Fruits / Labor
Proto-Zucchini
Not a dild, not yet a woman.
This post will be in two halves.
The first will cover the notable therapeutic benefit I’ve found from tending to my plants, the second will be a sweep of the fruits our plants are finally bearing.
Fruits of Emotional Labor
I'm not often party to emphasizing articles that suggest a "natural" means to "fix" things like depression and mental illness, but I have found my backyard/garden to be compellingly therapeutic - even beyond what immersive video games can offer.
Gardening has all the trappings of truly beneficial therapy, rather than the lengthy distraction vid games ultimately provide. Distractions are important, but without a means to bring your energy into something actionable beyond completing quests, that can easily become a hole.
I've found outside plant tending to be much different than my previous experience with indoor.
I always rather ignored/killed my indoor plants. For whatever reason, I grew more responsible tending to outdoor fruit-yielding plants than I ever did with my indoor plants. This responsibility has had the added benefit of reflecting back on the care of my indoor plants, which has improved in a huge way.
I'm sure there's some grand moral in here somewhere, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Grow shit you can eat. The end.
The Healing Power of Gardens
Maria Popva, brainpickings.org
Fruits of Physical Labor
Despite every pest known to Portland, we’ve still managed to bring our fruiting plants through to fruition (woohoo, never got to use that word literally). Some of these flirted coyly with non-productive flowers (ex: all-male flowers for weeks on end). I’m all for gay flowers, but I also want muh damn squash. Finally the squash, zucchini, bell peppers, ground cherries, and tomatoes are showing promise. I hope the hops are soon to follow, as they’ve shot up nearly two feet in a matter of days (horrifying).
A slideshow of my delicious seed sacks:
