Speaker 1: Years ago, I read this article and news scientists about
Speaker 1: boring ology, where this reporter, Valerie Jameson, decided to spend
Speaker 1: a week looking into the science of the most boring things,
Speaker 1: watching paint dry, observing ditch water. But she starts the
Speaker 1: week spending a day watching grass grow with scientists. She
Speaker 1: learns there are more than nine thousand species of grass,
Speaker 1: and the one thing that unites them is that, unlike
Speaker 1: so many other plants that shoot up from the tops
Speaker 1: of mature stems, grass actually grows from the bottom near
Speaker 1: this embryonic tissue called maris stem, and as the cell
Speaker 1: divides and multiply, you can apparently even hear the crackle
Speaker 1: of it growing. But the most fun part of the
Speaker 1: article is where the scientist has this digital voltmeter clamped
Speaker 1: onto a little piece of grass, and as they watched together,
Speaker 1: it starts flickering and in an hour it grows three
Speaker 1: point five millimeters. And while that is so in significant,
Speaker 1: Valerie points out that if the temperature holds, her little
Speaker 1: seedling will grow seventeen millimeters taller by the time she
Speaker 1: gets home that night, And suddenly she is buzzing with pride,
Speaker 1: and she has been convinced that watching grass grow is
Speaker 1: actually fun. I've been thinking about that article and also
Speaker 1: about my own kiddos, who my wife and I spend
Speaker 1: very long days within this pandemic, and while the daily
Speaker 1: changes are imperceptible, it blows my mind how quickly time
Speaker 1: has passed and how much they've learned and evolved and
Speaker 1: grown into little adult Almost Ruby refuses to let us
Speaker 1: help them with their homework. Henry would rather sneak off
Speaker 1: to the neighbor's house and then walk to the bodego
Speaker 1: to get snacks rather than kick a soccer ball in
Speaker 1: the backyard with this old man. And it makes me
Speaker 1: smile how they made themselves eggs and fended for themselves,
Speaker 1: turning the upstairs into a four when Lizzie and I
Speaker 1: contracted COVID at the end of last year. But growing
Speaker 1: is good, at least, that's what I keep reminding myself.
Speaker 1: And most of us are all growing and evolving even
Speaker 1: well into our adulthood, and I know some of those
Speaker 1: lessons have come from caring for plants. In fact, I'm
Speaker 1: starting to think that plants maybe one of our greatest
Speaker 1: teachers about how to be better humans. I mean, the
Speaker 1: numerous basil plants I killed at the start of the
Speaker 1: series have taught me to never give up, and to
Speaker 1: be kind and forgiving to myself. Our MONSTERA has taught
Speaker 1: me how to be flexible and find ways to adapt
Speaker 1: in new environments. And all those seeds that Ruby and
Speaker 1: I planted in our backyard totally scatter shot have taught
Speaker 1: me to keep my expectations low and to be delighted
Speaker 1: when things do sprowed up. While I've learned a lot
Speaker 1: over the last fourteen months of the pandemic, I also
Speaker 1: know that with each new change or shift to life,
Speaker 1: or challenge or loss, there will be more growing and evolving.
Speaker 1: But I feel confident that we'll get by with a
Speaker 1: little help from our plant friends. Hey there, I'm Mongish Particular,
Speaker 1: co host of Part Time Genius, one of the founders
Speaker 1: of Mental Flaws, and this is Humans Growing Stuff, a
Speaker 1: collaboration from my Heart Radio and your friends and Miracle Grow.
Speaker 1: Our goal is to make this the most human show
Speaker 1: about plants you'll ever listen to. Along the way, we'll
Speaker 1: share inspiring stories, tips and tricks to nurture your plant addiction,
Speaker 1: and just enough science to make you sound like an expert.
Speaker 1: On this episode, our season finale, we are examining how
Speaker 1: we're growing alongside plants and the life lessons we can
Speaker 1: learn from our leafy green roommates. We'll discover ways plants motivators,
Speaker 1: what they teach us about resilience and survival, and whether
Speaker 1: or not caring for them can make us better humans.
Speaker 1: Chapter fourteen, Learning life Lessons from plants. Despy at the
Speaker 1: often delicate appearance of some plants, they can be incredibly
Speaker 1: resilient snake plants, easy plants, Chinese evergreen, rubber plants, cacti,
Speaker 1: and succulents. They're all very resilient and can handle minimal water,
Speaker 1: lackluster light, and still somehow thrive. Take the cactus for example,
Speaker 1: It's thorns are highly modified plant leaves, which protect them
Speaker 1: from animals who try to access the liquid inside. The
Speaker 1: top level roots collect water from the rain, and the lower,
Speaker 1: much deeper roots collect water from deep below the surface.
Speaker 1: They can store water for years, and the feisty cactus
Speaker 1: does so by opening its pores at night, whereas most
Speaker 1: plants open there is during the day, and as a result,
Speaker 1: they are less vulnerable to warm temperatures that would ordinarily
Speaker 1: evaporate that store of water. Think of how smart that is.
Speaker 1: They are prickly geniuses. But plants are incredibly resilient, and
Speaker 1: after an unexpected winter warm hit Texas this year, so
Speaker 1: many people were shocked to see how native plants bounced
Speaker 1: back after experiencing this true shock to their systems. I
Speaker 1: want to talk to someone who witnessed this resiliency firsthand,
Speaker 1: so I called up Mark Peacock. Mark is native of
Speaker 1: Great Britain who recently followed his heart to Texas, and
Speaker 1: although he pursued a career in fitness after school, he's
Speaker 1: even graced the cover of Men's Health UK. Mark actually
Speaker 1: studied horticulture and university and has been getting back to
Speaker 1: his green roots and figuring out how to grow in
Speaker 1: the challenging climate and soil of Texas during the pandemic. Hey, Mark,
Speaker 1: are you there? Yes, I'm there, I'm there. Hello. Hello, Hello.
Speaker 1: It is so nice to be chatting with you. It's
Speaker 1: lovely to chat with you too. So I know most
Speaker 1: of us had a really really hard with COVID and
Speaker 1: the pandemic and just life in general. But it seems
Speaker 1: like somehow you managed to have a few really nice
Speaker 1: things happened this year. Yeah, I had some really nice
Speaker 1: things happened. I mean, it was a huge different kind
Speaker 1: of game changer of a year. You know. Obviously I
Speaker 1: got married in the middle of part of last year,
Speaker 1: so that was really nice. But it was very socially distanced,
Speaker 1: and obviously, being English and my partner's American, we were
Speaker 1: kind of a very small intimate. It was just myself,
Speaker 1: him and the judge here in Texas. So yeah, so
Speaker 1: we did that, and you know, I permanently relocated over
Speaker 1: here and we bought a house and have a garden,
Speaker 1: and I'm kind of learning, you know, the difference between
Speaker 1: a very British garden and what you can do in Texas.
