Yeah this is weirdly sexist. I only know one person this describes because he's growing weed (legally) in an apartment so he can't have a outdoor garden
Hell, I know over a dozen men with gardens and only two even grow peppers. Everyone grows tomatoes, though..
My old coworker told me he had only ever eaten the transparent slices of flavorlessness fast food restaurants call tomatoes until he moved from the slums to a rural town and had a fresh one. It blew his mind so much he went on to spend 15 years as a chef.
My dad's been growing tomatoes my whole life so I've been spoiled
I grew up somewhat poor, small town with no fast food, post-soviet nation. We had a garden and a greenhouse. I was a teen when I found out how flavourless tomatoes can be. Because we'd always grown our own and didn't use them as much in the winter when they needed to be bought from the store lol
It's crazy how different they can be. I have no idea why they even include shitty tomatoes at those places. Awful texture and no taste, what's the appeal?
I have a raised bed and just hang a loose net around the whole thing so the squirrels can't get in. Otherwise those little buggers will take one bite out of each tomato and leave the rest for me to clean up.
The netting isn't big enough for squirrels to get through. It's draped down from the trellising, and pinned down to the ground. There's no way for the squirrels to get in unless they climb up and over, and they don't seem to be able to figure that out.
Oh, so there are also trellises of some sort. What else is there? It's also still it quite clear how this is configured - are these frustra surrounding each plant? Because that sounds like a lot of work for each tomato.
As for hornworms, best we've found is a daily sweep with a jar of soapy water for ritual executions.
Survival skills + demonstrated empathy/care with other living beings are positives for any person. Hopefully you find someone who appreciates that. /gen
Same, I don't know any dudes into gardening that care about that shit. One of them does grow peppers, but it's because he likes peppers, not because he's worried growing other stuff (which he also does) will make him look like a pussy.
I grow several varieties of peppers from sweet bells to habaneros, tomatoes, okra, cucumbers, and mint, plus a few odds and ends that look cool at the garden center. I tend to grow plants that either produce more per dollar to grow than I can get at the store, or in the case of tomatoes, of better quality. And mint is eternal.
I also harvest beautyberries that have sprung up wild on my property, and have recently learned that the big weird thing looming over my wood shop is a black walnut tree, so I think I'm gonna go nuts next summer.
Cacti and carnivorous plants are super cool tho??? Especially that you get cacti cuz of how resilient they are, a great first plant, can recommend. And growing your own food/spices as well? Also Ive never seen that stereotype lmao
This is some poor bull shit... when did growing anything make anyone fragile?... get outta here with your bs. Do you just go around trying to start shit?
Why would you make up something like that? Maybe its your own masculinity that is fragile?
When I was young, I got made fun of for wanting to help my mom plant and tend to a garden with basil and tomatoes. It didn't kill my love for plants but childhood cruelty sticks with you.
I had 2 older brothers and 1 younger while growing up, we lived rurally and we would have a huge garden and we were all expected to work in it. Personally, i liked it, but I didn't always like it cuz I was a kid I guess, but I liked it enough I have my own garden now and nobody forced me.
I was also homeschooled, so I didn't know a lot people, but I never got made fun of for gardener.
Which is too bad, because including flowers in your garden (even if it's only in the form of bolted vegetables) helps attract critters that will pollinate your "productive" plants as well as those that will help protect them from pest infestations. A balanced ecosystem lifts all boats, to mix my metaphors.
I refer more to growing flowers as the main event. Most people I know who garden outside use flowers in the way you described.
I do however have one extremely "dudebro" guy friend who literally grew almost nothing but flowers for a few years, specifically to sell them to a florist :P
it's true in experience. I'm a single guy. I date around. Most women I meet think gardening makes me queer. It is not considered a desirable hobby for a man. And many men who don't garden, also think it's queer/feminine.
People who do garden, don't see it that way, of course. But every garden group I've ever met up with was 70% women, and most of the men were not 'manly'. I myself am not a manly guy.
I grew up assuming every adult should be self-sufficient, so I learnt all of cooking, cleaning, gardening, basic repairs, home maintenance, sewing, etc. I think the most likely people to have a problem with that never learnt it themselves, so they feel inadequate.
