#plantcraft

[gpedia]

Lawn grass is a scourge on the environment anyway. By keeping it mowed not only are you constantly torturing an entire family of monocots, the monoculture also ruins the soil, and the constant watering leaches it of much-needed nutrition for anything else to even attempt to grow.

Not only that, most lawn grasses are invasive species in most areas they are introduced to, and once they escape your strict sadistic controlled lawn environment, they will choke out and drain other more healthy and complex ecosystems of valuable nutrients and soil-space for roots.

The natural world is more interconnected than you can possibly imagine and learning about it just gives you an endless cascade of realizations about symbiotic relationships that permeate every level of the ecosystem

I've been learning about fallen leaves. Many of you may know that fallen leaves are used by many moth and butterfly species to hibernate through the winter. This, my friends, is only the very beginning of the leaf layer's importance.

The layer of fallen leaves that covers the ground in winter has the following functions (and more):

Keeping the soil temperature more consistent

Insulating the earliest spring flowers to stop them from freezing

Protecting plants late in the year from being killed by early frosts

Sheltering 94% of moth species during their winter hibernation as well as many butterflies and other insects

Fertilizing and enriching the soil. The nutrients in fallen leaves are the main source of soil nutrients in habitats worldwide. Streams and rivers in forests carry the nutrients of leaves far and wide.

Providing habitat for predators like salamanders and spiders.

Suppressing weed growth.

Improving the germination of tree seeds (e.g. acorns)

Attracting beneficial microbes

Increasing the water holding capacity of the soil

Providing a food source for birds to feed their babies on in the spring (insects)

What's more, the fallen leaves of every species of tree have different properties that affect their effects on the ecosystem, including: size, shape, toughness, and speed of decomposition. The leaves of broadleaf deciduous trees are optimized to support and fertilize the deciduous forest environment.

[cloudbattrolls]

Tell Us How to Live

Gliese Benral | Forest Near the Kelter Mansion | Present Night

Something was changing.

She’d felt it, reaching into her constructs lately. She had a deeper connection now, could feel through their senses more acutely. It wasn’t necromancy, wasn’t flesh and bone and spirit. Not directly. 

Wasn’t plantcraft either. She was getting better at that, coaxing buds and thorns from scraps with ease now, but this was totally unrelated. This didn’t occur when she shaped flowers or vines; same level of control as ever. She couldn’t commune with her plants, fucking shame that it was.

No, this was…weird. Not bad, but weird, the way she was linked to them now. She could feel their thoughts - more than their thoughts. Their perceptions, simple and blunted as they were, being non-sapient constructs, with dead bodies and half-dead minds.

The drag of a bony foot through soil. The swirl of a breeze through dead hair.

She hadn’t tried on Zeller yet. She knew asking probably wouldn’t go down well. 

Gliese wanted to ask Quilis. In person.

Sure, she could’ve gone to Astirn. But her friend wasn’t in the middle of a damn desert, and if this was some emerging change to her magic, she wanted advice before she presented it to her mentor. 

So she went over, and oh who was fucking waiting in the woods but creature feature itself.

“It’s not safe right now.” Said Eileit as she approached, wearing its stupid goth maid outfit as the blueblood resisted the urge to throw something at it.

“Bullshit.” She said. “You just don’t want me there.”

It shook its head. “Quilis isn’t accepting visitors, and they’re away at the shop right now. I can ask them to text you when they get back if you want an explanation.”

“Then why are you here?” She demanded. “How come you get to stick around?”

It blinked. “To help.”

She snarled. “Like hell you are. What’s your real reason? What are you planning?”

“Whatever I say, you won’t believe.” It said calmly. “Goodbye.”

It turned to walk away. Gliese, frustrated, reached out with her magic just to stop it in place -

A vast well of feeling. Silver and black and green, a web of wires, a sea of blades, a storm of light -

Quilis’s face and voice. Her favorite teas. The decorations on the taxidermy. A plush bear. A bag of candies. Conversations. Laughter. 

Deep respect. Admiration. A desire to learn more. An appreciation of beauty. A strange fondness. 

An acceptance of its place, that none of this should be spoken of.

