Friday Question #106
Do you have a green thumb? Do you grow plants/herbs/vegetables inside your home or in a garden? Or do you tend to kill them/have no interest?
In our home, Steven is the one with the green thumb. We have 9 plants in our living area – four corn plants (one which is Erin’s!), two peace lilies, one palm, one “White Bird of Paradise,” and one I cannot identify (ha ha). Three of the plants are from funerals of family members, so they have special meaning. (I apologize for the crappy iPhone pics – I accidentally froze our camera in the car.)
We think this is a peace lily
Erin’s corn plant, mystery plant, and the other peace lily
Two corn plants and the palm
“White Bird of Paradise” (???)
The huge corn plant
Some people think it is strange that we have so many plants, but I like it!
And I would LOVE to grow some veggies and herbs! Unfortunately, I cannot garden in our yard (we don’t “own” our yard) and Data would probably eat anything we grow inside… but we might try something on the porch later this year!
Themocracy
we don’t have very many plants in the actual house. when summer rolled around last year, I decided we needed some outside, and that i would grow vegetables. what i found, is that while i can grow things, i never eat them….
i have plants in my office, but my god, are they resiliant. i will come and find them wilting on the ground and they perk up in minutes.
I have heard people say that about office plants. What is the deal?! They have some super-plant powers! 🙂
We have three plans and bamboo, one of them I got when I first moved to IL and there were some times when I forgot to water it and though it would die but it keeps on. I tired to grow herbs a few years ago but because we get indirect sunlight they did not grow as well as we’d hope.
I would really love to have a bamboo. They are so beautiful!
Do you think you will try with the herbs again?
Oh man…give me three days, and I can kill a PLASTIC plant. It drives me crazy how non-green my thumb is 🙁
LOL, that’s funny!
I do so much better with outdoor plants than indoor plants. I destroyed my peace lilly, which I am trying to nurse back to health. It may be too far gone.
You could always place a bunch of potted plants on your porch or by the front of your house. I grow tomatos in a pot with great success!
Jessie left a comment that peace lilies are toxic to cats! Did you know that?
I think I will try the porch!
I planted in a box last year… I don’t think I have the greenest thumb in terms of vegetables, but I have had an indoor plant on my office desk for two and a half years now, so make of that what you will. 😉
<3 <3
I’ve never tried to grow anything lol. Your plants look awesome though!
My mother has a HUGE green thumb though for some reason I didn’t inherit that from her. I’m like Anna and kill plastic plants too.
i do not have a green thumb, inside or outside. i wish i did!!!
I love to have plants all over – every time I bring one home though, the puppy eats it. One day I’ll have a fenced off garden that she can’t get to – that’ll show her!
I didn’t realize puppies were just as guilty as kitties for eating plants. Of course, why wouldn’t they be?!
I’ve been known to have a black thumb, the grim reaper of thumbs. I have no indoor plants. I have plants on our back patio, but they are of the succulent variety and don’t require much. There are ficus trees in the yard that pre-date my ownership of the condo, but they are resilient too. My mom gave me a potted plant once and said if I killed it, I had to pay her back. That was 4 years ago. Miraculously, it’s still going strong, so maybe I’m changing.
I am horrible at growing plants. My mom gave me a spider plant and swore that “no one” could kill one. I killed it. I am not good with plants at all!
I did have a pretty decent vegetable garden last year until I had surgery and it got all messy and everything died. Hopefully this year I can grow some actual food that we can eat.
I should come tend your garden for you since we can’t have our own 😉
love all the plants…….they are good for you-something about releasing oxygen right?
i wish i could have my own garden too!
I gardened last year and I loved it! This makes me want to get some more plants 🙂
I just bought some baby pepper plants to grow in one of those hangy upside down planters. I have only ever been successful with peppers in the past!
We can’t have plants in the house because the cat likes to eat them. Someday when I don’t live with a cat I’d like to try my hand at having indoor plants. My roomie has plants on the balcony of our apartment but I’m not that motivated to try to grow something since our apartment faces the wrong direction. We get very little sunlight.
Sometimes we come home and find little dirt paw prints on the couch 😉
I can grow tomatoes like it’s my J-O-B. I used to live in this little townhouse with my sister and we had a about 10 square feet of garden sliver at the back and I grew tomatoes that were taller than I was, and a lot of basil. Caprese salad all around at that house! Actually I’m pretty good with outdoor plants, because of nothing to do with me, I mostly pick native plants and leave them alone, lol.
