PSA: Befriend your Garden Center employees!

[SpookySpooder]

Because they inevitably throw stuff away.

I just got a Pothos Pearls & Jade in exchange for a joke and a chuckle. The manager jokingly said he'd sell me this pot for half price when I poked fun about the discount on dead plants, then said he "was going to throw it away if I wanted to do that for him."






Sometimes I can pick up fallen stems or offshoots that they missed during maintenance to propagate. I call it "volunteer pruning and maintenance" and the manager finds that highly amusing.

Just some friendly advice if you're into this sort of thing.

Here are some random bromeliads that I'm regrowing over time, obtained them as "trash."

 

[Tentacle Toast]

Because they inevitably throw stuff away.

I just got a Pothos Pearls & Jade in exchange for a joke and a chuckle. The manager jokingly said he'd sell me this pot for half price when I poked fun about the discount on dead plants, then said he "was going to throw it away if I wanted to do that for him."

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Sometimes I can pick up fallen stems or offshoots that they missed during maintenance to propagate. I call it "volunteer pruning and maintenance" and the manager finds that highly amusing.

Just some friendly advice if you're into this sort of thing.

Here are some random bromeliads that I'm regrowing over time, obtained them as "trash."

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You're winning the game of life, friend... maintaining a good sense of humour in these darkest of times pays off even if not in rescued plants, LoL. Guy's probably happy as hell to see you walk through his door.

 

[Wolfram1]

Try it wit Botanical Gardens

there you may get some truly fantastic phyto-cellular "waste" to dispose of. XD

you know that vine over there has grown into the path again.... should i... ?

only with the a-ok of the horticulturalists ofc.

 

[Smotzer]

Yupppp its often one of the best ways to get stuff, back in Nj I had a friend at Lowes who would always set things aside for me!!

Great haul on the bromeliads!!

 

[TLSizzle]

I always help clean up fallen succulents at the Walmart garden center.

 

[SpookySpooder]

You're winning the game of life, friend... maintaining a good sense of humour in these darkest of times pays off even if not in rescued plants, LoL. Guy's probably happy as hell to see you walk through his door.

Thanks! Just rolling around the Monopoly board for the umpteenth time!

I do my best to keep my "head" above the waters that be the times we live in. That includes floating as many people who come my way as I can. I try to have positive interactions with everyone and to spread compassion and kindness through respect and humor. I try to be nice to others mainly because I'm naturally impatient and really, really mean.

I don't do it for physical rewards, I get a kick knowing that I made you smile or laugh, knowing I can spread that energy to you and it might infect your day. I used to be a total jerk to people, and that was the energy I spread out there. It was a waste for everyone involved.

Though sometimes it is nice to get free stuff. You gotta pinch every penny nowadays.

Did you know that during the Great Depression there was more home buying power? The economy was better then than it is now, and people still blink twice when I tell them homes are unaffordable. Do they think I should work harder or something? I have friends who literally make twice my income who can't qualify for a mortgage.

Most of my generation are stuck in dead end jobs with no upward potential and terrible benefits. No prospect of retirement and no opportunity other than education debt or cost of living debt.

I'm lucky enough to break my back to claw myself one step ahead at a time. Most of my generation are stuck in place.

You gotta chop up the mundaneness of surviving in such a trying time.

I bet he waits day by day, wondering when the next time I'm gonna pop up is. (LOL not really)

Try it wit Botanical Gardens

there you may get some truly fantastic phyto-cellular "waste" to dispose of. XD

you know that vine over there has grown into the path again.... should i... ?

only with the a-ok of the horticulturalists ofc.

It's quite hit or miss! I've been trying with an Orchid nursery in the area for a while and they don't seem keen on any of my antics. Probably because I'm always window shopping and never buying. But can you blame me? I'm not able to drop $50-100 on a designer orchid that I'm gonna slowly torture to death!

The tree nursery also has no such potential. They aren't gonna let me air layer any of their stock.

I got lucky with the garden center as the manager is a decade older than I am and he signals his interests through his clothing and accessories. It was easy to form a connection once I narrowed down our common interests through casual conversation.

Get out there and work it! Build that rapport!

Yupppp its often one of the best ways to get stuff, back in Nj I had a friend at Lowes who would always set things aside for me!!

Great haul on the bromeliads!!

I'm getting to know the garden department employees at the local Orange Depot. I have two of them on friendly terms and we chat whenever I see them in the store, but I'm not looking for any finds or gifts from that corporate entity. That's more just socializing with them about common interests. My goals are a bit more insidious. I want to learn how they do ordering and potentially sneak in a few vendor orders with the manager for the department.

