Big Dreams and Tinier Plants

The tiny Chef's account is mostly stop motion style videos of a tiny, green felt character known as you Guessed it Tiny Chef, and as he bakes tiny apple pies and bottle cap miniature artisanal breads, tiny pizzas. He's even opened up the smallest lemonade stand. Followers just can't get enough of his small stature and even smaller culinary delights. The Tiny Chef's growing fandom is just one example of

how much people love little things. We obsess over the charm of tiny things and their overall cuteness, and there might be a psychological reason for this. The anthropologist cloud Levi Strauss theorized that because we can see and comprehend tiny things in their entirety, they don't threaten us, and that makes us feel powerful. I mean, that's one explanation. But I also wonder if our love of all things small might have to do with our innate nurturing abilities

as humans, and maybe we actually feel protective over tiny things. Oh, this one's about meditation. This is oh my god. He's surrounded with like ey, tiny miniature plants look like succulents. But they're they're his size. They're they're tiny chef's size. I'm supposed to breathing with him way way. It's so cute. It would also explain why we love tiny plants. This year, The l A Times identified tiny plants as one of

the biggest plant trends for two thousand twenty one. That's right, there's an entire genre just for petite plants from teensy weensy cacti, which I don't think are the scientific name to dwarf fruit trees. But why is this the first I've heard of these little bitty topi areas? And why is everyone catching onto them now? And more importantly, are tiny plants just a passing fad or a plant movement

with roots? I think it's time we found out. Hey. There, I'm Mongais Particular, co host of Part Time Genius, one of the unders of mental flaws. And this is Humans Growing Stuff, a collaboration from My Heart Radio and your friends at Miracle Grow. Our goal is to make this the most human show about plants you'll ever listen to. Along the way, we'll share inspiring stories, tips and tricks to nurture your plant addiction, and just enough science to

make you sound like an expert. On this episode, we are getting small and exploring the tiny plants and miniature trees that are taking the world by stem. I want to learn how tiny plants have elbowed their much bigger brothers out of the way to capture the spotlight, and also does this tiny plant obsession overlap with our love

of tiny houses. Plus, we'll hear from one of our favorite Green Thumb comedians, Angela Johnson Reyes, and talk to her about how Instagram is feeding her plant passion and I'm going to get her thoughts on the tiny plant movement. To stick with me, this is going to be fun. Chapter thirteen, Big Dreams and Tinier Plants. We spent so much of the last year inside our homes, homes of all shapes and sizes, and as we saw the resurgence of victory gardens at the start of the pandemic, house

plants have also seen this noticeable uptick and popularity. They've provided the millions of homebound folks people like me, with this much needed source of comfort and therapy. And living in a city surrounded by people who have been stuck in their apartments, I am acutely aware of the limited space many of us have for our plants, which might also be why so many new plant parents have found

themselves attracted to tiny plants. To learn more about this growing part of the plant community, I wanted to chat with Leslie Halleck. In addition to literally writing the book on tiny plants, Leslie is a self proclaimed plant geek, and she's dedicated nearly thirty years of her career to working with various areas of horticulture, from scientific research to landscaping and green industry marketing. So of course I had to call her up. Hey, Leslie, are you there? I

am here. Hi. Hi, It's so nice to be chatting with you. I know, thanks, I'm excited. I'm so enchanted by your story. I want to hear a little bit about how you fell in love with tiny plants. You're speaking to my heart because I'm obsessed with all things tiny, tiny plants, tiny chihuahua's, tiny everything. I sort of have a little bit of an obsession with that. And as a professional horticulturist, you know, I've gone through many phases of plant obsessions, but I always come back to teeny

tiny plants. My tiny plant obsession probably hit me back in the mid nineties, back in the day when I was doing field research work in Puerto Rico, in the National Rainforest in the Kiel region of Puerto Rico. I was living up that old research station up in the mountains and going out every day taking data on research that had to do with Herricane Hugo that had come

through and completely defoliated the rainforest. So I was there, you know, geeking out taking plant data, and one day I just happened out of the corner of my eye to catch this little tiny blip of sort of a pinkish red color, And you know, you're always on the look for, lookout for orchids in that situation, and sure enough, I discovered this itty bitty tiny species of le panthes orchids growing on rocks, and the flowers are only a couple of millimeters in size, and I just absolutely fell

in love. And after that I began building the variums and terrariums and keeping poison dark frogs and all sorts of others that require teeny tiny animals, teeny tiny frogs that require you to build the habitats that include species that are conducive to their their life and they're breeding. So I just kind of got into all things tiny and have sort of obsessively collected and grown teeny tiny plants ever since. That is so great. So tell me about your book. Why did you decide to write about

