My daughter and her fiancé have been searching for their first house. It’s an exciting time and I’ve been going along with them to offer a more experienced opinion. It occurred to me that house hunting and shopping when gardening are similar in some ways. Don’t laugh at me yet…let me explain.

Whether it’s a garden or a house, you start off very optimistic but with maybe not a clear idea what it’s going to look like. You do some (or a lot) of research. This can be either in the seed catalogs or on a real estate website. You circle the ones you think you’d like and you start the process of elimination. You quickly discover “code” words:

In the real estate ads, “cute” is code for small. “Potential” really means the house needs a lot of fixing up. “Investment” means it’s probably not in great shape or in a not-so-good neighborhood (or both) and only landlords will be interested.

In seed and plant catalogs, “self-seeds readily” means you’ll be gardening and pulling little seedlings out until your back is sore. “Grows rapidly” means be careful where you plant it, because it may take over.

Another similarity? Neither the garden catalog nor the real estate list provide all the information you really need to make a good decision – there simply isn’t enough room. Fortunately, there is a ton of information about plants on the internet…just “google” the most obscure garden plant and you’ll get at least some information. And, the same is true about a particular house, if it’s located in a fairly modern municipality.

And then, some information you simply have to get yourself: go look at the house or grow the plant. The house might be great, but the neighbor next door may have 3 rusty old pickup trucks up on blocks in the front yard and a howling pack of bloodhounds out back. The plant might be really nice, but so susceptible to powdery mildew, it looks like a ghost. Nothing like seeing for yourself!

My daughter and fiancé just made an offer which was accepted. It’s a nice little house, with quite a few upgrades in a decent neighborhood. No bloodhounds or powdery mildew! I’m hoping she’ll discover that she really does want to do some gardening. After all, it runs in the family!

Stay green, good friends