...if you go to Publix and buy a pack of basil in the early spring because you don't have any yet (and neithere would Pike's) and you see it is the kind that has the roots attached, so you plant the roots and keep the plant going for the whole summer. That was me last year. Oh I ams ure I have some more stories, but I need to get outside and do some work. I am not referred to as the "garden guru" in my neighborhood, but behind my back I know I am the "crazy plant lady" so don't ask me about normal.

...if you go to Publix and refuse to pay 75 cents each for mushy cucumbers, because you can grow better ones. So you drive to another store to purchase soil amendments, fence posts and wire for a trellis, seeds, a new pair of gardening gloves, some herbs (might as well, if you're going to start a vegetable garden), and some watermelon plants (might as well...). Then you dig weeds out of a spot to grow them in, dig in the soil amendments, rake it out smooth, put up the fence posts, and plant everything.

Spent a lot more than 75 cents. No cucumbers yet. Yeah, that's normal.

You get a bare root rose bush instead of a dozen roses for Valentines day...

And you're thrilled about it.

your idea of a great mother's day gift is a dump truck load of leaf compost :)

Your more excited about new hand pruners from the neighbor than the $200.00 watch your wife gave you for your birthday.

Maybe none of us are normal? Well, maybe Vroomp is. I can see preferring hand pruners to a watch, but I already have a watch, and I've lost the pruners.

My bumper sticker says:

Caution: I brake to look at flowers.

My bumper sticker says "Green Side Up, Roots Down"
My brother and I often tour each others garden at night with flashlights and with umbrellas when it rains. Speaking of rain, Many times I have held an umbrella in one hand and a water hose in the other and watered during a rain. This way I know my plants are getting a deep soaking. Do people think I'm a kook? Who cares? My garden loves me.

Ok, Eddie. You've made me feel normal. I have a ways to go yet before I have to worry about my gardening practices.
What I want to know is why you and your brother tour the gardens at night? Although I won't worry about you until you start wearing night-vision goggles.

You are watching a tense, action-filled car chase scene, and instead of watching the cars, you are trying to identify the plants on the side of the streets. Your husband buys you a miner's head lamp, and you think it is a great gift. You think a truckload of manure is perfect for your birthday.Good topic

When your husband says what would like to do for Mother's day and you say to be able to spend the whole day in my yard without interruption. :)

you're driving down the road in your car with your kids, and the conversation goes like this...

"hey look mom, a '57 Chevy!"
"hey look mom, a new bookstore!"
"hey look, kids, the dentist has a winter jasmine blooming!"

Or your idea of a date is the Big Orange Box so you can price landscaping blocks. From which, on Valentine's Day, I also came home with a bare root rose:)

Your bumper sticker says, "God made rain so gardeners would do housework."

Those posts made me laugh out loud.

My DH bought me a garden claw on Mother's Day (from our cat...we don't have any kids). He said, "A Garden Claw for my Garden Weasel." Also, I gave my mom some extra basil seedlings that I grew, and since she doesn't really garden, I gave her two baggies: one filled with manure and the other with diluted starter fertilizer. You can imagine the look on her face..."Manure?"

i just got my composter empty of this year's beautiful new batch of dirt, right? and i had some extra shade plants that needed homes. so picture me going next door in the dark in my jammies to meet my neighbor on her driveway (also in HER jammies) .... my husband says, "you know, you're the only person I know who would trade 2 bags of weed and a bag of dirt for a bag of roleplaying games....:)

...when you finally think you might get a break from gardening so you can do other things like clean the house and then you get a knock at the door from a tree man who remembers you from taking all his mulch last year....and he's back to offer you a huge truckload of "really good mulch..all oak and hickory"....and you realize you can clean the house in the fall...

Your choice is to make dinner for your family or water the vegetables in the garden. Well, of course, you're going to choose to water...you need to be sure the vegetables grow so you can give them to your neighbors when they ripen. And you do have to give them away..you won't have time to cook them later in the summer because you'll be too busy watering and mulching and preparing to grow your fall veggies.

when you go into the big box store to buy some caulk and just 'happen' to walk through the garden center. You get to the check-out and realise that you forgot the caulk but have a cart full of perennials that you just can't do without!

And this why I love you all!!

The rain forecast is all you care about!

Or if you discover such a good source of compost that you build a raised bed in this heat, rain or no rain, just so you have a use for it.

Oh this was great reading! I want some of those bumper stickers, esp the one "God made rain so gardeners would do housework"! that is ME! and these days my house is a wreck cuz I HAVE to be outside watering the plants that the sprinklers don't reach.
Anybody know a good rain dance for tonite?!

You lovingly water and tend your community garden vegetable plot in order to provide inspiration to new gardeners even though you're getting up at 4:55a.m. to care for your own garden! LOL