plant ghetto |plant ˈgetō|
noun ( pl. plant ghettos or plant ghettoes )
- a part of a yard, esp. an out-of-the-way or hidden corner, occupied by plants you just HAD to have but don’t have room for in your yard.
- a place where cruel gardeners and horticulturists send innocent plants to die
e.g. My plant ghetto is full. Do you have any room in yours for these Aloes?
I emptied out a bit of my plant ghetto today but all the plants in the above picture are still left over. Some I am keeping in pots until they grow a bit larger, some are waiting for annuals to be finished so they can take their place, some are waiting for some new beds I’m making, and finally some I just HAD to have but am not really sure where they are going to go.
Gabe calls his plant ghetto “the nursery” but he isn’t fooling anyone.
I have a “holding area” for such plants. I wish I had the willpower to avoid impulse plant purchasing. I can go into any other type of store and not come out with anything, but at a nursery it is so difficult.
Hahahahaha…yes, I think we’re all guilty of this, to a degree! I don’t really have anywhere “hidden” on our property, so all my “plants-in-waiting” are lined up along the front walkway, where I have to look at them every day until they are planted…it’s actually a good way to force myself to deal with them sooner, rather than later
i call it plant limbo…
Years ago at Gardenweb someone started a post asking everyone to take pictures of their plant ghettoes. I had to show it to my father to convince him that almost ALL gardeners had them. He was so angry about the one I had at his house when I was gardening there. In fact one of the things he said when I told him I was putting in a garden here was “don’t just leave plants sitting around in pots to die”.
Non-gardeners just don’t understand.
Hahahahahahaha…. I like it. I call mine a holding pattern, similar to the first commenter, and mine started the first week of February this year, in the shower stall in our spare bathroom, because I got some free plants at a trade show it was far too cold for outside. (Apparently Hydrangea and Tiarella love the “environment” of a shower stall.) It’s since expanded to both enclosed porches. I’m hoping some of them can start making their way outside soon…
I’m lucky that I live in a place where my plants can live out in the plant ghetto year round!
Yeah, every year when I talk about going to Annies Annuals for still more plants, my partner says,
“Well, as long as you don’t just leave them sitting around in the pots”. . .
Thank goodness I live four hours away from Annie’s or my plant ghetto would be so full there would be an uprising and they would come after me with torches and pitchforks.
It’s very true. Often I like to duplicate my stock, take home plants from work, and/or carry them over until I’m ready to plant them. Either way it all adds up and the side of my house is covered potted, confused plants.
One of my worst crimes is growing all my little plants from seed in the nicer part of my plant ghetto and before they are big enough to plant out I buy something for the spot they were supposed to go in.
The ‘holding area’ in my yard is only allowed to be because all plants have to be planted before any more plants are purchased.
I do like the term plant ghetto though.
I admire your willpower. I have this weird phobia when I am at a nursery. I feel like if I don’t buy a plant right when I see it I will never see it for sale again. Even if it isn’t particularly rare.
’round here we call it the “plant maintenance facility”…name inspired by the signs my husband saw on such “holding” areas (although much larger and fancier) when he was a meter reader in Santa Barbara. You’ve got some lovely specimens out there in the ghetto…
I’m thinking of removing more lawn to fit them all in…
I am so happy that I found this post!
I thought I was the *only* gardener to have anywhere from 10 to 30 plants at any given time just hanging out in pots waiting to go in the ground.
Right now I’m fooling myself that I’m 1) waiting for them to grow from the four inch size up to the gallon size before they go in the ground, 2) testing them to see if they really are cold-hardy in this zone, or 3) holding them there until the right area can be cleared. But the real fact of the matter is that I go to buy plants and I feel SO GIDDY that I just can’t stop myself from buying $100 worth of plants that I have no particular plans for. Yay plants!
You are not alone. I think almost all gardeners do this. I just have to get mine all planted (or hidden) before my father comes for a visit.
Update: My mom suggested the term “plant hospice” for the four asparagus, eight assorted Salvias, four bunchgrasses, three pots of bulbs, hydrangea, three pots of cuttings, dianthus, and whatever else I’m forgetting out behind the large planter box.
You can use whatever nicer sounding words you like to describe it but those plants are still living in the plant ghetto dreaming of getting out!