tiny plants? And please say the full title because it is really charming. Oh yes, Tiny Plants Discover the Joys of Growing and Collecting Any Bitty house Plants is the full long name. When publishers come to you and they want you to write about something, you want to write about something that you're passionate about that you can inspire

other people to do. And you know, after writing Gardening under Lights, which was a little more technical, and then Plant Parenting, which is very technique based, I wanted to do something a little more fun, and probably I convinced them to let me do Tiny Plants because I just thought, you know, it seemed like the right moment, with indoor plants becoming so popular. I just wanted to give people a window into a type of plant collecting they may

not have experienced. Yeah. Completely, And so what are some of your favorite types of tiny plants? You know, plants come go in terms of their popularity, right, and sometimes they're they're really popular and highly available, and then they cycle back out. So those types of availabilities come in waves. But teeny tiny bagonia, so I grow a lot of bogonias. There are some really cool micro aeroids that related to a lot of the larger aeroids we grow, like philodendron.

So there's some really tiny philodendrons that are really cool. I really love little micro sundews, their little, tiny, tiny carnivorous plants. And you'll find those tiny plants which are just fascinating. There again, the size of about the tip of your fingertip. I'm obsessed with many different species of tiny Have you seen the tiny plant movement grow during this last period and what do you think the enthusiasm for it is based in. Yeah, I have seen it grow,

partially because I've just been forcing it on everybody. I love it, and I just do you give them? Did you give tiny plants to people? I do? I do. I do give tiny plants. And that's another great thing about tiny plants is that they're easy to gift. You know, they're easy. You know, they don't take a lot of space, and you can propagate them and they're easy to give. UM. But I have seen we'll call it sort of miniature gardening across the board, and I am not talking about

fairy gardening, so put fairy gardening aside. We're talking about is scale. So what's been great is that in the last few years there are a lot of new dwarf vegetable and fruit varieties that have come out on the market. Uh and and a lot of smaller plant species for houseplant culture. People who live in smaller spaces, smaller apartments, don't have a yard. Dwarf edibles are fantastic. Also if you're growing edibles inside, I think tiny plants offer up

a really great solution. So small scale across the board, miniature gardening, tiny indoor plans, I think is a really helpful way to keep indulging in your gardening habit without running out of space and it also takes less resources too. So how does the care for a tiny plant differ from that of a regular plant. Some things are going to be very much the same and other things will be a little bit different. A lot of teeny tiny plants maybe hemi epiphytic or semi epiphytic and may require

higher humidity. So growing under glass, you know, maybe something that you do more often with some of the very tiny plant species than you would like the bigger aeroids. But that's easy to do because you don't need much space and you don't need a big container to do that. Um. They can also be a little more sensitive to water quality and over fertilizing, so you have to be a

little bit more careful. I tend to use mostly rain water or ro o water exclusively, like on my micro orchids and my synergis some of the more sensitive plants. And you have to be really careful on fertilizers, so I usually cut fertilizer down to maybe a quarter or even less of the recommended application, right, because you can easily burn you know, tiny plants if you're not careful

with your fertilizers. So you know, all things um in scale, right, so pineer plants, you may go tinier, you know, tinier with your containers, tinier with your fertilizers. So there are some things that you have to be a little bit more careful with. Conversely, when you're growing tiny plants underglass, they can become very low maintenance. You hardly ever have to water them. So you know, there's some things that are a little trickier and some things that are easier.

That's amazing. So, um, do you think tiny plants are a trend or do you think this is something that's here to stay. So you know, things that were popular in the sixties and seventies are popular again now and those will fade away, and right, it's going to happen again and again. Right, there are cycles that always happen,

so I expect there to be a cycle to that. However, I think that the pandemic has really opened up the world of gardening and plant keeping in sort of an exponential way for people that I think as a hobby, it's much more here to stay than a cyclic trend than just a straight up trend. I think people are going to keep gardening and plant keeping embedded in their lifestyle much more significantly than than in the past, and I think in terms of scale, growing small, growing tiny.