Love, the blueblood realized, as she struggled to extract herself from the swirl of feelings. 

So much love.

She came back to reality, nearly stumbling onto the grass.

The blueblood breathed hard, her lean face covered in sweat. Her glowing orange eyes crackled slightly, and blue sparks flew around the base of her horns as well.

Eileit had turned around and its eyes - weren’t maroon anymore. 

The sclera had gone black. The pupils were bright jade slits.

“What -“ It said pleasantly, but with an unmistakable edge to its tone. “- did you just do?”

“Uh.” She said, still reeling a bit from the wash of emotions. “I don’t know.” She admitted. 

“Hm.” It said, arms crossed behind its back as it examined her. “My mind - no, my feelings. If it was my mind, you’d be in worse shape, most likely…”

“Yeah, I didn’t really get like, words?” She said, wiping her face with a small towel from her sylladex. “Just emotions. Shit, I didn’t know I could do that. You’re not undead. How did I do that?”

She paused, then looked disgusted as it sank in.

“Oh god. You have a flushcrush on Quilis. I so regret asking.”

Its face was unreadable.

“Will you tell her?”

Gliese snorted.

“Fuck no. I don’t want to give her daymares.”

It nodded. A bird called somewhere in the trees.

“Then we agree. No need to speak of it.”

“Thank god.” She said fervently. “I’d have to teach you a hard lesson otherwise.”

It stared at her with those awful green slits, those piercing eyes, and Gliese shivered.

Its clasped its hands politely. Its head tilted slightly, one ear raised, the other lowered.

“What would you do-” It said, so soft, so cold. “-if I felt differently?”

Gliese bit her lip, ears flicking as she looked away - up, down, settling on the side.

“I’d-” She said, then stopped. “I’d- fuck.” She spat. 

“I’d do nothing! Happy? I’d fucking do nothing, and you know it. Gloat about it, why don’t you.”

It shook its head. “It’s not about me, Gliese. This is very much about you.”

“Oh, don’t fucking try to schoolfeed me.” She snarled. “Of course this is about you! You and your - fucked up feelings.”

It blinked. 

“Am I to be condemned when I’ve never spoken a word? When I would never act on them?”

Gliese wanted to say she couldn’t trust it. But she’d seen - she’d felt - the truth. Eileit knew better. It understood Quilis would never return its feelings, and it didn’t mind. 

“You’re so fucking - righteous.” She muttered. “It feels fake. No one’s really that pure about it. Everyone wants their crush to notice them, at least a little.”

“Not righteous.” It said, shaking its head. “Aware there’s no point. I've cut out feelings like that to ensure my silence and courtesy.”

The hare troll bit her lip. It was so…so goddamn casual about fucking with its own head. No wonder it hadn’t freaked out when she’d accidentally found her own way in.

Accidentally, and yet it had felt entirely natural. Like she was meant to do stuff like that.

“Yeah, well.” She said roughly, pushing onward. “Good. Keep it that way.”

“I don’t want to be told to leave.” It said with amusement. 

Gliese paused.

“Doubt they’d tell you to.” She admitted, grudgingly.

“Maybe not.” Eileit acknowledged. “But they would be within their rights if they did.” It said calmly. 

“I’m content with what I do and the kindness Quilis has shown me.” It continued, tapping its chin. “But…it isn’t technically any of your business. You aren’t her quadrant. And she’s more than capable of handling herself.”

“I’m her friend.” The blueblood spat. “I know Quilis can handle herself fine! I’m not worried about that.”

“Worried about what, then.” It said, blinking. 

She gritted her teeth.

“It’s just - it’s fucking weird! No one knows exactly what you are or what you’ll do. None of us know shit. We can’t trust you.”

It nodded.

“Good points. But be honest.”

She wanted to strangle the fucking thing, but she knew it wouldn’t help. “You’re a freak.” She finally admitted. “You’re a freak and a threat and nowhere near being a troll. Even Tuuya used to be one. You never were, were you?”

“No.” It agreed with a creepy smile.

“See that? That right there?” She said, pointing at its face. “That is why I don’t fucking like it. You are a disturbing little bitch and you don’t even try to pretend otherwise or apologize or anything.”