Speaker 1: So I'm assuming you grew up around plants, but then
Speaker 1: you decided eventually to study them. Yeah, and then I
Speaker 1: kind of just fell into going to university. You know,
Speaker 1: it was tough, but it was so interesting. You know,
Speaker 1: every week you'd be given a sample of plants. So
Speaker 1: it would be like, right, this week, we're going to
Speaker 1: learn narcissus. You need to know the species of narcissus.
Speaker 1: And they would line up twenty different narcissus bulbs and
Speaker 1: you'd have one week to learn the difference and then
Speaker 1: they would only put out ten or twelve of them,
Speaker 1: so then you'd have to go in, and you go
Speaker 1: in and this took for like five pc of your
Speaker 1: whole degree or ten percent, so you had to be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's narcissus tete, that's narcissus whatever. You know pheasants eye,
Speaker 1: and you'd have to know it just from the singular bulb.
Speaker 1: When they did it with roots, they did it with leaves,
Speaker 1: they did it with everything. So it kind of helped
Speaker 1: build up a good knowledge of plants. And you know,
Speaker 1: even after I walked away and didn't end up going
Speaker 1: into that field, I would always be walking along and
Speaker 1: I would see plant and I'll be like a less
Speaker 1: spectral apendula, or that's a moneage ponega or that, And
Speaker 1: I would continuously always be testing myself and yeah, I
Speaker 1: used to go to the Chelsea Flower Show every year
Speaker 1: and my my friend Gerd he we went to the
Speaker 1: Chelsea Flager one evening. I was walking around me and
Speaker 1: he looked at this plant. He's like, that is called
Speaker 1: fatcier japonica. And I'm like, yeah, what do you think?
Speaker 1: I was just giving you some like Harry Potter Wizard
Speaker 1: names these whole times, and it's like I just thought
Speaker 1: you were making it up. I didn't think you actually
Speaker 1: knew what these things were called. So yeah, I kin't
Speaker 1: of surprised myself sometimes with like kind of what I
Speaker 1: know and what I don't know. So what do you
Speaker 1: get from being in your garden in the morning? What
Speaker 1: do you get out of you know, mentally and physically
Speaker 1: from from being in the space. I think it's just
Speaker 1: an opportunity to really switch off and like there isn't
Speaker 1: you know for me, gardening is kind of an ever
Speaker 1: changing thing. You're never going to get to a point
Speaker 1: where it's finished. Just being here in Texas is like
Speaker 1: completely different to the UK, like the soil, but I
Speaker 1: mean it's like what soil. I'm working on rock and
Speaker 1: stone and take about half a foot and you've hit
Speaker 1: bedrock and you're literally smashing in to try and even
Speaker 1: get into the So there's lots of like technique, you know,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to have I'm you know, setting up
Speaker 1: a compost system because I really need to start building
Speaker 1: more organic layer on top of what I've already got,
Speaker 1: because what I have got it is shocking, Like you know,
Speaker 1: it's not worth anything, it's useless basically. So yeah, so
Speaker 1: there's lots of it is it's like and you're so
Speaker 1: limited on the plants. Like being in the UK. Was
Speaker 1: saying this to someone yesterday. I was like, I feel
Speaker 1: like I've been spoiled because the climate in the UK,
Speaker 1: your your ability to grow pretty much anything is so
Speaker 1: vast and I don't really need to think about, oh
Speaker 1: it's going to get too hot, and what I'm noticing.
Speaker 1: It's like I'm putting plants in and a plant in
Speaker 1: the UK that would take you know, six months life
Speaker 1: cycle here because it's just so warm and humid. It's
Speaker 1: just sped up the whole time. But the plant is
Speaker 1: I want heype from my plants, but it's just it's
Speaker 1: coming into flowers so quickly. So I'm literally like taking
Speaker 1: the flowers off, trying to encourage a bit more gross
Speaker 1: it doesn't put his energy into producing these flowers. So
Speaker 1: but this is kind of my first full season gardening
Speaker 1: here in Texas, so it'll be interesting to see kind
Speaker 1: of how that pans out, and I'll learn a lot
Speaker 1: this year as to what I can kind of can't do.
Speaker 1: So what what what was the what was your thought process?
Speaker 1: When you got to Texas, did you look out your
Speaker 1: backyard and decide there has to be a garden here
Speaker 1: or how did you decide to tackle the yard? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean there was kind of some kind of garden here,
Speaker 1: but I mean the first thing I did, like when
Speaker 1: we moved in the where the vegetable garden is now,
Speaker 1: it was like a skateboarding half pipe there. And then
Speaker 1: when we moved in, they were like, would you mind
Speaker 1: if we took the half pipe? And We're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: by all me, you really do I look like a skateboarder.
Speaker 1: So as soon as that went, then, um, I got
Speaker 1: to work and I built the built the raised beds
Speaker 1: from scratch. I was looking everywhere and I couldn't find
Speaker 1: any so it's just what I'm just going to go
Speaker 1: down to loads and buy some wood and kind of
Speaker 1: buy myself a band sore, and I kind of just
Speaker 1: started making it all. So it's just things like that.
Speaker 1: Learning that and the vigetable gardens the first thing, and
Speaker 1: the kind of just been working around with the kind
Speaker 1: of loose structure we had in the back garden and
Speaker 1: just kind of filling the beds out, seeing what works,
Speaker 1: what doesn't work, and then eventually I'll tackle the front.
Speaker 1: But the fronts literally like building on Mount Everest. It's
Speaker 1: just rock essentially, So I don't quite know how I'm
Speaker 1: going to tackle that one. But you can just put
Speaker 1: skateboard ramps all over it. Oh yeah, just or a
Speaker 1: toboggan run for when it snows again. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: it's ludicrous. Everyone was like, if it snows here, it
Speaker 1: just snows for a day and then it melts. It
Speaker 1: never gets cold. And you know, luckily we weren't in
Speaker 1: town when it happened. But beforehand, I'd like, I had
Speaker 1: all these Dailier tubers and I'd like potted them all up,
Speaker 1: and you know, I just left. We bought all these
Speaker 1: citrus trees and I just potted them all up and everything.
Speaker 1: And then as soon as we left, it was like
Speaker 1: winter storm coming in. So you know, I had to
Speaker 1: try and get it wrapped and see what survived. And
Speaker 1: I pull the potatoes in the ground already, and I
Speaker 1: was like, oh my god, it's going to go. And
Speaker 1: then we just We've got so many like cedar trees
Speaker 1: around here, and they were just like falling left Bryant
Speaker 1: Center and the I was just getting fed back pictures
Speaker 1: of the garden. I was like, oh my god, I've
Speaker 1: lost of the garden. And then then you know, after
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks and you know, as soon as
Speaker 1: the sun comes out, I'd say we've probably lost my
Speaker 1: kind of guests probably turned into more like so you know,
Speaker 1: the plant's kind of surprised that you know, they just
Speaker 1: kind of gone all the way back to the ground,
Speaker 1: but they were still actually like you know, little life
Speaker 1: forms under the ground ready to kind of come back.
