Thursday, March 25, 2010

Crazy Garden Lady

So I'm moving to a townhouse with my friends. They are so happy to have me gardening. I think she wishes she were a gardener at times for all those fresh local vegetables. She is the one who educated me years ago about what a CSA is. I was clueless before then. She is the one who won the "Growing Chinese Vegetables" book for me at the Yankee swap in hopes of getting more Asian greens. She is always happy to take anything extra that comes from my garden and occasionally asks me for dill from my garden to make pickles (or maybe that was her husband making the pickles). She really wants me to put most of the yard into veggies. I was the one saying we needed a little back yard grass for barbecues.

I talked about having compost piles in the backyard and I was going to make her save her scraps, but I'd be fine with the work, she just had to throw it in. She said she wouldn't mind doing some of the work with that. I told her the compost would be in the part of the garden that is shaded by the fence (in full view out our back windows). Not a peep from either of them. I told them I collected leaves in the fall and would need a bin for them. No problem.

Fruit trees and herb garden in the front yard - go for it. We will be living at the end of a dead end private way and there is no turn around there so it is almost our driveway, and there is a rock wall on the other side with a sunny planting space. I intend to plant it up with vegetables and a few flowers to make it look pretty. I got lots of enthusiasm. Rip out half of the driveway for the veggies since it is the sunniest spot in the yard. Smiles all around.

So when they came over and we were discussing moving. I was pointing to my leaf pile and compost pile and talking about how in the world I was going to move it (I saved paper bags from when I played bag lady and collected them, just hoping they would be used this spring for just that, shhhhhh don't tell anyone). They said they thought the buyers wouldn't mind a leaf pile in the back. I told them no I needed to move it to the new house. They both looked at me like I was crazy. I think I've hit the limit. I have become crazy gardening lady. Now I just need a collection of funny hats to wear to make my image complete. I think a collection of hats with all the different beneficial insects on them would be perfect. What do you think?

33 comments:

  1. This cracks me up! You are so the most not-crazy person I know. I would gladly come move that pile for you if it got me garden bounty. And maybe we could dig up the berry bushes while we are at it.

    I can't wait to see pictures.

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  2. Happy move Daphne! I completely understand wanting to take your leaf pile to your new garden!! Nothing crazy about that! ;>)

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  3. Oh Daphne! Normal is as normal does!!! Normalicy is a state of mind ...

    When I moved from Ontario to MA, I brought my perennials! And they still smiling at me from the garden ...

    You go girl!!

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  4. You can't leave it. They might do something horrible, like throwing it away!

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  5. I think it's funny that you wanna take your compost pile - and ingredients with you. That makes you a certified compost wacko in my opinion. Ha!
    I hope you enjoy the new place, and can't wait to see what you do with it. I'm sure it will be something.

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  6. Only a fully sane person can fully understand the value in a pile of leaves.

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  7. There are worse things to be! Can't wait for the before and after pics. :-)

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  8. Well that is gardening gold?! How could you possibly leave it behind? LOL!

    Not sure about the hat but I am pretty sure there are some gardening wellies that have veggies all over them in bright colors! Now that would make a gardening statement. ;)

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  9. I wonder if someone makes a hat in the shape of a big leaf? Or you could pin leaves all over a hat, kinda like camouflage.

    Moving a pile of leaves or compost makes perfect sense to me, I hauled at least 6 large garbage cans of compost for one move. A gardener can never have too much compost.

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  10. My straw hat came with artificial sweet peas, which had to be replaced with artificial sunflowers, as I couldn't keep the bumble bees off of the pink sweet peas.

    Crazy gardening/bag/hat lady that you are, how much do you want to bet it won't take a full season of gardening before your friend is right out there with you, planting seeds and turning compost!

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  11. Happy moving! I will be eagerly waiting to see your new garden grow. On the side note, from the seeds you have given me cherry tomato and early jalapeƱos seedlings are up and growing and I introduced the gardening bug to a good friend and shared rest of the seeds:)

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  12. It's not lunacy. It's dedication! Fine line, yes, but a line it is, none the less.

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  13. It takes so long for everything to break down Who wants to start from scratch?!?! Seems perfectly logical to move the pile to me hmph. That could be one of those items you just sort of slip into the move... Don't say anything, then *poof* there's suddenly a pile out back! hehe

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  14. First of all, a resounding YES on the hat idea. I LOVE it!

    Second, if I were you I'd be renting a truck and a little loader and taking all the soil from the beds and then seeding new lawn for the new owners. That soil is PRICELESS.

    So, yup, take the leaves. Let me know if you need a truck ;-)

    Ali

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  15. Yup, Henbogle posted what I was thinking. Yes to the leaves, yes to the hats, and what about the soil?