I think again part of that is a matter of people being cooped up inside without necessarily a lot of outdoor space. So they need to be able to fit plants in whatever space they have, and that may not be a yard, that may be a window sill, that may be a balcony. My definition of gardening is one plant in one pot. If you're doing that, you're gardening. You can be a gardener in lots of different ways, and I want to make sure that folks that live in small spaces or you know, just are trying to

bring some nature to their desk. Plants are such an important part of our health and wellness and you know, mental happiness exactly. So we asked this question on our show a Lot. Do you think caring for plants makes us happier or makes us better people? Plants make me really happy, and I think they make everybody happy, and I think that right now we all really need to invest in our health and wellness. This past year has been really stressful for everybody. Gardening and plant keeping it's

an amazing stress reducer. I love observing the plants I love observing how they change. I completely freak out when one of my micro orchids blooms. If you hear me yell from across my house, like it's probably because something just flowered. I just get so excited. And you know, I'm not a newbie. I've been doing this a long time. That enthusiasm has never waned for me. And there is always a new plant to discover. Here's the big secret

about horticulture and gardening. Nobody knows everything. Nobody will ever know everything. We can call ourselves ex experts, but even as an expert myself, I learn every day. And that's a great way to keep your brain healthy, right, There's always something new to learn out the natural world and plants, And so I hope that my book Tiny Plants can bring a little joy and happiness into a plant parents world and expose them to something new that they can

learn today and as they move forward in their new hobby. Yeah, we're gonna have to get your book and surround it with lots of tiny plants and squee. Thank you so much for being here, Leslie. I really really appreciate it absolutely. Thanks for so so much for having me. It was a joy. And now for another poetry corner. This poem is called little Meal for two. I carefully sliced up my dwarf fig for this tiny fruit plate for two. I plucked up all my baby corn and made this

tiny stew. I placed it all on tiny plates and a horrible healthy brunch. But once we've hugged and said goodbyes, I'm ordering food for lunch. Thank you. So I'm kind of getting why people love tiny plants. But I've got to say my first real fascination with tiny things probably started with tiny houses. We started writing about them years ago on a website I used to run, but it's incredible to see they are more than just a fad.

According to the New York Times, some tiny house builders saw a one hundred and seventy seven percent increase in sales. And it makes a ton of sense when you think about it. Tiny houses started as people wanting to decrease their carbon footprint, and now with more city dwellers heading out of town, trading those concrete buildings for the wide open spaces of nature, the tiny home movement is alive

and well. And while they unrelated except for their size, tiny plants and tiny houses have a lot more in common than meets the eye. I wanted to learn more about where that then diagram of tiny homes and plants overlap. So I called up Ethan and Jesse Waldman. Ethan is the founder and curator of the site the tiny house dot Net, and his brother Jesse is the brand developer

at Pistols Nursery in Portland, Oregon. The two recently collaborated on a piece for the tiny house dot Net about the best plants for tiny houses and spoiler, the tiny mounted jungle cacti is definitely a favorite. Ethan, Jesse, are you there? Yeah? Hey, how's it going. Hey, it's so nice to be chatting with both of you. I am so excited to talk about tiny homes and tiny plants

and all of the tininess to come. Ethan, tell me, I know you're an expert on tiny homes, and I'm curious, what is it about these tiny homes that really makes a difference for people. I mean, they have gotten so popular and they've gone from when I was doing it. If you said the word tiny house, you know, people kind of looked at you with with a blank stare, and now it's hard to find somebody that doesn't understand

when you say tiny house. They have a very specific picture in their head of a house on a trailer because they've seen the various tiny house shows. You know, when I did this, I'm a millennial. I was graduating from college right around the time that two thousand eight, two thousand nine the stock market kind of crashed and people were losing their homes, and so I assumed that it was going to be a lot of millennials doing it. And now I see a huge number of people who

are retiring. Who are you know, building or buying tiny houses as a way of actually being able to retire. That's really interesting. And Jesse, what about you? Do you have a tiny house as well? I do not. I love visiting Ethans though it's it's amazing how well designed his is that it doesn't really feel tiny. It's quite comfortable. That's what's so appealing about them, right like, is that

they're often so thoughtfully designed. I mean to me, the other part of it is that it feels like, particularly after this last year and people being quarantined and people stuck in their homes, having a small space in somewhere that's really beautiful really matters. To people. Absolutely, and that's you know, that's something that because the house is small,

it really turns the outside into your living room. You see the outside way more because you're always very close to a window, and you also are going outside way more. And so do you see this as kind of a trend or more of a cultural shift. I think it's started as a trend and it's becoming a cultural shift. I think that it fits in really nicely with other things that you're seeing people really embrace, like Marie Condo and the idea of minimalism and owning less things. It

fits in with the environmentalism. Living in a smaller house and having a smaller footprint is definitely a piece of that puzzle. So I do think that it's it was a trend and now it's becoming part of the culture. Yeah, and I do think there is something too when you hair things down, you really value the things you have and take advantage of right, and and also how you're spending your time. So Jesse, before I ask you the same,

let's take a step back. How do you define a tiny plant and how are they different from normal plants? I think that for me, a tiny plant probably would be one that you're not really going to have to worry about graduating past like a four inch pot. There are plants that maybe have shallow roots systems. So you know, you might buy a little plant that's in a small pot that has like little leaves that are like two

