Perhaps I have a problem

My friend Darcy calls it an addiction.  I think she's right.

This is gardening I'm talking about.  It started innocently enough just as a hobby.  Now, well, it's definitely something more.  Especially since nowadays the only place I get to move plants around is in my head.  Life doesn't afford me much time to get my hands in the dirt with a 13 month old on the loose.  Despite this fact, I keep acquiring plants and gardening accoutrements.  Hmmm.

Any new plants are in addition to the myriad of not-quite-dead-yet plants that I have in "temporary" pots lined up alongside the house.  Plants that I took from our old house so as not to have to give them up. That's worked out real well, let me tell you.  Honestly, I lost many of them after leaving them for more than a year in my sister's yard.  Life got busy and then it got out of control  and just plain nuts during the summer and fall of 2010, and my plants didn't appreciate my neglect.  I'm still figuring out where to plant them.  To be fair, the dirt in our yard is rather occupied with unfortunate things like rhodies planted in 1961 and dying azaleas.  I don't think I have the space for my plants at the moment so they remain unhappily in their little pots.

The need for new plants is not the issue here.  Clearly.

Yet today I stopped in at the bare root plant sale at a local nursery.  Everything was 40 percent off.  Oh, the possibilities -- and the savings I could take advantage of!  I convinced myself that I needed plum and pear trees (with three grafted pear varieties on the same tree) growing in a beautiful line on the south end of the back yard.  "Maybe it wouldn't be too hard to put dwarf fruit trees in there . . . this weekend," the evil little voice in my head piped up.

Then the sane part of my brain kicked in and I just walked away.

But then I passed the hydrangeas.  And who can resist a 40 percent off oak leaf hydrangea? Then I wandered into the blueberries.  "Just think of how great it would be to freeze your own berries," said the evil little voice.  Seriously?  I think I still have like 18 of the 40 pounds I picked last September kicking around in my freezer.   Plus, I've already got four blueberry plants in the front yard.  Oh my.

Luckily, I got a grip.  I did not buy any bare root plants, shrubs, trees, or the like.

Oh wait, I kind of did.  I bought five dahlia bulbs.  They were my concession . . . and because I did not go to the flower show this year and get my token new dahlias from Swan Dahlia Farms.  I think these dinner plate-size dahlias will look beautiful mixed in with the 'satan' crocosmia near our flag pole (Yes, I did say flag pole).  Now I just need enough time to dig a few holes.  Perhaps I can get a babysitter . . .

I also came home with a few more envelopes of seeds.  Sunflowers.  Cosmos.  Zinnias.  White Echinacea.  Oh, and some peat pots to start a few lettuce plants indoors on the windowsill.  You see how my brain works.

In the spirit of totally coming clean, I must tell you that I have ten bare root strawberry plants on order.  They should arrive by mail the beginning of March.

I know . . .