Speaker 1: Yeah. Here, Yeah, he's listening up a little straw. He's
Speaker 1: making cocktails. Game, he's making a teeny martini. It's so cute.
Speaker 1: If you're anything like my producer Molly, who loves cooking
Speaker 1: shows and also loves watching people make miniature versions of
Speaker 1: food online, then you might be one of the six
Speaker 1: hundred thousand plus followers of the Tiny Chef on Instagram.
Speaker 1: The tiny Chef's account is mostly stop motion style videos
Speaker 1: of a tiny, green felt character known as you Guessed
Speaker 1: it Tiny Chef, and as he bakes tiny apple pies
Speaker 1: and bottle cap miniature artisanal breads, tiny pizzas. He's even
Speaker 1: opened up the smallest lemonade stand. Followers just can't get
Speaker 1: enough of his small stature and even smaller culinary delights.
Speaker 1: The Tiny Chef's growing fandom is just one example of
Speaker 1: how much people love little things. We obsess over the
Speaker 1: charm of tiny things and their overall cuteness, and there
Speaker 1: might be a psychological reason for this. The anthropologist cloud
Speaker 1: Levi Strauss theorized that because we can see and comprehend
Speaker 1: tiny things in their entirety, they don't threaten us, and
Speaker 1: that makes us feel powerful. I mean, that's one explanation.
Speaker 1: But I also wonder if our love of all things
Speaker 1: small might have to do with our innate nurturing abilities
Speaker 1: as humans, and maybe we actually feel protective over tiny things. Oh,
Speaker 1: this one's about meditation. This is oh my god. He's
Speaker 1: surrounded with like ey, tiny miniature plants look like succulents.
Speaker 1: But they're they're his size. They're they're tiny chef's size.
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to breathing with him way way. It's so cute.
Speaker 1: It would also explain why we love tiny plants. This year,
Speaker 1: The l A Times identified tiny plants as one of
Speaker 1: the biggest plant trends for two thousand twenty one. That's right,
Speaker 1: there's an entire genre just for petite plants from teensy
Speaker 1: weensy cacti, which I don't think are the scientific name
Speaker 1: to dwarf fruit trees. But why is this the first
Speaker 1: I've heard of these little bitty topi areas? And why
Speaker 1: is everyone catching onto them now? And more importantly, are
Speaker 1: tiny plants just a passing fad or a plant movement
Speaker 1: with roots? I think it's time we found out. Hey. There,
Speaker 1: I'm Mongais Particular, co host of Part Time Genius, one
Speaker 1: of the unders of mental flaws. And this is Humans
Speaker 1: Growing Stuff, a collaboration from My Heart Radio and your
Speaker 1: friends at Miracle Grow. Our goal is to make this
Speaker 1: the most human show about plants you'll ever listen to.
Speaker 1: Along the way, we'll share inspiring stories, tips and tricks
Speaker 1: to nurture your plant addiction, and just enough science to
Speaker 1: make you sound like an expert. On this episode, we
Speaker 1: are getting small and exploring the tiny plants and miniature
Speaker 1: trees that are taking the world by stem. I want
Speaker 1: to learn how tiny plants have elbowed their much bigger
Speaker 1: brothers out of the way to capture the spotlight, and
Speaker 1: also does this tiny plant obsession overlap with our love
Speaker 1: of tiny houses. Plus, we'll hear from one of our
Speaker 1: favorite Green Thumb comedians, Angela Johnson Reyes, and talk to
Speaker 1: her about how Instagram is feeding her plant passion and
Speaker 1: I'm going to get her thoughts on the tiny plant movement.
Speaker 1: To stick with me, this is going to be fun.
Speaker 1: Chapter thirteen, Big Dreams and Tinier Plants. We spent so
Speaker 1: much of the last year inside our homes, homes of
Speaker 1: all shapes and sizes, and as we saw the resurgence
Speaker 1: of victory gardens at the start of the pandemic, house
Speaker 1: plants have also seen this noticeable uptick and popularity. They've
Speaker 1: provided the millions of homebound folks people like me, with
Speaker 1: this much needed source of comfort and therapy. And living
Speaker 1: in a city surrounded by people who have been stuck
Speaker 1: in their apartments, I am acutely aware of the limited
Speaker 1: space many of us have for our plants, which might
Speaker 1: also be why so many new plant parents have found
Speaker 1: themselves attracted to tiny plants. To learn more about this
Speaker 1: growing part of the plant community, I wanted to chat
Speaker 1: with Leslie Halleck. In addition to literally writing the book
Speaker 1: on tiny plants, Leslie is a self proclaimed plant geek,
Speaker 1: and she's dedicated nearly thirty years of her career to
Speaker 1: working with various areas of horticulture, from scientific research to
Speaker 1: landscaping and green industry marketing. So of course I had
Speaker 1: to call her up. Hey, Leslie, are you there? I
Speaker 1: am here. Hi. Hi, It's so nice to be chatting
Speaker 1: with you. I know, thanks, I'm excited. I'm so enchanted
Speaker 1: by your story. I want to hear a little bit
Speaker 1: about how you fell in love with tiny plants. You're
Speaker 1: speaking to my heart because I'm obsessed with all things tiny,
Speaker 1: tiny plants, tiny chihuahua's, tiny everything. I sort of have
Speaker 1: a little bit of an obsession with that. And as
Speaker 1: a professional horticulturist, you know, I've gone through many phases
Speaker 1: of plant obsessions, but I always come back to teeny
Speaker 1: tiny plants. My tiny plant obsession probably hit me back
Speaker 1: in the mid nineties, back in the day when I
Speaker 1: was doing field research work in Puerto Rico, in the
Speaker 1: National Rainforest in the Kiel region of Puerto Rico. I
Speaker 1: was living up that old research station up in the
Speaker 1: mountains and going out every day taking data on research
Speaker 1: that had to do with Herricane Hugo that had come
Speaker 1: through and completely defoliated the rainforest. So I was there,
Speaker 1: you know, geeking out taking plant data, and one day
Speaker 1: I just happened out of the corner of my eye
Speaker 1: to catch this little tiny blip of sort of a
Speaker 1: pinkish red color, And you know, you're always on the
Speaker 1: look for, lookout for orchids in that situation, and sure enough,
Speaker 1: I discovered this itty bitty tiny species of le panthes
Speaker 1: orchids growing on rocks, and the flowers are only a
Speaker 1: couple of millimeters in size, and I just absolutely fell
Speaker 1: in love. And after that I began building the variums
Speaker 1: and terrariums and keeping poison dark frogs and all sorts
Speaker 1: of others that require teeny tiny animals, teeny tiny frogs
Speaker 1: that require you to build the habitats that include species
Speaker 1: that are conducive to their their life and they're breeding.