inches long. But if you actually give it the growth, the growth kind of environmental conditions that it it once, For example, you might have it climb up a they're called moss poles um They kind of mimic plants that climb up trees, and in nature, when they start climbing, there's actually like a physiological shift that happens when they can sense that they're climbing, and if they're getting that right light and they're getting that support, like boom, that

two inch leaf. Like the next leaf that comes out might be six inches and then twelve inches, and then like all of a sudden, you have this massive tropical blind. You know, the plants that we're talking about, like the pepper roma as the rhizomatos Pagonia is a little alo howorthia, some some ferns um or chids. These are plants that

are are not going to do that. They're not going to have any sort of like major physiological change between their juvenile form, like when their first propagated or they're first growing from seed and their mature forms. So I think that that's kind of the The main difference is just like what does the plant look like when it's a baby versus when it's an adult. So you two collaborated on this blog post helping tiny homeowners with the ideal tiny plants that can fit within their designs. Can

you talk us through some of those tiny plants? Yeah, absolutely so. I think that there are kind of a couple of different approaches when thinking about fitting plants into, you know, a small space. Certainly a very reasonable one is to look for plants that are just small by nature. And another one thing to note is, you know, sometimes and you probably won't know this when you go into the nursery, but some plants are actually sprayed with growth

inhibitors that that kind of keep them small. That is something that is not going to you know, say that on the label. But if you do your research into the plant um and you know, look at the what it looks like when it becomes a mature plant versus what you're seeing in the nursery, you might you might be able to get a little que as to whether or not that's happened. But yeah, so a couple of great small plants. There's a couple of different genuses that

the plants just kind of stay small by nature. One is the pepper Roma genus. I really love these plants. They kind of have like fleshy, semi succulent sorts of leaves. A lot of them kind of have a creeping growth habit, or if they're growing upright, they're just like form like a very kind of a small little bush. Almost. One that I really love is called pepperromea prostrata. It's i would say, one of the trendiest plants right now. Sometimes

called string of turtles. Little leaves they look like just like little tiny little beads, and they kind of have like a little striping pattern on them, makes them look like little turtles. There's a lot of string us right now in the plants where others string of hearts during bananas, during a fishhooks during of dolphins, string of pearls. Another genus that is really cool is the Tolanzia genus. Tolanxia are often referred to as air plants. They're called air

plants because they actually don't grow in soil. These plants are super unique. To water them, you actually soak them in a bowl of water because their roots system is literally just exist to hold them onto whatever they're growing on. In nature, they're just entirely free floating. So you can just like set them on a shelf, put them in a bowl, uh, stick them on a window sill. They're really unique. They're great in terrariums, and they come in

all different sizes and colors, and they flower eventually. They're they're quite cool. I think air plants are so incredible. How hard are they to maintain? You know, they kind of have a reputation for being really easy. You know, we hear a lot of people come into the nursery and say, oh, those air plants, they just all they need is air. That is not true. Um, they definitely need water. I always kill mine, by the way. They're honestly not. They're not the easiest in order to get

them to to really thrive. The you know, they're getting the water for the air, so humidity is great, so they and to thrive you know, in a bathroom as long as it gets decent natural light. They do need a fair amount of natural light to to thrive. They don't want direct light as much as, like, you know, they need to be soaked and watered. They also don't

tolerate staying wet for too long. So what we like to tell people to do is, after they're done soaking their air plant to you know, literally inverted, put it upside down on a towel in a window sill, so it's gonna fully dry out within an hour or two. I love that they seem so low maintenance, and then they're actually pretty ivan not on like a tiny house. So in terms of these tiny houses, have you seen

people grow gardens outside of them? And do you feel like tiny homes create an opportunity for growing and harvesting your own food. Yeah? Absolutely. I mean, you know, tiny homes fit a little bit into the whole permaculture movement. I know a few people who really just have designed an entire system around their tiny house where you know,

they're they're harvesting the rain water off the roof. A lot of tiny homes have compost toilets, and then they're using that to grow plants, and it's, you know, just this big self sustaining cycle. Not to say, everybody is doing that, but that's definitely uh small subset of the movement. And can you describe exactly what perman culture is for

our listeners. I'm no pro. It's a design philosophy where you are thinking beyond just the needs of the plant, to the needs of the garden, to the needs of your entire property, and you you try to design systems

that serve multiple needs. So a classic example of a perma culture, you know, a fish tank full of telapia that has you know that you can throw food scraps in and the tilapia eat the fish, and then the poop from the tilapia fertilizes makes this really great fertilizing water that you then feed into a garden like that. That's kind of a perma culture system that's really interesting to to contemplate. And like, how how many things you can build in and see that like sort of feed

all these systems is pretty great. What are some things that are easy to grow that can sort of help fill your tiny home with delicious, healthy food? It? Yeah, I mean it's all gonna depend on your environment, right. Um, If we're talking about growing outdoors, it's possible to grow certain edible things. Indoors. Herbs for example, on a on a sunny window sill can do can do pretty well.

