Let’s up the ante a bit …

I am demanding that a certain individual join me in the quest to “garden our asses off” in 2015. Or as I am want to call it, “All in”.

I have not personally contacted said individual about this challenge so he will not be aware of it until he reads it here. I am confident he will accept the challenge and together, this dynamic duo will take the horticultural world by storm.

I like to think I was a garden mentor to this guy. I think this blog inspired him to find his inner P. Allen Smith. He actually told me he cut hydrangea blooms off of his neighbor’s shrub in the middle of the night and put them in a vase. How can you not like this guy already?

Together we will give you:

Riveting, edge of your seat You Tube videos.

Dramatic and tense moments only rivaled by Real Housewives of New Jersey.

Demand for a reality TV show that we will turn down because we always keeps it real. 

So Matt, it is officially out there and I await your response. Don’t let me down.

P.S. For those of you unaware, Matt and I are coworkers and we had/have a blog all about our daily lunches at Wegmans. A bromance before the term ever existed.

If you would like more background on our adventures, click here. I warn you, it is addicting … and you’ll never look at me the same again.

… and we’ll get to that in a few.

First off, thank you all for your feedback and comments. Blogging for me has been a weird mash-up of narcissism/creative outlet/escape from reality/taking myself and gardening too seriously in good and bad ways.

But through it all, I still get jacked up witnessing readers who are actually interested in my blabbering nonsense.  Scratch that, not all is blabbering nonsense; my ornamental grasses are kind of awesome so they fall outside of the blabbering nonsense category.

A common theme with the comments was “Why not incorporate all of the ideas?” Great point. And I think to some extent I have included them all over the years … as have most gardeners I know. We all try to “smell the roses” more often, are thrifty when it comes to purchasing plants, try to get the kids involved and attempt to grow more of our own healthy food.

But what I think piqued my interest the most was trying to go to the extremes with each of the individual concepts.

Case in point:

Option 1 – “Do Nothing” 
This is friggin insanity.

Yet a real test of the will.

Who knows, maybe it will free up time for other interests? Maybe allowing your garden to proceed without any human intervention is the right way to do it? All of the meddling may be holding it back and this would prove that out. More enjoyment and less labor.

This is friggin insanity and a blog killer. But I can’t stop thinking about it.

Option 2 – “Buy Nothing”  
Just how difficult would it be to not buy any plants for one year? I know it flies in the face of being an “obsessive gardener”, but maybe it is the ultimate “enjoy what you have”.

I know I tend to ignore many of my sturdy and reliable plants and focus mainly on the “new”. Kind of like always focusing your attention on the problem child while the good one is ignored and underappreciated.

Could this be the ultimate opportunity to get reacquainted with the old stand-bys? Remind them that we love them and appreciate them for all that they do.

While this direction sounds kind of awful, I can’t help but wonder if I could pull it off.

Option 3 – “Strict Budget” 
Is a strict gardening budget a great lesson in ingenuity? I have never placed a specific restriction on my garden spending and would love to see how I react to it.

Plant purchases would be methodically and painstakingly reviewed as would all the others buys (soils, containers, mulch,etc.). All about priorities and identifying opportunities.

Makes all the sense in the world, but also kind of boring reading material. You deserve so much more than that.

Option 4 – “Operation Get Kids Involved”
I know I should say all the right things here, but I really have no interest. Sorry kids.

Option 5 – “All in”
Hold off on this one for a minute …

Option 6 – “No more meat”
Yet another test of my restraint.

Come to think of it, what is it with my need to restrain myself? I realize part of it is entertainment value. I would find a lot of humor in the attempt to not buy plants, spend money or eat meat. I think it could be comic gold and you all know deep down all I want to do is make people laugh. Comedic gardening blog … there’s a huge demand for that right?

The other part of this restraint need is deeply psychological. I’ll have to get back to you after I’ve had some time to work it all out. I fear the results.

As for becoming vegetarian, I have some issues to work out with my own hyprocrisy when it comes to the treatment of animals and my love of a cheeseburger. I’ll leave it at that for now. We all know how this type of debate is treated in the Facebook world we live in today. John doesn’t “like” this.

And now we revisit …

Option 6 – “All in”
I know you know that I knew where I was going all along. Not that I didn’t value the other options, but for me, this was the only way to go.

Go big or go home.

And all I really needed to remind me of where I want to go, are the three photos below:

Less lawn and more plants.

Hard labor.

Plant decisions.

Additional space for more plants.

Sweaty 6:00 AM digging sessions in July.

Bad plant decisions quickly rectified the next day.

Is it March yet?

I feel a strong need to mix things up a bit this upcoming gardening season.  I’m ready for a break from the norm.

A personal challenge, if you will.

I’ve bounced a few ideas around in my head for a while now and figured what the hell, why not share them with you and solicit your feedback. By making the challenge known, I’m hoping it will keep me on course with the pressure of failing publicly being the driving force.

So take a read through the options below and let me know which one you would find to be the most interesting or compelling or even humorous. After tallying up all of the votes, I will choose one and put an action plan in place immediately.

Let’s do this!

Option 1 – “Do nothing” – That’s right. I won’t purchase a single plant this year, reshape any beds, create any new gardens, etc.  Simply relax. What if I tried to simply enjoy the garden for a year without the pressure of improving/changing it. This one scares me to death.

Option 2 – “Buy nothing” – A more relaxed version of the first option. No new plants added at all this year. The focus becomes properly maintaining what exists and “adding” through the division of existing plants. Trips to the nursery at lunch would make me cry, but the savings in cash would be nice.

Option 3 – “Strict budget” – I’ll pick a limited budget amount and carefully document each purchase along the way. No unnecessary splurges. A lot of lessons to be learned here and it isn’t as restrictive as options 1 and 2.

Option 4 – “Operation get kids involved” – Not as tough on me as the first three but it would be a time commitment with not a lot of excess time available. I’m imagining providing each with a mini plot and then leaving it all up to them as to what they want to plant. Sibling rivalry would be fun to watch. And I could say I personally inspired two future gardeners.

Option 5 – “All in” – The opposite of option 1 above. I’m thinking of setting a goal of eliminating 25% of my lawn with plants that are low maintenance and with low watering requirements. The manual labor would be tough but I could take advantage of early mornings once the weather warms up. I’d be sure to video my exhausting struggles.

Option 6 – “No more meat” – I’d commit to going vegetarian which would in turn make me focus on growing my own vegetables and enjoying them more. It would be tough but I’ve always thought about taking the leap.

My future is in your hands.