Speaker 1: I mean, we lost a lot of the height and
Speaker 1: scale and the bushiness of a lot of the plants
Speaker 1: that would take probably a good year to kind of
Speaker 1: come back. But in terms of you know, the structure
Speaker 1: of kind of having the plants, you know, we've managed
Speaker 1: to retain them, and you know, financially, I mean it's
Speaker 1: a huge thing, like the amount of plants that there's
Speaker 1: so many people that had giant palms, Like you're driving
Speaker 1: around and these huge palm trees that people have gotten
Speaker 1: they're just like, I don't even know they're going to
Speaker 1: come back. They're like three four or five thousand dollar
Speaker 1: trees that people have everywhere, and you're like, you lost
Speaker 1: ten twelve of them and I'm like, you feel a
Speaker 1: bit sorry for them, So it's a learning curve kind of.
Speaker 1: I'm just kind of gauging what survived, and I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: well I'm going to you know, bulk up that, you know,
Speaker 1: air towards that side of planting, because in case it
Speaker 1: ever happens again, you never know what the climate is
Speaker 1: going to be doing in the future. So um yeah,
Speaker 1: that's kind of my goal essentially. Well, I do want
Speaker 1: to ask you about the resilience of plants, and you know,
Speaker 1: you talked about this storm that came and it really
Speaker 1: hurting a lot of the garden and plant life. Was
Speaker 1: there anything you were surprised by that it bounced back
Speaker 1: or or surprised by the resilience of any certain plants.
Speaker 1: I mean, I thought my potatoes I put in the
Speaker 1: ground before I left were gonna even though they were
Speaker 1: under the ground. I was just like, this is cold,
Speaker 1: and I'm I don't even know if I don't know
Speaker 1: if they're going to rot under the ground or but
Speaker 1: you know, they came back and they were absolutely fine,
Speaker 1: and like some of the palms, you know, they were
Speaker 1: they were like just a bronze color. They were they
Speaker 1: were gone. But you know, and this is the thing
Speaker 1: about gardening is all about patients. I'm a strong believer
Speaker 1: that it is about patients. Like just leave those let
Speaker 1: them be and see what the plant's going to do,
Speaker 1: you know. And and some of you know, some of
Speaker 1: them are starting to reshoot again. So whereas before I
Speaker 1: would have you know, could have got trigger happy and
Speaker 1: just pulled everything out and started again, you know, actually
Speaker 1: just leaving it and letting it recover. You know, you
Speaker 1: are kind of amazed by kind of what what can
Speaker 1: pull through. Um. Yes, so that's kind of that was
Speaker 1: kind of the thing, kind of the palms that kind
Speaker 1: of grew the bamboo as well. I mean around us
Speaker 1: a lot, there's a lot of bamboo, and it is
Speaker 1: it was just it was dead above ground, really, you know, yes,
Speaker 1: like funny, I wouldn't imagine it seems like such a
Speaker 1: sturdy plant. It was obliterated. You're driving it just looks
Speaker 1: like a desolate war zone kind of driving through where
Speaker 1: we were. When we came back, it was just like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, cedar trees had fallen down everywhere, and
Speaker 1: you know, bamboo was just this golden dead, like all
Speaker 1: of the leaves dead and so but now, like you know,
Speaker 1: those stems, you know they need to be cut off,
Speaker 1: but people are keeping it for like screening for their houses.
Speaker 1: But you know, underneath it, it's just like you know,
Speaker 1: it's firing up everywhere. So the resilience of that is
Speaker 1: quite amazing. I didn't think that would pull through, but
Speaker 1: you know, you just give it a month and you know,
Speaker 1: see what happens. Yeah, I mean I know one person
Speaker 1: on this um this podcast said, um, their plants want
Speaker 1: to grow, and you just kind of have to remember
Speaker 1: that there's like there they want, they want to grow
Speaker 1: and and and and so um you can do less
Speaker 1: and be patient and and and they will they will
Speaker 1: for you. I guess I think that that's the thing.
Speaker 1: It is all about patients, you know. And you know,
Speaker 1: I always think if someone hasn't got a lot of patients,
Speaker 1: then garden is a good way to learn. How can
Speaker 1: I learn patients? Garden? Because you cannot push a plant.
Speaker 1: A plant will grow at whatever rate it you know,
Speaker 1: wants to grow out. There's no there's no way of
Speaker 1: you you can help it long. But you know, at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, you're at the mercy of
Speaker 1: that plant, and you know, you just got to nurture it.
Speaker 1: And it's just kind of like the same as you
Speaker 1: know a person. You kind of have to nurture it
Speaker 1: and you know, look after it and it will kind
Speaker 1: of reward you in the end, be at one with it.
Speaker 1: I mean that makes me like, really hippie it is.
Speaker 1: It's just like, just take a step back. What's the rush?
Speaker 1: What is what's the immediate kind of rush for it
Speaker 1: to be there? Now? It's just like, you know, go
Speaker 1: with it. Let's see what happens. When you came to Texas,
Speaker 1: did you did you sort of enjoy the challenge of
Speaker 1: like figuring out what does grow here and what native
Speaker 1: plants are or or um? Did that just feel like
Speaker 1: a like a bit of a hurdle. No? I mean
Speaker 1: I love I love the challenge. And you know, I
Speaker 1: came in a little bit blind thinking I can just
Speaker 1: you know, do what I did back home and kind
Speaker 1: of do whatever I want. And you know, the longer
Speaker 1: I've been here, I have kind of learned that do
Speaker 1: I can't just bulldoze and do whatever I want. But
Speaker 1: you know, walking around some of the guns and some
Speaker 1: things that are like house plants in the UK, I'm
Speaker 1: like Oh my god, I can grow that outside here.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yes, right, we're changing No longer I gertru
Speaker 1: g coal with your herbaceous yes, a tropical house plants.
Speaker 1: We're bringing them outside, you know. Um so yeah, that
Speaker 1: that's been a fun thing to kind of learn and
Speaker 1: adapt from. And I think that's the thing. It's all
Speaker 1: about adaption. You know. I'll be able to kind of
Speaker 1: gauge kind of what is right and what is wrong.
Speaker 1: And I'll make loads of mistakes this year, but it
Speaker 1: doesn't really matter. I like that you said that's not
Speaker 1: my vision because I feel like that's my entire experience
Speaker 1: of gardening. It's like a garden that's not my vision.