Speaker 1: So I just kind of got into all things tiny
Speaker 1: and have sort of obsessively collected and grown teeny tiny
Speaker 1: plants ever since. That is so great. So tell me
Speaker 1: about your book. Why did you decide to write about
Speaker 1: tiny plants? And please say the full title because it
Speaker 1: is really charming. Oh yes, Tiny Plants Discover the Joys
Speaker 1: of Growing and Collecting Any Bitty house Plants is the
Speaker 1: full long name. When publishers come to you and they
Speaker 1: want you to write about something, you want to write
Speaker 1: about something that you're passionate about that you can inspire
Speaker 1: other people to do. And you know, after writing Gardening
Speaker 1: under Lights, which was a little more technical, and then
Speaker 1: Plant Parenting, which is very technique based, I wanted to
Speaker 1: do something a little more fun, and probably I convinced
Speaker 1: them to let me do Tiny Plants because I just thought,
Speaker 1: you know, it seemed like the right moment, with indoor
Speaker 1: plants becoming so popular. I just wanted to give people
Speaker 1: a window into a type of plant collecting they may
Speaker 1: not have experienced. Yeah. Completely, And so what are some
Speaker 1: of your favorite types of tiny plants? You know, plants
Speaker 1: come go in terms of their popularity, right, and sometimes
Speaker 1: they're they're really popular and highly available, and then they
Speaker 1: cycle back out. So those types of availabilities come in waves.
Speaker 1: But teeny tiny bagonia, so I grow a lot of bogonias.
Speaker 1: There are some really cool micro aeroids that related to
Speaker 1: a lot of the larger aeroids we grow, like philodendron.
Speaker 1: So there's some really tiny philodendrons that are really cool.
Speaker 1: I really love little micro sundews, their little, tiny, tiny
Speaker 1: carnivorous plants. And you'll find those tiny plants which are
Speaker 1: just fascinating. There again, the size of about the tip
Speaker 1: of your fingertip. I'm obsessed with many different species of
Speaker 1: tiny Have you seen the tiny plant movement grow during
Speaker 1: this last period and what do you think the enthusiasm
Speaker 1: for it is based in. Yeah, I have seen it grow,
Speaker 1: partially because I've just been forcing it on everybody. I
Speaker 1: love it, and I just do you give them? Did
Speaker 1: you give tiny plants to people? I do? I do.
Speaker 1: I do give tiny plants. And that's another great thing
Speaker 1: about tiny plants is that they're easy to gift. You know,
Speaker 1: they're easy. You know, they don't take a lot of space,
Speaker 1: and you can propagate them and they're easy to give. UM.
Speaker 1: But I have seen we'll call it sort of miniature
Speaker 1: gardening across the board, and I am not talking about
Speaker 1: fairy gardening, so put fairy gardening aside. We're talking about
Speaker 1: is scale. So what's been great is that in the
Speaker 1: last few years there are a lot of new dwarf
Speaker 1: vegetable and fruit varieties that have come out on the market.
Speaker 1: Uh and and a lot of smaller plant species for
Speaker 1: houseplant culture. People who live in smaller spaces, smaller apartments,
Speaker 1: don't have a yard. Dwarf edibles are fantastic. Also if
Speaker 1: you're growing edibles inside, I think tiny plants offer up
Speaker 1: a really great solution. So small scale across the board,
Speaker 1: miniature gardening, tiny indoor plans, I think is a really
Speaker 1: helpful way to keep indulging in your gardening habit without
Speaker 1: running out of space and it also takes less resources too.
Speaker 1: So how does the care for a tiny plant differ
Speaker 1: from that of a regular plant. Some things are going
Speaker 1: to be very much the same and other things will
Speaker 1: be a little bit different. A lot of teeny tiny
Speaker 1: plants maybe hemi epiphytic or semi epiphytic and may require
Speaker 1: higher humidity. So growing under glass, you know, maybe something
Speaker 1: that you do more often with some of the very
Speaker 1: tiny plant species than you would like the bigger aeroids.
Speaker 1: But that's easy to do because you don't need much
Speaker 1: space and you don't need a big container to do that. Um.
Speaker 1: They can also be a little more sensitive to water
Speaker 1: quality and over fertilizing, so you have to be a
Speaker 1: little bit more careful. I tend to use mostly rain
Speaker 1: water or ro o water exclusively, like on my micro
Speaker 1: orchids and my synergis some of the more sensitive plants.
Speaker 1: And you have to be really careful on fertilizers, so
Speaker 1: I usually cut fertilizer down to maybe a quarter or
Speaker 1: even less of the recommended application, right, because you can
Speaker 1: easily burn you know, tiny plants if you're not careful
Speaker 1: with your fertilizers. So you know, all things um in scale, right,
Speaker 1: so pineer plants, you may go tinier, you know, tinier
Speaker 1: with your containers, tinier with your fertilizers. So there are
Speaker 1: some things that you have to be a little bit
Speaker 1: more careful with. Conversely, when you're growing tiny plants underglass,
Speaker 1: they can become very low maintenance. You hardly ever have
Speaker 1: to water them. So you know, there's some things that
Speaker 1: are a little trickier and some things that are easier.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. So, um, do you think tiny plants are
Speaker 1: a trend or do you think this is something that's
Speaker 1: here to stay. So you know, things that were popular
Speaker 1: in the sixties and seventies are popular again now and
Speaker 1: those will fade away, and right, it's going to happen
Speaker 1: again and again. Right, there are cycles that always happen,
Speaker 1: so I expect there to be a cycle to that. However,
Speaker 1: I think that the pandemic has really opened up the
Speaker 1: world of gardening and plant keeping in sort of an
Speaker 1: exponential way for people that I think as a hobby,
Speaker 1: it's much more here to stay than a cyclic trend
Speaker 1: than just a straight up trend. I think people are
Speaker 1: going to keep gardening and plant keeping embedded in their
Speaker 1: lifestyle much more significantly than than in the past, and
Speaker 1: I think in terms of scale, growing small, growing tiny.
Speaker 1: I think again part of that is a matter of
Speaker 1: people being cooped up inside without necessarily a lot of
Speaker 1: outdoor space. So they need to be able to fit
Speaker 1: plants in whatever space they have, and that may not
Speaker 1: be a yard, that may be a window sill, that
Speaker 1: may be a balcony. My definition of gardening is one
Speaker 1: plant in one pot. If you're doing that, you're gardening.
