I'll be right over. Where's your bathroom again?

Steve

26. Don't come to tour the gardens if it's raining like crazy? Maybe pick a better day...LOL, Don

for men ...

out behind the row of green giants .. i dont want to see it

ken

but i dont care what the neighbors see. . lol
{{gwi:326683}}

{{gwi:326682}}

I thought to let the guys do it on your compost piles.

ken- and you told me 'I' have a lot of grass? lol
Certainly I would never tell you that you need more gardens and Les lawn. :)

Les

My goodness Ken ! How much of a lot do you have ? Besides the large lawns and the beautiful trees and the hosta , when do you have time to shop for more? Or is this what winter is all about? Beautiful( I would really not want anyone pee on my compost pile or my trees either. :))

Ken - I love the thin conifer standing like an exclamation point to the right in that last picture.What is it? How old? How tall will it get?(Can I get a piece if I bring my own shovel - oh, sorry, reread the rules...lol.)
Jan

Dang, I knew there was something I was supposed to read before seeing your place.

The last pic looks like some folks didn't make it to the arbs and did a number on your pine instead- lol (thunbergii in spring, I trust?).

tj

my yard is 500 feet square.. aka 5 acres ...

no more shopping.. budget ran out ...

but i used to live in suburbia.. where i did run out of grass ...

the yellow upright is juniper gold cone.. and it has a second name.. which escapes me right now ... absolutely stunning in spring ...

junkie.. you brought beer.. you make your own rules.. lol .. and the browned tree is mini mounds.. which i suggested was a better version of thunderhead ... the pic is from 2009.. i dont recall why it burned like that ...

ken

haha if somebody (male) wants to pee on the edge of my woods, I say do it. Keeps the deer guessing! Just don't let anybody see you!

We give a lot of tours (ummm, garden walks?) here, several a month in season, and it always amazes me how tardy most folk are. In the bigger picture, folk in general don't seem to be as 'prompt' as I was taught to be, ESPECIALLY Doctors and Dentists n so forth, as regards my appointment with THEM.

/PetPeaveOff

I still find I like and enjoy the visitors anyway. Guess we're awfully lonely out here in the sticks, teehee,

hh

but hillbilly.. do you let them in the house???

i suppose with your operation.. you have a chem potty hanging around ...

yeah.. i enjoy them too .. its for the glory ... the friendship.. etc ..

there are idiots everywhere.. and unfortunately.. we spend more time witching about them.. rather than remember all the good folks ... who all kinda just blend together.. in the glow of friendship ... in the garden ..

i am sorta waxing poetic ... better find something else to do .. before i break down and cry.. lol ... [that will be next week when the kids are home from school.. lol]

ken

Having toured hundreds of different gardens worldwide for the past 50 years and Ken's gardens at both sites, I respect his requests more than he will know!

Thanks again Ken for all your garden hospitality over the years!

I do like when people are driving by on a long distance trip and recall your name/garden and spontaneously call for a driving break! They may use my potty, refresh and get garden inspired while knowing they only have a short time to visit.

What probably bugged me the most about my garden visitors over the years was a couple visiting my Delaware garden that was more in awe and wonder about the wood pile design of my three year firewood supply which ringed my garden beds; who designed the "wooden wall", how did they build it etc.

We heated our home with wood at the time and had plenty of wood to build walls or piles as we called them.

My 3 sons purposely stacked it crooked to get their Dad mad, but that wall/pile did have some artistic flair!

Back in the 1980's we had a family situation where a garden visitor liked a plant in my Mom's garden enough to come back after a tour and steal it later that evening. He was too obvious as to his desire for a piece of the plant while she had not decided to give any away yet.

Someone who will remain unnamed went over the next day to visit the "inappropriate" hosta collector and threatened that if Pauline's plant wasn't returned by the next morning there would be a murder in the greater Detroit hosta society history, this one related to a stolen hosta clump.

The threat was sufficient that the clump (one of her seedlings) was returned promptly. Funny how word got around not to steal any of Pauline's plants!

Bruce

Ken, your Garden Etiquette sounds sexist to me. What am I to do if I visit your garden? Do ladies NOT have a need to pee?
:>
Theresa

oh i dont know..

woman are usually smart enough to take care of such things in advance..

its the guys who are idiots ... and think.. oh.. a tree line.. outta sight.. outta mind..

like we all dont know what the heck your are doing back there ... crimminey .. are you 3 years old ...

the worst was the rural cow inseminator ... i say .. give me a minute to tell wifey you are coming in.. and he looks at me like i am insane.. and says.. what the heck for.. you have a polebarn ... apparently.. when you do what they do ... with a plastic glove that fits to your shoulder ... and cows do what they do in barns.. then a polebarn is just a large toilet ... needless to say.. i was.. and to this day am.. horrified ... he was back out.. faster than i could stop blabbering.. but.. but.. but..

