What kind of gardener are you?

[ChanellG]

Some people just like to see a few pretty plants around their yard and others are avid, expert growers of everything imaginable. On a recent trip to a garden center I kept pointing out plants near the register to my mother with exclamations of "Oooh, look!" The cashier looked at me and said "You must really like plants."

I guess I didn't realize until now that I am a gardening geek. I get excited over the least little change whether it's new leaves, new flowers, or the appearance of fruit. I am constantly amazed by the ability of some plants to just shoot up inches over night and I am often awed by the beauty of a simple cluster of blooms.

So what kind of gardener are you? Do you thrive when surrounded by plants? Do you only stick to roses? To vegetables? Are there plants in every room or just a windowsill herb garden?

 

[headfullofbees]

To be honest, I wouldn't have the nerve to call myself a gardener.
I'm very poor at design, wouldn't know how to put together a really nice hanging basket, and don't really have much skill with flowers.
My wife likes me to plant nice flower borders with very bright flowers (she is visually impaired) but it's nothing a ten-year-old couldn't do.

In the front garden, I grow fruit and veg, and, having learned from the myriad mistakes I've made over the years, I've gained some knowledge and experience, and my wife and neighbours say some skill.

I wouldn't call that gardening though.

 

[maddie]

I wouldn't call myself an expert gardener, but I have been dabbling with plants since I was a kid. The best part about gardening is.. it is a microcosm of life itself and you learn new things each day. Each experience is a learning experience. Profits and losses are part of gardening as positives and negatives are to life. The more you learn this art/science the better is the quality of your garden is and more productive it becomes. Life is like that!

 

[Gina145]

I'm absolutely obsessed with bonsai trees, though most of my plants are in the pre-bonsai stage, if that. I have a really bad habit of trying to propagate new trees from most of the branches I remove, so I've got far too many young plants that I don't have time to care for as well as I would like.

My trees live outdoors or in my little greenhouse, though a few come into my kitchen at night in winter. My only other indoor plants are three African Violets, one of which is looking very poorly right now.

 

[ChanellG]

gar·den·er(gärd

n

r, gär

dn-

r)
n.
One who works in or tends a garden for pleasure or hire.

To be honest, I wouldn't have the nerve to call myself a gardener.
I'm very poor at design, wouldn't know how to put together a really nice hanging basket, and don't really have much skill with flowers.
My wife likes me to plant nice flower borders with very bright flowers (she is visually impaired) but it's nothing a ten-year-old couldn't do...

So you're saying a 10 year old who knows nothing about plants could do the same thing? Who picks the flowers? Who decides where to plant them? Some thought goes into that, right? Not to mention having to be sure and put things together that have the same watering and feeding needs. I'm sure through all the trial and error over the years you've learned something. Food bearing plants don't grow by accident; they have to be nurtured or they don't produce.

I wouldn't call myself an expert gardener, but I have been dabbling with plants since I was a kid. The best part about gardening is.. it is a microcosm of life itself and you learn new things each day. Each experience is a learning experience. Profits and losses are part of gardening as positives and negatives are to life. The more you learn this art/science the better is the quality of your garden is and more productive it becomes. Life is like that!

Maddie, with all your plants and all your knowledge, if you're not well-informed I don't know who is, lol.

I'm absolutely obsessed with bonsai trees, though most of my plants are in the pre-bonsai stage, if that. I have a really bad habit of trying to propagate new trees from most of the branches I remove, so I've got far too many young plants that I don't have time to care for as well as I would like.

You could sell those extra plants or give them as gifts!

 

[headfullofbees]

I'd say I grow things, and I'm reasonably successful at growing things on an individual basis, but I don't really have an overall garden strategy, so I wouldn't really call myself a gardener.

To analogise, I know how to move all the pieces in chess, but I wouldn't call myself much of a player.

 

[ChanellG]

I'd say I grow things, and I'm reasonably successful at growing things on an individual basis, but I don't really have an overall garden strategy, so I wouldn't really call myself a gardener.

To analogise, I know how to move all the pieces in chess, but I wouldn't call myself much of a player.

I think if you're planting and keeping stuff alive and you've done it more than once, you're a gardener. It doesn't matter if you're a casual one or an avid plant obsessed one. That's why the original question of the post was "What kind of gardener are you?" Even though you seem more like the take or leave it type, you do put a lot of work in so that has to count for something.

 

[Becky]

That's an interesting question! I think I'm too careful as a gardener - I spend more time researching things than just getting on with it and trying things out. I think I could do with being a bit more adventurous!

 

[headfullofbees]

It's not like I think that my efforts have no value, no skill or no satisfaction, it's just that when I look at the bloke next-but-one's garden, I think, "Now that's a garden!"
He doesn't put in huge amounts of effort, and there is no particular order to his garden, but it looks fantastic overall, everything in seemingly haphazard proportion, just the right thing in just the right place, but looking like it landed up there of its own volition, no matter the season.

He's a nice chap, and I give him and his wife some of my excess produce when I have a glut, and I complement him on his garden, but I can't do that.

 

[warmweatherwoman]

I say Im the fly by night type of gardener. If I see it..and I like it..I'm going to buy it and go home and plant it. I have no rhyme or reason other than I like perennials.

 

[happyflowerlady]

I am kind of haphazard, I guess. I do enjoy looking at the flowers, and watching everything grow and blossom, and finally fruit out if it does that part, but I am not really methodical about anything.
I don't have a large garden to produce all the veggies we eat, just a bit of this and that.
If I see something that I think is cool, then I will try growing it, if it is affordable.

 

[scotkat]

A happy gardener

 

[zigs]

Veg & wildflowers mainly, but I will lob a few things like Sunflowers in as well

 

[Amalia]

Some people just like to see a few pretty plants around their yard and others are avid, expert growers of everything imaginable. On a recent trip to a garden center I kept pointing out plants near the register to my mother with exclamations of "Oooh, look!" The cashier looked at me and said "You must really like plants."

I guess I didn't realize until now that I am a gardening geek. I get excited over the least little change whether it's new leaves, new flowers, or the appearance of fruit. I am constantly amazed by the ability of some plants to just shoot up inches over night and I am often awed by the beauty of a simple cluster of blooms.

So what kind of gardener are you? Do you thrive when surrounded by plants? Do you only stick to roses? To vegetables? Are there plants in every room or just a windowsill herb garden?

I am somewhere in the middle. I like flowers a lot because I enjoy a colorful garden but I also grow vegetable because I like fresh food. Also I grow whatever catches my eye in the store

 

[Philphine]

not a serious one by any definition.

for me it's been more about filling in an area. i've mentioned an outdoor living area i've been working on since i moved into the house, and i'm at the phase where i've more or less got the built things where i want them. i'd been trying to do some planting along the way, but now i'm a little more focused on it. but to get the concept i 'm seeing in my head i've even looked at a couple of artificial plants (mainly trees that would sit on the deck) to get the feel i want.

there's a spot for a planned vegetable/food garden, but i'm just haven't been motivated enough to fool with it (i'm not a healthy eater. if i could grow hamburgers and fries it would be started already), and though i've made a few half hearted attempts, there's nothing growing in the house.