Thanks! They're in some of the worst conditions when I get them, but after about 6 months they start to look a lot better.

I got a list of cultivars that center has ordered so at least I can narrow it down to a few hundred.

I have to wait until the rosettes regrow and the flowers emerge to try to positively identify them, but I've accepted they might just be mystery stains.

I'm gonna use them to try my hand at hybridization, make some mutants.

Show me your Brommies?

I always help clean up fallen succulents at the Walmart garden center.

LOL! I can imagine you scrambling to pick up all the little nubs strewn about. No need for clean up in the garden section, TLSizzle's on it!

If I were into succulents that place would be a candy store. Everybody is pinching those poor little nubs and the employees just throw them out en masse.

Big box stores such as Orange Depot and Wallyworld aren't too keen on it, and IME they don't ever have anything cool, but the employees are barely paid and highly mistreated so I doubt they would care much.

 

[Introvertebrate]

...............Though sometimes it is nice to get free stuff. You gotta pinch every penny nowadays.

Did you know that during the Great Depression there was more home buying power? The economy was better then than it is now, and people still blink twice when I tell them homes are unaffordable. Do they think I should work harder or something? I have friends who literally make twice my income who can't qualify for a mortgage.

Most of my generation are stuck in dead end jobs with no upward potential and terrible benefits. No prospect of retirement and no opportunity other than education debt or cost of living debt.

I'm lucky enough to break my back to claw myself one step ahead at a time. Most of my generation are stuck in place................

Do you have your heart set on LA? Money doesn't go as far on the coasts.

 

[SpookySpooder]

Nah, I got family tying me to the OC for now.

My grandma is on hospice with heart failure and alzheimer's & dementia. I'm easing my dad into retirement in TX. Mom & both my sisters need help with a mortgage here.

Then I'm gonna find a new place to live, put some roots down, build out a homestead, leverage the investment system and remote work for extra money. Been planning it for over a decade now, just in the process and a little side tracked with filial obligations and personal responsibility.

I have watched it go from "hard to live" to "hundreds of thousands on the street"

People who have family established here are lucky to chip into the 2-3x the national average for rent and mortgage.

Got any suggestions for nice places to live?

 

[Tentacle Toast]

...I try to be nice to others mainly because I'm naturally impatient and really, really mean...

Brother, we could be Brothers. I'm the most miserable SOB to people at large by default, if I don't actively thwart that proclivity. Now I just make stupid jokes & observations. Your profile is locked, but I'm guessing you're in the 38-42 ballpark, yes? All of my friends from my youth are dysfunctional losers, & it isn't even ALL their fault. My closet friend now I've known for about a decade, while a guy I used to call my brother (& mean it) never moved past 19... number of factors. I see the worst in EVERYONE right off, but in recent years, have tried to tease out the good. I go over-the-top sometimes keeping my natural disposition in check. I don't care, you have a smile or you don't, I don't know where it would be sometimes if I didn't. I'm just glad I've got who & what I've got, because it's the only thing that's kept my feet on the ground since my early twenties; if I struggled in isolation...who knows? I'm not saying I condone violence, but I can see where some of these guys that lose it & go on shooting sprees are coming from. Honestly, I'm surprised there's not orders of magnitude more.

 

[Introvertebrate]

...............Got any suggestions for nice places to live?

I've got no plans to leave here but of course, my idea of culture is Netflix.

 

[SpookySpooder]

I've got no plans to leave here but of course, my idea of culture is Netflix.

Nothing wrong with that. I kill many an hour consuming content while I do chores or hobbies. I like to dual task and enjoy rewatching stuff as I always pick up on another detail or have another thought provoked as I am in a different mindset. Consume consume consume. I love consuming information, even information I already know. The exchange, digestion and application of information and knowledge are what drives my motivation to do everything!

Biggest reason I socialize is because I enjoy hearing how people formulate their thoughts, I like hearing their information, dissecting their opinions. I lay out what I have experienced and what I think and they dissect and refine me.

I like it when someone who knows more than me or is more intelligent than myself decides to really lay it down thick. I love informative walls of text with critical reasoning, thought provoking statements and question conjuring comments.

I have been around the country, and lived in a few different climate zones. I just need 3 things.

1. Internet for entertainment, education, and socializing
2. Less than an hour from societal infrastructure for support in things I can't accomplish myself such as hospitals
3. A region conducive to self-sufficiency, IE enough sunlight for crop production, a mild climate for chicken farming, enough water for hydroponic vegetable production.

Of the places I've been and considered:
Washington rains too much, Nevada is too dry, California is too expensive, New York/NJ is too cold and dirty, the Alabama/Florida is too humid.

