Thirty two brussel sprout plants!?" my husband exclaimed? "Thirty two!?" Context is important here. I am easily distracted, I cannot turn down a good deal, and I do not do math very well.

You see, I wanted to buy a zucchini plant - in memory of Aunt Margaret who yearly buried us in zucchinis. I forgot to buy one at my favorite greenhouse - Holla's - and so on the way home swung by the supermarket gardening tent. Well, they didn't have any zucchinis - but all the annuals were 50% off. I saw some brussel sprout plants and thought - eight at 65 cents - what a deal! I neglected to factor in that there were four in each unit.

But this was the least of my problems. Actually, my husband's problems. Holla's too was having a 50% off sale. I volunteer there on Friday mornings in order to learn some gardening tips. At the same time I am mentally writing my list of all the green things I want to buy this week. Popeye at a spinach shop, I am!

I filled up the entire car - front seat, back seat, and trunk - with perennials, annuals, tri-mix (cow poop, peat and rotted vegetation), and bark mulch. There was a really good deal on a tree too - I kid you not - but they'll hold it for next week because I'd need the van to bring it home.

After my brussels visit, I actually had a tray on my lap too. My hubby, Laurence, says, "You don't do things by halves, do you!?" And no, I don't. Anything worth doing is worth doing whole hog. If I agree to get married, it's for life. None of this half sentence stuff for me. If I'm going to have a cat, might as well become a crazy cat lady as well. If I'm going to have a goldfish, it's going to be in a 30 gallon tank with at least12 other kinds. And if I'm going to learn to garden, it's going to be with baskets, planters, full sun, no sun, annuals, perennials, eye-catching and edible.

Oh yes, and with a husband too. As much as he complains - "You won't let me shovel snow but you expect me to dig out four h-u-g-e garden beds down at least a foot!" - I think he's beginning to enjoy our Friday routine of emptying out the Chevy, digging holes, filling in the holes with plants, and watering them. But he did draw the line about the box of seed-potatoes I got at the supermarket gardening tent - 75% off!

Says he, "Think about it Jannie. Not only will you need to bring in a truckload of topsoil, you'll need to bring in an ambulance when I get a heart attack digging up 500 square feet of tarmac!" He exaggerates. But I am thinking about it. Hmmm. One of our boarders has left four tires on our front step where most of our planters are. According to one gardening website site, potatoes thrive in the warm environment of a soil filled tire! Four tires + two pounds of seed potatoes + good soil = 20-30 pounds of winter potatoes!

I get both revved up and tired - just turning it over in my head-gasket!

Jan Carrie Steven, MA, RSW, is Counselor, Mentor, Chaplain and Volunteer.

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