Garden Etiquette
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
11 years ago
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Steve Massachusetts
11 years agolast modified: 9 years agodonrawson
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Garden Etiquette for Visitors
Comments (21)I always love the rules. The above rules I absolutely enforce & don't care how much of a witch people think I am: "Leash your children if they are a problem...". Paraphrased: "...they (labels) are placed in a certain manner...so i know where the dormant plants are in spring..." That's no joke. When I say put them back in the SAME spot, I'm being literal. Here are my own...more in a General Gardening topic: You can borrow my car. You can use my washing machine until you get a new one. I'll watch your kids with nothing in return. Anything you need. I'm nice like that. No, you cannot borrow my lawn mower. You have too many weeds. Cross-contamination is real. Your shrubs are fabulous. It's because they're 15 years old. I don't need or want your "secret" 10-10-10 fertilizer. My shrubs are 3 years old. It's not the dumb fertilizer. I'm not having this conversation again. I don't have weeds in the beds because I get in there and Weed. With my hands and a hoe. Weed is a verb. I don't have recommendations for chemicals. I'm not holding back trade secrets. Another conversation I'm not having again. Yes, I told you I was digging up/chopping/getting rid of ____. I've got plans for the space. If you want it, I'll dig it for you, and I'll do it now. Not next month. Not next spring. Take it or leave it. (Disclaimer: I'll hold or pot & tend for other gardener friends & family. I'm not that mean. Folks wanting free plants on their schedules get ultimatums.) Gayle...See More2nd Day of Wedding Anniversary Hosta Tour!
Comments (19)SO GLAD you tackled that one, ken! LOL Actually, I didn't find him as 'cranky' at all--but he IS 'to the point' without a lot of 'dressing it up'! He's right about the 'Mars' and 'Venus' thing! We gals can 'think' and be very intelligent but we usually kick into the 'feelings' of a thing, ultimately and react and act from that base. Guys--from Mars, are to the point, logical (in their minds--MOST of the time) and really have a hard time figuring us 'feeling' gals out. For instance: Why can't we just lash out and get over it--right? I think ken is someone you need to meet and spend time with, (in person) in order to understand he's typing like he's thinking, quickly to the point, fast in and fast out--with little emotion, which includes irritation or anger!! I'm not saying he may not have a moment or two of crankiness, on this forum (at least it does come across that way SOMETIMES--who doesn't have those moments, anyway?) but I really think he genuninely does not see how what he types, CAN come across that way at times! You have to know, that we cannot know the mood of any of us when we try to communicate this way--the one typing or the one receiving the words, used to make a point! I'm glad I got to meet him and figure this part out and now I can visualize him saying what he's typing, and how he's REALLY saying it, and I can just see him making those quips as in person, not crankily but 'quick to the heart of the matter' (as previously said) with little rehashing or dressing it up! I had come to think that he reminds me of a man I use to work for, and I was right--his delivery and way of communicating is very similar, and after I sort of figured him out, (that his bark was much worse than his bite) we got along just fine!! If he DID seem cranky, I'd just ask him (in a teasing way), "Why are you so grumpy today?" He seemed to appreciate that I'd hit him head-on rather than turning and running out crying and feeling all hurt and sulking the rest of the day! :o) Did I describe you even close to your reality, as you see it, ken? Janice (Venus girlie-girl)...See MoreGarden Etiquette
Comments (14)Here is a reverse situation. One day I was up front weeding and a couple of very frail but feisty looking grey haired ladies who looked like they were in their mid 80's stopped the car to chat. They could have easily been my grandma, Aunt Esther or Aunt Blanche and in fact reminded me so much of them that this alone would have been the ingredients for a great day. Flowered dresses and all. They told me they often drove by to look at my garden and loved the flowers and prairie landscape with the native grasses because it reminded them of home and the old days when everyone was out working in their gardens and how they missed gardening themselves so they regularly drove past my house on their errand runs since it was like a visit to the past and nostalgic for them. They were completely delightful ladies and it made me feel indescribably good. I almost felt like my aunts and grandma had visited, these ladies were so similar to them in the way they talked. They talked about how people didn't seem to be interested anymore in gardens and how sad they thought that was. I am a long way from being young and could only be considered young in comparison to these ladies since such things are relative but they said they were glad that some young people still did this. I am only one generation close behind them. Another thing that made this nice is my garden is intentionally a reflection of my childhood spent in rural Oklahoma even though I am stuck in an urban area close to downtown so I was happy that these women recognized that. This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Thu, Jul 24, 14 at 15:03...See MoreGarden Etiquette for Visitors
Comments (8)I read the rules in the spirit of humor, which I'm quite sure they were written in. If the simple glib answer is to just "say no", I don't need rules 1 - 42!!! Let me draw it out for ya: I have no problem saying 'no' to visitors about anything. 99% of non-relative visitors to my garden already have a fair understanding of garden etiquette. It is the visiting relative that may not quite understand. Hence my reference to need for a different set of rules for relatives. "You don't need to be an Einstein to say 'no' to a relative" Maybe you missed the part where I said they get upset. Maybe you don't have relatives; or relatives that visit. Whereas I wouldn't care if a visitor gets upset because I can/would evict upset unruly visitors unceremoniously from the property who, if THEY are lucky, I'll never see again, I WILL be having future interactions with same relatives....See Moreken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5Original Author