GGClub - From Grass to Gardens - Not Thanking

I am loving From Grass to Gardens and there are so many wonderful gardening tips that I want it available to all, so am entering it on this blog. Following are quotes from Janet Lembke, maybe slightly paraphrased, and my comments, too. Please hit reply and add your own comments.


This was a very interesting section about NOT THANKING people for things. Love to hear people's comments on this.

pg 58 plus
A friend of her mother's gifted her cuttings and Janet tried to thank her but the friend stopped her, saying "Don't say it. Never thank anyone who gives you plants. It blights them."

From an article from 1800s in North Carolina - "Never thank anyone who gives you seed; if you do, they will never do any good."

Italy - Not thank for lighting a cigarette.

Fairies should not be thanked or they will rage (house elves in Harry Potter).

Karen Baldwin, professor of folklore at East Carolina U - Traditional healers is not to be thanked - it vitiates the cure, annihilates its power. Not thanking is traditional int he South. Healing done through me, not by me, so the gods are to be thanked, not me. Janet often digs up plants from neighbor's weed patches to rescue them, and Karen says this is an honored tradition. Helping yourself to a cutting is perfectly acceptable, for a plant grown from a stolen cutting is said to root better than if it is given, but digging up is not so ok.