So far Northern CA/Oregon and the area between Houston and San Antonio seem to be the top contenders, but I'm always open to suggestions as I would love to check out all options personally.

Brother, we could be Brothers. I'm the most miserable SOB to people at large by default, if I don't actively thwart that proclivity. Now I just make stupid jokes & observations. Your profile is locked, but I'm guessing you're in the 38-42 ballpark, yes? All of my friends from my youth are dysfunctional losers, & it isn't even ALL their fault. My closet friend now I've known for about a decade, while a guy I used to call my brother (& mean it) never moved past 19... number of factors. I see the worst in EVERYONE right off, but in recent years, have tried to tease out the good. I go over-the-top sometimes keeping my natural disposition in check. I don't care, you have a smile or you don't, I don't know where it would be sometimes if I didn't. I'm just glad I've got who & what I've got, because it's the only thing that's kept my feet on the ground since my early twenties; if I struggled in isolation...who knows? I'm not saying I condone violence, but I can see where some of these guys that lose it & go on shooting sprees are coming from. Honestly, I'm surprised there's not orders of magnitude more.

We're all brothers and sisters. Our genetic heritage is very close to each other. The only difference to me is what part of the world you came from and what clan/culture/religion you were installed with. We may separate ourselves by arbitrary distinctions such as nationality, ethnicity, caste, or gender identifications but in the end we are Homo sapiens on the planet Earth. If you can bridge the gap, I can bridge the gap. We don't need to agree, but we can understand and know each other. If we can't like or respect each other, we could at least leave each other alone.

I mean the alternative is to continue to slay each other over resources and philosophy.

My programming says we could have been brothers in another life, and perhaps we found each other as friends in this life because we had a connection in another time. You yearn for connection? Find any excuse you can to make it. My adaptation of "being present" includes being genuine to yourself and your thoughts and feelings when you have them.

We all make mistakes, but how we react to them is how we define and refine our character and integrity.

I find your posts amusing, and if they satisfy you without harming others, I find no reason why you should consider stopping at all.

I have friends just like you. As you get older you begin to notice where your friends and peers capped and the difference between you becomes apparent. It's like if you grew 100 trees in a line with no influence... you'll notice the differences amongst them very easily.

Some plants just don't grow as tall or produce as much fruit as others, the same goes for our farm animals. Why should it be any different amongst us as humans? Are we somehow special and excluded from this fact of biology?

I got a few friends who spiralled out and burnt out on drugs. I got friends who have no aspirations. I know people who make excuses instead of plans. I know all manners of "good and functional" and "broken and dysfunctional" people, but I don't judge a person based on that alone. What matters most to me are actions and behavior. You can pretext yourself with words and promises, but you gotta back up your character by being about it. That's the only way to gain my respect, and the only way to lose it. What you've accomplished, your age, creed, ethnicity means little to me because it is YOURS!

I'm just shy under half a year from turning 32 actually. My peers have always been perpetual youths to me, so even now I do not have the perception to accurately judge the distinction between an immature teenager and an immature adult. I see it as a gradient and so many people fall short of maturity, despite the age ranges. There are also great examples of early mental maturity, so I think the rates at which everyone develops is contingent on many variables and not exclusive to age.

For me it was a reaction to the way I was raised. You know how children are a product of their upbringing and environment? Like any agricultural product or animal raised in captivity, we are a direct result of the treatment and environment we were produced in.

Guys with natural proclivities like mine (I don't know about yours) are statistically dead or in prison for assault, murder, or a slew of other related felonies.

I keep a tight lease on my reactions because my natural proclivities are too primal for a civilized society.

I'm a monkey walking upright in a suit on a rock that somebody taught how to "be nice and love God."

Conditioning helps, like you mention, it takes an effort to maintain an upright posture in society.

Underneath the layers of conditioning is my base human. Throw me in the woods for a few years and I'll go feral.

That being said, there are a couple sick puppies out there. People shoot each other quite often over very little in LA. Look up the stats for freeway shootings alone.

People are responsible for their own actions and beliefs, but throw almost anybody in the same circumstance and you'll notice they all generally react the same.

Isolation is no bueno for anybody. Certain social animal species will die slowly from isolation. We are social animals, and the ostracized and isolated individuals are often the ones who commit the worst atrocities. People aren't meant to be alone and we aren't meant to self-isolate ourselves either. It is with support and collaboration that we have developed as a society and species.

#EndSolitaryConfinement

Animal psychological studies are eerie in the resemblances they outline with human nature.

It's environment I tell you.