Speaker 1: You can be a gardener in lots of different ways,
Speaker 1: and I want to make sure that folks that live
Speaker 1: in small spaces or you know, just are trying to
Speaker 1: bring some nature to their desk. Plants are such an
Speaker 1: important part of our health and wellness and you know,
Speaker 1: mental happiness exactly. So we asked this question on our
Speaker 1: show a Lot. Do you think caring for plants makes
Speaker 1: us happier or makes us better people? Plants make me
Speaker 1: really happy, and I think they make everybody happy, and
Speaker 1: I think that right now we all really need to
Speaker 1: invest in our health and wellness. This past year has
Speaker 1: been really stressful for everybody. Gardening and plant keeping it's
Speaker 1: an amazing stress reducer. I love observing the plants I
Speaker 1: love observing how they change. I completely freak out when
Speaker 1: one of my micro orchids blooms. If you hear me
Speaker 1: yell from across my house, like it's probably because something
Speaker 1: just flowered. I just get so excited. And you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not a newbie. I've been doing this a long time.
Speaker 1: That enthusiasm has never waned for me. And there is
Speaker 1: always a new plant to discover. Here's the big secret
Speaker 1: about horticulture and gardening. Nobody knows everything. Nobody will ever
Speaker 1: know everything. We can call ourselves ex experts, but even
Speaker 1: as an expert myself, I learn every day. And that's
Speaker 1: a great way to keep your brain healthy, right, There's
Speaker 1: always something new to learn out the natural world and plants,
Speaker 1: And so I hope that my book Tiny Plants can
Speaker 1: bring a little joy and happiness into a plant parents
Speaker 1: world and expose them to something new that they can
Speaker 1: learn today and as they move forward in their new hobby. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have to get your book and surround it
Speaker 1: with lots of tiny plants and squee. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for being here, Leslie. I really really appreciate it absolutely.
Speaker 1: Thanks for so so much for having me. It was
Speaker 1: a joy. And now for another poetry corner. This poem
Speaker 1: is called little Meal for two. I carefully sliced up
Speaker 1: my dwarf fig for this tiny fruit plate for two.
Speaker 1: I plucked up all my baby corn and made this
Speaker 1: tiny stew. I placed it all on tiny plates and
Speaker 1: a horrible healthy brunch. But once we've hugged and said goodbyes,
Speaker 1: I'm ordering food for lunch. Thank you. So I'm kind
Speaker 1: of getting why people love tiny plants. But I've got
Speaker 1: to say my first real fascination with tiny things probably
Speaker 1: started with tiny houses. We started writing about them years
Speaker 1: ago on a website I used to run, but it's
Speaker 1: incredible to see they are more than just a fad.
Speaker 1: According to the New York Times, some tiny house builders
Speaker 1: saw a one hundred and seventy seven percent increase in sales.
Speaker 1: And it makes a ton of sense when you think
Speaker 1: about it. Tiny houses started as people wanting to decrease
Speaker 1: their carbon footprint, and now with more city dwellers heading
Speaker 1: out of town, trading those concrete buildings for the wide
Speaker 1: open spaces of nature, the tiny home movement is alive
Speaker 1: and well. And while they unrelated except for their size,
Speaker 1: tiny plants and tiny houses have a lot more in
Speaker 1: common than meets the eye. I wanted to learn more
Speaker 1: about where that then diagram of tiny homes and plants overlap.
Speaker 1: So I called up Ethan and Jesse Waldman. Ethan is
Speaker 1: the founder and curator of the site the tiny house
Speaker 1: dot Net, and his brother Jesse is the brand developer
Speaker 1: at Pistols Nursery in Portland, Oregon. The two recently collaborated
Speaker 1: on a piece for the tiny house dot Net about
Speaker 1: the best plants for tiny houses and spoiler, the tiny
Speaker 1: mounted jungle cacti is definitely a favorite. Ethan, Jesse, are
Speaker 1: you there? Yeah? Hey, how's it going. Hey, it's so
Speaker 1: nice to be chatting with both of you. I am
Speaker 1: so excited to talk about tiny homes and tiny plants
Speaker 1: and all of the tininess to come. Ethan, tell me,
Speaker 1: I know you're an expert on tiny homes, and I'm curious,
Speaker 1: what is it about these tiny homes that really makes
Speaker 1: a difference for people. I mean, they have gotten so
Speaker 1: popular and they've gone from when I was doing it.
Speaker 1: If you said the word tiny house, you know, people
Speaker 1: kind of looked at you with with a blank stare,
Speaker 1: and now it's hard to find somebody that doesn't understand
Speaker 1: when you say tiny house. They have a very specific
Speaker 1: picture in their head of a house on a trailer
Speaker 1: because they've seen the various tiny house shows. You know,
Speaker 1: when I did this, I'm a millennial. I was graduating
Speaker 1: from college right around the time that two thousand eight,
Speaker 1: two thousand nine the stock market kind of crashed and
Speaker 1: people were losing their homes, and so I assumed that
Speaker 1: it was going to be a lot of millennials doing it.
Speaker 1: And now I see a huge number of people who
Speaker 1: are retiring. Who are you know, building or buying tiny
Speaker 1: houses as a way of actually being able to retire.
Speaker 1: That's really interesting. And Jesse, what about you? Do you
Speaker 1: have a tiny house as well? I do not. I
Speaker 1: love visiting Ethans though it's it's amazing how well designed
Speaker 1: his is that it doesn't really feel tiny. It's quite comfortable.
Speaker 1: That's what's so appealing about them, right like, is that
Speaker 1: they're often so thoughtfully designed. I mean to me, the
Speaker 1: other part of it is that it feels like, particularly
Speaker 1: after this last year and people being quarantined and people
Speaker 1: stuck in their homes, having a small space in somewhere
Speaker 1: that's really beautiful really matters. To people. Absolutely, and that's
Speaker 1: you know, that's something that because the house is small,
Speaker 1: it really turns the outside into your living room. You
Speaker 1: see the outside way more because you're always very close
Speaker 1: to a window, and you also are going outside way more.
Speaker 1: And so do you see this as kind of a
Speaker 1: trend or more of a cultural shift. I think it's
Speaker 1: started as a trend and it's becoming a cultural shift.
Speaker 1: I think that it fits in really nicely with other
Speaker 1: things that you're seeing people really embrace, like Marie Condo
Speaker 1: and the idea of minimalism and owning less things. It
Speaker 1: fits in with the environmentalism. Living in a smaller house
Speaker 1: and having a smaller footprint is definitely a piece of
Speaker 1: that puzzle. So I do think that it's it was
Speaker 1: a trend and now it's becoming part of the culture. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I do think there is something too when you
Speaker 1: hair things down, you really value the things you have
Speaker 1: and take advantage of right, and and also how you're
Speaker 1: spending your time. So Jesse, before I ask you the same,
Speaker 1: let's take a step back. How do you define a
Speaker 1: tiny plant and how are they different from normal plants?