But really, when you're talking about growing yourself food, you're gonna be you're gonna want to be leveraging your outdoor space. So if you're in a permanent space, I think that, you know, it's incredible what you can grow in a small raised bed. I think that if you have the capacity to build a garden box, the benefit there is that you're filling that soil up and it's able to

not get compacted the way it would. You know, just if you're kind of digging out of bed in the ground and then you're you know, stepping around that soil compaction makes it really hard for the roots to grow deep, and the deeper the roots and healthier the roots systems. I think like one of the easiest things that can be grown in many, many different environments is just sally greens. Lettuces come up really fast. They don't need a ton of sun. In fact, they tend to bolt in the sun.

Bolting just means they go to seed, and once a planet goes to seed, you're typically just done. One of my favorite things grow as radishes. I think I've acquired a taste for radishes because of how fun they are to grow, and then you know, depending on on on the light and your level of dedication. Tomatoes are like the classic thing to grow because homegrown tomato just tastes ten thousand times better than what you can get at the store, and it's pretty amazing as far as like

space goes. You know, you can grow tomato in a five yallon bucket. Um. There are two different main types of tomato plants. There's determinate plants and in determinate plants. In determinate plants will just keep growing and growing and growing and growing forever, and they set fruit intermittently throughout their lives, whereas determinate plants grow to a set size and then they set all their fruit all at once. So that's what people with limited space would want to

look for as a determinate variety. How has COVID impacted the popularity or culture of both tiny homes and tiny plants. I'll say, from the tiny home perspective, just out of control, bonkers interest. You know, there are a lot of people who are really suffering financially due to the pandemic and the appeal of tiny house living as a way of

saving money and a way of having housing stability. People see it, and the governments and municipalities and cities are struggling scrambling to to change laws to make it legal, because it's not always legal to live in a tiny house in most places. And I would, uh, I would concur crazy bonkers over the top interest, you know, not specifically in tiny plants, but in plants in general. I think that you know, with COVID kind of as I was alluding to earlier, people are spending more times in

their home. They might be missing that morning commute to work, that they walk through the park, or just that other touch points in their lives where they're able to connect with nature. And they want their homes to feel good. And you know, plants. Plants make a space feel good. You know, having plants around increase your productivity, They stabilize your mood. They actually make a space more comfortable by putting out humidity, um, they dampen the sound into space.

So there's all sorts of ways because like above and below the surface, that having plants in your space can improve your quality of life. And so I think the kind of the bar for knowledge has gone way up, Like people come in and they know so much these days. It's just pretty incredible how it's turned into like a real community in a movement. Yeah, it is always impressive to me to see the different communities that have come up and emerged on Instagram and formed around things like plants,

and also to see how specific those communities get. Do you think tiny plants are a part of that, and are they on Instagram trend or do you think they're here to stay? I think for me, like, I think that right now we're in a phase where people are discovering plants and they're discovering that they want to have them in their homes. Right. There are different kind of personality types and different things that you know, just naturally

attract you. Some people want to get a toy poodle and other people want to get a same Bernard, Right. I think that the same goes with plants. Like there's so much information out there these days, and there's people are getting really deep. I think that that's kind of the what I'm noticing as a trend more than say like a shift towards tiny plants, but just people getting really into their kind of plant, like their pepper roma.

People who want to have all the pepperonias. People are just becoming passionate, and the nursery industry is responding by diversifying and making these plants that were once super duper rare and hard to find, like putting an energy into you know, propagating them and having them available in greater quantity. And then you know, it's kind of a self perpetuating cycle that there's you know, greater availability, greater knowledge, uh,

community forming around it. So like people are just kind of you know, finding what speaks to them, you know, for something that will be tiny plants for sure. And I would say that I think that there's an initial attraction that maybe a tiny plant and a tiny house shares, which is just there's a cute factor. Tiny houses are very popular on Instagram and Pinterest because they're just so visually appealing. You know, a lot of people might click

on a tiny house. Nine out of ten of them may just be clicking on it to to just see it. And then maybe one of those people will see it and say, oh wow, this actually could be something that that would be really great for me, and they get interested and I think the same is probably true for

