dirt....that's ok.... I'm always buying the stuff....and gravel...the car is often full of one or the other...

right now...I'm looking at plant catalogues on the net and placing things in various 'carts' ..... I have housework to do...but...it can wait....this is much more important....

Well, that day a month ago when I seriously whacked the tip of my pinky off with scissors and my main thought was dammit, its interrupting my cleanup and then going back out after bandaging it up to keep working as if nothing had happened. I didn't last long by the way.

Working outside on Christmas day because we finally got the holiday over with on Christmas eve so I had a welcome, no obligations, free space for fun outdoors to do what I wanted to do except it was blowing 40 mph so I didn't last long that time either but thankfully the next day was better so I didn't feel so ripped off.

Working outside in rain with a hooded jacket.

Looking out the upstairs window several times a day to study, rearrange or plan for new ideas 365 days of the year.

Working in the dark until early morning hours with the big lights on that we mounted on the top of the house in summer when the temperature is ridiculous during the day. Or, regularly working all day in the garden and then sitting at my desk to get my work done until the wee hours to put in my work day so I meet deadlines.

When the big game is on and I'm out gardening and my neighbor asks in a concerned way why I work all the time and he's serious. Gee whiz, I thought I was playing and cannot imagine anything more boring than watching a ball game on TV.

I guess it might mean I got the bug but the type of entertainment which most other people seem to enjoy bores me and this is negatively commented about by some people, although I don't see anything wrong with it myself because mostly I'd rather be working on some project with my hands over 'entertainment' anytime.

"Well, at least the days are getting longer now!"

"Seed and plant catalogues have begun to arrive and the online ones are being updated." ... yippy!

I generally pot up some daffodils in Oct. or Nov. to force and display on my veranda come early spring, though this year I hadn't planted any up, though was glad to see that Walmart still had lots remaining and so I had snagged a few bags of 'Tahiti' and am itching to get some more :)

and the online ones are being updated

which ones, which ones?

All I can say is I eat, sleep and breathe gardening. When I am not actually gardening I am thinking about it. I plan gardens in my mind as I am falling asleep.

My DH tells me to come in out of the rain and my response is, its not raining its drizzling, its perfect for planting.
I engineer rocks (boulders in some cases) out of the ground that no sane person would ever attempt without machinery.

Marlorena I can so relate to " I have housework to do...but...it can wait....this is much more important"
Normally in winter I bury myself in books and planning.

I only joined GW this fall and it is a good thing I have found others as crazy about gardening as I am. It is reassuring to know I am not alone in my madness!!!

Dirt??? That's a non-gardener word (for instance, when I mention to my wife that I need supplies at the garden center, she'll ask "Are you going to buy some dirt?" No, it's soil. :)

I can so relate to " I have housework to do...but...it can wait....this is much more important"

I gave up housework the day my kids moved out and I had the place to myself. That's what cleaning ladies are for. More that 20 years later, I haven't regretted or begrudged that decision.

I caught the gardening bug when I stumbled across winter sowing and proceeded to grow enough perennials & shrubs to fill all the flower beds I'd designed on paper or on my laptop. They're all filled now and everything's nicely mature so all I do these days (in season, of course) is go walkabout admiring them and yanking stray weeds.

What do you do or think or say that only rabid gardeners like us would understand and appreciate?

"I'm dividing some Shasta daisies this year. Want some?"

"Need any black plastic gallon pots? I've got lots."

"Is it easier to mow the grass around curved beds or linear beds?" (I asked the neighbor who mows my lawn every year.) His answer: curved.

"Remember those apple and pear seeds you gave me? Here are the trees I grew from them." (The 12 pear & 4 apple trees are growing in my neighbor's orchard.)

"I wonder if I could grow a dogwood tree from seed to replace the one that's dying." (I did.)

"Hope I get lots of seeds from my [fill in perennial name] this year."

Housework? What housework?

Back years ago when family, work and home came first. Brought snake lights that I could hang around my neck and garden at night. Had neighbors call to let me someone was walking
out back with a flash light. Added a few flood lights as well.

Nothing in neighborhood that decomposes gets to the landfill.

LOL! All of the above! I get excited when I get a new gardening tool, plant, etc. for my birthday or Christmas. I'm thrilled when I go out to check my compost pile and find a large pile of sweet crumbly black gold.

Not sure of this qualifies, but ... Made a date with a clerk at a local store I frequent to go nursery hopping this year--she's retiring and likes to drive! I don't drive much distance so I hope this works out! She mentioned she likes to garden and the conversation took off from there...

We went on a quick visit to Florida to see my parents for a day and then on to Sarasota for a day at the beach home the next day. Had written down every good sounding nursery address in every bigger city to stop and visit on the way down and back. Programmed them into the 'talking box' so I could pick up some new plants. My very long suffering husband stopped at every one. Mariposa Nursery in Bradenton is amazing! Got a few things.

Every where we went they said it was dormant season so wouldn't have much until Feb. They don't know what dormant season means--it felt like summer.

Got home and placed a biiggg order with the money I got for Christmas. I know I am terminal.....

I can identify with alot of you.

catkin: That is great! Sounds like it will be fun.

The day that I was stopped by security at the court house because of a trowel in my purse.

A close near accident coming home brought home to me that not everyone lives like me.. Everything was fine on the outside of the car but inside my hatchback 35 gallons of 55 gallons of SOIL had flown out of their 10 and 15 gallon pots and had made it up to the dashboard , steering wheel , shifter, and my lap. I never stopped and got home and said not a word to my husband. I quietly got the dirt into a wheel barrow and vacuumed out the car. That was when he came out and asked why I was cleaning my car (rare occurrence). "it was just a little dirty, Dear."

LOL..!

I used my Ace gift card from Christmas to buy two red amaryllis and some herb and veggie seeds. I'm always looking along the road for pots that fell out of someone's truck. My biggest find was a 30 gallon pot.

Too funny wantonamara !!! LOL!!!

Nothing in neighborhood that decomposes gets to the landfill.

You and I think alike as this past early November we collected 25 discarded carved pumpkins that went into our compost bins or directly placed in our perennial beds!

This post made my day! SO nice to find like-minded garden friends to share with.

twrosz -- I'm with Rouge and want to know which websites have updated their offerings for spring!
Have already been perusing some sites and put my first plant order in with Santa Rosa Gardens: 50% off many perennials sale going on now

Been spending time planning winter sowing, started to prep my containers for planting, with visions of seedlings sprouting in my head and lots of great flowers this summer :o)
I, too, go to sleep thinking about garden plans!
Going thru gardening withdrawls ...envy you, frankielynn still being able to shop for plants. Its COLD in the northeast.

Counting the days til spring....

Mentally carving out new beds when I just expanded last fall.
R Winter sowing plans although I don't really know where everything will go (maybe I DO need those new beds).

Dreaming on Gardenweb and Googling every new plant name.

Favoriting websites as 2105 order XYZ so I can find all the interesting plants again.

FIFTY PERCENT OFF AT SANTA ROSA GARDENS YOU SAY?

:disconnects internet:

How many of you hide your new acquisitions behind trees and bushes so your spouse will not see how many there are. Got to get them into the ground when he is not looking.Do you make that rule where you MUST PLANT EVERYTHING before you buy more , and then promptly go to the nursery the next day, slowly finding yourself in the position of having to plant 25 plants in one swell swoop?. OR, along those lines , One says to oneself, "I have been buying too much, I need to pay for my sins , Mea Culpa, and back off for a couple of weeks or a month till the taxes are done, and then you find yourself at THREE nurseries the very next day. I go to the nursery to just see the plants and talk to the people....YEA, sure. The people at one nursery knows what college my son is at. Every christmas I ask my husband for a truckload of rocks or dirt. He gets me something else. I asked for a hoe this christmas and I got a hoe! I am still waiting for the rocks. Some people ask for pretty clothes... and jewelry...... not me.

my neighbor next door who has health problems doesn't have to pay anyone to rake up her leaves. Every fall we go and bag them all to use in our garden. We asked permission one year and she said sure so now we get them every fall.
This year she waved at us and watched us raking them up.