Speaker 1: I think that for me, a tiny plant probably would
Speaker 1: be one that you're not really going to have to
Speaker 1: worry about graduating past like a four inch pot. There
Speaker 1: are plants that maybe have shallow roots systems. So you know,
Speaker 1: you might buy a little plant that's in a small
Speaker 1: pot that has like little leaves that are like two
Speaker 1: inches long. But if you actually give it the growth,
Speaker 1: the growth kind of environmental conditions that it it once,
Speaker 1: For example, you might have it climb up a they're
Speaker 1: called moss poles um They kind of mimic plants that
Speaker 1: climb up trees, and in nature, when they start climbing,
Speaker 1: there's actually like a physiological shift that happens when they
Speaker 1: can sense that they're climbing, and if they're getting that
Speaker 1: right light and they're getting that support, like boom, that
Speaker 1: two inch leaf. Like the next leaf that comes out
Speaker 1: might be six inches and then twelve inches, and then
Speaker 1: like all of a sudden, you have this massive tropical blind.
Speaker 1: You know, the plants that we're talking about, like the
Speaker 1: pepper roma as the rhizomatos Pagonia is a little alo howorthia,
Speaker 1: some some ferns um or chids. These are plants that
Speaker 1: are are not going to do that. They're not going
Speaker 1: to have any sort of like major physiological change between
Speaker 1: their juvenile form, like when their first propagated or they're
Speaker 1: first growing from seed and their mature forms. So I
Speaker 1: think that that's kind of the The main difference is
Speaker 1: just like what does the plant look like when it's
Speaker 1: a baby versus when it's an adult. So you two
Speaker 1: collaborated on this blog post helping tiny homeowners with the
Speaker 1: ideal tiny plants that can fit within their designs. Can
Speaker 1: you talk us through some of those tiny plants? Yeah,
Speaker 1: absolutely so. I think that there are kind of a
Speaker 1: couple of different approaches when thinking about fitting plants into,
Speaker 1: you know, a small space. Certainly a very reasonable one
Speaker 1: is to look for plants that are just small by nature.
Speaker 1: And another one thing to note is, you know, sometimes
Speaker 1: and you probably won't know this when you go into
Speaker 1: the nursery, but some plants are actually sprayed with growth
Speaker 1: inhibitors that that kind of keep them small. That is
Speaker 1: something that is not going to you know, say that
Speaker 1: on the label. But if you do your research into
Speaker 1: the plant um and you know, look at the what
Speaker 1: it looks like when it becomes a mature plant versus
Speaker 1: what you're seeing in the nursery, you might you might
Speaker 1: be able to get a little que as to whether
Speaker 1: or not that's happened. But yeah, so a couple of
Speaker 1: great small plants. There's a couple of different genuses that
Speaker 1: the plants just kind of stay small by nature. One
Speaker 1: is the pepper Roma genus. I really love these plants.
Speaker 1: They kind of have like fleshy, semi succulent sorts of leaves.
Speaker 1: A lot of them kind of have a creeping growth habit,
Speaker 1: or if they're growing upright, they're just like form like
Speaker 1: a very kind of a small little bush. Almost. One
Speaker 1: that I really love is called pepperromea prostrata. It's i
Speaker 1: would say, one of the trendiest plants right now. Sometimes
Speaker 1: called string of turtles. Little leaves they look like just
Speaker 1: like little tiny little beads, and they kind of have
Speaker 1: like a little striping pattern on them, makes them look
Speaker 1: like little turtles. There's a lot of string us right
Speaker 1: now in the plants where others string of hearts during bananas,
Speaker 1: during a fishhooks during of dolphins, string of pearls. Another
Speaker 1: genus that is really cool is the Tolanzia genus. Tolanxia
Speaker 1: are often referred to as air plants. They're called air
Speaker 1: plants because they actually don't grow in soil. These plants
Speaker 1: are super unique. To water them, you actually soak them
Speaker 1: in a bowl of water because their roots system is
Speaker 1: literally just exist to hold them onto whatever they're growing on.
Speaker 1: In nature, they're just entirely free floating. So you can
Speaker 1: just like set them on a shelf, put them in
Speaker 1: a bowl, uh, stick them on a window sill. They're
Speaker 1: really unique. They're great in terrariums, and they come in
Speaker 1: all different sizes and colors, and they flower eventually. They're
Speaker 1: they're quite cool. I think air plants are so incredible.
Speaker 1: How hard are they to maintain? You know, they kind
Speaker 1: of have a reputation for being really easy. You know,
Speaker 1: we hear a lot of people come into the nursery
Speaker 1: and say, oh, those air plants, they just all they
Speaker 1: need is air. That is not true. Um, they definitely
Speaker 1: need water. I always kill mine, by the way. They're
Speaker 1: honestly not. They're not the easiest in order to get
Speaker 1: them to to really thrive. The you know, they're getting
Speaker 1: the water for the air, so humidity is great, so
Speaker 1: they and to thrive you know, in a bathroom as
Speaker 1: long as it gets decent natural light. They do need
Speaker 1: a fair amount of natural light to to thrive. They
Speaker 1: don't want direct light as much as, like, you know,
Speaker 1: they need to be soaked and watered. They also don't
Speaker 1: tolerate staying wet for too long. So what we like
Speaker 1: to tell people to do is, after they're done soaking
Speaker 1: their air plant to you know, literally inverted, put it
Speaker 1: upside down on a towel in a window sill, so
Speaker 1: it's gonna fully dry out within an hour or two.
Speaker 1: I love that they seem so low maintenance, and then
Speaker 1: they're actually pretty ivan not on like a tiny house.
Speaker 1: So in terms of these tiny houses, have you seen
Speaker 1: people grow gardens outside of them? And do you feel
Speaker 1: like tiny homes create an opportunity for growing and harvesting
Speaker 1: your own food. Yeah? Absolutely. I mean, you know, tiny
Speaker 1: homes fit a little bit into the whole permaculture movement.
Speaker 1: I know a few people who really just have designed
Speaker 1: an entire system around their tiny house where you know,
Speaker 1: they're they're harvesting the rain water off the roof. A
Speaker 1: lot of tiny homes have compost toilets, and then they're
Speaker 1: using that to grow plants, and it's, you know, just
Speaker 1: this big self sustaining cycle. Not to say, everybody is
Speaker 1: doing that, but that's definitely uh small subset of the movement.
Speaker 1: And can you describe exactly what perman culture is for
Speaker 1: our listeners. I'm no pro. It's a design philosophy where
Speaker 1: you are thinking beyond just the needs of the plant,
Speaker 1: to the needs of the garden, to the needs of
Speaker 1: your entire property, and you you try to design systems
Speaker 1: that serve multiple needs. So a classic example of a
Speaker 1: perma culture, you know, a fish tank full of telapia
Speaker 1: that has you know that you can throw food scraps
Speaker 1: in and the tilapia eat the fish, and then the
Speaker 1: poop from the tilapia fertilizes makes this really great fertilizing
Speaker 1: water that you then feed into a garden like that.
