Their's a reason why I picked "flowerPotTipper" as my screen name....I'm always knocking things over....when opening windows/blinds, or when picking up a pot out a bunch of plants and it knocks others over....and it ALWAYS happens right after I'm done vacuming....For some reason I'm not a graceful person, I'm just very accident prone. I don't have any pictures cause I don't think of it when something happens...I'm usually very mad and trying to save the plant and pick up any leaves that are poisonious before my dogs get a chance to investigate.

-FPT

Hmm... well, I repot indoors, especially this time of year. I'm notorious for getting soil on the carpet even though I use everything from large plastic containers to trash bags to collect the soil. I've even vaccumed soil INTO the carpet. I'm also notorious for knocking over newly potted plants that are in small pots for some reason. Only the small pots, never the large ones.

I use compressed air sometimes to clean out places on plants I can't get to, usually soil that finds it's way into the leaves between my Sansevierias (I haven't used compressed air in awhile though since we bought a new brand and it's overly sensitive about can tilting and it literally blew out freezing water killing part of one of my plants).

One time I was leaning over our patio to clean off a cactus and DROPPED it (we live on the second floor). Needless to say it survived the drop with a smushed side. I think that was the worst thing I've done.

Planto

Haha. Good thread. I have knocked over a plant that was by my sink, right into my dish water and dishes. That was a mess to clean up.

HI..this is a fun thread...I have a shelf over my kitchen sink, was cleaning it one day and knocked it into the sink and all the cactus with small rocks arround them, there was soil, rocks, broken cactus and broken pots and broken glass...no water but what a mess.....linda

Haha, I've made a mess or two in my years of gardening. One of the weirder ones:

I like the way terracotta pots age. When I get a new pot, I sometimes try to age it by doing things like burying it in the yard for a month (in warm weather). Early on in my pot-aging experience, I read that you can encourage moss to grow on pots by painting them with yogurt and putting them outside in the shade. Sounded good, so I tried it.

Because I didn't want to waste money on yogurt for pot-painting, I bought the cheapest brand available. It didn't come in "plain," so I bought vanilla. It had a very strong fake-vanilla smell and a weird, gelatinous texture. I slathered it on several pots, anyway. I really wanted moss to grow on the pots, so I put on an extra-thick coating of yogurt.

No moss grew on the pots. Even after a summer outside, they retained blobs of white coating (what was left of the yogurt) and the fake-vanilla smell. I tried to scrub off the blobs of yogurt, but I never could get rid of the smell.

Apparently, I didn't get rid of all the yogurt, either, because my cats kept licking the pots. The cats don't do this, generally, but they do love yogurt and so kept trying to eat whatever was left of it off the pots. It was a several-month-long mess.

I haven't tried this experiment again. If I ever do, I'll use better quality yogurt, and plain yogurt, only. Can't say I've been tempted to re-try, though.

Amanda

After a few flips out of the hands on to the deck or floor Crassula grisea Zebrafonteis is re-named " The triple- lindy zebra "

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And still growing after three years and few trips to the lower floors .If inspired for the mini garden the only trick to growing this one is to not water.

Having no patients to re set a rack height isn't always a good idea

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I knew I was going to use the window sill as a shelf too idea it would so it did
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All I have to do is lift the pot up and over with other pots out of the way and NOT hit the rack with pot in hand but only once in my hast gravity had won.

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Looking at the bright side I've a little extra gritty mix for a potting .

I'm not always guilty of pot tipping some times the plant it's self just has to tip all on it's own.

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A slight bend resulting from a bit to high humidity conditions for a two year old Begonia Dregei also for viewing pleasure.

These are awesome entries, I giggled reading them all, and Mike's winning with his pics!

Some of my messes are unreachable for now (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!) When stuff goes back outside, I'll take some pics of the aftermath...

P.S. That's one cool looking Begonia!

Purple,
I got some good laughs out of these stories too.

Planto

LOL Go figure I finally won something, had I of cleaned the mess a few weeks ago there would of been nothing.
It's not a nice prize like being the pot tipping pic posting champ but Purple wins for getting my name wrong (again)

I'll try to remember to post a pic of that " cool looking " Begonia later .. Not to talk you out of one but..IMO maybe just me but all the caudice B's seem to be a PIA.

Haha! I think I've been calling you Mike this whole time too. >.Planto

I love reading your funny stories I've had my share of dropping pots but I wanted to post what happened to me the other day while I was vacuuming, I backed my butt right into my cactus !!!!!

Oh, looks like I've had another episode of presumptive eyesight. It's similar to wishful eyesight one can experience playing scrabble. As if wearing bifocals isn't enough, and combating new tinier writing, now I'm having this additional issue. Hope you understand it's nothing personal, MR LIKE. I see it now! If you've told me before and it didn't stick, that's another issue creeping up on me: CRS.

