No, not your friends or family stopping by to say hello, the ones we love to come, but the kind mentioned in another thread about opening up your door to find a stranger standing in your garden.

Got any funny stories to share?

I do have my gardens open a couple times a year and sell plants then as well. But there are always plants potted at the end of my driveway that they can buy 'honor system' and in back of my house for garden installations. I have a sign out front saying PRIVATE GARDENS, call for appt for plants. But guess what? That obviously doesn't mean THEM, right? HA! They often walk right in.

I would find neighbors entertaining their guests after dinner for a private little tour. Only they forgot to 'ask' me! Then there are those that apparently love it when I am not home - they just walk in and I hear about it later (from them or from a neighbor). Geeze, is this not my home?

Now, I love to share my gardens, but I also like to have time alone. Someone suggested putting a sign out CLOSED, but that would suggest that I am OPEN as well, right? Now it says Open Gardens July 13th, 14th, 15th. (should be a hint, right?)

I have a little corner for an outdoor shower (keeping the bathing suit on) and sometimes like to garden sans bra (now stop drooling you guys - I am an old lady!)

The worst was this lady from out of state who saw me watering pots. She walked in and announced that she was just here to visit the gardens. Normal spiel from me. "Well, I never," she said, and as she stormed off, she let me know that where SHE was from, they always let fellow gardeners visit. Well, I do too, when asked! And she would have been just the one to trip and fall over my garden hoses being dragged around!

no funny stories - my story is ... ahh... underhanded. I did have someone try to switching tags from a cheap one to an expensive one. Like I did not know what was planted where. I soon learned to take the blooms off the expensive ones on open garden days. I've even been known to switch out the permanent tags I use now when I have to leave home during bloom. Without blooms, that new expensive one looks just like the $10 name tag I would put on it. And, if Jack the Digger comes and digs up what he THINKS is the expensive one, I'll have the last laugh when it blooms in their garden.

And, then the time someone came while I was at work, without calling, and my Mom sold them a clump of a $100 daylily for $15. She let them dig it and they destroyed the roots on the neighboring daylilies getting the one that they wanted. She had no clue who they were either. I could have KILLED her. After that, I stopped having open garden here, and also stopped selling from my home.

I think the one comment that always got me was... you have the "gardener" come who has little to no experience with daylilies. They see a bloom on a new, expensive intro. The comment "oh, I have that one already."

From Jim Terry in an old journal 'I already have the orange one and the yellow one. Do you have the red one?'
Dick

Yep! That is it exactly!

How about having a sign made up that might read something like this: No trespassing! MY GARDENS ARE CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!

I think the best thing that hurricane Ivan did was blow down my 4X8 sign I had on the main highway advertising daylilies for sale with directions on how to get here. The open hours and closed days on the sign meant nothing. Now except for a few old timers and Michele the only way to get directions is contact us via the web site or email. I also have no $5 daylilies anymore which really helps for a quick visit. I don't care if the flower is twenty years old its no less than $10 for a potted daylily and if it has 3 or 4 blooms on it may become a $20 daylily.(just joking).
Why is it people want to come from high noon til 2pm, the hottest time of the day?

I don't have that problem because city laws prohibit me from selling from my home. I have a small grower's license and only sell via internet. I have allowed 2 to 3 people visit who emailed me and I had no problems with them.

My main garden is behind a wooden fence in the back of the house, no one knows it is there but friends and family. I like it that way, selling on the internet works for me just fine.

Laughing at Fred and his sign and five dollar daylilies.

Dot

Amazing, the nerve of people! Wow! ~Jan

Wow..People do have nerve. My gardens are not fancy and I dont sell. BUT, I have a Welcoming
party of two Liam & Seamus LOL Love to see someone try to get in our yard

I had a yardsale this weekend with my neighbor. We use her yard and I sold a few plants for the first
time. I had a gentleman that purchased a few plants and was asking if I had any daylilies and for the
first time Ever I let someone in my garden. It made me feel good he liked it He is even coming
back when we are on vacation to get some more. BUT, I told him you must call first. The dogs are always
out, and after having them act like " Kujo" this weekend Im sure he will call


I would Never even think of walking on someone's property without permission.

I can totally relate to this!

I live between two of the most invasive people I've ever met in my life! A gate means nothing to either of them!