Speaker 1: But um, but that, but that, but that gives you
Speaker 1: always think that's the best. Like whoever, whoever has a
Speaker 1: first idea and that's the perfect idea. I always think
Speaker 1: it's the second or third kind of idea that you
Speaker 1: may have. I mean, when you get to idea twenty seven,
Speaker 1: then your change tack. But you know, when you have
Speaker 1: the first idea, you're always been like, but then when
Speaker 1: you kind of evolved that idea, you know, I think
Speaker 1: that's when you get the best ones and that's when
Speaker 1: you learn, like, you learn by mistakes, and those mistakes
Speaker 1: creates something far better than what you probably would have
Speaker 1: envisioned the first time. Oh I like that. I'm going
Speaker 1: to carry that with me. That makes me think about
Speaker 1: this belief that we can adapt, even you moving from
Speaker 1: London to Texas, right, it is adapting exactly. I think that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's it. It's like this year has been a bit
Speaker 1: of a crazy year of change. But you know, I
Speaker 1: don't believe changes are wrong, a bad thing. It's it's
Speaker 1: a good thing. And you know, who wants to stagnate
Speaker 1: and just be the same forever, you know, very caution
Speaker 1: to the way and do stuff you know, make may change.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I think that's that's that's a good thing.
Speaker 1: So Mark, before I let you go, is there anything
Speaker 1: else you want to add about the resiliency of plants
Speaker 1: and what we can kind of learn from plants? I
Speaker 1: don't think so. I think it is just mainly that
Speaker 1: patience thing. Just just don't be in a rush, you know,
Speaker 1: look at them, you know, you know, and if they're hurt,
Speaker 1: help them. You know, if a branch is hanging off,
Speaker 1: would you want someone to passed you with your arm
Speaker 1: hanging off. No, like get in there, like look for
Speaker 1: that kind of safe point to cut it back, to
Speaker 1: cut it back, stop that disease getting in, you know.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of vice aversa. You're going to help
Speaker 1: the plant, and but then also take that lesson and
Speaker 1: help someone else if you see someone, help them the
Speaker 1: same way you would help plant. And just remember that
Speaker 1: plants are the masters of adaption. You know, they will adapt,
Speaker 1: but it's kind of if you want the best out
Speaker 1: of them, it's probably best just to kind of just
Speaker 1: look up its origin and then kind of just be like,
Speaker 1: even if you don't know like anything about Spain, you
Speaker 1: might know something about the Mediterranean. It's hot, it's dry, Okay,
Speaker 1: well I'm gonna it's this bit area, this sunny area
Speaker 1: is going to be good for it. Then you know,
Speaker 1: you can kind of use it's kind of origin as
Speaker 1: your kind of the idea of what you should do
Speaker 1: with it. You might get it wrong, but it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: You can move it well. Mark, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for spending time with us and talking plants with me,
Speaker 1: and and it was it was a real pleasure. It's
Speaker 1: been a pleasure for me. Thank you for having me
Speaker 1: humans growing stuff will be right back after a short break.
Speaker 1: Plants are incredibly resilient, but they also know a thing
Speaker 1: or two about being flexible and adapting to the resources
Speaker 1: around them. Take the venus fly trap, for instance. Charles
Speaker 1: Darwin was such a fanboy of the plants that he
Speaker 1: wrote the venus flytrap is the most wonderful plant in
Speaker 1: the world. He even dedicated an entire book to them.
Speaker 1: But the tiny toothy plants are carnivorous for a reason.
Speaker 1: Venus fly traps grow in very poor soil, and they've
Speaker 1: evolved to eat insects because they need those nutrients to
Speaker 1: sustain themselves. It is not uncommon for plants to get
Speaker 1: creative about how and where they get nutrients based on
Speaker 1: their environment, and honestly, it's just one more thing as
Speaker 1: humans could learn from plants. As the climate crisis becomes
Speaker 1: more immediate, there are a lot of ways we can
Speaker 1: all reevaluate our diets to get the same nutrients but
Speaker 1: from a different source that will help maintain and restore
Speaker 1: our climate and the environment rather than hurting it. I
Speaker 1: personally haven't said goodbye to meat, but we don't eat
Speaker 1: that much of it at home and we've been exploring
Speaker 1: all these plant based substitutes. Things have come a long
Speaker 1: way since the poor Bello burgers I was forced as
Speaker 1: a youth. But we've seen the evolution of things like
Speaker 1: impossible burgers and beyond meat substitutes that look and even
Speaker 1: bleed like a real burger on the grill. And now
Speaker 1: they are vegetable butchers cropping up at places like Vita's
Speaker 1: in Columbus, Ohio, where you can get plant based cheeses,
Speaker 1: cold cuts, and sausages. And while a lot of it
Speaker 1: tastes a lot like meat, more importantly, eating a more
Speaker 1: plant based diet is the way we can adapt to
Speaker 1: our changing environment and keep it from changing exponentially. It
Speaker 1: reduces the impact of climate change of greenhouse gas emissions
Speaker 1: come from food production and three fourths of that hers
Speaker 1: from animal product production, and it saves water to producing
Speaker 1: one pound of beef requires eight gallons of water. That said,
Speaker 1: if plant based protein isn't your thing, maybe insect based
Speaker 1: proteins are like cricket powder or even stink bug. Just
Speaker 1: get in touch with that inner venus fly trap and
Speaker 1: enjoy that crunch. They're not hard to find either. Some
Speaker 1: are already being sold at places like Whole Foods and
Speaker 1: other grocery stores. The more time I spend with plants,
Speaker 1: the more they teach me about taking care of others
Speaker 1: but also the earth. I'm not only looking at my
Speaker 1: home through the perspective of my plants, I'm also rethinking
Speaker 1: my everyday habits with a more sustainable and environmentally friendly
Speaker 1: intention and purpose. You may know Lauren Conrad as a
Speaker 1: television personality, New York Times best selling author, fashion designer,
Speaker 1: or philanthropists, but Lauren is also an avid gardener and
Speaker 1: using a lot of what she's learned about plants in
Speaker 1: the environment to create more sustainable products. In two thousand thirteen,
Speaker 1: she co founded Little Market dot Com, a nonprofit with
Speaker 1: a mission to build sustainable partnerships with artisans around the world,
Speaker 1: connecting them with customers through an online marketplace, and empowering
Speaker 1: women artisans to rise above poverty and support their families.
Speaker 1: In two thousand eighteen, the Little Market launched their first
Speaker 1: brick and mortar location in l A. I called of
Speaker 1: Lauren because I wanted to hear about how gardening has
Speaker 1: made her think about sustainability more on an everyday level,
Speaker 1: and lessons she's teaching her own kiddos about life as
Speaker 1: they grow together in the garden. Hey, Lauren, are you there.
Speaker 1: I'm here. Oh, it's so nice to chat with you.
