Thursday, August 23, 2007

TT#27 - 13 Reasons Garden Centers Bar Their Doors To Me


I live in a penthouse, which means a rooftop patio instead of a backyard, i.e. no soil. Already starting out 2 steps behind. We've tried a number of times to have it professionally landscaped (patio-scaped?) In the past 11 years that I've lived here I've been blown off by more gardeners than I can possibly remember. It's unbelievable, a bunch never even call back, but many came and sat with us, looking the space over, talking with us about our needs, promising to send a price quote, and then vanishing into thin air, never to be heard from again, leaving the world's two blackest thumbs (next to my mother, who is quite capable of killing plastic plants) to fumble around on our own. We haven't exactly covered ourselves in glory in the plant parenthood department (jeez, I can barely remember to feed and water my children, the plants are a lost cause completely).

If there is a super-secret blacklist of customers too dangerous to handle that circulates among Israel's the world's garden centers, I suspect that I am on it. Why, you ask? Just look:

(It took nearly two hours of struggling but I finally managed to figure out how to make a slideshow out of my photos. I have no idea whether the captions will even show up, but nevermind, these pictures speak for themselves. Hang on, I just got it - if you click on an individual photo it will pause the slideshow and show you the caption. Just in case you're wondering what on earth some of these monstrosities are.)


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.


And as an extra, just to show that I'm not utterly and completely hopeless with anything green and leafy ALL the time, here is the proof that not everything I have is dead or in immediate danger thereof. A few are in fact surprisingly healthy looking. Rest assured though, it's accidental and certainly no fault of mine.



Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.









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37 comments:

Lori aka A Cowboy's Wife said...

I couldn't get your slideshow to work:(...I'll check back later on.

I'm a newbie so I thought I'd say hi, so hi!

Robin said...

Hi Lori, thanks for visiting. I have no idea why the slideshow wasn't working for you, I can see it here.

Is anyone else having trouble with it?

Carolan Ivey said...

I also have a plant shelf of shame... two African violet plants that used to bloom gloriously in our old house. I our new house, I haven't figured out which is "the plant window" yet. :)

Gattina said...

Lol ! Poor plants ! I don't have a green thumb either and hate working in the garden and also neglect my plants but I don't know what happens I must have blessed hands because in my living room and also outside in the garden it looks like in a bush ! And I don't do anything except watering. I don't talk to the plants and I put nothing in the water but they grow ! You know for watering a plant you don't need your thumb, a few fingers are enough ! Lol !

Anonymous said...

I wish I could come over and help you, cuz you really need help! but then again, after I left you'd just kill 'em all anyway. Haha. You even have an automatic watering system!!

Happy T13. I hope you can find help with your plants.

Jo said...

Really laughing here as I too am on that blackthumb list. My mother, who isn't, is constantly turning up and berating me for the state of my hanging basket. I will send you a pic of it and my only other houseplant later......we make a cruel pair LOL. BTW, do me a favour and take a pic of your view, it looked pretty great.

Anonymous said...

Great slideshow you got there except for the poor plants lol

Happy TT!

Mom not Mum (Sandy) said...

LOL I think that is what my plants wood look like if I actually attempted having some. My parents house always looks fantastic with plants on the inside and out - all thriving. I joke that with my house plants I like to bring them RIGHT TO THE EDGE of death and then see if I can bring them back. Good thing I'm not a doctor.

Robin said...

Munchausen's By Plant - I love it!

Tink said...

I don't have a green thumb, but I do my best. I get the same result you do: some sick, some surprisingly alive! ;-)
Thanks for visiting my Maia pictures TT.

Susan Helene Gottfried said...

You know, I used to have an incredibly green thumb. Everything I grew flourished and I loved it.

And then I had kids.

I swear, my reproduction removed my green thumb. What I've got now isn't exactly black, but it's sure not what it had been!

Very, very sad. :(

Suprina said...

At least you have some growing. I a can't even keep a catus alive. It looks like there might be still some hope left for your green thumb.

Great pictures Robin!
Happy T13!

Lazy Daisy said...

