The hardest part of "the change" (not that change, the green one) has been the social aspect. I know I need to get out and talk to people, like minded and not. But to be honest, to an introvert you might as well ask me to perform neurosurgery. I'm as likely to do one as the other. I used to wonder why it was that in spite of my near palpitation inducing aversion to the social arts, I always ended up with plenty of friends.
Simple. I, for paradoxical reasons gravitate towards outgoing charismatic people. I realized that I could spot the potential cult leader in any crowd, because I was usually the one next to them. Heh. Okay, maybe not cult leaders but you get the point. More to the crux of the matter, I don't know a lot of people, but the people I know do. (If that makes any sense.)
So here goes, I mentioned my fit of inspiration to recruit 5 friends into the world of gardening. (with the sub rosa hopes that once they start to care about one "crunchy, self relianty, sustainability, homesteadyish "thing, they too will feel compelled to care about more things.)
So then I said to myself: "Self, you and I may be onto something. Everybody knows at least a few people. And wouldn't it be nice to share the joy of gardening without the discomfort of making new friends?"
Am I simply reinforcing a bad habit of isolation or am I adapting in place rather than seeking greener social pastures? Delusion or inspiration...who cares. The point is by the end of the summer, there will be at least 5 more people on the planet who have learned to grow their own.
And I invite you to do the same. I realize that there are plenty of challenges out there. Most of them are great, and I wish I had the time and space to partake in or write about them all. At the risk of throwing yet another pebble on the mountain.... wooosh.
Find 5 people, convince them to grow something edible. It can be vegetables, a fruit tree, herbs, you get the gist. Use whatever means at your disposal, bribery of seedlings, seeds, help digging, a container or two, an offer to share some of your own produce, just get them on board. Better yet get a quote so when you report in, its not just a list of names, but personalities. This is likely going to be the easiest challenge ever. Seed sales are waaay up this year, its not even swimming upstream anymore. Lets turn a 33% increase into a growth on a geometric scale. And your target audience could not be more familiar, if anyone knows how to convince us to do something (even the crazy stuff) its our friends.
Here's how it works. At this point if you really want to do it, comment here. I'd appreciate a link from your own page or blog. I even made a nice icon for your (and my) sidebar. Not necessary, but appreciated. Then about once a month I'll put up an open call to see how people are doing. I'm particularly interested in what tactics or incentives people offer to get their friends started and keep them going.
Have fun with it.
Behold the mighty Icon of homescale horticultural evangelism.
please rightclick and save as rather than linking to the picture itself, the bloghost will probably scream bloody murder if it has to host the image on a bunch of different blogs and use the below for the link part.
http://worryfarm.blogspot.com/2009/04/second-rule-of-fight-club.html
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