It became an issue in my first serious relationship because she didn't cook or clean much. She definitely never tried to nurture so much as a plant. I had no problem with that because I could, but she started to feel less feminine, and eventually turned it around on me. The guys she left me for were completely useless, but they didn't highlight her insecurities so she was happy. At least for a short while.
People who are confident in their identity and abilities don't do this, and that's who you want to find anyway, regardless of gender.
Fortunately we've got shows like the Great British Bake Off and a myriad of popular YouTube gardening and home cooking channels featuring men to help shake this up, but sadly it's still something that's seen as gendered by way too many folks. Still, if spicy peppers and cacti (and on the cooking side dishes like pizza) help get insecure men in the door, that's great. But I'm with TTF: it may not be a strong stereotype, but I've also observed it.
Am currently stuck in in law's house, with collapsing job market after being denied a mortgage for being too fat 3 months before the job market collapsed.
E: and pumpkins. Frankly this comic is just to generate anger, all the men I know with green thumbs grew all kinds of healthy and fun plants that everyone enjoyed.
Jesus, guys cant even wear sunglasses while driving cars now without it being seen as some kind of weird statement about what plants they do or dont grow...
I genuinely regret all my cacti. I have like 8 Peruvian torches about a decade old from seed, and I like to put them outside in spring, so they don’t get all spindly and pathetic, and dear god are they heavy and dangerous to move now. They are like 4 foot (1.2m) tall or so, but can get up to 16 foot (5m).. whoops.
But I don’t want to kill them because, like.. I’m proud of them for thriving with me.
I've been resisting buying a cactus for awhile now and I think you just gave me the courage to put the idea out of my head forever lol
For anyone feeling the same, maybe check out caudiciforms as a substitute! They grow slow, don't need much water, and come in a bunch of cool varieties. It's like bonsai without all the pretentiousness
That privilege is heavily dependent on your maintaining a strong garlic harvest. The first year that slips (or your basil/oregano perform too well) you're getting downgraded to nonbinary. Then there's a three year grace period before you're sent straight to full-blown woman. So make sure to fertilize your alliums well!
Not sure don't care, I dont consume spicy food because I think it makes me strong I eat spicy food because it makes me feel and id rather not develop a drug addiction :3
Exactly right. Gender is performance. We commonly enhance this performance through clothing, the way we speak and how we refer to ourselves; this is not the only ways with which it's done though. I think it would be rude to criticise a trans man for affirming their gender by growing a beard for example. However when it comes to cis men in particular, the way they reinforce their gender is often mocked. So what if the plants some grows makes them feel more comfortable in their gender.
What someone sees as affirming their gender is entirely up to them. Plenty of men do feel more masculine doing things like not using a straw, eating certain meals, listening to certain music, ect. Women might wear clothing that emphasises their figure. Some trans men feel affirmed in their gender by growing a beard, trans women might train their voice to feel more feminine. Gender is a performance and we all constantly make decisions to reinforce it. Thinking growing plants is gender affirmation isn't a problem, it's just a reality you're not living. If someone grows those kinds of plants and it reinforces their gender identity, that's valid and more power to them.
carnivirous and succulents are pretty finicky in thier care too. depending on the species. echeveria and outside ornamentals are easy, but if your looking at something lithops or a different succulent it might harder.
How to keep a lot of plants at home alive: only buy the Aloe™ plants. I don't know if it's even possible to kill the ones I have without straight out drowning them. Forgot to water one of them for half a year and it started blooming instead of dying out. Now it gets watered only when I remember to water it.
I've seen literal fucking science YouTube channels imply they are sea creatures. SciShow to be specific. The narrator was talking about sea creature and said something like, "And your corals, sponges, luffas and such". I was like, wtf? Even SciShow doesn't know they are plants?
Any melon, gourd, or even most vine-based flowers I really recommend a simple automated irrigation mechanism especially in a hot climate because they are thirsty.
It has a large inedible leaf. The stalk is what you are after. The stalks can get sizable, and grow in a patch. I transplanted a root ball in smaller clumps and got more rhubarb. Easy to grow in good soil and not to much shade. Doesn't need a huge amount of water, but dry growing conditions will create smaller more bitter stalks.