Speaker 1: You too, How are you doing well? Well? Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for being on the program. You know, I
Speaker 1: know you as this sort of incredible designer and influencer,
Speaker 1: but I only just realized that you're a gardener as well,
Speaker 1: and I'm so excited to talk plants with you. Need too,
Speaker 1: I am. I'm relatively new to the space. It's just
Speaker 1: kind of a hobby that I've picked up the past year.
Speaker 1: So I'm still very green. Well that's both of us,
Speaker 1: I guess. So tell me about how you decide to
Speaker 1: get into gardening. Now. Last year I unexpectedly had a
Speaker 1: little more time on my hands, so I we have
Speaker 1: on the side of our house now, we had kind
Speaker 1: of a just like a strip of land that we
Speaker 1: don't really do much with it, just kind of like
Speaker 1: whatever grows there. So I cleared out a little area
Speaker 1: that was like, I mean maybe like three by five
Speaker 1: feet and ordered some plans and I really did it
Speaker 1: just as something to do with my son, who's turning
Speaker 1: four in a couple of months. So, you know, it
Speaker 1: was probably just about to turn three, and uh, and
Speaker 1: I just kind of did it as something to do
Speaker 1: with him. And then also I really love the idea
Speaker 1: of kids understanding where food comes from. And that's where
Speaker 1: it started. Because it's gotten a little while now, basically
Speaker 1: anywhere anything will grow, I've taken over in our yard.
Speaker 1: I'm figuring out now how to like make it more
Speaker 1: aesthetically pleasing because it's a little it's a little funny,
Speaker 1: but I tore out, like all a bunch of rows
Speaker 1: is in our front yard so I could do like
Speaker 1: a vegetable garden really in the front yard. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I definitely could use a little work. But
Speaker 1: I also I don't know, I just I kind of
Speaker 1: love edibles as like like kind of landscaping as well
Speaker 1: because it's like a dual purpose. I think it's nice. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I actually saw someone who was planting herbs that way,
Speaker 1: like different basil plants, and it's amazing how architecturally you
Speaker 1: can get with it. Yeah. I've always done that with time,
Speaker 1: and I did that while I did it with mint,
Speaker 1: which is a huge mistake if anyone's ever put mint
Speaker 1: in like a contained area. I just took over but yeah,
Speaker 1: I've always kind of done that. Yeah, do you think
Speaker 1: you'll try to keep some of that space for yourself
Speaker 1: as we move into a sort of a crazier world. Uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just getting worse, and whereas I'm about to like
Speaker 1: clear like basically the last space I can and I
Speaker 1: just also took over a deck and created a container garden,
Speaker 1: so it's becoming a full time job. I've definitely probably
Speaker 1: I've probably beiten off more than I can chew. But
Speaker 1: it's so fun. I love that. So so it sounds
Speaker 1: like it's started very much with these like few vegetables.
Speaker 1: And then and where are your ambitions going? Um, anything
Speaker 1: that will grow. I've been doing a lot of research.
Speaker 1: You know, where we live is we're right on the water,
Speaker 1: so the salt in the air it kind of limits
Speaker 1: what I can and can't grow. Um. And also just
Speaker 1: like the way our house is positioned. So I've just
Speaker 1: been researching and kind of like trial and air, I
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time figuring out what would grow.
Speaker 1: And then I kind of turned my office into a greenhouse, which,
Speaker 1: as strange as it sounds, um, it's like a wall
Speaker 1: of windows and it gets really, really really hot in there,
Speaker 1: so I just sort of took advantage of it. But
Speaker 1: then I also learned that starting plants in a window
Speaker 1: is not the best idea because it kind of makes
Speaker 1: for weak plants. So that's where I'm at now. So
Speaker 1: I'm learning a lot of lessons. Yeah, that's incredible. And
Speaker 1: do you have any friends that you sort of share
Speaker 1: tips with or or pick things up from. Have you
Speaker 1: found community and gardening a little bit? Yeah, I've actually
Speaker 1: made a couple of new friends and actually started this
Speaker 1: hobby with a couple of friends. Um, so it's it's nice.
Speaker 1: It's like a I don't know, it's so it's so
Speaker 1: door key that I'm like sent as a KINI picture
Speaker 1: literally sending like pictures of zucchini to my friends being
Speaker 1: like look what I threw. I don't know. It's like
Speaker 1: I don't know. It's just like a fun new thing
Speaker 1: we can talk about and it's just simple and you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. No, I mean I feel that
Speaker 1: way too. I mean, so I you know, I used
Speaker 1: to run a magazine. I headed up development at at
Speaker 1: my Heart for all these podcasts and stuff, and I
Speaker 1: had no time and then suddenly, with you know, the quarantine,
Speaker 1: were stuck at home and I was just looking for
Speaker 1: ways to hang out with my kids and do something
Speaker 1: that felt productive, you know, in this way where you
Speaker 1: can actually see something grow and and and hold a
Speaker 1: vegetable or whatever. And it is amazing how quickly you
Speaker 1: can dork out about these things. Yeah, it is. Yes,
Speaker 1: I feel it's actually like really embarrassing. The other day,
Speaker 1: it was like in my office kind of like going
Speaker 1: through all the seedlings, and I'm kind of like talking
Speaker 1: out loud, and my husband opened the door and he
Speaker 1: was like, are we talking to the plants now? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think so. I think we went there. Um. I
Speaker 1: think that one of the really nice things about planting,
Speaker 1: once you've kind of got all the basics down is
Speaker 1: just like the idea of planting something is just it's
Speaker 1: just possibility. And and in a time where we were
Speaker 1: all kind of stuck in a rut and everything felt
Speaker 1: like Groundhog's Day and the future was so uncertain, it
Speaker 1: was like this one very simple thing I could do
Speaker 1: and watch grow, and it was a little different every day.
Speaker 1: It made each day feel, you know, some something to
Speaker 1: look forward to, something different. Yeah, I agree with that,
Speaker 1: and something positive in in a world that was so
Speaker 1: sort of um claustrophobic, with so many, so many issues.
Speaker 1: So I'm curious what do you feel like you get
Speaker 1: out of gardening and caring for these plants, and maybe
Speaker 1: even what are some of the things you're learning about yourself.
Speaker 1: I think I don't know. It's it's sort of an
Speaker 1: unexpected hobby for me. I think if you had asked me,
Speaker 1: like ten years ago, like are you going to get
Speaker 1: super into this? I wouldn't. I would have said no,
Speaker 1: it's interesting that that I got so into it. I
Speaker 1: think it's it's been good for me because it's it's
Speaker 1: forced me to kind of sit still and do something
Speaker 1: kind of quiet and simple, which is the challenging for me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's interesting that you say that because a lot of
Speaker 1: our guests have said it's very meditative for them. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I've never been the type of person who can meditate.
