finances

Recently I read an article on how to curb spending on clothes and other material goods. Let me just say that I have a problem with spending and it led me to that article. As I was reading the article, I thought I should apply those tips to gardening as well, since that also seems to be a problem for many gardeners like myself. I think a lot of gardeners have a tendency to keep buying and planting more plants. Once we get started, we enjoy the beauty of the plants so much that we want to collect MORE and MORE plants!

If you have been reading my posts you may have noticed that I have a lot of interesting and unusual plants. I like to plant unique things and I like to try a lot of different seeds. If you take a walk in my garden you will notice I own a lot of plants. I can’t seem to stop collecting plants and these days I don’t have time to do that much planting and caring for them. So the tips below are going to be my go-to checklist before I buy new plants.

By the way before you look at the list, check out the beautiful flowers that got me in trouble with spending and hoarding.

TIPS TO PREVENT PLANT HOARDING

• Reduce your exposure to plant catalogs and emails (take your name off their lists!)
• Take stock of what you already have. Ask yourself, “Do you need another hibiscus or poppy?” If you already have 10 poppies out there, you don’t need another one, do you? Do you have space to put that plant?
• Wait 24 hours to see if you still really need that plant? Most of the time I find that I don’t really NEED to have that plant after all. Actually, in gardening, I don’t think there ever is a NEED for any plants. It is all WANTS WANTS WANTS!!!
• Take a break from buying for a week, a month, or several months. If you can do it, and I know it is almost impossible, try waiting a year before you buy a new plant. You will notice that when you don’t buy new plants, you actually have a lot of time to do other things. This also means one less plant to worry about watering, fertilizing, and mulching.