No, this isn't about the pandemic. Just wondering if you have noticed your neighbors, friends, family, stepping up their efforts or showing increased interest, and suspect it may be because they are inspired by seeing you working in your yard, or just admiring the fruits of your labors?

There's a lot of monkey-see/monkey-do - or monkey-want - in gardening in general. Nobody wants a specific plant before they know it exists.

For the past 6 yrs, a neighbor diagonally across from me had maybe 1 or 2 potted plants on her front porch. But this year, there must be 20. Her porch faces west, so some of the plants have looked a little sunburned. Not much of a chatter, I have no idea what has sparked her increased porch pots, but I wonder if she says to her husband, "see, it's nowhere near as crowded as theirs!" (Pointing to my house across the street...?)

A really young couple moved into a house directly across. I'm wondering if one of them will get interested in gardening. The young man's grandfather who lived there until he passed had installed some interesting plants around the house and he had a greenhouse with some Pothos and Christmas cacti. I have some of his Pothos that I plan to bring over there sometime soon. I need to get around to putting it in a good looking hanging pot first.

For the past few yrs, I've been harvesting all of the blooming/budded stems of Kalanchoe houghtonii. The bigger plants don't survive winter but the babies sure do! I stick a lot of the cut bloom stems in pots that are coming inside for winter and put some in vases to give as gifts because they bloom for so long over winter. One of the recipients told me her stems took root and she was curious what to do to get more blooms. And because I didn't save as much this past winter as previous years, one person who didn't get a vase last winter asked why. Well, if you're that interested, I won't skip you again! : )

Have you infected anyone, or suspect you might have?

I think for a lot of people it's just presenting different plants that will grow.
When we moved into our area it was mostly evergreens and rock for landscaping. Our climate can be challenging, but there our lots of landscaping possibilities, I always try to give plants away to anyone that shows interest

No, I cuss too much when attending to this sorry excuse for a garden. Scares children away though.

LOL!!! Does it help?

I recently encouraged a friend to pursue his dream of an indoor hydroponics setup . Now he has herbs, tomatoes, broccoli, lettuce etc and sends me pictures .

Also my brother, he's really gotten into gardening and messages me whenever he has a question. It helps keep him going.

No effect on the neighbors though, we live in the country and they have ugly professional landscaping. I mean it's okay, but it doesn't contrast well with the surrounding nature.

I would like to think that I inspired my neighbor. when she moved next door 10 years ago, she had miles of ivy to rip out just like I did. I told her that it could be done. and darn if she didn't rip that awful ivy out in 2 days! over the years we've gotten to the point where we go plant shopping together and we garden together. she'll help me mulch and I help her weed. She's learned the difference between crappy tools and good tools. this year we got into compost and that really helped her soil issues. so I guess I was a bit contagious.

purpleinopp said:LOL!!! Does it help?

I don't know: I ran out of patience for everything several years ago.

I feel like I've had more than undue resistance in this neighborhood when we moved in. Everything from nasty comments from the neighbors (after I told her to stop coming in my yard and destroying my plants.), to letters and fines from the city. They've even made it illegal to use any type of wire fencing here!! I mean who needs garden fencing when there are voles, rabbits, and deer running everywhere with little to eat?

The neighbor who likes to stomp and pull my plants finally put a privacy fence up this year, lest she be tempted.. The extra powdery mildew zone was a great tradeoff.
This is a mow-it-down-till-brown type of town here.

I've got plans though, and we aren't leaving! For starters, I plan to send out coupons next year to people in my neighborhood, who don't treat their yards, for a free plant and installation into their yards. I figure that will give me an opportunity to meet some of the people around here with similar intents and maybe we can work on the rest together.

CraftyFox said:I feel like I've had more than undue resistance in this neighborhood when we moved in. Everything from nasty comments from the neighbors (after I told her to stop coming in my yard and destroying my plants.), to letters and fines from the city. They've even made it illegal to use any type of wire fencing here!! I mean who needs garden fencing when there are voles, rabbits, and deer running everywhere with little to eat?

The neighbor who likes to stomp and pull my plants finally put a privacy fence up this year, lest she be tempted.. The extra powdery mildew zone was a great tradeoff.
This is a mow-it-down-till-brown type of town here.

I've got plans though, and we aren't leaving! For starters, I plan to send out coupons next year to people in my neighborhood, who don't treat their yards, for a free plant and installation into their yards. I figure that will give me an opportunity to meet some of the people around here with similar intents and maybe we can work on the rest together.

It sounds like the place Nazareth had in mind when they wrote 'Woke Up This Morning'.

Wow! People these days.

That pretty much sums up why I live in the middle of the woods.

@CraftyFox The plant you need is Solanum atropurpureum . So far it's been impervious to everything, maybe grow one and gift it to your neighbor!

I've definately infected my granddaughter!! She loves growing and propagating plants. When she and her boyfriend head home Thursday there might be room in the car for their luggage but no guarentee. 🤣🤔😏🤔

I can totally believe that, Ginger!

Lol...thanks for another acorn😏
The pink epi I started for you is looking good! 👍😊

My pleasure : ) Sure is!!

I recently trimmed my junipers into a bonsai style, with pom-pom looking bunches of leaves instead of a blobby mess, which made it easier to weed and exposed the old trunk... My neighbors are doing it to now

Please post photos of it. Sounds like something I'd like. Thanks!

sedumzz said:I recently trimmed my junipers into a bonsai style, with pom-pom looking bunches of leaves instead of a blobby mess, which made it easier to weed and exposed the old trunk... My neighbors are doing it to now

I'd love to see photos of them too!

SW and Crafty fox: a hedge of Purple Devil and Bitter Orange would be just the thing to keep that horrible 'neighbor' out of your garden. Bitter Orange is nothing but thorns and big ones at that. I find it astonishing that this person has the nerve not only to trespass but to destroy other people property. Thats time for me to get revenge. the privacy fence is a good idea. where I live we have to petition anyone living within 600 feet of our property to let them know we want to put up a fence in the front of the property. if anyone objects you can't do it. knowing that the db across the street would object, I planted photinia as a hedge. i had 16 years of harassment from this moron so anything I could do to not 'see' him was a plus. I f he even dared to cross the street it would 've gotten really ugly. he got foreclosed on and moved 3 years ago. yay. I've seen lots of situations where the homeowner has 'different' landscaping tastes and the community gets crazy but unless you're being totally obnoxious with your plantings, let them look the other way.