Speaker 1: It's really difficult for me to clear my mind, and
Speaker 1: so this is kind of the closest thing I get
Speaker 1: to that. Um, you know. I I like what you
Speaker 1: said about noticing the salt air and the light and
Speaker 1: the way your land is because for me, it's it's
Speaker 1: really interesting to sort of gain this new perspective of
Speaker 1: the world. Yeah, that's so interesting. I so you're gardening.
Speaker 1: Do you have like a little balcony. I do, I've
Speaker 1: I've got a little balcony in a little space outdoors.
Speaker 1: But when I started this, it was mostly house plants
Speaker 1: that I was tending to. I feel like house answer
Speaker 1: is so difficult. I think I killed them all. Well,
Speaker 1: I just keep moving them around until they started start
Speaker 1: doing better. And yeah, yeah, I have. There's one I'm
Speaker 1: not going to know the name of it. I think
Speaker 1: I want. I think it's called like a mermaid fern
Speaker 1: or something. It's some sort of fern. It's really delicate
Speaker 1: but very beautiful, and like every two months I buy
Speaker 1: one and I'm like, this time, this time, I'm not
Speaker 1: going to kill it. But it's like the type or
Speaker 1: like the soil can never dry out or else, it
Speaker 1: just like immediately dies. I'm I'm yet to really keep
Speaker 1: one alive more than a few weeks, but they're so pretty. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Have you learned anything from the failures of being in
Speaker 1: the garden? Yeah? Right now. The biggest thing right now,
Speaker 1: honestly is I grew. I'm not exaggerating. I grew sixty
Speaker 1: tomato plants in my office. Yes, yeah, I did. It
Speaker 1: doesn't make any sense. It's a I have it's a
Speaker 1: big window. But anyway, so and then I had to
Speaker 1: harden them off and do all the things. But because
Speaker 1: I grew them in a window, they got like the
Speaker 1: the stems are like really long and thin. They're kind
Speaker 1: of leggy, and so they're not very strong plants. So
Speaker 1: I picked the best ones and I'm like putting them
Speaker 1: in the tomato garden and creating an area. And now
Speaker 1: I have like a bunch of really sad tomato plants
Speaker 1: sitting outside that I can't get rid of because I'm like,
Speaker 1: I grew them from seed. I can't get rid of them.
Speaker 1: But also like what am I there? They like can't
Speaker 1: stand up by themselves. I think, I'm just it's hard
Speaker 1: to let go. I did I did it wrong. But
Speaker 1: I'm also like it's like a living plant, and like
Speaker 1: a couple of even have like tomatoes on them. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I can't give up on them. I have a hard
Speaker 1: time letting go. So tell me about your kids in
Speaker 1: the garden, because I'm curious about this. I know I've
Speaker 1: seen photos of one of your kiddos toddling around and
Speaker 1: and like eating pea plants. I think probably, Yeah, it's funny.
Speaker 1: I've noticed that, you know, in our family at least,
Speaker 1: that my kids are so much more excited to eat
Speaker 1: something off a vine than off a plate. And like
Speaker 1: we have just like shelling peas growing in our front
Speaker 1: yard right now, and when we're out there, I'll usually
Speaker 1: just grab a few and be like, whose wants peas?
Speaker 1: And they'll like fight over them, which is so funny.
Speaker 1: And so I think that that's been a really nice thing,
Speaker 1: is just not only them being familiar with oh, our
Speaker 1: food comes from the earth, we should take care of it,
Speaker 1: and like you know, the domino effect there. And I
Speaker 1: also like my my younger son, Charlie. It's like a
Speaker 1: year and a half, he's he's very much like me.
Speaker 1: He just wants to be dirty all the time, Like
Speaker 1: I was always just coming in mud. But like whenever
Speaker 1: I'm clearing space or anything, I'll just let him go
Speaker 1: there with like a little like a little sand shovel
Speaker 1: just to dick and he just loves it and be stilthy.
Speaker 1: Like literally we don't know how to wash him up,
Speaker 1: Like can we even put him in a shower like this.
Speaker 1: He's so dirty, but it makes them so happy, and
Speaker 1: I just think, I don't know, I think there's something
Speaker 1: to that. I think that kids they should play in
Speaker 1: the dirt and they should get dirty like that, and
Speaker 1: they don't do it as often anymore. So Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1: So what are you excited about planning the boast the
Speaker 1: season right now? I'm so excited because every year I
Speaker 1: grow sweet peas, and there's something about like where I am,
Speaker 1: but they just like explode like they're taller than me.
Speaker 1: There's hundreds of sweet peas in the front of my house. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like a it's a statement and I love it.
Speaker 1: And it smells. I like, literally in the morning when
Speaker 1: I'm walking into the car, I just like stick my
Speaker 1: face into the just like massive flowers and breathe because
Speaker 1: it's just the best smell. Yeah, this is one of
Speaker 1: my favorite times of year. It's just because I know,
Speaker 1: I get like a wall of sweet peas. So tell
Speaker 1: me a little bit about what gardening with your kids
Speaker 1: has been like and what you sort of hope they
Speaker 1: get from this experience. Gardening with the kids. It's been fun.
Speaker 1: I think it's trying to think of how to say
Speaker 1: this nicely. I'm like, you know, my son will get
Speaker 1: really excited about the idea, and then when it comes
Speaker 1: to like doing more than two minutes of digging, he's like,
Speaker 1: I'm out, but he's really in it for the harvest.
Speaker 1: So you talked about the fact that you started gardening
Speaker 1: with your kids in mind, and I'm curious, whenever they
Speaker 1: do participate in the actual gardening process, have you found
Speaker 1: that you've been able to teach them any life lessons
Speaker 1: as you teach them about growing and gardening. You know,
Speaker 1: we talked to them a lot about this is just like,
Speaker 1: you know, we're gonna plant this plant, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: be patient. I think patients is a big is a
Speaker 1: big lesson here too, because you know, we'll plant something
Speaker 1: in the next day. He's like, is it done. It's like, no,
Speaker 1: we need to be patient. And each day, well, we'll
Speaker 1: check on progress and kind of talk about how the
Speaker 1: plant has to grow and then we you know, we'll
Speaker 1: see the first fruit whatever. The plant be kind of
Speaker 1: really tiny start and you know, explaining the process I
Speaker 1: think is really nice. It's really nice. How old are
Speaker 1: your kids. My kids are a little older. They are
Speaker 1: eight and ten. Yeah, but but when we started gardening,
Speaker 1: I'd say it was my kid just turned eight, my younger,
Speaker 1: so so it was like six when when we started
Speaker 1: doing some of the stuff. It's been fun to watch
Speaker 1: them play and and also just be very cocky about
Speaker 1: the stuff that they really like, walking around telling me like,
Speaker 1: like what I'm doing wrong? Stuff like that, which is
Speaker 1: sweet and fun. Um. Obviously, gardening has helped us all
Speaker 1: think about the way we give back and take from
Speaker 1: and connect to the natural world around us. Right. But
Speaker 1: I'm curious, because you do this with your little ones,
Speaker 1: do you think you know, since becoming a mother, you've
Speaker 1: started thinking more about your relationship to the earth than
Speaker 1: you had maybe before you became a parent. Absolutely. I
Speaker 1: think when you have a child, you know that they're
Speaker 1: inheriting the earth that you're taking care of right now,
Speaker 1: it sort of changes things. And I don't know if
Speaker 1: that means I was more selfish before or if I
Speaker 1: just you know, hadn't thought about it. But yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: what in their lifetime, what changes are going to take place,
Speaker 1: like what's going to happen? Um? And it's always on
Speaker 1: the top of my mind. I'm curious what you think
Speaker 1: we might be able to take away from your experiences
Speaker 1: with plants. I think. I mean, I can say my
Speaker 1: takeaway this year has been you don't need that much.