I had a plant on the porch that kept dying so I kept replacing it with a slightly bigger plant of the same kind....my hubby thinks I'm a wonderful plant person now.

J. Lynne said...

I have a much browner thumb than you...and I can't figure out what's weeds and what's not. :P

Thanks for stopping by my TT!

Red Garnier said...

I can so relate to these plant dilemmas, lol. =)

Janet said...

I can't keep a houseplant to save my life! But my outside garden does well...go figure!

Anonymous said...

HAHAHAHAHA!! You and me both sister!

My friend asked me to watch her plant for two weeks. It was a healthy beautiful lily ike thing. Well, I did as she said, I gave it shaded light and 1/2 cup of water every other day. Damn thing was dying on me! I resorted to putting outside in the rain. Seems to have kept alive enough. I gave it back to her ASAP when she return home.

I don;t want to be the plant killer friend. Shhheesh.

Thank you for visiting my TT last week. This week I am thanking my fellow TTer's. Come by and get your thanks!

TnMomTo3 said...

Your "undead" plants are gorgeous!!

I don't do plants - they look at me and die! :)

Sandee said...

You slideshow worked fine, but no captions. Too bad you couldn't get anyone to work for you. Thank you for all the effort you put into doing a slideshow. They do get easier as time goes by. Have a great TT. :)

erin said...

Great slideshow. I am the same with plants; I just got one as a gift yesterday, and I fear for its life. Happy TT! My list is 13 words I love!

Harlekwin said...

Your slideshow played for me this morning. Photobucket has many good ones and the captions always show up.

I have the solution to your gardening dilemma. The plants that are thriving are in the right environment, the ones that are dying aren't. So my solution is... plant more of the ones that make it and toss out the rest.

Thanks for visiting my site today. Happy TT!

Joanne said...

Ha ha ha. I am a terrible gardner. I had a glimmer of hope when I planted vegetables this year and they began growing and producing-but now they are dying and I have no idea why. Great T13! Thanks for visiting mine about c. chip cookies. Have a great weekend!

HartofDixie said...

I am not good at this and adore my mom,who loves to plant.
Great one!

Denise Patrick said...

I'm so bad with plants. A couple of years ago someone gave me a plant at work. The original plant in the container is slowly dying, but now something new is growing in it and I don't have the faintest idea what it is.

Great TT!

Holly said...

I'm so glad I'm not the only one.

I come from a large family of green thumbs. My grandmother has prize winning gardens, my mother has prize winning roses, I have dead fake plants.

The black thumb of death strikes again.

At least now I know I'm not alone in the world. :P

pussreboots said...

I also have a patio garden (hence no dirt). After some trial and error I'm finally have some success this year. Happy TT.

L^2 said...

LOL. I hope you can get some help with those poor plants! :-)

Anonymous said...

I grew up in a house full of plants and wanted that when on my own. But I can't keep anything alive in this dim box of an apartment no matter what.

You have my sympathy. :)

(And the slideshow worked just fine for me)

~X

Karen said...

I actually have 2 black thumbs -- I get my hands in the soil and kill everything within 10 feet. Flowers, vegetables, plants, everything. However, my cats and kids are happy, well fed and thriving!! At least that's something!
Happy TT and thanks for visiting mine!

Anonymous said...

No green thumb here either. Thanks for stopping by "motivational" TT.

Anonymous said...

LOL oh my. Poor plants. Great slide show though!

Malcolm said...

It's good that you at least have a sense of humor about your not-so green thumb. It sounds like you do have fun trying though.

Shari said...

Robin
We must have the same approach to plants - we are simply too busy doing important things to care for plants!

Anonymous said...

You are kind of plant-challenged aren't you. It's okay...many people are. I'm not but my dogs tend to eat whatever's growing in the house, so I limit myself to massive quantities of cut flowers.

Anonymous said...

Wow! You must be the Lucretia Borgia of the plany world!

deedee said...

LOL! I am sorry, but I will be of no help for you. I've got black thumbs, too.

Jen said...

Two words: Miracle Gro. Plants grow themselves.