Indoor plants I’m no good at. I have cycled through many an indoor plant and everytime I go to get a new one my husband makes some comment about getting a new plant to kill….so I’ve pretty much stopped altogether and stuck to fresh cut flowers. They’re on their way out anyway, so they can’t be killed, per say.
At least you are good with tomatoes! Any tips for me?
I love plants! I don’t think it’s weird that you guys have a lot at all! We have a 1/4th of a plant. Lily has managed to eat the rest of it. It’s hard finding plants that don’t need much sunlight!
I am not too good at plants – inside or out – if they need too much attention I forget them too much and they die. But I have had great success with orchids – they do really well in my kitchen and I can get them to bloom over and over. I think they must be in the perfect environment and lighting situation and apparently don’t mind not getting watered very often. We are also really lazy in our back yard – I would love to be more proactive about gardening but we do have these gorgeous raspberry bushes that produce tons of berries year after year. Oh and the dandelions I pick every spring…but I can’t take credit for those!
We had berries in our yard growing up. I really miss that!
I cannot keep a plant alive to save my life. I always wanted a garden or something but I am just not good at it!
I’d like to say I have a green thumb but since I had to give you my plant to bring it back to life, well, we all know I’d be lying. HOWEVER! The plant in my office is still alive almost a year later and actually seems to be thriving. I think plants like the florescent lights.
Also, last summer I grew some crazy huge impatiens in my backyard without even trying. I’m hoping the same thing happens this year.
I’ve been thinking about trying container gardening for veggies. Even though I have a yard I also have a feeling the dogs would trample whatever I planted.
Not even close to being a green thumb. I have had more luck with plants surviving than I have taking care of them. I love a nice plant to have in my office or home, but maybe it’s because I put off a good aura that keeps them alive.
The current plant I have in the house is coming up on 4 years old. I water it often and check it’s progress every few days, but that’s about it.
I admit to needing to be better with them.
I tend to forget to water things. Like when my parents go out of town and Im supposed to water the garden. There is ALWAYS a hanging basket somewhere that I miss and kill off.
Im going to try and grow some herbs pretty soon. However, I dont know that I get enough light in a basement suite. I guess we’re gonna find out.
I hope you write about how it goes! You could always put them outside and see if the cat’s friends fertilize them. Ew…
I love house plants! I like to think that I have a bit of a green thumb and I am always trying to learn more as I go along. Just a heads up, peace lilies (and most other lilies) are toxic to cats if they eat them! My cats chew on every plant in the house so I have to make sure they are safe before bringing them in the house.
Jessie, thank you SO MUCH for pointing that out to me! This website also says corn plants are toxic. Yikes! What are we doing?!!!
we had a container garden on our front patio of our townhouse in san diego, however you can grown anything in san diego, in containers or otherwise. i had never gardened and grew strawberries in a container!! thx for all your awesome comments the past few days and for the note 🙂
My dream is to grow my own herbs and at least a few vegetables — even in the city, it should be possible to grow a few small things on a patio or something. That’s on my to-do list when I move into an apartment. Yours look nice though!
I kill all plants. Not really “all”, but I do not have a green thumb at all. However, on my life’s to-do list, I would like to have a garden.
I’m quite impressed with the array of plants that you have. Nice!
No green thumb for me.
oh my god my thumb is dark black. in fact i have to water the plants while i’m housesitting and i am petrified.
I don’t have indoor plants. Living in the basement and having two cats who think anything green is yummy to eat and puke kind of hinders that. BUT! My outdoor garden! Whee! SOOOOOO EXCITED!
Haha oh I’m so bad. I’m still trying to nurse a spider plant back to health that has been dying for quite some time….
I LOVE your plants!
In short: Yup. I LOVE to grow stuff. But, I grew up on an iowa farm.
I would Love having all of those plants – but my wife isn’t very good at taking care of things so I can’t trust her to water them while I am gone! 🙂
I love the corn plant, it was actually a fortune plant for Chinese where it brings fortune once it blossom a flower, watch out for it since it only happened once in blue moon!
mine is up as well
http://thefishgate.blogspot.com/2010/03/love-plants.html