10 Things My Wife Makes Fun of Me For (Gardening Only)

1.) Keeping track of the value of my vegetables to verify that this is one of the few hobbies that comes out on the plus side of a cost/benefit analysis.

2.) Spending an hour at Longwood Gardens studying the difference between two cultivars of hardy geraniums. In the rain.

Nice hat.

3.) My nifty wide-brimmed, Australian-style gardening hat. Hey, it keeps the sun off my ears!

4.) Getting bags of dried cow manure and vermiculite for Christmas – and truly appreciating the thoughtfulness.

5.) Looking forward to a morning of digging rotted leaves from the township’s recycle bins.

6.) My brother’s fondness of referring to me as a “wacko gardener.”

7.) Changing the look of a perennial border five times in 10 years while being totally satisfied with the 25-year-old carpeting in the living room.

8.) Being so addicted that I’ll grow lettuce under plant lights in the basement in the dead of winter.

It always rains on mulch day.

9.) Looking like a drowned, filthy rat after spending the day mulching in the rain. (It always rains on the only day I’ve got to get it done.)

10.) Being unable to go on a walk without critiquing the landscapes of every house we pass.