Most times I see rhubarb in food it has been cooked to a mash consistency and sweetened. For things like pies, jams, sweet sauces for Ice cream and the like in my experience. I'm sure there are other uses. It's pretty sour raw IME.
Easy to store long term in the freezer as well.
Cut and remove leaf, wash, either dice or leave whole, package then freeze.
I'm generally terrible at describing how things taste. But it pairs well with strawberry. It is generally tart but not overpowering if prepared well, sorta sitting between sweet and sour with more fruity leaning.
I feel like weed does not really belong in either. You don't grow it to be masculine and you don't really grow it because you like to see it. A niche plant that everyone knows exactly why you're growing it.
Jalapenos have become victims of their own success.
They're so popular and mainstream now that buyers (especially food processors) have started demanding high levels of consistency in terms of spice; Tostitos and the like want to ensure that every batch of salsa and such they mass produce is going to have the same spice level, which is understandable. Unfortunately this drive for increased consistency has led to an overall weakening of flavor, similar to what happened to produce like tomatoes and apples once industrialized farming and food processing created demands for longer shelf lives, consistency in appearance, etc., and like tomatoes and apples, the jalapenos you buy at most stores nowadays are going to be much weaker in flavor than they were in the past.
Jalapenos not sourced from these industrial-oriented seed companies are going to vary much more in terms of spice level based on growing conditions, like temperature and rainfall. There even exists nowadays the "nadapeno," which has jalapeno flavor but minimal spice. You can also remove the seeds and veins of the pepper before eating it, which makes a huge difference in reducing spice levels. Picking them earlier and growing them in "ideal" conditions for lessened spice is trickier, but can also help.
Half of them I did wait, yeah. Plus they were indoor hydroponic grown (People think I'm growing weed in that room but really I grow everything except weed), so I presume supercharged.
I don't grow anything, whatever is in my backyard grows by itself, I just go out there from time to time to forage the useful stuff and watch the wall lizards run around.
I got a plant from my father that he found years ago when we moved to a flat. It was in the corner of the bathroom on top of a shelf. It wash shriveled up and completely brown. That kind of fall leaf brown. Mind you, this plant was discovered easily 4 years after we moved in, so it had not gotten water for at least 4 years.
Crazy thing is, that plant was apparently still alive. We do not know how, but it did not die. Maybe it was feeding of the steam from the shower.
It is now part of our family and has had many cuttings made from it.
It's a crazy plant, it just does not die. I once overwatered it to the point that it's 15 liter pot was filled to the top of the dirt with water and only when I noticed a "puddle" did I act on it. We have one that is literally just in a jug with water. We also had one where the dirt was full of mold, but that plant was just fine.
I researched that little guy and apparently it's some kind of Syngonium.
Decorative plants are great, but harvesting something from your plants (especially if that product is otherwise hard to get / of poor quality / very expensive) is extremely rewarding!
Is that really a thing..? Not me. But I also only have enough plants to keep my apartment a bit greener, I wouldn't call myself a "plant guy" by any stretch
I can't even grow plants on purpose, I managed to kill one of those mini cactuses that you're not supposed to water very often. I literally forgot about it and it dried out entirely into a husk. But the plants outside that I don't even care about? Those things are all growing like weeds and they're annoying
Light and nutrients are easier, since they don't require consistency, but it's the watering that's a little tricky.
You should have the right soil and pot for that plant and for you I would recommend an automatic watering system. Then just look at it for the first few weeks and dial it in. Succulents also need dry periods, but you can look that stuff up on the web.
Then just check on it every few months/years and you're good.
IDK, I like growing and eating zucchini. Especially Ronde de Nice and Cocozelle. But you have to check pretty much every day during peak season, those suckers can go from hand-sized to arm sized in just a day or two.
If you read the other comments you'll find that most people here have no gendered notion of gardening. This might be a small thing, it doesn't seem like a common thing
That's fine, I'm making a joke about how men are neurotic about things I would never consider. That it is believable that a number of men find planting jalapenos borderline feminine is what is funny.