ken

Huh?
Theresa LOL

Please clarify - Ken -- you have all those hostas and all those conifers, and COWS TOO??? What else have I missed? (I do remember a pic of a small pig in the sand box.)
Jan

no.. he was a hosta friend .. way back when.. one of the first to try to do TC at home ... once he succeeded.. he was done with it.. lol .. said it was a PIA ... since he had no interest in selling.. or having hundreds of one kind ..

and no ....i do NOT have cows ... lol .. MOOOO!!!!

ken

And I thought I was the only one who thought that way about people who stopped over to see my gardens. How about the hill billy toothless woman who wanted me to give her a shovel so she could help herself to whatever she wanted from my beds? She ignorantly wandered all over my private yards like it was a nursery, with no regard to my privacy. I closed up shop after that one!

can i still bump this one

ken

Ken, you forget to warn people NOT to wear golf shoes!

5 Acres? Wow! Is it all perfectly landscaped?

Seriously, If I bring the beer, can I use the bathroom?

Linda :)

yes, you can. i just gave a way a bunch of perennials that had self-sowed, etc..did i meantion GAVE AWAY??? you wouldn't believe how many people asked me if i would divide my hostas for them.

um.

NO.

Love this just as much as when I read it the first time!

I read it before, makes more sense now....except for the part about the polebarn and the cows.....

Wish we could get some parts of the FAQs for this forum updated. A lot of good stuff in these archives. Who?.....

Read the garden etiquette and laughed till I cried!!!!! So funny and sooooo true! My o my, what a gorgeous environment you live in Ken...but...don't you need some hosta in those beds too??? Lol

oh crikey moc..

he peed in my barn like a cow.. since that is what a cow does in a barn...

thank god he didnt have to do anything else..

geez.. try to be delicate.. and she forces me to just say it.. lol ..

no.. i dont have a cow... i have a barn that the prior owner had horses in.. took 5 years to get rid of the smell ... do i have to tell what it smelled like.. lol ... the backend of a horse.. crikey woman.. lol..

ken

Well, that just goes to show that being delicate just isn't you.

Well, that just goes to show that being delicate just isn't you.

Gawd, I love this forum!

since visiting time will be coming up .. sooner or later..

perhaps a refresher course on attending a garden ..

ken

Oh my, I'd forgotten my input here....(blush)
And now I have two little neighbors who view my garden from outside the back chainlink, and I caught "the look" last time they asked if the hosta were about to wake up.....yeah, you guessed it, the look said TIME TO DIVIDE!

Nope. They won't come out and ASK, because they sell their plants. And the hosta (one each) they have came from the Big Box Store, on sale, and shipping on mine is the least expensive thing about them all. (I am giving them my WalMart saucered pots though.)

Soon, hopefully soon I can come out of hibernation and be able to 'use' the garden etiquette :)

Another bump!

Did I miss the number which asks visitors to bring steak for the barbie?

Mocc, your last post on this thread was great! I am still laughing!

LOL No charge for the pots? LMAO!!

Don B.

32. Be prepared to become garden mulch/fertilizer if things go awry.

I have enjoyed most of my garden guests, but did have one group last year that I found annoying. I gave precise driving instructions, including saying that there is a large wooden planter box mounted behind our mailbox, with an egg for sale sign hung below, and this is the only such place on at least a ten mile stretch of highway. When the group came, they were 30 to 40 minutes late (which I didn't really mind, I still had garden things to do), hurried their visit through in perhaps 15 minutes as they had thought of another place they would like to check out as well, and complained that they had a hard time finding the place. However, my largest peeve, is we have occasionally had people come in to buy eggs, driven past the house out to the barn, and walked in the barn looking for eggs. I mean, we sell free range eggs, that simply means the hens are not caged, and can scratch in the dirt and manure, eat grass/weeds and insects. It does NOT mean that you go freely into our barn and outbuildings, looking to help yourself! In particular, this past winter we had someone drive past the house, across the yard where the snow had not been cleared for days, went to the barn looking for eggs, then tried to turn his car around, got off the harder packed area, and got stuck in the lawn,, leaving ruts. That one was choice. Personally, I don't care if it is a barn, it is a breach of my privacy if you drive past the house and go walking in the barn without my permission. Most of our egg customers are great, and appreciate that we have it set up with packaged eggs on a shelf in the 'back room', with a container for the money, and can get their eggs anytime, whether or not we are home. And the garden guests that do appreciate your time and effort make it all worthwhile.

bump

its touring season ...

time to bump this one up ...

be a good guest ... lol

ken

something to think about ... while your inner voice complains about change

ken

anyone have anything to add to this oldie.. but goodie ... ken

You couldn't pay me to visit the village curmudgeon.

lol you sound like my Dad he is a cool guy to. I love your common sense rules.

:-( too far away to apply for the weeding/being paid in hostas job...perfect rules, nothing to add!