OMG Christine! That's one of the reasons I don't have those pricklies (and try not to vacuum - it's dangerous!) Hopefully nothing stuck back there where you can't see!

I accidentally knocked a decent sized pot over into my sink..right into the garbage disposal. I thought my husband was going to kill me. He had to take it apart and clean it.

christine1950,
I feel bad for saying I found your comment funny but I did! I've been pricked quite a few times by cacti but never with my butt!

Laura,
Oh boy, good thing we have a "catcher" in our sink or else I'd be dropping plants in there too. I already turned the garbage disposal on while we had a measuring spoon in there (I didn't know).

Planto

A kitchen sink no no:
It took a few minutes to free the plant from bog peat and only
five days to free the drain of the boggy sludge

Moral of the story : Take out for dinner is easier to clean than it is to eat.

Thought I'd let everyone off the hook so easy? NOT! C'mon, let's see those pics! If you just have more funny stories, that's good too...

Here's some of mine as promised. Accident in the kitchen yesterday:

Not using drip trays is great for making sure I don't overwater anything, (and I get a lot of exercise trucking plants to the sink and back to their spots,) but since there's also organic activity in the pots, they make a mess. The furniture used for plants is dedicated to that purpose, there's no harm done, but this is going to have to go outside to get swept off...

Howdy Purple and Others,

Hope everyone is well and readying for spring.

The Mess You Made is Murply's Law. Never fails.

Purple, you want pictures? When a newly repotted, watered, fertilized plant falls on the floor, 'domino effect,' the last thing I feel like doing is snapping a picture.
Actually, the camera and mic should be focused on me, although the video would not be allowed on GW.
Explicit lyrics.

Flower Pot Tipper. Your screen name is quite appropriate for the subject.. :)

Purple. Where have I seen the mess you've made on the floor? Deja vu. Toni

Hey Toni, so glad to hear from you!!

I totally agree with you! Nobody knocks over a bone dry, rootbound plant that doesn't leave a ton of dirt on the floor. It's always the one you describe! Yes, if I had one, my video would have to be without sound to post here too. Even the cuss words I make up are embarrassingly foul.

A more sane person would just clean it up right away, no doubt. One who's gone completely over the edge into ridiculousness and complete denial about how much space there actually is in their house... well I took pics. Being as graceful as a one-legged frog doesn't help either. And I have more pics to take, there's just still plants in the way of stuff that can keep waiting to be cleaned up.

The rationalization goes like this, at least on the carpet... If I try to clean up this wet dirt, it will just get ground in. I must leave this unmolested until completely dry, so it will sweep UP and not IN.

I don't even have a rationalization for the one on the kitchen floor except that I'm lazy enough to want to take a pic instead of clean it up right away. And it's not like anybody else who lives here would complain before I get it done, 'cuz they know I'd say, "if you don't like the pace at which I'm doing things, you can always help."

If this post helps there to be more peace in anyone's house, it's worth it. "Honey, look at this awful mess! Just be glad I'm so much neater than HER!"

Purple, Happy seeing you, too. :)

Believe it or not, when watering, I manage to knock down root-bound, super-dry plants, too.
Thankfully, dry medium isn't as messy, but new plants, mainly consisting of Peat, sprays fine particles everywhere.

I stopped repotting in the LR since carpet is new.
However, when watering plants on sills, 'in LR,' I have to be very careful. Otherwise, one, two, three or more plants fall behind the couch. Now, that's a mess!

"A more sane person would just clean it up right away."
You ARE talking about people who have 3 plants? lol.

Oh Lord, attempting to sweep/vacuum wet soil that landed on a rug is impossible. You're right, the dirt blends inside threads. Best to wait. Time to calm down, allow blood pressure to normalize.

Hi Toni!

I'll try to take some pics over the weekend. On March 1st, we moved into a vacation home. (Long story...) Even though we tried to be careful, some pots fell over in my car... Two weeks later, the dirt is still there. I figure there is no point cleaning till after we move again in a few weeks , since more pots are inevitably going to tip over. Anyway, I'm the only one who rides in my car, so I have to reason to be ashamed by the mess.

Hi Rachel,

Congrats, on the move.

Yeah, wait until spring to clean the mess. lol.

Plants and moving vehicles don't mix either..Once you make that sharp turn or sudden stop as the light changes from yellow to red.

You should try doing this commercially. I've:

1. got wet compost on the deep pink carpet of the office of then deputy Prime Minster of the UK, John Prescott.

2. been present when someone watering a wall planter overhanging a balcony missed and poured water into someone downstairs' handbag.

3. watched the same person attempt to unload a trough out of our van - mercifully it was destined for the bin anyway. See attached link for pic.

Here is a link that might be useful: Link to my blog