I like Upnorth's list. Only things I would add on are: Always tries to grow something(sometimes multiple times) which is 'not quite hardy' for their situation. When sowing seeds, always tries 'something new' every year. Begs cuttings of plants or seeds from other people's gardens of something that they particularly like. Sometimes the commonest of plants just 'don't take' in their garden, despite trying multiple times in multiple years.
'Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement' - Helen Keller
I think @UpNorth makes a good summary of the symptoms! I also add the tell-tale signs of dry, dirty and scrammed hands often accompanied by an aching back! Surely a gardener can mean a professional/paid job or a hobby/interest, just as in sports or crafts.
i think a gardener grows plants, rather than buying something in flower from the GC and discarding it at the end of the season. A gardener has a feeling for plants and wouldn't try and grow a Rhododendron in alkaline soil with some ericaceous compost. A gardener tends plants with care rather than a bottle of death and has concern for the wider environment.
I would say a gardener is someone who can't go through or past any collection of plants - be they wild or carefully collated and tended - without going 'ooh look - what's that?', or 'that [insert name of plant here] looks really good with that [insert name of other plant here]', or absent-mindedly deadheading/weeding as they pass.
It's just an interest in plants, I think.
If you visit a friend/neighbour/relative's house, do you notice if they've redecorated, or comment on the furnishings, or do you spend your time looking out the window and asking where they got that plant?
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
@hogweed ha ha! loving the additions, top of the list! AuntyRach achy back...yes....this very day! it's been worse. not good when you've a history of slipped/herniated discs.
a person who works in or takes care of a gardenas an occupation or pastime
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
Word Origin and History for gardenerExpand
n.
c.1300 (early 12c. as a surname), from Old NorthFrench *gardinier (12c., Modern French jardinier), from gardin (see garden ). Cf. German Gärtner. An OldEnglish word for it was wyrtweard, literally "plant-guard."
so the word Gardner covers a lot of ground and by that definition would include those wh one grow their own seedlings and those who buy the trays of pansies in Tesco. Those who use Latin names and those who use common names or even those who know a plant by a name only used by them. It is the tending on the garden that makes a gardener however you wish to do it.
To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.
I like the Old English definition you have given, Sussexsun. We are all "Plant-guards" - guardians of the plants we love and tend to. I know that I'm very protective of all that grows in my little garden!
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Always tries to grow something(sometimes multiple times) which is 'not quite hardy' for their situation.
When sowing seeds, always tries 'something new' every year.
Begs cuttings of plants or seeds from other people's gardens of something that they particularly like.
Sometimes the commonest of plants just 'don't take' in their garden, despite trying multiple times in multiple years.
Surely a gardener can mean a professional/paid job or a hobby/interest, just as in sports or crafts.
A gardener tends plants with care rather than a bottle of death and has concern for the wider environment.
In the sticks near Peterborough
It's just an interest in plants, I think.
If you visit a friend/neighbour/relative's house, do you notice if they've redecorated, or comment on the furnishings, or do you spend your time looking out the window and asking where they got that plant?
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
AuntyRach achy back...yes....this very day! it's been worse. not good when you've a history of slipped/herniated discs.
A GOOD gardener is something else entirely.
gardener
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
c.1300 (early 12c. as a surname), from Old NorthFrench *gardinier (12c., Modern French jardinier), from gardin (see garden ). Cf. German Gärtner. An OldEnglish word for it was wyrtweard, literally "plant-guard."
so the word Gardner covers a lot of ground and by that definition would include those wh one grow their own seedlings and those who buy the trays of pansies in Tesco.
Those who use Latin names and those who use common names or even those who know a plant by a name only used by them. It is the tending on the garden that makes a gardener however you wish to do it.