You Might be a Hardcore Gardener If…

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You Might Be a Hardcore Gardener If…

How do you know if you might be a hardcore gardener? I've got a few tips of my own to help you out, plus an assortment from our friends on Facebook. (If you haven't joined our facebook group, I encourage you to stop in an take a peek.)

Your kids have helped grow sugar beets bigger than their heads.

That's about 15-20 pounds of mangel.

You're sporting one of those sexy “farmer tans” instead of a swim suit tan.

I look like the Fruit Stripe Zebra at the beach.

Before your farmer tan sets in for the season, you're prone to being a redneck from losing track of time when you first hit the garden in the spring.

When you spot a bug on produce that you brought in from the garden, you scramble to take a photo before you dispatch it, just in case you need to help someone identify it later (or use it in a blog post).

It's a flea beetle, in case you were wondering, and was on my radish leaves.

You're convinced that healthy garden dirt may help speed wound healing, especially those little nicks an cuts on your fingers (even if it doesn't your hands are dirty so often band-aids are pointless).

Right below the nail is a small cut that was bleeding profusely, until it got spackled with dirt.

Once tomato and melon seasons hits, you keep a fruit fly trap on your counter all the time.

Fruit Fly Trap

Your feet are permanently stained from going barefoot in the garden.

No, this does not wash off – ever.

Your nails are short, and also often stained.

You eat your weeds, use the for medicine or use them to protect and analyze your soil.

Why, yes, that is purslane and lamb's quarter in the basket with the radish and strawberry spinach.

Our facebook group shared some fun quips about how to tell if you might be a hardcore gardener, too. (You can tell these folks have some experience.)

Dirty fingernails are a hardcore gardener “badge of honor”

Nikki: You consider dirt under your fingernails as your “garden-cure”

Attainable Sustainable: ‎You find yourself at a fancy event with dirt under your fingernails.

Melissa: Your hands and nails (and feet!) are still dirty after a couple of shower scrubbings!

Create Change: ‎You're surprised when you look down and see clean fingernails!

Heather: You constantly have dirt under your nails.

BeOrganic4U: You dig in the dirt with only your hands forgetting about your tools. : )

Compost, Yard Waste and Garden Tools are Something to Get Excited About

Patara: You delight in getting grass clippings.

D'Ann: You have a cannister in your kitchen for used coffee grounds and tea leaves.

Rose: Instead of shredding your twigs you remove all the ones that look like they could support a bird net over your strawberries and water that collects in a bucket is precious…..

Brooke: All the volunteer tomatoes in the yard are designated for the chickens since they helped plant them.

Daniel: You bring food scraps home from a friends for composting.

Tammy: You only use everyday items that can be repurposed into garden tools.

D'Ann: You wear out your gardening clogs faster than any other shoes in your closet.

Lori: You have more pairs of garden gloves than you do earrings.

D'Ann: You own a set of gardening gloves for every season.

D'Ann: An appropriate birthday present is a rusty old wheelbarrow and several bags of compost/potting soil.

Tracy: You can turn a pile of 8 mile clear plastic and PVC tubing into a working green house.

Ted: You spent more last year on plants and seeds than you did on buying they car you are driving.

Cheri: You're totally excited that on Tuesday you get to go to the cattle sale barn and there will be someone there with the loader to fill the truck and trailer full of poop for you!!! Free!

Renee': All your friends and family know “garden” gifts are what you want for all occasions.

Lori: When hubby asks you what you want for a 30th anniversary gift and you say, “I want my tractor painted pink!”

You keep gardening, even in hot weather

Dianna: You even plan fake flowers because it is too hot for real ones…..125 degrees

Rob N Carri: It is almost 100* and you are still pulling weeds…

Jonathan: You're tending to your garden when it 105 degrees! In Ohio!

Julie: You haul used bath water out to the garden in the middle of an Ohio drought.

Christina: You buy bottled water at about 80 cents a gallon for your garden when your tap isn't working due to a week long power outage.