“I didn’t ask to exist this way.” It said calmly. “I am as I was made.”

“You could put more effort into being normal.” Gliese muttered.

It looked at her, a trace of weariness on its red-freckled face.

“Being like a troll…would require amputating the majority of myself. There would only be a fragment left. It would be stiff and stilted, or shallow and lacking. There is no version of me sanitized enough for your liking.”

“Maybe Quilis would be into you if you tried.” she murmured, aware it wasn't a great joke, but goddamn this situation needed some levity.

Eileit looked at her with such withering disdain that she blushed blue in mild shame.

It spoke a single word.

“No.”

Gliese wanted to be angry. She wanted to shout that who did it think it was, talking back to her? It was a machine. A machine couldn’t comprehend or feel love…

…and yet this one did. 

It turned away, apparently done with the conversation.

“So, what, you’d rather just not change, even if people liked you more?”

“Would you?” It said neutrally, beginning to walk away from her.

She gritted her teeth. “Okay, not usually, but…some people are worth changing for. Worth trying to be better.”

“Quilis has made no complaint about my behavior or service.” It said. “If they did, I would listen.”

It got further away, deeper into the forest.

Gliese ran to catch up to it, stopping a few feet behind the false maroon.

“Yeah, well…I’m not saying you should say anything, obviously, but you wouldn’t try to act more troll, even for her?”

It stopped and looked at the blueblood.

“‘And if the body were not the soul, what is the soul? I have perceived that to be with those I like is enough.’”

It walked faster, disappearing behind the trees before she could say anything else.

The mage’s orange eyes followed it, uncertain, her ears slightly lowered.

Well, this sure wasn’t how she’d expected discovering her native domain to go.

[mega-byte]

Time to turn off the lights and watch someone terraform mars for 5 hours in plantcrafters

[danoshanter]

Most.

Magickal.

Evening ...

So I was just down by the barge canal on Lake Champlain, Burlington VT, observing a new magickal ritual of guerilla plantcrafting where I put in a mix of ruderalis and white widow seeds to bring a little wonder joy and magick back to sites like that that have been poisoned by human greed (its I think one of the few Superfund toxic cleanup sites in Vermont.) It;s just turning from sunset to twilight, and I put in the last seed of the evening and look up to see the full moon. LITERALLY at that exact moment ...

*honk*

...

*honk honk*

...

I couldn't see the Canada geese in the dimming sky, but could hear them fly over, so I honked up at them in greeting.

Next thing I half-saw in the twilight was the ripples lapping shore at the water's edge as at least one swooped silently in and landed, again absolutely literally, on the mirror-still dark quicksilver water ten feet from me.

And then honked back.

Once.

Don't tell me there ain't no magic left in the world. I've always been one of the faerie children, so I would have just quietly gone on knowing what I know anyway, but after this?

Anybody denies that magic, that wonder, that dream are alive and well in the world, I'm afraid I'll be discourteous enough a faerie knight as to openly laugh in their face

(btw the guy in the picture isn't me, that;s a stock photo from the Burlington Free Press local newspaper story here:

https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/picture-gallery/life/2021/11/27/pine-street-barge-canal-burlington-vt-legacy-timber-industry-superfund-poison-beauty/6284898001/

but the GENERAL location is right (barge canal stretches along about two - three miles of the southern main corridor leading out of town (or rather, along Pine Street which is the street next closest to the lake FROM the main southern corridor)

[headspace-hotel]

This version articulates things better and more knowledgeably than I could

Gently releasing this take from Sylvanaqua Farms into the Tumblr ecosystem like a field ecologist releasing a bird with a brightly coloured leg band 🤗

[mightystargazer]

New earrings - Potted plants!

Terracotta pot, macrame plant hanger (that was fiddly!) and crocheted plant and soil.

.

.

.