Trichocereus bridgesii, monstrose form. Called penis cactus or toothpick cactus depending on spines. T. bridgesii contains higher levels of alkaloids, including mescaline, than the more commonly used T. Pachnoi "San Pedro". The monstrose form is said to be particularly potent, although it is slower growing.
Plant growing is gendered now?
All the cishet men I’ve known who have had gardens grew all kinds of stuff, from fruits and vegetables to culinary herbs and flowers.
Maybe I’m in a bubble but damn I feel sorry for the dudes in the OP.
Yeah this is weirdly sexist. I only know one person this describes because he's growing weed (legally) in an apartment so he can't have a outdoor garden
Hell, I know over a dozen men with gardens and only two even grow peppers. Everyone grows tomatoes, though..
Fresh tomatoes out of your own greenhouse are amazing, that's why
My old coworker told me he had only ever eaten the transparent slices of flavorlessness fast food restaurants call tomatoes until he moved from the slums to a rural town and had a fresh one. It blew his mind so much he went on to spend 15 years as a chef.
My dad's been growing tomatoes my whole life so I've been spoiled
I grew up somewhat poor, small town with no fast food, post-soviet nation. We had a garden and a greenhouse. I was a teen when I found out how flavourless tomatoes can be. Because we'd always grown our own and didn't use them as much in the winter when they needed to be bought from the store lol
It's crazy how different they can be. I have no idea why they even include shitty tomatoes at those places. Awful texture and no taste, what's the appeal?
Psychology
Colour and shininess
Hornworms and squirrells always wreck my tomatoes:(
I have a raised bed and just hang a loose net around the whole thing so the squirrels can't get in. Otherwise those little buggers will take one bite out of each tomato and leave the rest for me to clean up.
It's not immediately clear to me how this deters such pests.
The netting isn't big enough for squirrels to get through. It's draped down from the trellising, and pinned down to the ground. There's no way for the squirrels to get in unless they climb up and over, and they don't seem to be able to figure that out.
Not sure what to do about the horn worms though.
Oh, so there are also trellises of some sort. What else is there? It's also still it quite clear how this is configured - are these frustra surrounding each plant? Because that sounds like a lot of work for each tomato.
As for hornworms, best we've found is a daily sweep with a jar of soapy water for ritual executions.
I'll just send a picture:
This was before I added the netting. I use tomato clips to hold up the plants:
Then the netting just goes all the way around the outside hanging down from the top, and secured at the bottom with ground clips.
hornworms are susceptile to parasitoids that target only them, but i dont know if you can even commerically purchase them.
Fucking stink bugs! My plants got a little out of hand this year and I had to pluck stink bugs off them every day. Still 60+ lbs of tomatoes tho
Bro how big is your fuckin' garden
Also may I have some tomat plz
Too big lol, the rest of my crop is frozen waiting to turn into sauce which is good because we’re out of last years sauce
I get it. I'll help use up those extra tomatoes for you
Do what my dad does and plant like 40 of em, they can't eat them all!
Yes, they can.
Well, shit. Greenhouse it is?
I'm debating replacing my ugly old shed with one
Sounds like a plan. Until those fuckers learn how to open doors, I guess.
Seriously. Who could talk shit on local wildflowers? I'm feeding bees up in this B.
I'm encouraging wild flowers to grow in between my berry bushes.
Nice. I just threw down some plugs and watched em go
Your method is probably easier than stealing berry bushes from the woods and hoping they bring flowers due to birds.
Easier sure, but better? Doubtful
yes. everything is gendered for gender warriors.
i'm cishet and i have a garden and most women i date think it means I'm secretly gay. the cat doesn't help.
gardening is considered feminine, or for old people. not for younger men who are supposed to be virile and dominant. they should be hunting.
Weird. Have they seen how much you can provide from a garden?
Also, having a garden doesn't preclude one from hunting... whatever that means in the modern era. You can only eat so much meat.
That’s wild, I’m sorry you gotta deal with that.
Survival skills + demonstrated empathy/care with other living beings are positives for any person. Hopefully you find someone who appreciates that. /gen
Sure, but the OP doesn't say "gender warriors", it says "Western man", which includes a whole lot more people than the tiny minority of those bigots.