Speaker 1: I always talk to my son like, what does a
Speaker 1: plant need to grow? Needs? Sunshine, water, nutrients, that's it.
Speaker 1: And I think that a lot of people experience this
Speaker 1: in the past year or so is just you don't
Speaker 1: need that much. And I think that, you know, when
Speaker 1: you get really busy, you just you kind of forget
Speaker 1: to live simply sometimes and and things get really complicated
Speaker 1: and it's it's you know, bigger, more better. But I
Speaker 1: think that we, you know, my family simplified our lives
Speaker 1: a bit this year and it's it's been really kind
Speaker 1: of a welcome change. Yeah. I like that a lot. Lauren,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for being here. Do you have
Speaker 1: any final thoughts on gardening for our listeners? No, I think,
Speaker 1: I mean, the only thing I would say, like such
Speaker 1: a tork, I would just really encourage you will to
Speaker 1: try it because it's really it's really fun. I think
Speaker 1: it's a fun family activity. I think if you do
Speaker 1: it properly, it's pretty easy. In low metance, you can
Speaker 1: kind of set up a garden. You know with plantet
Speaker 1: drip system and then you kind of just get to
Speaker 1: enjoy it. So I think it's like an intimidating idea.
Speaker 1: But even if you're just starting with like a few
Speaker 1: containers on a balcony, like I don't know, I would
Speaker 1: just encourage you will to give it a try. Yeah, wonderful, Well, Lauren,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for being on the program. I
Speaker 1: really appreciate your time. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1: This was lovely. Not long ago, my friend nailed me
Speaker 1: a plant as a gift, but when it arrived, my
Speaker 1: family and I happened to be out of town, and
Speaker 1: so it just sat there waiting for us in the hallway,
Speaker 1: And when we finally opened the box, the plant looked pathetic,
Speaker 1: like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree. The soil had dried out,
Speaker 1: the leaves that hadn't fallen off were well about to
Speaker 1: fall off, and at the time I wasn't even sure
Speaker 1: if the plant was still alive. But it was a
Speaker 1: gift from a dear friend, and I wasn't ready to
Speaker 1: part with it, so I repotted it and moved it
Speaker 1: to the sunniest spot in the house, somewhere where my
Speaker 1: other plants would be jealous of it. I checked the
Speaker 1: soil and watered it regularly, and one day, as I
Speaker 1: was debating whether to relocate it to the compost bin,
Speaker 1: I decided instead to prune the remaining leaves. It was
Speaker 1: like giving a haircut to a bald man. But as
Speaker 1: I looked for dead leaves to trim, I saw this
Speaker 1: little bright sprout emerging, the sign of life, and I
Speaker 1: got so excited. Suddenly I realized those months of warmth
Speaker 1: and care that I've been pouring into it had thrown
Speaker 1: this thing a lifeline. And I don't know whether it
Speaker 1: was my persistence or the plants, but together we somehow
Speaker 1: figured out a way forward. I mean, you could tell
Speaker 1: that or a few ways right. You could say that
Speaker 1: I took a plant that was about to die and
Speaker 1: just kept feeding it the nourishment it needed, the sun
Speaker 1: and the water, and it clung on until spring, long
Speaker 1: enough to thrive. The story where I just helped out
Speaker 1: the plant, where you could tell it the way I
Speaker 1: think about it, that this plant came into my life
Speaker 1: at a time when I was exhausted, worn down by
Speaker 1: the news cycle and the grind of working and parenting
Speaker 1: and schooling. From home and in that exhaustion, this plant
Speaker 1: gave me another space to pour my love. It gave
Speaker 1: me something to hope for and asked for my patients.
Speaker 1: It trained me to realize that if you look out
Speaker 1: the window, yes, you can see all the difficult things
Speaker 1: the world is dealing with right outside, but you can
Speaker 1: also feel the warmth and count on the day's light
Speaker 1: to stream through one day after the next. It was
Speaker 1: something to bask in and look forward too, because, of course,
Speaker 1: my little plant needed that light, but so did I.
Speaker 1: I've learned a lot of lessons throughout the season of
Speaker 1: humans growing stuff. Some of them have been more gardening
Speaker 1: and plant care related, like how to properly care for
Speaker 1: air plants, that earthworms are great pets and even better
Speaker 1: contributors to good soil. I've learned not to trust groundhogs,
Speaker 1: especially when it comes to planning for spring, and I
Speaker 1: witnessed just how much you can do with a little
Speaker 1: bit of space. But I've also learned a lot about
Speaker 1: what it means to be human. Throughout the season, Molly
Speaker 1: and I have asked the same question to every friend
Speaker 1: who's picked up our call. Do you think taking care
Speaker 1: of plants can make us better humans. And the answer
Speaker 1: to that question is always yes, but the reasons are
Speaker 1: so often different. Plants are tough, plants are resilient plants
Speaker 1: and want to grow. That's a good lesson for humans
Speaker 1: because I always think that we are more billions and
Speaker 1: tougher than than maybe we think we are. Sometimes even
Speaker 1: a delicate flower if you look at what that had
Speaker 1: to do to grow and become that, that's resiliency. If
Speaker 1: you look at a plant and you realize it just
Speaker 1: kind of was programmed to do that and it's going
Speaker 1: to do that same thing for humans. Oh gosh, vegetables
Speaker 1: produced food. It's it's all about what I love to do. Honestly,
Speaker 1: seen from where it starts to where it ends on
Speaker 1: the plate and it's consumed is just such an experience.
Speaker 1: I think humility and patience is really what gardening is about.
Speaker 1: You can create communities with something as in with a garden,
Speaker 1: you can create friendships and bonds and just you can
Speaker 1: just you can restart the world. You know, it starts
Speaker 1: with life from these plants that's growing and they're giving
Speaker 1: themselves to as and we move on and we give
Speaker 1: ourselves to other and it is connects and it keeps going.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not not everybody can really really understand it.