#earrings #earringshandmade #earringshandmade #plant #macrame #plantcraft

#amigurumilove #amigurumi #amigurumitoy #amigurumiaddict #amigurumilicious #amigurumist #crochet #crochettoy #crochetaddict #crochetlover #crochetart #crochetersofinstagram #crafts #crafty #knithacker @knithacker #threadart #miniaturecrochet #miniature #miniatureworld

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A post shared by Mia Svensson (@mightystargazer)

[picklesandpitch]

[witchy-plantdaddy]

🕊My Asks are Open🕊

And they have been for a while. Please feel free to ask me anything plant or witchcraft related. Or pretty much whatever else you might be curious about. I’ll do my best to respond to you as soon as I can. 🕯🌿

[toxicflorist]

username @plantcraft

Greetings From Santae,

Adventurer, Thank You for joining us on our exciting journey and being a part of our community during Alpha Testing at Santae! We're thrilled to have you following our progress and signing up for our newsletter. As a valued member of our community, you'll enjoy exclusive perks and stay informed about our upcoming updates, including what we've accomplished and what we plan to continue building. Be sure to check your email and click the link we sent to redeem your special reward. We are beyond grateful for your support and look forward to sharing more of our adventures with you! Also, click the link below and hit that "Notify Me Button" and anyone who signs up to follow our Kickstarter will receive a Divine Synthwave Harlowin Figurine as a thank you gift!

The Official Santae Kickstarter Is Kicking Off Soon!

Exciting things are underway in the magical world of Santae, and there’s no better time to begin – or continue – your adventure with us.

We’re thrilled to announce that the official Santae Kickstarter campaign will launch August 30! Backing the project will grant you exclusiveaccess to the site during our Beta launch, in addition to an incredible variety of rewards.

Tier Rewards range from beautiful Animated Wardrobe items for your avatar, to the companionship of the Kyree, Phasmic, and Seamso pets, and much more. You can even unlock the opportunity to collaborate with our art and design teams to design your very own site content: A Minimal, hairstyle, on-site item or clothing set, NPC, or even pet species!

Visit the Official Santae Kickstarter Today!

Press “Notify me on launch” on the official Santae Kickstarter to become a follower, and invite your friends to do the same. As our Kickstarter page hits certain follower thresholds, the entire Alpha community will unlock tiers of prizes!

At 500 followers for the official Santae Kickstarter, we will release a new pet species, the Luffin, early. At 1000 followers, we will unlock early access to the brand-new Synthwave color! Don’t miss your chance to unlock rare rewards while also helping to make our Kickstarter a success. Visit this page for a sneak peek of all available Kickstarter tiers and rewards!

The Road So Far…

The beginning of Santae’s Alpha test on May 12th, was the start of an incredible journey. In the weeks since then, we’ve enriched the game with dozens of regular updates and exciting new features.

Here is just a taste of what we’ve added to enhance your experience on Santae:

New pet species

On Santae, mystical pets are your adventuring companions. There are plenty to choose from, and many more species on the way! Over the course of Alpha, we released 5 brand new pet species for Santarians to befriend. We’ve also increased the amount of pet friends you can add to your adventure party to 10 when you start!

The adorable moth-like Nochturn is ready to join any Santarian’s adventuring party as soon as they join the site. Brave adventurers who journey to the Lava Caves of the Flamefall Cascades can find the draconic Harlowin and fearsome Grusim. The elegant Drava can be found at traveling merchant Vespera’s exclusive shop. And finally, the friendly Quibbit evolves from its tadpole-like Minimal form.

Which pet species will become your faithful adventuring companion?

New Pet Colors

No matter your style, you can customize your pet companions on Santae with the help of magical shimmer dust!

We announced FOUR exciting new pet colors over the course of Alpha, with more to come in Beta and beyond. Will your pet let its true colors shine with the beautiful Prismatic shimmer dust? Will it become an adorable Pipsqueak? Will they show class and elegance with a RegalShimmer Dust? Or will you give your pet a taste of retro digital style with the brand-new Synthwave color?

New Minimals

In the world of Santae, your pets can adopt enchanting companions of their own called Minimals! Choose from dozens of types to find your pet’s perfect match.

Santae’s Alpha phase has brought many new exciting types of Minimals to join the herd. Which will your pet adopt?

Exciting New Site Features

The world of Santae is rich with opportunities to explore, gather, and discover. During the site’s Alpha phase, we’ve unlocked engaging on-site mini-games that bring you and your pets all across the vibrant world of Santae.