Sorry that you live in a bubble of bigots, but it is not a general or universal experience.
Well it looks like your garden has at least a double function - it filters out women with weird ideas about gender and sexuality 😁
Just grow an unkempt beard and wear overalls.
Same, I don't know any dudes into gardening that care about that shit. One of them does grow peppers, but it's because he likes peppers, not because he's worried growing other stuff (which he also does) will make him look like a pussy.
I grow several varieties of peppers from sweet bells to habaneros, tomatoes, okra, cucumbers, and mint, plus a few odds and ends that look cool at the garden center. I tend to grow plants that either produce more per dollar to grow than I can get at the store, or in the case of tomatoes, of better quality. And mint is eternal.
I also harvest beautyberries that have sprung up wild on my property, and have recently learned that the big weird thing looming over my wood shop is a black walnut tree, so I think I'm gonna go nuts next summer.
theres whole subs for growing succulents, carnivorous plants,, but usually its mostly women in those subs.
Who does this ? This looks like ragebait
Maybe it's the same men that don't wash their ass cuz that's gay.
/s maybe
Well done; that gave me a chuckle....
Its not gay if it your own soapy fingers right....right guys....oh fuck maybe I'm gay. No I can't be, I hate the gays!!!!
I literally know someone like this…
Cacti and carnivorous plants are super cool tho??? Especially that you get cacti cuz of how resilient they are, a great first plant, can recommend. And growing your own food/spices as well? Also Ive never seen that stereotype lmao
Yeah it's kinda weird. As if anyone is growing weed because it's manly and not because it's awesome
Wtf lol? This is completely made up
Fellas, is it gay to participate in agrigulture?
Its confirmed, every farmer secretly has a boywife
Fellas, it's it okay to have a boywife?
As long as you say "no homo".
And remember to wear socks
locked in chastity with a remote butt vibrator ringing off the hook while he picks up your order at home depot?
Is that an option!?
i have so much to tell you
Plowing them fields is hard work.
according to dross's comics yes
This is some poor bull shit... when did growing anything make anyone fragile?... get outta here with your bs. Do you just go around trying to start shit?
Why would you make up something like that? Maybe its your own masculinity that is fragile?
When I was young, I got made fun of for wanting to help my mom plant and tend to a garden with basil and tomatoes. It didn't kill my love for plants but childhood cruelty sticks with you.
I had 2 older brothers and 1 younger while growing up, we lived rurally and we would have a huge garden and we were all expected to work in it. Personally, i liked it, but I didn't always like it cuz I was a kid I guess, but I liked it enough I have my own garden now and nobody forced me.
I was also homeschooled, so I didn't know a lot people, but I never got made fun of for gardener.
I don't even understand this. I haven't heard anyone even in the alt-right say growing plants was gay
Well now fosssilesque had said it
What a bullshit.
I'll be honest, I've never come across this.
I've known people who aren't too keen on growing flowers, if only because it takes up space where they could be growing something more productive.
Which is too bad, because including flowers in your garden (even if it's only in the form of bolted vegetables) helps attract critters that will pollinate your "productive" plants as well as those that will help protect them from pest infestations. A balanced ecosystem lifts all boats, to mix my metaphors.
I refer more to growing flowers as the main event. Most people I know who garden outside use flowers in the way you described.
I do however have one extremely "dudebro" guy friend who literally grew almost nothing but flowers for a few years, specifically to sell them to a florist :P
Eh funny but untrue. The dudes I know who are plant people grow anything cool. Ive got a lot of weird and cool plants.
I do grow the super hot peppers, and i like feeding ticks to my carnivorous plants tho. So its not far off.
I also grow tomatoes, eggplants, garlic, cuces, squash, etc.
it's true in experience. I'm a single guy. I date around. Most women I meet think gardening makes me queer. It is not considered a desirable hobby for a man. And many men who don't garden, also think it's queer/feminine.
People who do garden, don't see it that way, of course. But every garden group I've ever met up with was 70% women, and most of the men were not 'manly'. I myself am not a manly guy.
I grew up assuming every adult should be self-sufficient, so I learnt all of cooking, cleaning, gardening, basic repairs, home maintenance, sewing, etc. I think the most likely people to have a problem with that never learnt it themselves, so they feel inadequate.