Speaker 1: That's kind of a perma culture system that's really interesting
Speaker 1: to to contemplate. And like, how how many things you
Speaker 1: can build in and see that like sort of feed
Speaker 1: all these systems is pretty great. What are some things
Speaker 1: that are easy to grow that can sort of help
Speaker 1: fill your tiny home with delicious, healthy food? It? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's all gonna depend on your environment, right. Um,
Speaker 1: If we're talking about growing outdoors, it's possible to grow
Speaker 1: certain edible things. Indoors. Herbs for example, on a on
Speaker 1: a sunny window sill can do can do pretty well.
Speaker 1: But really, when you're talking about growing yourself food, you're
Speaker 1: gonna be you're gonna want to be leveraging your outdoor space.
Speaker 1: So if you're in a permanent space, I think that,
Speaker 1: you know, it's incredible what you can grow in a
Speaker 1: small raised bed. I think that if you have the
Speaker 1: capacity to build a garden box, the benefit there is
Speaker 1: that you're filling that soil up and it's able to
Speaker 1: not get compacted the way it would. You know, just
Speaker 1: if you're kind of digging out of bed in the
Speaker 1: ground and then you're you know, stepping around that soil
Speaker 1: compaction makes it really hard for the roots to grow deep,
Speaker 1: and the deeper the roots and healthier the roots systems.
Speaker 1: I think like one of the easiest things that can
Speaker 1: be grown in many, many different environments is just sally greens.
Speaker 1: Lettuces come up really fast. They don't need a ton
Speaker 1: of sun. In fact, they tend to bolt in the sun.
Speaker 1: Bolting just means they go to seed, and once a
Speaker 1: planet goes to seed, you're typically just done. One of
Speaker 1: my favorite things grow as radishes. I think I've acquired
Speaker 1: a taste for radishes because of how fun they are
Speaker 1: to grow, and then you know, depending on on on
Speaker 1: the light and your level of dedication. Tomatoes are like
Speaker 1: the classic thing to grow because homegrown tomato just tastes
Speaker 1: ten thousand times better than what you can get at
Speaker 1: the store, and it's pretty amazing as far as like
Speaker 1: space goes. You know, you can grow tomato in a
Speaker 1: five yallon bucket. Um. There are two different main types
Speaker 1: of tomato plants. There's determinate plants and in determinate plants.
Speaker 1: In determinate plants will just keep growing and growing and
Speaker 1: growing and growing forever, and they set fruit intermittently throughout
Speaker 1: their lives, whereas determinate plants grow to a set size
Speaker 1: and then they set all their fruit all at once.
Speaker 1: So that's what people with limited space would want to
Speaker 1: look for as a determinate variety. How has COVID impacted
Speaker 1: the popularity or culture of both tiny homes and tiny plants.
Speaker 1: I'll say, from the tiny home perspective, just out of control,
Speaker 1: bonkers interest. You know, there are a lot of people
Speaker 1: who are really suffering financially due to the pandemic and
Speaker 1: the appeal of tiny house living as a way of
Speaker 1: saving money and a way of having housing stability. People
Speaker 1: see it, and the governments and municipalities and cities are
Speaker 1: struggling scrambling to to change laws to make it legal,
Speaker 1: because it's not always legal to live in a tiny
Speaker 1: house in most places. And I would, uh, I would
Speaker 1: concur crazy bonkers over the top interest, you know, not
Speaker 1: specifically in tiny plants, but in plants in general. I
Speaker 1: think that you know, with COVID kind of as I
Speaker 1: was alluding to earlier, people are spending more times in
Speaker 1: their home. They might be missing that morning commute to work,
Speaker 1: that they walk through the park, or just that other
Speaker 1: touch points in their lives where they're able to connect
Speaker 1: with nature. And they want their homes to feel good.
Speaker 1: And you know, plants. Plants make a space feel good.
Speaker 1: You know, having plants around increase your productivity, They stabilize
Speaker 1: your mood. They actually make a space more comfortable by
Speaker 1: putting out humidity, um, they dampen the sound into space.
Speaker 1: So there's all sorts of ways because like above and
Speaker 1: below the surface, that having plants in your space can
Speaker 1: improve your quality of life. And so I think the
Speaker 1: kind of the bar for knowledge has gone way up,
Speaker 1: Like people come in and they know so much these days.
Speaker 1: It's just pretty incredible how it's turned into like a
Speaker 1: real community in a movement. Yeah, it is always impressive
Speaker 1: to me to see the different communities that have come
Speaker 1: up and emerged on Instagram and formed around things like plants,
Speaker 1: and also to see how specific those communities get. Do
Speaker 1: you think tiny plants are a part of that, and
Speaker 1: are they on Instagram trend or do you think they're
Speaker 1: here to stay? I think for me, like, I think
Speaker 1: that right now we're in a phase where people are
Speaker 1: discovering plants and they're discovering that they want to have
Speaker 1: them in their homes. Right. There are different kind of
Speaker 1: personality types and different things that you know, just naturally
Speaker 1: attract you. Some people want to get a toy poodle
Speaker 1: and other people want to get a same Bernard, Right.
Speaker 1: I think that the same goes with plants. Like there's
Speaker 1: so much information out there these days, and there's people
Speaker 1: are getting really deep. I think that that's kind of
Speaker 1: the what I'm noticing as a trend more than say
Speaker 1: like a shift towards tiny plants, but just people getting
Speaker 1: really into their kind of plant, like their pepper roma.
Speaker 1: People who want to have all the pepperonias. People are
Speaker 1: just becoming passionate, and the nursery industry is responding by
Speaker 1: diversifying and making these plants that were once super duper
Speaker 1: rare and hard to find, like putting an energy into
Speaker 1: you know, propagating them and having them available in greater quantity.
Speaker 1: And then you know, it's kind of a self perpetuating
Speaker 1: cycle that there's you know, greater availability, greater knowledge, uh,
Speaker 1: community forming around it. So like people are just kind
Speaker 1: of you know, finding what speaks to them, you know,
Speaker 1: for something that will be tiny plants for sure. And
Speaker 1: I would say that I think that there's an initial
Speaker 1: attraction that maybe a tiny plant and a tiny house shares,
Speaker 1: which is just there's a cute factor. Tiny houses are
Speaker 1: very popular on Instagram and Pinterest because they're just so
Speaker 1: visually appealing. You know, a lot of people might click
Speaker 1: on a tiny house. Nine out of ten of them
Speaker 1: may just be clicking on it to to just see it.
Speaker 1: And then maybe one of those people will see it
Speaker 1: and say, oh wow, this actually could be something that
Speaker 1: that would be really great for me, and they get
Speaker 1: interested and I think the same is probably true for
Speaker 1: house plants. You know, you see a really beautiful plant
Speaker 1: on Instagram and you click on it, and some people
Speaker 1: just might look, and then other people might say, you know,
Speaker 1: I it's beautiful and I want to put it on
Speaker 1: my coffee table, and so I think there's they share that.