house plants. You know, you see a really beautiful plant on Instagram and you click on it, and some people just might look, and then other people might say, you know, I it's beautiful and I want to put it on my coffee table, and so I think there's they share that. And another thing I think that's important to mention is, like, you know, there there obviously is a natural synchronicity between tiny home tiny plant. But I also think that like, just because you live in a small space doesn't mean

you can't have any plant. Um. I mean, you might not physically be able to fit a giant tree in your home, but I think that you can really get creative and just activate different areas of the home if you're committed to, you know, having having greener in that space. Plants don't have to be just you know, in that big pot on the floor occupying your your living space. I like that. Ethan and Jesse, thank you both so

much for being on this program. I'm I'm fascinated in what both of you do, and um throw to have you here. Thank you, Thanks so much. Humans Growing Stuff will be right back after a short break. Tiny Plants are so useful and for a small amount of space, they can do a lot of good. But as I've been researching some of the popular tiny plants for this episode, I couldn't help but think of how funny some of them are. The plants themselves are adorable, but also the

names are hilarious, like et fingers come on. So I decided to give comedian Angela Johnson red As a call and get her take on them. Angela is a former cast member on Mad TV and sells out comedy tours across the country, and not only does she make me laugh, she's also an avid gardener. She and I caught up about what got her hooked on gardening, how Instagram has brought her closer to this new community, and what she thinks of some of the more comedic tiny plant names

out there. Handeler, are you there? Yes? Hello, Hey, it's so nice to be chatting with you. I am so excited. Well, I've been watching some of your Facebook videos and and watching your enthusiasm for the garden, and we thought it would be super fun to have you on the show. I'm excited to talk about this because this is like a whole new world for me. That developed. Yeah, I love to share with every I'm like, how is everyone not gardening? Like everyone? Yeah, that's how I feel too,

But I'm curious. Was gardening something you grew up with? Um? No? Actually really all new I full on. I took Ron Finley's master class and I learned a lot from him. And also, my brother got into plants before I did, and so he's the one who kind of got me into. So one day he came up right before quarantine January.

I went with him to the plant district downtown l A. It was like we walked into this oasis and I was like, what, this is a real place with plants and flowers, and so I bought so many plants that day, and I started becoming a plant mom. And then it grew from there to a garden and everything. And then what did did you know immediately what to do because you've seen these videos? Or how did you get into

gardening from there? Instagram? So I would watch videos on Instagram on YouTube, learning about spider mites, learning about like all kinds of things, and then it became personal. These plants there on my balcony and my bathroom and my bedroom. I remember the day my elephant ear plant. I was so proud of. It was like my biggest plant that I had ever purchased. And and she's in my my bedroom, and every morning I wake up and there she was in the corner. And one day I woke up and

she was just weeping, like limping over. I didn't know what happened. When I tell you, I jumped out of my bed and rushed to her side like it was my child. It really became super personal, like I have a relationship with my plants, to the point where when I was moving, I had to find a foster home for my plants because I was like, my husband, he doesn't quite get it. And he's like, well, why can't she just get rid of him and get new ones when we get our new place, And I'm like, how

dare you you make me? Hear you you walk your mouth sir? Yeah. So they became very personal to me, and I learned how to take care of them from videos online, and then I would share what I was learning with my fans online, and then people would message me and and we're so helpful and being like, hey, I think your plant has you know this going on? Maybe you put too much water, and it really became like a community online that we really just kind of

supported each other and helped each other. Isn't that amazing how these groups have formed out of interest during these pandemics, right, Like people have actually made friends through Instagram and at least feel like they they have these connections, which is

amazing totally. And then all like I get all the funny memes now, like my brother did plant Dad memes and gifts, and like you know, everybody's talking about their steamy chicks, like what they're going to spend their steamy check on, and like all the popular ones are like, you know, a new pair of shoes or whatever, Let's go to Red Lobster. We got that steamy check. And then all the plant Dad ones are like, you know, just got my steamy check. And then it's a picture

of like four thousand plants in there. But I am surprised to hear you say that you hadn't done this before, because I I watched these videos and I see like you've got these beautiful beds and and you know, you've got everything from like Valencia orange tree to like you know, tomato plants to blueberries. I mean, it's it's impressive the variety of things you grew. And you know what. I my friend Dizzy Perkins, she would post her garden a lot,

and it was very inspiring to me. It makes it feel doable, like, well, if she could do it, I can do it, you know. And even though I had no knowledge. And then I would message her and you like, hey, so, like how did you learn how to do it? She's like, I just started. I just gave it a go, and you learn as you go. And even and Ron Finling his master class too, he teaches that too, like there is no really like right or wrong. You just start. And he's like, you can plant anything in an old suitcase,

in an old boot. And he pulls out an old boot, put some soil in it, but a little seedling in it and some water, and he's like, boom, there you go, you have your garden. I feel like it's funny because after I started gardening, when I'd be driving down the street and I would see an empty patch of weed growing grass like by the freeway, I'd be like, oh, that'd be a good garden. Your eyes start seeing just all the possibilities for it, and I hope it just

grows and grows. Yeah, I mean it is funny, this like new awareness you have for things. Right. I feel like even in my apartment, I noticed now where the light is and which are is a cooler and you know you're thinking about it from a plant's perspective instead of your own. Something about it from the plant's perspective.