It became an issue in my first serious relationship because she didn't cook or clean much. She definitely never tried to nurture so much as a plant. I had no problem with that because I could, but she started to feel less feminine, and eventually turned it around on me. The guys she left me for were completely useless, but they didn't highlight her insecurities so she was happy. At least for a short while.
People who are confident in their identity and abilities don't do this, and that's who you want to find anyway, regardless of gender.
Traditionally it's been similar to cooking:
Farmer/chef? That's a man's work.
Gardener/home cook? That's a woman's work.
Fortunately we've got shows like the Great British Bake Off and a myriad of popular YouTube gardening and home cooking channels featuring men to help shake this up, but sadly it's still something that's seen as gendered by way too many folks. Still, if spicy peppers and cacti (and on the cooking side dishes like pizza) help get insecure men in the door, that's great. But I'm with TTF: it may not be a strong stereotype, but I've also observed it.
What is farming if not gardening at scale?
Like most unnecessarily-gendered things, this thinking falls apart under the slightest hint of logical scrutiny...
That's sad
I wanted a house so I could grow the first three.
Am currently stuck in in law's house, with collapsing job market after being denied a mortgage for being too fat 3 months before the job market collapsed.
Denied a mortgage for being too fat...?
Yep. Based on age and mortgage length, and beurocracy they said I had to take out a life insurance policy which got denied due to health factors.
I believe it. My credit score had a knock against it because, and I quote: "Months since oldest auto trade opened".
I guess cyclists who outright own two cars (An old hatchback and an old truck) are a credit risk.
Sorry for the legalized discrimination you faced, that feels a lot more egregious than mine.
My dad’s credit score plummeted after he paid off the house 🤷♂️
CICO score was too low
You know the biological system is too complex for simple physics based memes to be plausible
I like flowers and tomatoes 😎
E: and pumpkins. Frankly this comic is just to generate anger, all the men I know with green thumbs grew all kinds of healthy and fun plants that everyone enjoyed.
I dunno i just doubt this person exists to any great extent. All plants are great.
They do exist. They usually look like this, though:
So probably nobody on Lemmy.
Bitter and resentful too.
Jesus, guys cant even wear sunglasses while driving cars now without it being seen as some kind of weird statement about what plants they do or dont grow...
I genuinely regret all my cacti. I have like 8 Peruvian torches about a decade old from seed, and I like to put them outside in spring, so they don’t get all spindly and pathetic, and dear god are they heavy and dangerous to move now. They are like 4 foot (1.2m) tall or so, but can get up to 16 foot (5m).. whoops.
But I don’t want to kill them because, like.. I’m proud of them for thriving with me.
If you have a botanical garden nearby, you could see if they'll adopt them. You could also check with any greenhouses.
That’s a great idea! There’s actually a couple places I can think of that might be interested.
I wish I'd known this before committing inadvertent genocide (aren't they all?)
I've been resisting buying a cactus for awhile now and I think you just gave me the courage to put the idea out of my head forever lol
For anyone feeling the same, maybe check out caudiciforms as a substitute! They grow slow, don't need much water, and come in a bunch of cool varieties. It's like bonsai without all the pretentiousness
You avoid growing plants because it's emasculating.
I avoid growing plants because I'm awful at it and it's cruel.
We are not the same
My plants are tomatoes, bell peppers, basil, oregano, garlic and coffee (no serious hopes for a good harvest in my climate).
Am I still allowed to call myself a man?
No. Now go and sit down to pee (like any sane person)
That privilege is heavily dependent on your maintaining a strong garlic harvest. The first year that slips (or your basil/oregano perform too well) you're getting downgraded to nonbinary. Then there's a three year grace period before you're sent straight to full-blown woman. So make sure to fertilize your alliums well!
This bait is objectively hilarious in how BS it is.
I love hot peppers :3
...fuckin' pussy?
Sorry, I don't understand the rules, do we hate peppers now?
