You sure he was real?

LOL, Great story!

Of course he was real....YOU can have your fork back!!!

Raisemybeds, What a great story. I am waiting patiently for the next chapter in your book. You are, a wonderful writer.

MeMo

Gumby, are you da "man"?

Add 20+ years and a lot of "cranky", and he sounds much like my 83 year old, organic gardening / mentor/ neighbor, gardening buddy over the back fence. He don't have chickens but has friends that bring horse and cow manure to him (I have to go get mine, most of the time). He does not come around on our street very often, but did last week to pick me up to go witness his signing a new will and commented on how much better the front side of my property looked on the other side of the screening fence. ":^) Oh well ~ ~ It hides my junk and passion.

It is good that you found someone with a common interest in gardening.
Bill P.

How wonderful to have an extraordinary gardening neighbor. When you have a passion for something like gardening & find others who share the same passion - bliss. I'll be looking for such a neighbor.

I'm avoiding most of mine, they look like the type that will turn in my chickens. Except - I already "legalized" mine with the city - HAH!

Bejay

Theres just nuthin like a legal chicken! ":^)
Bill P.

"male gardening/farming/suburban outcast counterpart in some wierd tomato-growing, egg-laying, composting parallel twilight zone organic universe".

Is he single? Does he like freshwater fishing too? I've been hoping to meet a guy like that.

I haven't fished since I learned how to make whoopy :-)

free range chickens. noting like it. just incredible. you have not eaten until you eat your own free range chickens from your own yard. ambrosia is the the only word that comes close.

When we had to place my Mom in a nursing home, I had some chats with an 84 YO that was a "gardener" He made enough money from his gardens to put 3 kids thru Ivy League schools (PHD level) and paid Cash..

Learned some stuff from him,

Raisemybeds,
I met my version of the man: )
When, my husband and I moved into this house and I began gardening, I started to take notice of the neighborhood. Down a few short blocks around the corner is a house with no front yard just flower beds and not one but 2 garden windows. After seeing it, I went home and told my husband there was someone in the neigborhood crazier than me, lol.
Last year, I decided to be on the gardenwalk. An older couple that came by was discussing the size of the lot. I realize they must live in neighborhood and went to talk to them. They had noticed my front beds and apple tree grow since I had moved in. They did not know how far the lot went back and were very impressed with my vegetable garden. It was the gardeners from around the corner! The man is a heirloom tomato grower. Their back yard(well actually garden), which I had not seen yet, has a huge vegetable bed.
Since then we've traded seeds, and plants, and I've toured their garden. His wife told me he calls me his tomato buddy. Being that he was born in 1928, I consider that quite the complement!
Remy

Gumby, if you are indeed the man I met, well, I find it hard to believe that you are in zone 5. I am in 6b, and I can walk to your house in 1.5 minutes. An avid gardener like "the man" would know his zone, I would think. The other possibility is that you, actually being "the man", are so tuned in to the growing process and so tuned out to the technicalities that you don't know or care what "zone" you are in. Yes, this seems possible to me. I'm going to continue to entertain it. If my grass looked like yours, I might say phooey to this zone stuff too.

BTW, I was charmed beyond description that you had my old pitchfork. I saw a kindred spirit when I spied that. It is exactly the kind of recycling shenanigans that I am always trying to pull off. I have lots of lush growth outside spilling forth from containers I have scavenged. We think alike on that note.

KSHA in California - he was/is real.

Memo in 4B - thank you for the compliment. You are very kind.

Pnbrown - watch out - Gumby might well be "da man", in which case I'm slightly embarassed but will get over it. Sounds like he has a sense of humor, though.

Bill P. - I would love your crusty old gardening neighbor, I would bake him cookies and help him weed. Sounds like a gem.

Tennessee - I too long for a next-door gardening neighbor, the kind I could swap squashes with over the fence. The house next door is for sale right now, it so happens, and I have my fingers crossed.

Bejay9 - give those people some eggs and they will come around.