Send your pets Gathering at locations across Santae and they will bring back exciting items to share with you! Your pet might bring you a magical rune from the mysterious Stormforge Caverns, gather useful plants from the Ancient Grove, or maybe even discover an egg that can hatch into another pet at the volcanic pools of Ember Springs. You can also direct your pet to pluck rare berries from the Great Berry Tree!

When your pets go Fishing at the sunny Solar Sands – or in any gathering location across Santae – there’s no telling what they might find at the other end of the line. You might reel in a delicious fish, an eel that can join your pet as its Minimal companion, a piece of useful equipment that only needs a small repair, and so much more. More discoveries in the depths of the waters around Santae are sure to come.

If you want to tame wild Minimals, go visit Silvershade’s Ranch in the Lani Archipelago! They will send you out into the wild to catch and tame a Minimal through an interactive Herding mini-game. Bring berries, toys, and plushies to tempt and distract the Minimal as you and your pet cooperate to befriend it.

A Dynamic World

Santae’s sunny days and mysterious nights each hold their own mysteries to explore, watch as the clouds move while you play, and every hour on the hour you can watch the transition to day/night. As the world cycles between states every hour, you and your pets have the chance to make exciting new discoveries!

Visiting the Lava Caves in the dark of night will bring you face to face with the opportunity to tame a fearsome Grusim – but during the light of day, the Grusim retreats. While the sun shines over the Lava Caves, you can instead bring your Harlowin egg there to hatch into a new companion.

Exciting Events

The most important ingredient in the world of Santae is you: The community!

Over the course of THREE exciting events, our Alpha Testers have been able to participate in and shape the future of the game’s world. Together, we’ve discovered new Minimals, locations, and even new pet species.

The Goopper Swarm

Mysterious slug-like Minimals swarmed Gathering locations all across Santae, prompting adventurers everywhere to collect them in an attempt to learn more.

By collecting the Gooppers and discovering their source, Santarians discovered a brand-new location: The Goopper Grotto. This tranquil forest clearing holds an amazing secret: When you bring a Goopper there alongside certain powerfully magical items, the Minimal will transform!

The Mourning Grusim

By following the traces of an ancient legend, adventurers learned of a mythical creature lurking deep within the Lava Caves.

Together, Santarians discovered sanDust: A secondary currency earned through site activities. This magical dust proved to be the secret to calming the ferocious ancient beast within the caves. By working together to collect sanDust, the community unlocked the ability to tame and adopt the Grusim for everyone!

The Quibbit Cove

When Santarians began to discover mysterious eggs around the site, they banded together to collect them and learn more about them. Together, we learned how to hatch Quibbspawn eggs into a brand-new Minimal: The Quibblet!

But the Quibblet was no ordinary Minimal. More ancient clues pointed the community towards a newly-discovered location, Quibbit Cove. It was there that the true secret of the Quibblet was revealed: Feeding it in the cove causes it to evolve into a fully-fledged pet, the Quibbit!

Thanks to the community’s efforts of research and discovery, the location of Quibbit Cove and the secret of Quibblet evolution are now unlocked for everyone.

Thank You For Being A Part of the Magic of Santae!

Whether you’re an experienced Alpha Tester or a brand-new applicant to the game, we’re so happy to have you as a part of the community we’re building together.

Alpha has brought so many exciting updates – but we’re even more excited for what will come next as we continue to work together to make Santae the most magical site it can be.

Make sure to sign up for notifications about the official Santae Kickstarter so you don’t miss the start of our next big adventure as a community!

With Love and Gratitude,

~The Santae Team

[elodieunderglass]

did i follow a Popular Blog without being aware of it? the amount of people sending you horrible legs astounds me

I think I’m incredibly lucky in the circle I have, and I’m very grateful for the horrible legs you all send me.

It is probably useful for the community of horribleness enjoyers to have someone reliable to hold the reins, so not all of that is about me!

I don’t know if my blog is popular. I don’t believe it is.

I have done/contributed to a number of posts that went on/off platform viral (100k notes/getting offsite coverage) over several years.

On tumblr I have influenced the external world in some microscopic tiny ways (coining the term plantcraft, starting the elder teletubbies lore, writing a post about cricket that apparently really amuses old folks off-platform, being mentioned in books and academic articles, etc.) So people will vaguely recognise my name, probably just as That Bitch Under Glass, but I think because of that it’s easy to have a disproportionate idea of how I’m influential. Tl;dr, I’m occasionally good at making catchy posts and I’m lucky in my circle.

I have about 30k followers (checked today!) but I don’t curate them. Many of these will be deactivated or bots. This is not a high number for social media and definitely doesn’t make you an “influencer” although it may be high for tumblr. I am not here for followers and feel like I have great engagement, though, which I measure largely by the numbers of horrible things with legs I receive.

Of the people who send me horrible things with legs, there are some consistent standout reporters and investigators who are never-tiring in their ongoing efforts to diligently record, and send to me for curation and tagging, the best of the most horrible things with legs. They are the real heroes here.

In conclusion, I don’t believe I have a popular blog, but I agree it has popular effects. I think that horrible things with legs are a natural phenomenon that we all have a duty to categorise and I’m very grateful for my position here.

[elderjourney]

[trenchandwhite]

[elodieunderglass]

This is a question that leads excellently into a whole essay I have inside of me.

In case this long-ass rambling essay randomly breaks containment, it’s worth saying upfront: I coined the term “plantcraft” to talk about gardening as intention+geography, and to ruminate better on our relationship with nature; I practice intentional gardening for food and eco reasons; I’m fairly knowledgeable on my topics, and in addition to working with my local communities I am occasionally tapped for this knowledge, therefore have been peer-reviewed IRL as a lore-keeper; I am involved in local and online eco groups and their efforts in #nomowmay, signs for nature, and other movements towards friendly educational inclusive eco-practices; I am a published scientist with 15+ years experience in science communication; I tend towards practicalities; I regularly teach small children how to engage with nature and domesticated plants; i am an immigrant living in the UK; I have been developing a political lens around plantcraft-as-response-to-aesthetics; and I’m really fucking funny. I love doing jokes.

Anyway I have to say that obnoxious paragraph up front, because otherwise people might feel really furious and defensive about what i’m about to say here. In conclusion, I’m not mad at anybody.

So! many online people enjoy dandelions; they have many political, ideological, and aesthetic associations that resonate with people. (for example, if you are rebelling against your dad. If he spent a lot of time and money in a gardening practice that was incompatible with dandelions, then you can ally with dandelions, to set yourself up in opposition to that.) dandelions are sunny, they undergo pleasing transformations, the fluff is charming, and some people even find them palatable. much art has gone viral across many social platforms on the topic of how dandelions have a political affiliation as a rebellion against your dad , and many positive human qualities have been attributed to them: resilience, the strength and cunning of the underdog, “a weed is a treasure in the right place (just as I am understood better in my chosen community than in my birth family for example)”, the ability to thrive in adverse situations, toughness, difficulty to eradicate, etc. In general these values resonate with people who feel disaffected or marginalised.

Recently, people on tumblr discovered that the common yellow dandelion they saw in dad’s lawn in the USA is not native to the USA. The “common dandelion” is not native to the USA! The underdog is an invader! The good thing has bad origins! This was a shock, as everyone believes that the USA=the world, and something being labelled “invasive” goes against the politics that people WANTED to put on common dandelions.

(Plantcraft asks us to consider the plant as itself, without our projections; this allows us to reflect on how these political motivations and qualities are assigned in response to a VERY specific environment and culture. We must remember what qualities are innate to the plant, and which we have fostered ourselves. These are not the qualities that, say, a medieval Polish herbalist applied to dandelions; these properties are not in any way inherent to the plant, they are just our own reflections of a specific space/time/politics. The plant is a stand-in here, because we believe it to be the enemy of Kentucky ryegrass, and therefore the political ally of those who dislike the politics that we have embodied in the grass. Meanwhile, if you view both plants under a microscope, neither will contain any detectable levels of justice or injustice, any more or less Right to Be Here; we will not find those in the plant: we will only find those with a mirror.)

Discovering that these same common-or-European dandelions are not native to the USA was a beautiful online moment because of that. I was surprised by the speed at which it happened; it was early this year, and I think someone was trying to gotcha a nature blogger. Then all of a sudden the fact spread - like dandelions, in fact. A quick pivot from “funfact! Dandelions are edible!” To “funfact! Dandelions are INVASIVE.”

(Asterisk: polite and useful and cute and articulate immigrants, like dandelions and earthworms, are not considered invasive, but naturalised. They’re expats, actually! They’re border-crossers that contribute to the economy. You get a whole different word if you fit the right political immigration criteria!)

(This is why I had to have that paragraph up front, because I’m compelled to make jokes like this.)

Anyway, a funny bit was EVERYONE TRYING TO PRETEND THEY HAD KNOWN THIS ALL ALONG. this was important to save face i think.

Now it is suddenly important to qualify the presence of dandelions. They may be cute and pretty, but they’re problematic. (I joke.) Actually, it’s fair. More than fair. The viral memes about political correctness of dandelions have penetrated the public consciousness - they’re shared all over Facebook, and your mom has shown them to your dad - so it makes sense to get the new information out too.

This is genuinely so great because this time last year the tags on this post (which came out in 2020, note the earlier tags and their flavors) would all be DOWN WITH MONOCULTURE and DANDELIONS ARE EDIBLE and I WANT A LAWN THAT LOOKS LIKE THIS, but this year we are seeing this! Quite a quick shift too. Well done folks.

I think this is fantastic. Because my political orientation here is plantcraft, and plantcraft’s goal is “everyone having a better relationship with plants,” and people knowing EVEN MORE about plants is RIGHT and GOOD.

However - I am also a joker, and very possessed by the spirit of mischief. remember how plantcraft is intention+geography? Remember how I said that I was involved in the movement of “placing signs to inform the public that apparently neglected unmown areas are deliberate?” Remember about me being an immigrant?

Heeheehee! we must remember that America is not the universe! The tradition of placing cute signs to reframe unruly areas is very very British. Corby and Kettering are allied councils in Northamptonshire. This photo was taken in the UK! They are native. Nativity is defined by geography! This was not the geography you thought it was! Seeing this, please throw your rocks aside.

The political status of “European dandelion” in the USA is unfixed, mutable, capable of veneration or cancellation as our moods require. Weeds/not-weeds is a fluctuating category: the moment in which the thing is Othered is as mutable and whimsical as any other binary identity. The movement from one category to another, and the decision about what treatment the category deserves, is largely down to other people’s desires. Today you must use that bathroom; tomorrow, you are a girl. Today, you may have a rainbow parade; tomorrow you may not go near children. Yesterday, it was considered unrealistic to show people like you on television; today, it is considered shocking not to. Today, you are citizen; tomorrow, refugee. Sometimes, things are suddenly placed into categories of Bad, and not allowed to live. But the Badness was never written in its genetic code. The category itself is artificial and political: a human has decided to make a border. Tomorrow, the human may decide differently.

A dandelion would find this all very puzzling. It was not aware of having any motives at all - neither untidiness nor colonisation nor resilience - it only traveled with the wind.

In the UK, where relationships are different and European dandelions are native… we do not need to be pious about these particular dandelions. They belong perfectly well on that verge. When we stand on geography where they belong, they are cheerful native wildflowers growing in the verge. When you are an American pointing to them on the internet, they are non-native (and we DO condemn!) When you are your dad, they make a space look messy and unloved. When you are a person placing a cute sign, they make the space a educational gardening project. When you are abstracting the image-of-the-common-dandelion at layers of removal, it can symbolise the neglect of one’s garden; or it can symbolise resilience in an adverse society; or it can symbolise European colonisation - perhaps it will become this in the future, with a movement like LandBack developing the image of the dandelion into an avatar representing “colonisers that tried to legitimise themselves by inventing their own folklore.”

Or perhaps we will take dandelions as a global flag into outer space, as the great Icon of Humanity, and peacefully show this picture to aliens, and say, “this is not a sun; it is a flower, a quiet being from our home geography which is special to us; to us it is a symbol that means ‘peaceful and honest travelling.” we cannot know how our moods will change. We can only predict the rate at which today’s scrappy hero is tomorrow’s trash, and, perhaps, question why everything in the natural world has to be aligned with superhero-movie-ethics.