Speaker 1: And another thing I think that's important to mention is, like,
Speaker 1: you know, there there obviously is a natural synchronicity between
Speaker 1: tiny home tiny plant. But I also think that like,
Speaker 1: just because you live in a small space doesn't mean
Speaker 1: you can't have any plant. Um. I mean, you might
Speaker 1: not physically be able to fit a giant tree in
Speaker 1: your home, but I think that you can really get
Speaker 1: creative and just activate different areas of the home if
Speaker 1: you're committed to, you know, having having greener in that space.
Speaker 1: Plants don't have to be just you know, in that
Speaker 1: big pot on the floor occupying your your living space.
Speaker 1: I like that. Ethan and Jesse, thank you both so
Speaker 1: much for being on this program. I'm I'm fascinated in
Speaker 1: what both of you do, and um throw to have
Speaker 1: you here. Thank you, Thanks so much. Humans Growing Stuff
Speaker 1: will be right back after a short break. Tiny Plants
Speaker 1: are so useful and for a small amount of space,
Speaker 1: they can do a lot of good. But as I've
Speaker 1: been researching some of the popular tiny plants for this episode,
Speaker 1: I couldn't help but think of how funny some of
Speaker 1: them are. The plants themselves are adorable, but also the
Speaker 1: names are hilarious, like et fingers come on. So I
Speaker 1: decided to give comedian Angela Johnson red As a call
Speaker 1: and get her take on them. Angela is a former
Speaker 1: cast member on Mad TV and sells out comedy tours
Speaker 1: across the country, and not only does she make me laugh,
Speaker 1: she's also an avid gardener. She and I caught up
Speaker 1: about what got her hooked on gardening, how Instagram has
Speaker 1: brought her closer to this new community, and what she
Speaker 1: thinks of some of the more comedic tiny plant names
Speaker 1: out there. Handeler, are you there? Yes? Hello, Hey, it's
Speaker 1: so nice to be chatting with you. I am so excited. Well,
Speaker 1: I've been watching some of your Facebook videos and and
Speaker 1: watching your enthusiasm for the garden, and we thought it
Speaker 1: would be super fun to have you on the show.
Speaker 1: I'm excited to talk about this because this is like
Speaker 1: a whole new world for me. That developed. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: love to share with every I'm like, how is everyone
Speaker 1: not gardening? Like everyone? Yeah, that's how I feel too,
Speaker 1: But I'm curious. Was gardening something you grew up with? Um? No?
Speaker 1: Actually really all new I full on. I took Ron
Speaker 1: Finley's master class and I learned a lot from him.
Speaker 1: And also, my brother got into plants before I did,
Speaker 1: and so he's the one who kind of got me into.
Speaker 1: So one day he came up right before quarantine January.
Speaker 1: I went with him to the plant district downtown l A.
Speaker 1: It was like we walked into this oasis and I
Speaker 1: was like, what, this is a real place with plants
Speaker 1: and flowers, and so I bought so many plants that day,
Speaker 1: and I started becoming a plant mom. And then it
Speaker 1: grew from there to a garden and everything. And then
Speaker 1: what did did you know immediately what to do because
Speaker 1: you've seen these videos? Or how did you get into
Speaker 1: gardening from there? Instagram? So I would watch videos on
Speaker 1: Instagram on YouTube, learning about spider mites, learning about like
Speaker 1: all kinds of things, and then it became personal. These
Speaker 1: plants there on my balcony and my bathroom and my bedroom.
Speaker 1: I remember the day my elephant ear plant. I was
Speaker 1: so proud of. It was like my biggest plant that
Speaker 1: I had ever purchased. And and she's in my my bedroom,
Speaker 1: and every morning I wake up and there she was
Speaker 1: in the corner. And one day I woke up and
Speaker 1: she was just weeping, like limping over. I didn't know
Speaker 1: what happened. When I tell you, I jumped out of
Speaker 1: my bed and rushed to her side like it was
Speaker 1: my child. It really became super personal, like I have
Speaker 1: a relationship with my plants, to the point where when
Speaker 1: I was moving, I had to find a foster home
Speaker 1: for my plants because I was like, my husband, he
Speaker 1: doesn't quite get it. And he's like, well, why can't
Speaker 1: she just get rid of him and get new ones
Speaker 1: when we get our new place, And I'm like, how
Speaker 1: dare you you make me? Hear you you walk your
Speaker 1: mouth sir? Yeah. So they became very personal to me,
Speaker 1: and I learned how to take care of them from
Speaker 1: videos online, and then I would share what I was
Speaker 1: learning with my fans online, and then people would message
Speaker 1: me and and we're so helpful and being like, hey,
Speaker 1: I think your plant has you know this going on?
Speaker 1: Maybe you put too much water, and it really became
Speaker 1: like a community online that we really just kind of
Speaker 1: supported each other and helped each other. Isn't that amazing
Speaker 1: how these groups have formed out of interest during these pandemics, right,
Speaker 1: Like people have actually made friends through Instagram and at
Speaker 1: least feel like they they have these connections, which is
Speaker 1: amazing totally. And then all like I get all the
Speaker 1: funny memes now, like my brother did plant Dad memes
Speaker 1: and gifts, and like you know, everybody's talking about their
Speaker 1: steamy chicks, like what they're going to spend their steamy
Speaker 1: check on, and like all the popular ones are like,
Speaker 1: you know, a new pair of shoes or whatever, Let's
Speaker 1: go to Red Lobster. We got that steamy check. And
Speaker 1: then all the plant Dad ones are like, you know,
Speaker 1: just got my steamy check. And then it's a picture
Speaker 1: of like four thousand plants in there. But I am
Speaker 1: surprised to hear you say that you hadn't done this before,
Speaker 1: because I I watched these videos and I see like
Speaker 1: you've got these beautiful beds and and you know, you've
Speaker 1: got everything from like Valencia orange tree to like you know,
Speaker 1: tomato plants to blueberries. I mean, it's it's impressive the
Speaker 1: variety of things you grew. And you know what. I
Speaker 1: my friend Dizzy Perkins, she would post her garden a lot,
Speaker 1: and it was very inspiring to me. It makes it
Speaker 1: feel doable, like, well, if she could do it, I
Speaker 1: can do it, you know. And even though I had
Speaker 1: no knowledge. And then I would message her and you like, hey, so,
Speaker 1: like how did you learn how to do it? She's like,
Speaker 1: I just started. I just gave it a go, and
Speaker 1: you learn as you go. And even and Ron Finling
Speaker 1: his master class too, he teaches that too, like there
Speaker 1: is no really like right or wrong. You just start.
Speaker 1: And he's like, you can plant anything in an old suitcase,
Speaker 1: in an old boot. And he pulls out an old boot,
Speaker 1: put some soil in it, but a little seedling in
Speaker 1: it and some water, and he's like, boom, there you go,
Speaker 1: you have your garden. I feel like it's funny because
Speaker 1: after I started gardening, when I'd be driving down the
Speaker 1: street and I would see an empty patch of weed
Speaker 1: growing grass like by the freeway, I'd be like, oh,
Speaker 1: that'd be a good garden. Your eyes start seeing just
Speaker 1: all the possibilities for it, and I hope it just
Speaker 1: grows and grows. Yeah, I mean it is funny, this
Speaker 1: like new awareness you have for things. Right. I feel
Speaker 1: like even in my apartment, I noticed now where the
Speaker 1: light is and which are is a cooler and you
Speaker 1: know you're thinking about it from a plant's perspective instead
Speaker 1: of your own. Something about it from the plant's perspective.
Speaker 1: That's hilarious. But I'm so true. But I really hope
Speaker 1: that my kids don't hear that part about the boot
Speaker 1: because I feel like I'm gonna end up with one
Speaker 1: like one sneaker that's functional and one that has a
Speaker 1: plant in it for all. And even let me tell you,
Speaker 1: when I have to prune, I know it's a part
Speaker 1: of the process, right, I have a hard time almost
Speaker 1: whenever I have to prune. I come and I think,
Speaker 1: I think, my my girl, like thank you so much
Speaker 1: for the life that you've provided. Just let the joy,
Speaker 1: the oxygen, like everything you're you've served your purpose and
Speaker 1: I thank you so much. Like I'm such a weird
Speaker 1: plant lady now like Marie, kind of an emotional moment
Speaker 1: with my stems and I'm like, thank you, and then
Speaker 1: I like gear myself up to actually cut it, and
Speaker 1: I thank you for the new life that's going to
Speaker 1: come from you by So, one of the things we're
Speaker 1: talking about is that as people in quarantine have gotten
Speaker 1: super into gardening and been encouraged by Instagram and stuff,
Speaker 1: they've sort of done the base level of gardening, but
Speaker 1: slowly people are figuring out what their niches are in
Speaker 1: terms of like their interests. And so one of the
Speaker 1: things we've seen is that people are really into tiny plants.
Speaker 1: And so I want to ask you a little bit
Speaker 1: about this. But I saw that you had, either on
Speaker 1: purpose or accidentally, grown very tiny potatoes in your garden.
Speaker 1: What do tiny potatoes taste like? Oh my god, they
Speaker 1: tasted amazing because I just washed them, put some olive oil,
Speaker 1: salt and pepper and throw them in the oven. I
Speaker 1: had like these little little potato fries. Well, I was asking,
Speaker 1: have you noticed on your Instagram feed or even with
Speaker 1: your family's interactions that people are starting to play in
Speaker 1: the tiny plant space? Um, for sure, because it's easy
Speaker 1: and it's cute, and especially if you've downsized in the
Speaker 1: quarantine COVID days and you don't have much room, start
Speaker 1: with a little tiny plants and they're super cute. Sure,
Speaker 1: So I have a list of tiny plants and some
Speaker 1: are super weird, some are super fun, and I'm curious,
Speaker 1: just on a gut reaction, do you think these plants
Speaker 1: are good to having at home or do you think
Speaker 1: they have some bad juju? So I'm gonna ask you
Speaker 1: the name and you tell me first reactions. Google weed
Speaker 1: what I mean? I guess that depends on if it's
Speaker 1: legal in your state then that would depend. But I
Speaker 1: would say yes for for the Google weed or Doogle
Speaker 1: eat whateveras it uh Superstar Creeper, Superstar creeper. I mean
Speaker 1: that's like, you're not just a peeping tom, but you're
Speaker 1: like the best of the best peeping Tom's. You're a
Speaker 1: superstar creeper. That's what that says to me. So I
Speaker 1: would say no on the Superstar Creeper. Yeah, I know,
Speaker 1: I wasn't sure. Does the superstar elevate it to like
Speaker 1: a curiosity or is it just so creepy that not
Speaker 1: worth it? The best creeps mini money warts, many money wore.
Speaker 1: Anything with Wart makes me go, So I would say
Speaker 1: pass on that because you don't want warts all over
Speaker 1: your money eating. You're gonna be like, what did I
Speaker 1: spend my money? On this week and be like, I
Speaker 1: don't know you talked to many money war over here,
Speaker 1: you'd go over here making you spend things. I am
Speaker 1: with you this one. I think you might like Tree
Speaker 1: of a thousand Stars, three of a thousand stars. Love
Speaker 1: that that? Yeah, that feels very like universe earthy, like
Speaker 1: very much like I want to go, like meditate next
Speaker 1: to my Tree of a thousand stars. Yeah, it sounds
Speaker 1: like a gorgeous constellation or something. So this is called
Speaker 1: a baby jade, but it's got some nicknames et fingers
Speaker 1: and shreks plant et fingers. It sounds like it's very nubby,
Speaker 1: sounds like it looks like a twitty role but also
Speaker 1: with a little glowy bold at the end. Yes, keep
Speaker 1: that one. How about the energy on this one? A
Speaker 1: weeping fig. Well, I'm gonna say yes on that one,
Speaker 1: because sometimes you just need to let a good cry out,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, And after you let out
Speaker 1: a good cry you just feel so much better, like
Speaker 1: so much release, And maybe the weeping fig will help
Speaker 1: you and it will help absorb it. So I say
Speaker 1: yes and thank you, Weeping Fig. And one last one,
Speaker 1: fiend finger, Oh oh, a fiend finger that one sounds
Speaker 1: a little devious, that one sounds like a rebel, like
Speaker 1: she's a little type away. I feel like she's got
Speaker 1: some sass, and I'm gonna say yes, because we all
Speaker 1: need a little sass in our lives. Yeah, I agree
Speaker 1: with you. So why do you think people love miniature
Speaker 1: so much? In your opinion? Because they're cute. I think
Speaker 1: anytime I love animals, I love dogs. So if I
Speaker 1: see a doodle, I'm like, oh my god, you're so cute.