I have a ritual after the dentist visit stroll through multiple nurseries with my swollen fat lips. It is my reward for being "good". My favorite nurseries are strung like a string of pearls along the road home. Hard to drive by. Basically, my mind is twisted up by gardening in al aspects of my life.

....when your father-in-law knows your favorite gift is a Lowes gift card.

.....when you cheer when someone finishes a container of milk or juice.

....When you have bags upon bags of milk jugs, juice containers, and 2-liter bottles in the garage.

....when your friend's husband jokes it is Christmas when he drops off many bags of containers for wintersowing....and you really do feel like it is Christmas.

....when you are trying to save your Christmas money for spring plant sales.

Lol I love reading these lists.

OOOh , I have another . When I stop the car and tie bright colored embroidery thread around around a nice interesting plant on a country road so I can find it later when it is all dried up and brown.

About 3 months ago, we drove back to a spot off the access road I'd marked like that. Big, beef-cake specimen of white prairie clover, the thing must have had 50 stems or more and was 3ft across with bright white flowers in compact clusters bobbing on top of stiff stems, you couldn't miss it if you tried. Anyway someone had whacked everything down so I had to do some searching around in the cut chaff and I actually found it, stems with dried seeds on top. My marker was gone but it looked like it had recently been cut so I was surprised I found it. People will sometimes mess up your plans.

"I have a ritual after the dentist visit stroll through multiple nurseries with my swollen fat lips. It is my reward for being "good"."

wantonamara, That's funny to read someone else does this, too. I schedule my twice a year cleanings in spring and fall at times that are best to walk through the nursery that's on the way home. It's a great reward for doing something not so fun.

TxR, did you ever get a plant out of those seeds? That one is on my want list. It is not common around here. I saw one blooming 50 miles west of here but I could not find it on the return for seed trip. I had not bound it with string or made a good enough mental note. They do sell it at Bative American seed .

"Had neighbors call to let me someone was walking
out back with a flash light."

OMG! Was that you Patty? I saw your light and thought it was the cops searching for me because the neighbors had alerted them.

When you buy portable lights and a long extension cord so you can garden into the wee hours :).

Annette

"You know you have the bug when" you are glad to see a foot of snow fall (as it did last night and today) as it will provide wonderful perennial preserving insulation. Of course I don't tell anyone else this reason for wanting such accumulation...they would not be understanding at all.

This post was edited by rouge21 on Mon, Feb 2, 15 at 16:32

When you love Superbowl Sunday because you have the roads and the nurseries all to yourself. I scored some interesting xeric plants yesterday! Min

Did that with the portable lights. Re-did a rock slope and put in sturdier steps that where sorely needed. Always tried to be in by 3am so to be up by 5:30. Now days can barely move without a full 8 hours.

Funny, the neighbors were going to call the police if it wasn't me out there. They've seen me do many odd things over the years. Who else goes out to stare at bare ground at the end of winter searching for signs of life every day. Out in 100 degree wether hanging shade cloth over plants that couldn't take the heat and drought.Gotta love this obsession called gardening.
P.S. My plants would probably appreciate a little less fussing.

You still go out and garden when its 100 degrees in the shade.

A picture shot at twilight during fall cleanup with the spotlights on for night gardening.

