Still annoyed at my neighbor for saying my balcony tomatoes looked 'sad' when they were just starting to grow

She peeked over the railing last week and said 'those look a bit sad' about my Roma tomato seedlings that had only been in their pots for 5 days, and I wanted to ask her if she expects a full harvest overnight, has anyone else had someone judge their plants way too early like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

jennifer_west5d ago

Did you ever think she might have been trying to be friendly, not critical? I've been growing tomatoes on my balcony for years and I've learned that even well-meaning comments can come out wrong. A lot of gardeners don't realize how fragile those little seedlings are and how long they take to get going. Maybe she was just making small talk and didn't know that her word choice stung. It's easy to get defensive about our plants but sometimes people just say the first thing that comes to mind without meaning any harm.

hall.quinn3d ago

Wait, hold on. You're telling me you've been growing tomatoes on your balcony for years and you still think that comment was just friendly small talk? I'm genuinely shocked. That's not how normal people talk about someone's garden. If someone walked up to me and called my plants "pathetic little things" or whatever she said, that's not a garden tip that's just rude. I've been around plenty of gardeners and none of them open with insulting your work. You give people way too much credit if you think that was just a clumsy attempt at being nice.