Speaker 1: I want to cuddle you and like spoon you. But
Speaker 1: then if you see a mini doodle, it's just so
Speaker 1: much cuter. It's like, oh my god, you're a mini
Speaker 1: version of that. And I feel like it's plants like
Speaker 1: anything many and tiny is so keyte. So, I I
Speaker 1: know that you've switched houses, but I love seeing how
Speaker 1: your community came out to name your garden. And can
Speaker 1: you tell us a little bit about how you came
Speaker 1: up with that idea and then and then what the
Speaker 1: process is like. Okay, So I had been talking with
Speaker 1: my my followers on on Instagram and Facebook and everything
Speaker 1: about a garden and getting into plants and everything, and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna build my garden and I put a whole
Speaker 1: video together and like, here's my new garden, and I
Speaker 1: need help picking out names. And so everyone was submitting
Speaker 1: so many cool creative names, things that were like Spanish,
Speaker 1: touching on my culture, things that were spiritual, touching on
Speaker 1: that aspect of my life, and really just showing like
Speaker 1: all the different parts of like who I am. But
Speaker 1: I'm also a comedian. So I had a lot of
Speaker 1: funny names that were submitted, and these were some of
Speaker 1: my favorite funny names. Armor garden, seed you later, garden,
Speaker 1: good vines, only bone thugs and harvestry, nothing but a
Speaker 1: p thing, Notorious, b I Greens, I'm in Love with
Speaker 1: a pepper, and covid teen gardens. Oh there was also
Speaker 1: a garden of eaton. These are these are great names,
Speaker 1: aren't they? The right? I ended up going with Queen's
Speaker 1: Greens because my husband calls me queen, but also I
Speaker 1: am a queen and like I wanted to embrace that.
Speaker 1: And also my friend Penelope was living with me and
Speaker 1: she was helping me with the garden, and she's a
Speaker 1: queen too, So it became like Queen's Greens and the
Speaker 1: other name that I almost picked, but I will definitely
Speaker 1: be using for something else. Was Rays of Sunshine because
Speaker 1: my married last name is Reyes Yea and I love
Speaker 1: that name, so I'm definitely gonna use that for something.
Speaker 1: Nobody's still all punch you, Angela. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for being here. Is such a delightful conversation and so
Speaker 1: fun to have you on and I can't wait to
Speaker 1: see what the instagram of your new at your next
Speaker 1: house looks like. Thank you so much. This has really
Speaker 1: been fun to talk to you about this because I
Speaker 1: have yet to be able to do a podcast talking
Speaker 1: about just my garden. Very cool and I had so
Speaker 1: much fun. Thank you for letting me share. Thrilled that
Speaker 1: you came on. Thank you. When my kid Ruby was
Speaker 1: four and people used to say they were cute, Ruby's
Speaker 1: response was always the same, with this gravelly voice, Ruby
Speaker 1: would correct them and say, I'm not cute, I'm awesome.
Speaker 1: And every time I hear the word cute, now that's
Speaker 1: what I think of, this little tornado of a child
Speaker 1: insisting I am not cute, I'm awesome. When you're looking
Speaker 1: at photos of tiny plants and tiny homes, the word
Speaker 1: cute pops up a lot. But what's funny is that
Speaker 1: the word cute didn't always mean cute as we know it.
Speaker 1: According to Popular Science, the original meaning of cute was
Speaker 1: actually clever or shrewd, because cute things take a certain
Speaker 1: amount of cleverness. As the magazine and explains, it's more
Speaker 1: difficult to make a burrito the size of a thumb
Speaker 1: than one as big as your forearm. And I kind
Speaker 1: of like that. Reframing tiny things tiny plants is clever
Speaker 1: because they are clever. They've come up with all sorts
Speaker 1: of ways to thrive in a world that's not exactly
Speaker 1: built for them, and they have all sorts of strategies
Speaker 1: for success, including being adorable. According to Metal Flaws, we
Speaker 1: take more care and are more careful with tiny objects
Speaker 1: of affection. So when a two thousand nine study, participants
Speaker 1: that viewed very cute images of puppies and kittens then
Speaker 1: played the game operation actually performed better than participants that
Speaker 1: saw less cute images. Our brains are conditioned to help
Speaker 1: adorable things survive, but for many of us, there seems
Speaker 1: to be something else that draws us into caring for
Speaker 1: tiny plants and tiny homes. And that's the simplicity. I
Speaker 1: have a funny relationship with minimalism. Back in college, I
Speaker 1: started abroad into Pollen Tibet, and on my trip I
Speaker 1: took very few clothes, maybe two or three T shirts,
Speaker 1: a couple of sweatshirts, and two pairs of pants. But
Speaker 1: after my semester abroad, I remember coming back to the
Speaker 1: States and every morning I'd wake up and just stare
Speaker 1: into my closet, perplexed. Why do I have so many clothes?
Speaker 1: Why do I need this many clothes. I've lived so
Speaker 1: simply and so happily for months, and now everything felt
Speaker 1: so daunting. Even looking around my room right now, I
Speaker 1: see things I don't need too many books, clothes, things,
Speaker 1: and that we keep trying to pare down and live simply,
Speaker 1: things just seem to accumulate. And I think my romance
Speaker 1: with tiny homes is just knowing that in a smaller
Speaker 1: home you need to simplify. It's funny because part of
Speaker 1: the reason I started doing humans growing stuff was because
Speaker 1: I was yearning for simplicity. I wanted to put away
Speaker 1: the social media and the technology and things that clutter
Speaker 1: up my mind and just put my hands in dirt
Speaker 1: and spend time watching things grow. And part of what
Speaker 1: I keep hearing in this program is that simplicity of
Speaker 1: plants that they want to grow. They need just light
Speaker 1: and soil and water, and for the tiniest plants to
Speaker 1: live beautifully to thrive, their needs are really just that simple.
Speaker 1: I've come to believe that there's a happiness to be
Speaker 1: found in simplicity. This week, I switched jobs to pare
Speaker 1: down my work and focus on things that feel essential
Speaker 1: and make me happy. And in that process I cleared
Speaker 1: my desk, I organized papers, I got rid of things
Speaker 1: I didn't need, And in that organizing I made just
Speaker 1: enough space for a tiny plant to sit on the
Speaker 1: corner and serve as a reminder to simplify that I
Speaker 1: don't need that much, and a reminder to watch this tiny,
Speaker 1: happy thing thrive because it's not cute, it's awesome. That's
Speaker 1: it for today's episode. Don't forget. No matter what season
Speaker 1: it is or where you're at in your gardening journey,
Speaker 1: there's some incredible resources waiting for you on the Miracle
Speaker 1: Grow website. Join me next time as we explore the
Speaker 1: many ways humans can learn and grow from plants. If
Speaker 1: you like what you heard, don't forget to rate and
Speaker 1: review the show on Apple Podcasts. Also, we want to
Speaker 1: hear from you. What are your inspiring plant stories, relatable
Speaker 1: struggles or growing questions taggers in your post or tweet
Speaker 1: using the hashtag Humans Growing Stuff, and don't be surprised
Speaker 1: if you hear your story featured on an upcoming episode.
Speaker 1: Humans Growing Stuff is a collaboration from My Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and your friends at Miracle Grow. Our show was written
Speaker 1: and produced by Molly Sosha and me Mongay Chatigler in
Speaker 1: partnership with Ryan Ovadia, Daniel Ainsworth, Hayley Ericson, and Garrett
Speaker 1: Shannon of Banter Until next Time, Thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 1: Two