Today’s a year to the day since I planted my veggie garden. Most of the herbs are still there, most of the veggies have changed (and will soon change again), but building a food garden in a rental house - a permanent resource in a temporary space - is a decision I’ll never regret

I think a lot about what to do with the garden when I inevitably have to move out. I’m leaning more & more towards leaving it & everything in it as gifts for whoever moves in after me. I like the lightness of knowing that I can’t take it with me, the camaraderie of passing it on.

Another reason I like the garden is that I could only afford to build and plant it because I earned money from writing, on top of the money from my day job. I may never be able to make a living from writing alone, but I did this. It’s nice to have something to show for my work.

And also because in a shitty world where you work your guts out just to get by, knowing that you’ll probably be a renter your whole life, choosing to build a veggie garden in your landlord’s property to grow your own food feels like reclaiming a little bit of agency.

(It’s also very, very necessary to acknowledge that just having the space to build a veggie garden, even on property you don’t own, is an enormous privilege, and I’m very lucky.)

Last one because this thread’s got way longer than I meant it to, but one other reason I love my veggie garden is because it’s brought more life into my back garden in general: flies; spiders; mantises; native bees; etc. It’s nice to have created a tiny bit of habitat.