That's hilarious. But I'm so true. But I really hope that my kids don't hear that part about the boot because I feel like I'm gonna end up with one like one sneaker that's functional and one that has a plant in it for all. And even let me tell you, when I have to prune, I know it's a part of the process, right, I have a hard time almost whenever I have to prune. I come and I think, I think, my my girl, like thank you so much

for the life that you've provided. Just let the joy, the oxygen, like everything you're you've served your purpose and

I thank you so much. Like I'm such a weird plant lady now like Marie, kind of an emotional moment with my stems and I'm like, thank you, and then I like gear myself up to actually cut it, and I thank you for the new life that's going to come from you by So, one of the things we're talking about is that as people in quarantine have gotten super into gardening and been encouraged by Instagram and stuff, they've sort of done the base level of gardening, but

slowly people are figuring out what their niches are in terms of like their interests. And so one of the things we've seen is that people are really into tiny plants. And so I want to ask you a little bit about this. But I saw that you had, either on purpose or accidentally, grown very tiny potatoes in your garden. What do tiny potatoes taste like? Oh my god, they tasted amazing because I just washed them, put some olive oil, salt and pepper and throw them in the oven. I

had like these little little potato fries. Well, I was asking, have you noticed on your Instagram feed or even with your family's interactions that people are starting to play in the tiny plant space? Um, for sure, because it's easy and it's cute, and especially if you've downsized in the quarantine COVID days and you don't have much room, start

with a little tiny plants and they're super cute. Sure, So I have a list of tiny plants and some are super weird, some are super fun, and I'm curious, just on a gut reaction, do you think these plants are good to having at home or do you think they have some bad juju? So I'm gonna ask you the name and you tell me first reactions. Google weed what I mean? I guess that depends on if it's legal in your state then that would depend. But I would say yes for for the Google weed or Doogle

eat whateveras it uh Superstar Creeper, Superstar creeper. I mean that's like, you're not just a peeping tom, but you're like the best of the best peeping Tom's. You're a superstar creeper. That's what that says to me. So I would say no on the Superstar Creeper. Yeah, I know, I wasn't sure. Does the superstar elevate it to like a curiosity or is it just so creepy that not worth it? The best creeps mini money warts, many money wore.

Anything with Wart makes me go, So I would say pass on that because you don't want warts all over your money eating. You're gonna be like, what did I spend my money? On this week and be like, I don't know you talked to many money war over here, you'd go over here making you spend things. I am with you this one. I think you might like Tree of a thousand Stars, three of a thousand stars. Love

that that? Yeah, that feels very like universe earthy, like very much like I want to go, like meditate next to my Tree of a thousand stars. Yeah, it sounds like a gorgeous constellation or something. So this is called a baby jade, but it's got some nicknames et fingers and shreks plant et fingers. It sounds like it's very nubby, sounds like it looks like a twitty role but also with a little glowy bold at the end. Yes, keep

that one. How about the energy on this one? A weeping fig. Well, I'm gonna say yes on that one, because sometimes you just need to let a good cry out, you know what I mean, And after you let out a good cry you just feel so much better, like so much release, And maybe the weeping fig will help you and it will help absorb it. So I say yes and thank you, Weeping Fig. And one last one, fiend finger, Oh oh, a fiend finger that one sounds a little devious, that one sounds like a rebel, like

she's a little type away. I feel like she's got some sass, and I'm gonna say yes, because we all need a little sass in our lives. Yeah, I agree with you. So why do you think people love miniature so much? In your opinion? Because they're cute. I think anytime I love animals, I love dogs. So if I see a doodle, I'm like, oh my god, you're so cute. I want to cuddle you and like spoon you. But then if you see a mini doodle, it's just so much cuter. It's like, oh my god, you're a mini

version of that. And I feel like it's plants like anything many and tiny is so keyte. So, I I know that you've switched houses, but I love seeing how your community came out to name your garden. And can you tell us a little bit about how you came up with that idea and then and then what the

process is like. Okay, So I had been talking with my my followers on on Instagram and Facebook and everything about a garden and getting into plants and everything, and I'm gonna build my garden and I put a whole video together and like, here's my new garden, and I

need help picking out names. And so everyone was submitting so many cool creative names, things that were like Spanish, touching on my culture, things that were spiritual, touching on that aspect of my life, and really just showing like all the different parts of like who I am. But I'm also a comedian. So I had a lot of funny names that were submitted, and these were some of

my favorite funny names. Armor garden, seed you later, garden, good vines, only bone thugs and harvestry, nothing but a p thing, Notorious, b I Greens, I'm in Love with a pepper, and covid teen gardens. Oh there was also a garden of eaton. These are these are great names, aren't they? The right? I ended up going with Queen's Greens because my husband calls me queen, but also I am a queen and like I wanted to embrace that.

