#379: The Potato Plant
The futility of explaining away my new hobby
They say that we millennials fill our rented homes with plants to make up for the fact that we do not own them. And it’s true, of course, that plants can help make a home. It is, however, a little reductive to assume that one experience (buying a plant) can be a replacement for another (buying a home). If we start assigning experiences meaning due to the generation of the doer, then we are missing the universality of the human experience.
I am currently growing a potato plant. Tracking its progress every day gives me great joy. To me, it is a novelty, but to a seasoned gardener, to a long-time allotment-owner, this activity is familiar. Though we may experience our potato growing through different eyes, it still feels clear to me that even if the potato-growing “boomer” is reaping their thirtieth harvest in their beautiful back garden and I am growing mine on the sill behind my television, we are experiencing many of the same feelings.
We might feel unsure, upon first planting the potato, about whether we would see any results from this unassuming vegetable. Then, with the first shoots, we feel nurturing, willing our little plant on to greater heights. Soon, we’re purchasing bamboo canes as we try to keep up with the plant’s steady growth. Every day we’re surprised by new leaves. It becomes a steady, comforting sight, a part of our routine. And then we get impatient, waiting to harvest our crop.
I’m still very much in the growing phase, admiring as my plant rears its leaves in the background of my work Zoom calls. Even reading that sentence, you could be tempted to impose further meaning onto my potato plant. You could call it a pandemic project, a millennial pandemic project at that. A plant that it is possible to be grow in a small flat with minimal resources. Yet I defy that statement and ask you to close your eyes and imagine only the uncontextualised joys of green shoots. Imagine the pride of cooking up home grown potatoes.
It’s easy to explain our behaviours due to the categories the media place us within, but it is nice to remember sometimes, that growing plants is something that unites rather than divides. Gen Z, millenial, or boomer, there’s great satisfaction in the humble potato.