Speaker 1: I mean sometimes my friends come over and they're like,
Speaker 1: how can your indoor plants are so amazing? I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: I always play music in the house. It's not like
Speaker 1: I'm walking around talking to my plants, but I might
Speaker 1: and like I love them, you know. I mean, I
Speaker 1: dust the leaves on my on my fig trees in
Speaker 1: my house because I know they need to breathe. I
Speaker 1: see how they change shape because I know that they're
Speaker 1: moving towards the light. Who would notice that unless you
Speaker 1: are really aware of what's going on in your environment.
Speaker 1: You know it's it's really important. I would say one
Speaker 1: gardening and plant care make us better humans because they
Speaker 1: teach you empathy and you become so grateful when you
Speaker 1: realize whoa this grew from this to this, and you're
Speaker 1: thinking about how grateful you are for this. So you're
Speaker 1: cultivating gratitude in your body, in your spirit, in your mind,
Speaker 1: and then when you go out into the grocery store,
Speaker 1: when you go out into the mall, when you get
Speaker 1: on a plane, you have that gratitude that you've cultivated
Speaker 1: inside your body, that you now carry with you, and
Speaker 1: that started when you watch your bell pepper grow. It
Speaker 1: really does make them way more attuned to the people
Speaker 1: around them and way more connected to the communities around them.
Speaker 1: And I think that anytime you're more connected to your
Speaker 1: community and the people around you, that's that's going to
Speaker 1: lead to more empathy. I think nature gives you all
Speaker 1: life lessons. You could put out anything from nature and
Speaker 1: there would be a lesson. We've been it. We as
Speaker 1: humans think we're so clever, we're actually pretty stupid, stupid
Speaker 1: and our desire to want everything and we're not patient.
Speaker 1: If we were more patient with everything, we'd be in
Speaker 1: a much more harmonious world. But we're not. We're just
Speaker 1: so eager. We need it now, We need it now,
Speaker 1: We need it now. You know, Just take a step,
Speaker 1: look at what's around you. Look at that nature, Look
Speaker 1: at that tree, Look at that little thing. It's going
Speaker 1: to go in its own time. You can shout and
Speaker 1: scream and brings as much carbon on it as you want,
Speaker 1: it's not going to grow any faster than what it
Speaker 1: wants to grow. So just nurture it. You're going to
Speaker 1: get out of it as much as you put into it.
Speaker 1: Gardening is about taking time and being patient. So if
Speaker 1: you're impatient, it might be the perfect thing for you.
Speaker 1: I'm a very impatient individual, but I have I have
Speaker 1: a much better relationship with loss and the circle of
Speaker 1: life than I did going into it, and so I'm
Speaker 1: more comfortable with life, I want to say, because I
Speaker 1: understand the whole process now and I can. I can
Speaker 1: handle it. It's not it's not easy, and I don't
Speaker 1: think it's easy for anyone, but I can. I can
Speaker 1: do it, and so I think that's that's something I've
Speaker 1: I've really come to appreciate about being out here. Do
Speaker 1: you think you have to be an optimist to be
Speaker 1: a farmer? That's a very good question. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Before I was I would say that I was an optimist.
Speaker 1: I don't know. That's a that's a great question. I
Speaker 1: think it helps for sure, because you can see the
Speaker 1: light at the end even when it's really dark. What
Speaker 1: do you think I think I think you do. I
Speaker 1: think you need to believe that your patients will bear out.
Speaker 1: And I think you have to believe in the earth
Speaker 1: and the seeds you're planning and and expect that things
Speaker 1: at the end of the day will will go right
Speaker 1: even if they go, hey, why a little bit, You're
Speaker 1: still going to have a bounty, you know, if not
Speaker 1: this year, next year, And I think it is an
Speaker 1: optimistic practice. M hmm. I think you're right. So much
Speaker 1: of what we take from our time with our plants
Speaker 1: is personal. While a lot of us are finding comfort
Speaker 1: from plants and being in the garden, we respond to
Speaker 1: that interaction differently. Some of us are energized after a
Speaker 1: few hours working out. Others go to our gardens to
Speaker 1: find peace and solace. It's a lot like the way
Speaker 1: we're all attracted to different plants. We all have our
Speaker 1: own plant niche, and with different plant preferences come different
Speaker 1: life lessons. For some of us, we learn about struggle
Speaker 1: and we use it to make ourselves stronger. I think
Speaker 1: about how the grapes that make the sweetest wine are
Speaker 1: the ones that persist through the most difficult conditions that
Speaker 1: they have to bear stress to deliver sweetness. But how
Speaker 1: while those grapes are going through that struggle, they don't
Speaker 1: know the greatness that they're destined for. Or tiny plants,
Speaker 1: because maybe you're a tiny plant person just embracing the
Speaker 1: beauty and the joy that the tiniest of plants can
Speaker 1: radiate across the space. As this season of humans growing
Speaker 1: stuff comes to a close, I find myself naturally looking
Speaker 1: back at all the lessons I've learned, and the biggest
Speaker 1: lesson that keeps coming up for me is patients. I
Speaker 1: am quiet by nature, but I'm not patient. And the
Speaker 1: way our phones have trained us to constantly be rewarded
Speaker 1: by tweets and likes and social media updates and just
Speaker 1: knowing everything immediately, I'm not sure any of that has
Speaker 1: trained me to be a more patient person. But plants
Speaker 1: tuning out the rest of the world and focusing on
Speaker 1: helping these little things grow, that has made me more patient.
Speaker 1: I've seen it with my wife, my kids, even myself.
Speaker 1: Plants never question what's ahead of them. They just trust
Speaker 1: that they'll find a way. They stretch their roots, figure
Speaker 1: out how to reach towards the light, and they know
Speaker 1: they'll thrive. And think about that. That makes me incredibly
Speaker 1: optimistic about what's ahead for my family, for myself, and
Speaker 1: quite honestly, for all of us. This is our last
Speaker 1: episode of the season, so I hope you've enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: I know I have, But we'll be back soon with
Speaker 1: more content for everyone from the master gardener to the
Speaker 1: plant parent to the plant care curious. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: you can hang out with us on social. You can
Speaker 1: find updates and more great content on the show on
Speaker 1: Instagram and Facebook at Humans Growing Stuff and on Twitter
Speaker 1: a Growing Stuff pod. Don't forget no matter what season
Speaker 1: it is or where you're at in your gardening journey,
Speaker 1: there are some incredible resources is waiting for you on
Speaker 1: the Miracle Grow website. Humans Growing Stuff is a collaboration
Speaker 1: from I Heart Radio and your friends at Miracle Grow.
Speaker 1: Our show was written and produced by Molly Sosha and
Speaker 1: me Monga Chatigler in partnership with Ryan Ovadia, Daniel Ainsworth,
Speaker 1: Haley Ericsson, and Garrett Shannon of Banter. Until next time,
Speaker 1: be patient with your plants and each other. I'm Manga there.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening.