Welcome, Garden Clubbers!
Half way into the year, officially now. 6/1/15! It's amazing that these months have seemingly flown by so quickly. With all of the generous approvals lately, it's becoming ever so important that each person reiterate what their true goals are and try to stick with them. Don't forget that these fad applications will still be there when you've ended your garden period of time. Don't forget this month, if you have a Discover card, to sign up for the double cash back for the entire year. For more details visit this thread: Click Here! 
Many kudos to rserla for first telling us all of this great promotion. It's only available during this month of June so if you have a Discover card -- I don't have to tell you how valuable this could be.
myFICO Community Forums is a great community, and I sincerely hope we all can come together and enjoy this community for what it is: a great information fountain. So if you're not sure of the TOS please take some time and just get refamiliarized with it, as no one likes to have to send warnings for TOS violations. (Sorry, just wanted to put that out there for the continued enjoyment of all of us on this forum.)
What is gardening? Quite simply, it involves refraining from applying for new credit or seeking CLIs that require hard pulls. Soft pulls CLIs, however, are not only acceptable, but are encouraged. The idea is to allow one's current TLs to grow and mature, waiting for inqs to age or fall off, and possibly waiting for "baddies" to be removed or age off. During this time, one tends to one's current accounts and watches their AAoA grow and the new credit ding fade. Here we socialize, commiserate and support each other while waiting for baddies to fall off, new accounts and/or inq's age or just want a place to hang out to get away from the hustle and bustle of credit card talk.
So, if you're at the stage of your credit journey where you're ready to enter the garden, please come and join us. You may pick up your complimentary watering can and garden gloves by the front door -- you can even choose your favorite color! We're proud to offer a well appointed clubhouse. There is a snack table set up. The shorter nights of winter has put a chill in the air but everyone is nice and toasty here on our island!
Help yourself to our drinks and appetizers.Flatbreads, sliders, pizza, buffalo wings, grilled zucchini, kale salads, pecan and apple pie ala mode. There's also a nice selection of cold beers and my new favorite, Lemon Drop Martini's. Once again, please feel free to bring and add anything that you'd like to add to the festivities. And, in the corner diagonally across from the front door, there is a fully stocked bar, along with a wide selection of soft drinks. If needed, there are some anti-itch medications stocked in our supply cabinet near the door -- Lanacaine, Benadryl, etc. If you need to place your reports in the deep freeze, we also have a freezer, located next to the bar, so go ahead and throw your reports in!
Our club features a Friday night social. This will now be hosted by Yes-Its-Me who has recently assumed the role from Irish80 who had done a wonderful job with managing the buffet and bar. Everyone is welcome to hang out and either discuss the topic of choise or anything else that comes to mind. Feel free to kick up your heels for the evening! The goal of the Friday night social is to enjoy getting to know each other and share in some fun. You'll always find camaraderie available here as you work towards your gardening goals. Thanks to Irish80 and myjourney both for contributing to this in the past.
So come on in and make yourself comfortable. Make a gardening plan and commit to sticking with it! Are you planning to wait six months before applying for additional credit? A year? Until the last of your baddies drop off? Whatever your goal, we're here to support you. If you feel the "app-itch" coming on, let us know and we'll try to help you through it. We even have and Emergency Response Team (ERT) available to step in and help keep you on track!
Now, if you happen to leave the garden prematurely, that’s your decision and we respect that. You are always welcome to come back, pick up your gardening tools and start over again. But please, celebrate any approvals and the discussion of which credit card to app for on another thread. While we are happy with members’ success stories, we really do want to keep this thread’s focus and tone to be consistent with gardening efforts. You are certainly welcome to celebrate soft CLIs on this thread, though, as they do not involve inqs or apps for new credit.
GARDEN CLUB CHALLENGE AND RECOGNITIONS:
Garden Club Challenge: Pick a firm date for staying in the garden and post it in your siggy!
Garden Club recognition levels: To qualify, your reports must contain:
No new tradelines of any type on one's accounts (this includes backdated Amex accounts, as they are STILL new "seedlings").
No HPs for anything that would allow for the possibility of a new tradeline being issued or increasing the CL of an existing tradeline.
*The Garden Club community recognizes that certain inquiries are necessary for factors beyond those listed above. Therefore, Hard Pulls/Inquiries for the following bona fide reasons are exempt but not limited to: Opening checking/savings accounts (so long as no line of credit is being opened in addition to these accounts), Employment Applications, Apartment Rentals, Utilities and other such services. These are not considered to be applications for credit per se. Also, for those who are seeking a new mortgage or refinancing an existing one, we understand that your lender will pull your CRs multiple times before closing. For those GC'ers, the first hp will set your clock, not the subsequent pulls. However, if you are simply rate shopping, then the normal hp rules apply.
You will be able to add the following to your siggy if you have abided by the above for the following time periods...
Less than 1 month - seedling
1 month - bronze spade
3 months - silver spade
6 months - gold spade
9 months - palladium spade
12 months - platinum spade
15 months - ruby spade
18 months - emerald spade
21 months - sapphire spade
24 months or more - diamond spade
Please note: recognition levels reset once you add an account or incur a HP. We recognize that there may be very good reasons for "leaving the garden," and we respect whatever thoughtful decisions members make. As stated previously, members are always welcome to come back, grab their gloves and start gardening once more.
To ensure that your graphic comes out properly on your siggy, please be certain that it has been added as the very first line of code.
Seedling:
<img src="http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/2760iB9166C1A493A3CBC" title="Seedling Garden Club Member" border="0" width="50" height="67" align="right">
Bronze: 
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/LEYWe.png" border="0" title="Bronze Garden Club Member" width="40" height="40" align="right">
SIlver: 
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/Gfc4B.png" border="0" title="Silver Garden Club Member" width="40" height="40" align="right">
Gold: 
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/24xvV.png" border="0" title="Gold Garden Club Member" width="40" height="40" align="right">
Palladium:
<img src="http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/5761iE36E284CEECEA414" title="Palladium Garden Club Member" border="0" width="40" height="40" align="right">
Platinum: 
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/vVRv5.png" border="0" alt="" title="Platinum Garden Club Member" width="120" height="80" align="right" />
Ruby:
<img src="http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/5625i09098E9833D7A4B2" border="0" title="Ruby Garden Club Member" width="40" height="40" align="right">
Emerald:
<img src="http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/5623i698C4BF1F9D77284" border="0" width="40" title="Emerald Garden Club Member" height="40" align="right">
Sapphire:
<img src="http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/5627iA714E0C3C98AD3FD" border="0" width="40" title="Sapphire Garden Club Member" height="40" align="right">
Diamond: 
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/40nIa.png" border="0" alt="" title="Diamond Garden Club Member" width="40" height="40" align="right" />
So, please feel free to come on in and share your gardening progress. If you're new or returning, what are your goals? If you've been here for a while, how are things going? Let's all mingle, and support each other in our respective gardening efforts!
Just a reminder, if you are new to the forum chances are you will not be able to add your seedling to your profile. Send any mod a PM and we'll add it for you 
You can also report any post inappropriate in the GC and just state that you need __________ spade. (Be that seedling, bronze, etc.)
yay!
apparently first post of the thread. didn't even realize 
APP SPREE NEXT MONTH YEEE!!
Since I'm on the west coast, it's still May, but I might as well check in! It's been 7 months, 29 days since my last app, and it will be 4 months, 4 days when I next app! No, I'm not actually counting, I just checked out of curiosity.
Hope all is well on your side of the screen!
Hello all...
My goodness...I have made it to my very first Platinum spade! It was quite a hard road toiling in the garden this past year. The Capital One Venture train very nearly ran me over, but I managed to side-step it...but just barely. I must have started apping for it a dozen times, but canceled it just in a nick of time. The Discover SP CLI train came along just in time and I quickly hopped on board, so that helped me get to my Platinum status. I'm looking forward to my very first gemstone level in 3 months. I'm not saying I have the fortitude to get to the rare Diamond level, but I will at least give it a try. Thanks to all my fellow myFICOans for their continued support and the best of luck to all.
Checking in.