Jesse: You wake up early enough to water the garden before the sun hits it.

Thomas: You water the plants in your greenhouse while the coffee is brewing in the morning.

A little rain doesn't slow down a hardcore gardener

Kim: You're harvesting in a thunderstorm.

Tanya: Rain means you run out and plant a new row of seeds.

Lynda: You continue weeding in the rain.

Hardcore Gardeners Involve Family, Pets, Neighbors and Friends

Misti: Your kids have to get their food directly from the garden because that is where they will find you instead of the kitchen.
Home GrownHealthy: Your husband asks you what's for dinner and you reply, “Let's graze”.

Marnie: You named a cat sprout.

Tom: Your dogs understand commands like, “don't step on that,” and “stay on the path,” and “put that back in the bucket!”

Julie Wong you splice/ transplant & try to save anything the dogs accidentally tear up because you don't want to see any life wasted. 🙂

Thomas: Your dog backs up real quick when you say “watch out for my pumpkins”.

Tomara: You convince your neighbors they need a garden too… and then you maintain it…

D'Ann: You carry pics of your fav parts of the garden in your wallet to share the way everyone else shares pics of their vacations.

Tom: You admire your neighbor's roses more than their fancy car.

Rob: Your neighbors call the cops thinking you are a stalker because you spend so much time looking at their garden!

Erin: You have become more accustomed and comfortable talking to your plants than people! LOL!

Cyndi: The guy who mows my lawn says he can't understand how my green thumb doesn't include my lawn. Then he asks me on advice on veggie growing.

Hardcore Gardeners Know Bugs, Seeds and Weeds

Melissa: Picking and watching Japanese beetles and potato beetles drown in a jar of oil gives you intense satisfaction. (Don’t tell me I’m the only one.)

Michael: You eat the bugs off your plants.

D'Ann: You collect used paper towel and t.p. tubes to sprout seeds in.

Artist Grow: You allow some plants to go to seed for planting next year.

Vicki: You cry over a spilled flat of seedlings…

Missy: Your favorite December pastime is looking at all the seed catalogs and planning NEXT years garden!

Kristan: You weed the garden, and wash and freeze the purslane for use in winter soups.

Hardcore gardeners like to have fun, but they can become a little involved, and may have earned serious bragging rights

Teresa: You like to play in the dirt.

Becky: You can't tell if it’s a dirt line or a tan line. (see above)

Marla: You set up flood lights so you can work in the garden at night.

Karma Acres Farm: You garden by flashlight.

Renae: You notice your green thumb has turned red… (ouch!)

Paula: Your tomato plants are reaching for 10′ tall.

Tom: You've been cited for reckless driving on your riding mower.

Tom: You know how many bags of fertilizer your car can hold.

Tom: You know 400 different ways to prepare zucchini.

Tom: You’ve ever gone outside in your pajamas (or less!) “just for a quick peak” and spent the next two hours weeding dressed that way. (Tom, what do your neighbors say?)

LaQuetta: You have a front garden instead of a front yard.

Elizabeth: Because of a health condition, you pass out in the garden for a few minutes then get up and keep working. Yup, I did that. (Glad you're okay, Elizabeth.)

Haphazard Homestead: You're on a relaxing vacation and you notice (and evaluate) every garden you pass along the way.

Julana: You sing to your garden. 🙂

Middle Earth Farm: These are great! I especially like the being outside in PJs for two hours, because you went to peek at the garden in the morning. . .I do that ALL the time! (I live in the country, no one but the chickens would be offended. . .). But I have worn out quite a few PJ knees by weeding or trimming trees and shrubs in them . . . and they have grass stains along the bottom from starting to mow in the morning before it gets too hot. . .

What makes you a hardcore gardener?

Leave a comment and share your stories. I'd love to hear from you!

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See more of this sort of thing at “You Know You’re A Veggie Gardener If…” over at Northwest Edible Life. Amazon also carries a book titled “You Know You're a Gardening Fanatic When…” – someone beat me to the punch!