Keighty - a man this fabulous would have to be married (that's just how things work). But if I were you I would take my fishing pole, pack a lunch, and determine to reel myself in a great catch.

Togo4 - marinate mine and I'll be right over. And I'll bring the ambrosia.

Byron - we need more information.

Remy - I am green with envy. Positively green. The quality that relationship adds to your life and your enjoyment of a worthwhile hobby is indescribable.

raisemybeds,

Did you guys trade seedlings this year? *wink*

Ummmm... Teri, aren't you married?!

"...some weird tomato-growing, egg-laying, composting parallel twilight zone organic universe".

LMAO

Sorry. I read that as he grew tomatoes and laid eggs. Talk about a man who will make your breakfast!! :D

Violet - I do indeed have some of his potted coneflower clumps right here. He declined my tomato seedlings this Spring as he already had too many. I am getting mums from him soon - he starts his own from cuttings dipped in rooting powder.

Korney - yes, I am indeed very happily married for a LONG time to a very wonderful non-gardening guy. Whose sense of humor is boundless. Because it would need to be. And "the man" is married, too.

"Posted by gumby_ct CT it says Z5 (My Page) on Sat, Jul 29, 06 at 17:16

I haven't fished since I learned how to make whoopy :-)"

Now where have I heard that before?

Keighty, you like gardening and fishing? You must be the catch of the century. A country man's dream. ARE YOU REAL?

so you can't own chickens in certain towns? Or you need permits or something for them? Where does it end!?

see, this is why despite the climate the Northeast is the worst place for gardening. It's only a matter of time before you have to sign forms in triplicate just to go to the bathroom.

I'm moving to Texas or some other Red State ASAP.

That's a wonderful story.

Here is a link that might be useful: Win $50.00 Of Free Seeds!

Raisemybeds, you do have a way with words!

It's funny that I should stumble across this post today. Just yesterday, as I'm driving home from picking the kids up from school, I'm looking for signs of a gardener's presence as I'm driving through town. Granted it's a small town, around 2500 people, but there were only 2 or 3 homes that showed any signs of life. The tulips and daffodils are just now coming up, so I'm not referring to things blooming already, but just evidence that someone cares. Maybe they've cleaned up the fall debris, or worked the soil in a vegetable bed, or have bulbs coming up. Most houses have a few token shrubs or trees, and when summer kicks in they might set out a couple pots of store bought annuals, but no perennials or vegetables. Oh, there are a couple of homes that appear to have been professionally landscaped, with things you can buy at any big box store, but nothing unusual to say that a gardener actually lives there.

Last year, I was edging around one of my perennial beds with a pair of hand held grass shears, mainly because I can't cut a straight line with a weed-eater. One of my neighbors saw me, and later asked my DH if I alway cut the yard with scissors.

It makes me a bit sad that there are so few gardeners around here, and that I'm seen as an oddity of some sort. That's why I enjoy the forum's here so much. I feel like I'm around people that understand the joy and beauty of gardening, and enjoy helping one another to be more successful at it.

Thank you for sharing,
Bonnie

If Gumby is Da Man he might become overrun with Squash Plants as they get huge. I had a computer Crash and lost a lot of my e-mail addresses but I believe I sent him seeds for the Adapazari Squash.
Jim

You did. I am trying to get some to Raisemybeds but she hasn't answered my emale. Has anyone seen/heard from her lately? Or how bout GoneFishin?
GumbyCT - back in the saddle, ha

This is an attempt to raise Raise to see if she gets notified when there
is an update to this well written post of hers. Or if anyone else
knows what became of Raise. Surface.... Surface Raise.

I know I'm responding to a 10 year-old post, but I know someone who was the reason chickens were added to a town's "no livestock" law (this is in exurban New Jersey in a township with multiple wooded areas). Or rather his neighbors were the reason, as they claimed his chickens made noises that bothered them or something like that. Needless to say, he wasn't happy, but now he co-owns a small farm with an Amish person in rural PA, so he keeps his chickens there.