I know I am hopeless when I catch myself sleeping by my seed box for a whole week and there are collected envelopes of seeds all around my computer desk on the desk top and littered around my ankles. ,...like RIGHT NOW. I still can not find the bluestem grass seeds that a good friend sent me.Darn it, I know they are here somewhere!!!! Got "Blue heaven". I am now searching odd black pots on the porch. Pulling hair out. Searching for grass seed is making me go dirty without clean clothes for another day. When am I going to grow up and join the normies that seem to balance all the things of life in a nice straight calm manner and look right. My bum is black from wiping my hands on my pants.my knees are wet my fingernail... no I will not talk about the nails and all the cuts on my hands. I am an animal that furrows in the ground at all times of the year.

Don't let your kids play with mud pies. It is not pies that they grow up to make. It is all about the mud.

rouge, that snow reminds me of 2011 which is not a good memory because we had to shovel off the roof. We haven't seen much of the white stuff so far this year, its still mostly brown around here.

TR, I take it that the home shown in your "shot at twilight" is yours? Absolutely stunning.

It is. We call it The Projects among other things. This is what it looked like when we bought it. It was a real fixer-upper (dump) and oh, "can you get stuccoed" as Groucho Marx said.

When your neighbors all think you're nuts because they keep finding you filling up your trash can on the paved road above your house. Leaves folks - it's free mulch! I refuse to bring my trash can home empty on trash day. It goes out full of trash and comes home full of leaves.

I envy you suburban folks who can nab bags of leaves from beside the road. Out here in the boonies people just rake them up and throw them in the woods.

When you frequent the perennial forum even though most of what's being discussed can't even be grown in my garden. I enjoy reading about gardens from Texas to Great Britain and everything in between. It gets me through the bleak cold winter.

I love this! I've enjoyed reading everyone's responses.

After reading "Know Maintenance" by Roy Diblik, I did no fall clean up and left all the perennials to take their winter skeleton forms so I could mulch the trimmings in the spring.

I was LONGING for a particular vacuum mulcher with a metal blade and when DH bought it for me for Christmas, I shrieked as though I were being presented with diamonds.

When asked what I received from Christmas, I could feel myself beaming while explaining this fabulous mulcher. I could tell by the looks on other people's faces that this would be akin to getting lump a coal, but less work because you don't actually have to shred up yard waste with a lump of coal.

But not you folks; you get it. :)

Yes LOL! I have had fellas say they would get hit over the head with it if they ever bought their wives a shovel etc.
We joke that I used to get jewels and now I get tools! (among other things) I love gardening books too!

Greenheart your post reminds me of the time I was ecstatically telling everyone about the fabulous stainless steel rabbiting spade from the U.K. my DH got me for Christmas one year. The looks of 'poor thing' I got were hilarious, they just didn't get it.

Annette

Which mulcher did you get, and do you like it?

Oh yes, Peren.all, gardening books are a terrible (wonderful) weakness for me too! I'm really glad that Kindle and e-books are available because that has helped me keep my horticulture obsession down to one rather large bookshelf... though there are many books that I have to have a physical copy of.

Hahaha, Annette! Proof positive that I have found "my people"

Hi Junco, I just got the mulcher this Christmas and I'm still under a blanket of snow so I won't know how I like it for a few months yet. It's a Toro brand, don't have the model number handy but it is a handheld vacuum type. I wanted something that I could easily bring into the garden beds with me.

Reading all of this has been such a joy. Thanks for the late night chuckles everyone.

Now that our city has leaves blown to the curb and a truck comes to suck them away. With I might add no access to the to the leaves once they take them (I've asked). Whats a lady to do but grab an extra large tarp and rake. Head down the street to get em before their gone. Back and forth as many times as the old muscles will allow. Leaves are good as gold.

For sure I'm one of you people too- my dream now is a gift certificate to the local rockery. Wouldn't those strong grubby men with their front loaders be astounded at a request like that! Min

MIn3, my dream too. But I will settle for my husband fixing the lights on my 16' trailer so I can go myself. I have asked for rocks more than once. I always pick up some when I go swimming down by the river. My large backpack and car are sorely overworked. I want larger rocks... never too many of them.