When you are a dandelion, you simply grow and reproduce. When you are a bee, you just see flowers. Today, they are yellow; tomorrow, they will be clocks. We cannot really control them, no matter how much we try; we can only control our moods, our emotional response to the living truth of the thing.

As for whether or not they provide much actual food for the British bees, as the sign implies… well. Several answers there. Some food, but not much. However, what’s MOSTLY happening here is that the councils are NOT spraying these verges with weedkiller. Weedkiller, in addition to being harmful to bees, is damaging to the whole environment - and expensive to boot. (It’s worth noting that this isn’t a lawn, or purposeful private space, but a verge, or municipally-maintained public space on the side of a road; if it was full of rubbish, or otherwise looked neglected, people would find it a depressing commentary on the state of their home town. People often want their tax money to make things look nice, so signs like these reframe it: instead of spending your money on poison, we’re doing this! The sign changes your mood and emotional response! Doesn���t it look nice?)

Plus, bees are cute; they rhyme; politically, they’re a stand-in for many human projections that the sign-makers are trying to evoke; and people know what you mean by it. So the sign isn’t so much endorsing the dandelions as a superfood for bees, which they aren’t, as it is about cutely explaining why there are “weeds” and that it is eco (“bees”). I can see why it’s confusing, though. It is, once again, because we are using nature as avatars for complicated abstract human communication: “weeds” to acknowledge and excuse the untidiness, “bees” to represent All of Nature.

Unpacked, with every hieroglyph and abstract reference unfolded, you could read the sign as, “note well! We acknowledge that the historical visual message conveyed by the presence of these plants, as interpreted by the public, is untidiness/neglect, which may lead you to question if this public space is being cared for. We, the council, ask you to excuse our apparent disinterest in the state of this verge, as we have done it deliberately: lo, behold! Your taxes are feeding small and cute things, as pictured here, which you will associate with positive environmental change.”

It is definitely confusing, when we talk in shapes. But we are so good at doing it.

There are a lot of take-home messages here, but the one that stands out to me is that plantcraft core of reminding ourselves to check our intentions and our geography. We should do that before looking at the question of who gets to be a weed.

Long May we do so; long May we thrive; and #nomowmay.

[herbanwytch]

All of our abundance, all of our food, all of our real wealth and happiness begins and is sustained by our topsoil, our water and these little creatures. No pollinators, no food. It’s that simple. 🌻 🐞 🐝 #Inspiration #Plants #Herbs #hedgewitch #AncientBotanicals #AncientWisdom #bee #xerces #PlantCraft #SacredBeauty #herbalism #gardening #GoBotanical #Botanical #organic #phenology #Creativity #Nature #HandMade #BeautifulFeed #PlantPower #Aromatherapy #rosewitch #abundance #permaculture #crueltyfree https://www.instagram.com/p/BuvubPJAc-q/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=d5z3hzqnexhd

[witchy-plantdaddy]

🌿Lemon Balm🌿

Meet my handsome boy Lemon Balm! I got him along with Peppermint and another plant who I will introduce later. When I got him he was a little toddler herb and he has been growing so well! I can’t wait to see how big he gets.

✨🌿🌿✨

[headspace-hotel]

Remember everyone:

Guerrilla gardening is for the neglected and barely-noticed little spots that see hardly any maintenance

For heavily maintained areas like golf courses, you gotta talk to people and organize. Find a person in your local government that seems most closely related to what you want to do or someone part of a gardening and/or environmentalist club or organization and send an email

Once you know your invasive species, you can get free plants from around May through about August by carefully yoinking seedlings from gravel and pavement cracks (look next to creeks, shrubby woods, and pasture) just don't get run over by a car

You must find retired old ladies who are avid gardeners. They will have all the connections you need

Volunteer at a nature center or preserve, even an hour a week, and you will learn very quickly all about invasive and native species and make lots of connections, and once you've proven yourself interested in being helpful and useful, they may let you transplant cool plants that happened to pop up in a parking area or mowed strip

If you've got access to a public library, they might host a seed swap

Happy plantcraft y'all