." and I said " What did you think - I was going to steal your plants?". Some people are just assuming things before they get to the bottom of a situation...

LOL Lenka, good you told him off LOL.How id the weed grow? was it a pretty one?

Except pruning other peoples plants; all the ones listed *GH*
Not sure what the Johnny Appleseed comments means though
I´ve even “lend” some seeds from the botanical garden. What if everybody did that, then there would not be anything left! Oh double morality!!! *GH*

You needed all of the above...

D

OK. wow you people. I'm new. but I have an interesting start because I've been afforded the opportunity to work on my whole yard ( some prefer to call it "grounds") almost full time since last February. I have many friends who've been at it longer than I have and know alot more. However, since joining Dave's, I think I've received an INFO TURBO boost. They think that I've gone off the deep end just for chatting with real gardeners online!!!! They consider joining a garden forum a little extreme!!! can you imagine?

Soulja, don't worry about 'them'. Just do what your green thumb tells you to do. Just think of all the new friends you'll have a LOT in common with here at Dave's. Welcome to Dave's!!

Soulja,

Welcome to the community! :-)

12th Step Recovery Program for plantaholics.
NOT interested, but maybe some kind of support group for our families!!
When my son moved to a new city, he drove me by a house to look at the great flower beds. I made him stop and I jumped out to visit with the gardener. An elderly man who really seemed to enjoy my company....until my son rolled down the window (from the car where he was cowering) and said "Mom, we have to go pick up the boys!! They will be waiting."
--I'm at work and have to get back to it, but why doesn't someone start a new thread:
You might be a plantaholic if__________--You know along the 'you might be a redneck if ___' lines.-- I'm sure I could add 20 or 30 lines by myself!!!
I enjoyed skimming through the entries and can see that this group could come up with some VERY funny lines!!!!

Ok, I'll take your idea and start it for you Basket-case! Let's see... on Garden Talk probably is best?

I've weeded, but only if I knew for a fact that it was a weed..... dandelions or crabgrass.....

However, I've (indirectly) been the victim of a well meaning but uninformed weeder....

I had planted up a couple of containers for my Mom, some different little things (sweet woodruff, pansies) in with common marigolds.....

Mom really liked the containers and they were blooming nicely, when my uncle and his wife visited Mom. Uncle's wife ripped out all the sweet woodruff...... I thought it was a weed..... she said.......

oh, well, now she knows what sweet woodruff looks like.... =)

I was kinda annoyed, just because you don't know what it is, don't assume it is a weed....

after all, a weed is just a flower out of place!

Good idea, Psych!

Here is the new link:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/776802/

Come 'fess up, folks!

Karen Marie

Nice thing about hanging around Dave's Garden is you get to see ideas pop up again like Spring flowers, ever renewing....

Here's a "historical" thread I recalled from my early days on DG which recounts a lot of the "You might be a gardener if....." tales

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/502671/

And if you want some really zany, BEYOND extreme gardening tales, you might enjoy the Dumb & Dumberest thread.....

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/533770/

One thing we don't lack is the ability to laugh at ourselves.

And I can start the ball rolling with "You may be a gardener if....."

You check "My Info" on DG and find you have 65 pages of separate posts you have made in a 5 year period. (but I'm sure many of you can easily beat that record). LOL

Jeremy

I put other because I have done almost all of them and it wouldn't let me vote more than one. I have also traveled with a shovel and dug up random plants in the desert. I still go to my old house where my x lives and deadhead his plants(I planted) and use them also take cuttings. I've been tempted to dig up bulbs I planted too but won't. I will ask when his girlfriend isn't there, if I can take scales off the bulbs or divide daylilies.

I have embarrassed my family with my unsolicited, public dead heading. Best story was at the zoo when I removed a spent flower stalk from what turned out to be a fake plant. It would not go back into the plant. My family remembers this well.

ROFL I like that one!!!

I picked "other" because there wasn't an "all of the above" choice.

I especially love scattering Eastern columbines seeds.

R.

If ya'll dont tell on me I'll let u know where Im going to hit next. Everytime I go to the McDonalds close to work to pick up breakfast, Im greated by these beautiful rose bushes. The roses are real red and in little boquets. I keep telling myself to help myself to a cutting of the roses while Im placing my order in the drive thru. They cant see me from there can they?????

I have gone into restaurants, and asked for a take out box, and put starts of their plants in them instead of the leftovers. I did that once on a first (and last) date. I have several house plants that came from a nice evening out.

I'm just a compulsive taker of seeds/cuttings/pieces of succulents/digging out of pups/suckers from neighbours fencelines and friends gardens. If I want it, I will take it, but I do get permission. I find most people are happy to give a fellow gardener bits and bobs. I am a compulsive weeder, (in any circumstance) and am guilty of standing up fallen plants at Nurseries or snipping bits off if the shape is a bit ordinary, and I prune my friends plants while visiting.
But I don't think I'm extreme! Extreme is when you go sky diving, or white water rafting (done that One) or Bungy jumping, but usually there is not enough room in the garden for that!

All of the above. Once I deadheaded my way home with a friend (businesses, parks along the way). We had to stop or we would have missed the nice dinner my DBF was making for us!

Just about all of above, plus, I have planted some in my neighbors yard. Had some extra so just added a few to her garden. LOL

LOL I could have used an "all of the above" button on this survey too. I have two rules: "Always get permission" and "never take plants from the wild". About the only exception is that I deadhead plants in our public plantings from time to time. Figure that since I am a citizen, it might be my duty to help out.
Martha

Oh , I clicked all the buttons and realised that the others were unclicking as I went. !!lol.
Hubby actually followed a chap to his home. he had a trailer load of cactus and succulents and he knew I was "into them". long story short we now have a 9.50 by 6.50 metre polyhouse ( the price he paid for that little journey)! with succulents and other rescued plants, esp. from nurserys that have closed up due to the drought . always carried a plastic bag, clippers and small trowel if going in the car. Last strangers door I knocked on was just last week and I came away with the biggest bag of different succulents I could never have hoped for. I always do a bit of weed pulling or offer to swap plants and I've met some fantastic people along theway. My son is now starting his garden and he tells me his favourite
is the local nursery trailer out the back. He is a softie when it comes to the half dead and the owners are happy for him to take them away and revive them. My best ones have been perennials chucked out when new owners came in and didnt recognise them for what they were ( or are) they were still all viable. I've got a huge variety to enjoy as they come to life and multiply in fresh potting mix. Imagine if I could have stayed there and repotted and weeded for them . they'd have increased their profits by heaps!!

Forgot to add my dumpster diving story.

A few years ago, a local small nursery appeared to be giving it up.
After a visit one day, I noticed thousands of brand new pots in the dumpster,
trays, cups, all sorts of brand new planting goodies. Well, if I'm not mistaken,
once it is in the trash, it is free game, right? So I drove back on Sunday and
loaded the truck up from the trash. Still to this day I'm using the pots and trays.

Oddly enough, the same guy was selling plants again all too recently. I can't
remember which plant, but hubby asked the price. The man quoted
something outrageous, hubby declined. The man asked what hubby would pay
for it, hubby gave him a lower amount, yet still very fair, to which the man replied
"I'd rather throw it away than sell it for ten bucks."

Hubby walked off laughing, thinking we would just take it out of the trash when
he does.

My DS like to 'act' like he doesn't want any flowers. So I fix him by 'anonymously' spreading seed, or planting little things... Sometimes he'll say, "Wonder how this got here???" knowing well enough that I did it!

He's beginning to get more into flowers, etc., but he has two BIG dogs that dig up anything he puts in the back yard.