And also my friend Penelope was living with me and she was helping me with the garden, and she's a queen too, So it became like Queen's Greens and the other name that I almost picked, but I will definitely be using for something else. Was Rays of Sunshine because my married last name is Reyes Yea and I love that name, so I'm definitely gonna use that for something. Nobody's still all punch you, Angela. Thank you so much

for being here. Is such a delightful conversation and so fun to have you on and I can't wait to see what the instagram of your new at your next house looks like. Thank you so much. This has really been fun to talk to you about this because I have yet to be able to do a podcast talking about just my garden. Very cool and I had so much fun. Thank you for letting me share. Thrilled that

you came on. Thank you. When my kid Ruby was four and people used to say they were cute, Ruby's response was always the same, with this gravelly voice, Ruby would correct them and say, I'm not cute, I'm awesome. And every time I hear the word cute, now that's what I think of, this little tornado of a child insisting I am not cute, I'm awesome. When you're looking at photos of tiny plants and tiny homes, the word

cute pops up a lot. But what's funny is that the word cute didn't always mean cute as we know it. According to Popular Science, the original meaning of cute was actually clever or shrewd, because cute things take a certain amount of cleverness. As the magazine and explains, it's more difficult to make a burrito the size of a thumb than one as big as your forearm. And I kind of like that. Reframing tiny things tiny plants is clever

because they are clever. They've come up with all sorts of ways to thrive in a world that's not exactly built for them, and they have all sorts of strategies for success, including being adorable. According to Metal Flaws, we take more care and are more careful with tiny objects of affection. So when a two thousand nine study, participants that viewed very cute images of puppies and kittens then played the game operation actually performed better than participants that

saw less cute images. Our brains are conditioned to help adorable things survive, but for many of us, there seems to be something else that draws us into caring for tiny plants and tiny homes. And that's the simplicity. I have a funny relationship with minimalism. Back in college, I started abroad into Pollen Tibet, and on my trip I took very few clothes, maybe two or three T shirts,

a couple of sweatshirts, and two pairs of pants. But after my semester abroad, I remember coming back to the States and every morning I'd wake up and just stare into my closet, perplexed. Why do I have so many clothes? Why do I need this many clothes. I've lived so simply and so happily for months, and now everything felt so daunting. Even looking around my room right now, I see things I don't need too many books, clothes, things, and that we keep trying to pare down and live simply,

things just seem to accumulate. And I think my romance with tiny homes is just knowing that in a smaller home you need to simplify. It's funny because part of the reason I started doing humans growing stuff was because I was yearning for simplicity. I wanted to put away the social media and the technology and things that clutter up my mind and just put my hands in dirt and spend time watching things grow. And part of what I keep hearing in this program is that simplicity of

plants that they want to grow. They need just light and soil and water, and for the tiniest plants to live beautifully to thrive, their needs are really just that simple. I've come to believe that there's a happiness to be found in simplicity. This week, I switched jobs to pare down my work and focus on things that feel essential

and make me happy. And in that process I cleared my desk, I organized papers, I got rid of things I didn't need, And in that organizing I made just enough space for a tiny plant to sit on the corner and serve as a reminder to simplify that I don't need that much, and a reminder to watch this tiny, happy thing thrive because it's not cute, it's awesome. That's

it for today's episode. Don't forget. No matter what season it is or where you're at in your gardening journey, there's some incredible resources waiting for you on the Miracle Grow website. Join me next time as we explore the many ways humans can learn and grow from plants. If you like what you heard, don't forget to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts. Also, we want to

hear from you. What are your inspiring plant stories, relatable struggles or growing questions taggers in your post or tweet using the hashtag Humans Growing Stuff, and don't be surprised if you hear your story featured on an upcoming episode. Humans Growing Stuff is a collaboration from My Heart Radio

and your friends at Miracle Grow. Our show was written and produced by Molly Sosha and me Mongay Chatigler in partnership with Ryan Ovadia, Daniel Ainsworth, Hayley Ericson, and Garrett Shannon of Banter Until next Time, Thanks so much for listening. Two