    After all you worked many years building it up to the quality it is today. It would be a shame to leave it behind.

    Hmmm...what would your friends think of that?

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  16. Daphne, this is hysterical! I know what you are feeling because I, too, have gotten "the look"...like I have two heads. But my reason is not the various hats...it's my bird who is my constant gardening companion. I'm the crazy gardening bird lady. Oh well...they'll never understand. You can't blame them. Just continue on! :)

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  17. You might be surprised about the reaction to the hats - your friends might love them!

    And as someone who has picked up leaves from friends and neighbors...I do understand.

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  18. LOL, well that makes two of us, coz I would bring it too !

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  19. Hi Daphne, I love your blog and am glad I checked in today, your post had me laughing! I am picturing you in my mind as a female Steve Marting in "The Jerk"....you know... "and THAT leaf pile, and that's all I need...and THAT bag of chicken poop, and that's all I need..."! We are all crazy garden people, we are here to enable you (I mean support) LOL, congrats on the new digs!- literally!

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  20. Daphne, I don't envy you your move. I hated moving and having to leave behind all the lovely plants and the work I had done. But then I got to create new gardens, so I am happy again.
    Hope all goes well with the move.

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  21. Karen, well my berry bushes are part of the landscaping so sadly I will have to get new ones - at least the blueberries. The raspberries I could take some of the runners. They are such weeds that I'm constantly pull them out of the blueberries anyway. I could just pot them up and save them.

    Carol, :>

    kiwi gomes, well I suppose so, but I've always considered myself a bit weird. Just take my wardrobe. I love to wear long skirts in the winter (usually tiered ones). I don't see other people doing that, but I love my skirts.

    The Idiot Gardener, oh that would be just terrible.

    Lzyjo :>

    EG, HA! You calling me a compost wacko. I think that is the pot calling the kettle black ;>

    The Mom, :>

    Rebecca, oh yes there are. At least my strangeness serves a very useful purpose in so many ways.

    kitsapFG, Leaving gold behind would be unthinkable. Hmm I could be the weird boot lady. I'll have to think about that.

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  22. michelle, lol I could see me in camo in the garden. That would be too funny.

    Annie's Granny, well I don't know. She is pretty busy right now. She is getting a graduate degree and runs her own business. But you never know. She might end up liking it. Both of them did say they would help with getting the landscape in though. We will see how much time they all have. Of course that is the hard part because we have to dig.

    sarada, wonderful. I'm going to be planting the jalapenos in about a week.

    Ribbit, sometimes I wonder.

    Momma_S, yes and I've even shredded most of the leaves already. I'm sure they are well on their way to breaking down. I'd never be able to find such a good source of browns at this time of year.

    Ali, lol now I hadn't thought of that. Maybe if the new owners are going to rip the garden out anyway. I'll have to wait and see. If the new owners are gardeners I'd love to keep it for them. The last house I sold the new owners were so happy to have a garden. They'd never had one before and always wanted one.

    GrafixMuse, I would feel really guilty about bringing in the soil if the new owners wanted it. We will see.

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  23. Kimberly, oh that would be fun to have a bird companion in the garden.

    villager, lol she might.

    Dirty Girl Gardening, yes indeed.

    Miss M, :>

    Erin, lol yes it is a little like that.

    keewee, I hate moving too. I'll probably take parts of some of my plants. It is pretty easy to get a hunk of thyme and still leave a lot for the next person. Some things I'll leaves. Like my peonys, but I might put new ones in the new house.

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  24. I think you'd be crazy not to move it. You did all the hard work of building it up, hopefully you can keep it with you. It must be so hard to leave your gardens behind.

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  25. Lol, don't forget to tape a yellow sticky insect trap on your hat to catch those buggers.

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  26. That's hilarious! While we were in grad school a friend and I decided we would be "crazy cat lady" and "crazy plant lady". We decided that we would just live next door to each other and collect cats/plants, since it looked like were never getting married.

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  27. Guess I should add that I went ahead with the plant collecting...but I found a husband who supports it! My friend, however, does not have dozens of cats - thank goodness!

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  28. Hahaha....I love it. I got such a kick out of reading this. At least you're not the crazy cat lady.

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  29. sububanfarmonline, It is very hard to leave the garden behind, but I just have to think of the new garden.

    Mac, lol

    Jackie, well at least you stick with it ;>

    Thomas, nope no chance of that, my husband is allergic.

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  30. I think you're utterly sane. Seriously, who would leave that behind? You just hang out with the wrong people!

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  31. I'm a bit out late to comment on this but it sounds like you have the perfect neighbour. Best of luck in your new 'sure-to-be' fantastic garden.

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