We put up one fence between the lady on the north and us right after buying the house, but she just thought of it as something to look over. We had a short chain link fence the rest of the way around the yard, but decided that the rest of the neighbors were great, and didn't fence them out with a privacy fence.

My husband was in the Navy when we bought the house 21 years ago, and we rented it out after 3 years until he retired 10 years ago. We had a new neighbor on the south side when we moved back in who thought our yard was his yard, and he was in "our" yard all day long it seemed. So, up went another fence. He was so mad about it that he didn't talk to us for 8 months! That was a very nice 8 months! I just wish it had lasted 8 years!

The lady on the north has become so invasive in the last couple of years that I feel like she lives with us. I can't walk out my backdoor without her yelling over the fence to say hello. To me, my backyard is an extension of the inside of my house, and I feel like she's looking in my windows! She's very friendly, but drives us crazy. On top of it, every time she says something, the dogs start barking. I have to ask her at least twice a week to PLEASE stop yelling at me over the fence because of the dogs! She can't seem to remember this request for more than a few days, and I can assure you that there is nothing wrong with her memory. Now it's to the point where I avoid her like the plague. I've also added trellis to the top of the 6 foot fence, and grow morning glory on it, with the hope of getting just a tiny bit of privacy!

Three years ago, back when the neighbor wasn't bothering me as much, I asked her if she'd like to have the veggies that I was growing while we were out of town, since we would be gone for a month. Of course, she jumped at the chance. When I got home, I found out from other neighbors that she had been giving tours of our backyard to anyone and everyone that came along! I have no idea who any of these people were, and from what I've been told, it was almost daily that this was going on! I was beyond mad, so up went my sign...



Of course, it doesn't stop her from coming in, because the dogs love her and don't bite anyway, but it has hopefully stopped the unknown tourists from dropping by! I also need to explain more clearly to the guy on the south side that when I say "No, you can't come in", I really mean it! He's confused and to him it means sure, come on over anytime!

Here's the trellis from last year that I had to put up to help keep her from invading the view from over the fence. I sure with the morning glory would get busy and fill it in this year!

OMG, Natalie!

If THAT fence doesn't say privacy and keep out, what the heck would? Mona's snakes?

I really do enjoy showing the garden to people. I love having daylily folks visit. But, it is so much nicer without opening the garden to who ever drives by.

I can't imagine living in town, or where people can see all your business. I have one nosy neighbor, and he can see my front fields, driveway and part of the house. He is a retired police officer, and not much escapes him!

The other neighbors are quite laid back, and I don't see them often. Two of them are flower people. They are all very nice. Feel very lucky about that!

Snakes!! Why didn't I think of that sooner? hahaha!!! I've got to get some snakes!!

I also love showing my gardens to my friends, and an occasions visitor of other neighbors, but hate being barged in on! I've got two neighbors that have my permission to walk into my backyard anytime time they want, and they wouldn't dream of doing that. They are also welcome to walk into my house without knocking, and they never would! So it's not like I'm a snob and don't want anyone in my yard. I just hate it that I've been invaded by people when I'm not home, or others that won't leave me alone when I am home!

Like my new sign?

Love the sign! hope it works.

Too bad it's not real - yet! I've got to get some little sticky letters to add to the real sign. In the meantime, I had fun with Photoshop!

I just remembered that last year I was out back watering, and she yelled through the fence that she had some friends visiting from out of town and they couldn't see through the morning glory on the trellis, so she was bringing them over to give them a tour! Can you believe it? I told her "NO" and then went in the house. I saw her later and she acted like nothing had happened! It shocks me that some people are like that!

Oh my goodness Natalie!

Wow. I've had no problems like this. I have a couple young kids who live behind me. They asked if they could pick the raspberries. Sure, I'm not going to eat them all. Turns out they were too well mannered to pick the ones that had grown on the other side of the chain link with out asking first!

I also had one boy at the end of my street who wanted a flower for his mother. He diligently went to pick one of my tulips. Pulled the entire bulb out of the ground. I just laughed it off because it was too funny to watch. He was maybe 5 or 6. Now, had this been one of my adult neighbors, we would have had words...

It's a good thing that I can laugh over it or else I'd be in trouble! We've seriously been considering moving out of state and getting 10 acres or so! Luckily the good neighbors want to come with us!