Today I noticed two forlorn looking six packs of lettuce sitting in my garden. I bought them months ago with the intention of filling in some empty spots in my front yard. (I use edibles all throughout my landscape.) But alas, I totally forgot about them…probably because I always grow my lettuce from seed. I never buy it in six-packs.
Do you do this? Forget about plants until they either die or root right through the pot?
I catch myself doing this sometimes. I buy on impulse, set the plants where they will get some water and forget about them. I find them later, rooted through the pot, struggling to survive. Ugh!
This lettuce will not go to waste. It is well established in its little corner of the garden, so I am just going to harvest it from six pack — tacky as that may be.
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Theresa Loe blogs here about taking the garden full circle while striving for a more local, fresh-from-the-garden lifestyle. She is a TV producer, video host, freelance garden writer and a wrangler of chickens and children. (Not necessarily in that order.) For more information on these topics, you can subscribe to her free monthly newsletter.
Theresa Loe is the award- winning Co-Executive Producer & Canning Expert on Growing A Greener World TV. She blogs here about Living Homegrown®, local and fresh-from-the-garden. 
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
That is known as “Driveway Death” around my neck of the woods. Buy the plants, unload them in the driveway and then never move them or plant them…I learned that phrase at The Vista Garden Club. It was coined because WE ALL DO THAT!
Thanks Karen,
I feel SOOOO much better now. (And thanks for catching my typo too. I fixed it.)
T
Guilty as charged. I recently harvested a full bulb of kohlrabi that was growing out of a neglected 4-pack. At least it didn’t go to waste and was actually quite tasty.
I. Uhm. Will. Not. Erm. Admit to the plants I have on my balcony right this second. That. Uh……..might resemble those in this post.
Kat,
Well, at least it did not go to waste! I feel even worse when I have killed them all such as the “driveway death” that Karen talks about above.
Fern,
You crack me up!
Thanks guys. It is good to know I am not the only one.
Fern,
This is the Professional Gardener’s dirty little secret. If the tabloids get hold of this we’re all done for! LOL!
I am SO guilty of this and worse. My sister in law who has also worked in nurseries as long as I have, has had what I refer to as the “Driveway Box Garden”. Where you bring plants home from the nursery, set them down near the driveway and that’s where they live out their sad little lives. Some even root right through the carry all box they came home in.
Now that you have outed this about all of us, 60 Minutes should be calling you for the inside scoop.
Thanks, Fern!!
Oh yeah, Driveway Death and I are WEEEELLLLLL acquainted. I had perennials in pots I’ve had for . . . I’m not going to tell
If I had a dime for every six-pack that hasn’t gotten planted? Let’s just say, I probably wouldn’t need to work this year. Confessions of a procrastinator planter, for sure. (You’re not going to tell anyone, are you? Is this like “Six-pack Slackers Anonymous”?)
I recently walked past a hotel on Connecticut Avenue in DC. They had just uncovered hundreds (no lie) of pansies from underneath some construction plastic. They were still alive in their little plugs, but very worse for the lack of air circulation, soil, and all the snow packed on them from our storms this winter.
Not having any land, I haven’t done this (yet). I have, however, left cuttings sitting on tables for days before remembering to put them in a glass of water!
Ugh. I have a few 1 gallon containers and a 5G avocado sitting in my backyard… Older than a month.
*Catholic guilt setting in*
Okay, well I think it is fair to say that this is common guilt we all share. Whew!
I love the idea of being a member of “six-pack Slackers Anonymous”, but everyone who sees that will all just think we have a drinking problem! LOL