My name is Carol Wallace--and I am a gardener. I am also a garden addict.
If you're reading this, chances are, you are, too. You may not realize it. But as we all know, denial is one of the symptoms of hopeless addiction. So don't deny it.
Hopeless addiction may not be a bad thing. After all, gardening is a communing with nature, a partnership with living, growing things. It puts you into the company of many other wonderful people. People who think a bucket of manure is a perfectly lovely hostess gift. People who, when they hear the word deadhead think flowers, not rock groupies. People who welcome you into their gardens and can't wait to share its bounty.
But it's still an addiction.
So--how addicted are you? Take this little quiz. You don't have to tell anyone the answers -- but we'd appreciate it if you'd share a few of them with us.
How Hooked Are You?
1. How many times have you been to a nursery this month?
2. When was the last time you visited a nursery and bought nothing?
3. When you visit a friend, do you find yourself not only begging for cuttings and divisions, but doing their weeding and deadheading on the sly?
4. Is there a permanent dirty mark on your index finger from pulling those weeds?
5. Is your idea of a big excursion a trip to an out of town nursery? 5a) Do you take the long routes to destinations in order to be able to pass the nursery just to see what's new?
6. How many plants do you have sitting in pots or flats, still unplanted?
7. How many of those plants do you actually have a place for in your garden?
8. How many packets of seeds did you buy this year then find you had no room to sow?
9. How many seeds did you sow and germinate, that you had absolutely no place for?
10. Have you ever bought a house you disliked, just because of the yard?
11. Have you started covetously eyeing your neighbors yard yet?
12. Have you started thinking about having a plants only garage sale?
13. Are plant and seed catalogs your favorite reading material? Is there a stack by your reading chair? Your bedside? The toilet?
14. Is getting dirt under your fingernails the high point of spring? Do you almost always have dirt under your fingernails?
15. STRESS TEST How hard do you salivate when viewing these links. Click on each then rate your salivation increase on a scale of one to 5, with 5 being "extreme".
First Link--scroll down to the catalog portion.
Link 2--click on Fall Catalog
Link 3-- (Note: This is toughie--you can't order even if you want to!)
Link 4--if you can stand it!
Obviously there are no right and wrong answers here--only you can say when you have crossed the line from garden enthusiast to garden addict. But if you think you fit, then I would like to hear your story.
Tell us how addicted you are. You will be given immediate membership in gardener's anonymous. Yes--Suite 101's gardening area is really a club for gardening addicts (and would-be garden addicts): Gardener's Anonymous. But until we've heard your stories, we really can't begin to develop an appropriate 12-step program--or even know if we want to.
Perhaps we are happy in our addiction. After all, it's only hard on our wallets. Perhaps what we need is a club where we can swap stories and egg each other on to newer and greater aspirations. Perhaps we even need a place where we can swap plants! The Garden Spot -- a special place just for you!
Only you can tell us--and we're waiting anxiously to hear what you have to say. Let us know today, so the program can begin.
Virtually Gardening