Not sure don't care, I dont consume spicy food because I think it makes me strong I eat spicy food because it makes me feel and id rather not develop a drug addiction :3
peppies 😍
Would that not be the plants they like? Everyone's all for gender affirmation until it's straight men seeking affirmation for theirs
Humans are strange in even assigning plants for specific genders. Just grow whatever the hell they want.
Exactly right. Gender is performance. We commonly enhance this performance through clothing, the way we speak and how we refer to ourselves; this is not the only ways with which it's done though. I think it would be rude to criticise a trans man for affirming their gender by growing a beard for example. However when it comes to cis men in particular, the way they reinforce their gender is often mocked. So what if the plants some grows makes them feel more comfortable in their gender.
Thinking growing plants is gender affirmation is precisely the problem this image is pointing out.
What someone sees as affirming their gender is entirely up to them. Plenty of men do feel more masculine doing things like not using a straw, eating certain meals, listening to certain music, ect. Women might wear clothing that emphasises their figure. Some trans men feel affirmed in their gender by growing a beard, trans women might train their voice to feel more feminine. Gender is a performance and we all constantly make decisions to reinforce it. Thinking growing plants is gender affirmation isn't a problem, it's just a reality you're not living. If someone grows those kinds of plants and it reinforces their gender identity, that's valid and more power to them.
If you have weed, hot peppers, and carnivorous plants, can I come over?
Normal plants are great too, but clearly you are a person of taste.
carnivirous and succulents are pretty finicky in thier care too. depending on the species. echeveria and outside ornamentals are easy, but if your looking at something lithops or a different succulent it might harder.
How to keep a lot of plants at home alive: only buy the Aloe™ plants. I don't know if it's even possible to kill the ones I have without straight out drowning them. Forgot to water one of them for half a year and it started blooming instead of dying out. Now it gets watered only when I remember to water it.
Idk after enough very hot peppers their taste buds are probably pretty fried
It's this Chinese anti-West propaganda? I wonder if it works on Chinese people since it clearly doesn't work here
Very interesting and astute observation. But yeah, the attitude and tone is opaque here
I've gardened all my life and my favorite flowers are morning glories, please shove a cactus up your ass. Thank you.
My dad grew tomatoes, loufas, and those decorative gourdes you turn into bird houses.
I can grow my own loufas!? The scratchy kind? Wait. Aren't they sea creatures?
Yep you can grow luffa. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luffa
What the fuuuuuck. It's a CUCUMBER!? This is like an all-new Mandela Effect for me.
I've seen literal fucking science YouTube channels imply they are sea creatures. SciShow to be specific. The narrator was talking about sea creature and said something like, "And your corals, sponges, luffas and such". I was like, wtf? Even SciShow doesn't know they are plants?
That does make me feel a bit better.
Yeah, they're really cool.
My mind is legitimately boggled, no joke. Are they fussy to grow? I've been known to accidentally kill all plants.
Any melon, gourd, or even most vine-based flowers I really recommend a simple automated irrigation mechanism especially in a hot climate because they are thirsty.
I have no idea. Dad never complained about them and had a whole trellis of them.
Now they grow on trellises!? My night is upended. I will be researching for sure, thanks!
I grow whichever plants I want, which includes hot peppers, yes.
But also zucchini and rhubarb and strawberries and cherry tomatoes and...
tell me about rhubarb. I don't have any experience with it, eating or growing.
It has a large inedible leaf. The stalk is what you are after. The stalks can get sizable, and grow in a patch. I transplanted a root ball in smaller clumps and got more rhubarb. Easy to grow in good soil and not to much shade. Doesn't need a huge amount of water, but dry growing conditions will create smaller more bitter stalks.
Most times I see rhubarb in food it has been cooked to a mash consistency and sweetened. For things like pies, jams, sweet sauces for Ice cream and the like in my experience. I'm sure there are other uses. It's pretty sour raw IME.
Easy to store long term in the freezer as well. Cut and remove leaf, wash, either dice or leave whole, package then freeze.
so...dessert celery?
Kinda...
What's the flavor like? I've seen recipes that pair it with strawberry?
I'm generally terrible at describing how things taste. But it pairs well with strawberry. It is generally tart but not overpowering if prepared well, sorta sitting between sweet and sour with more fruity leaning.
Doesn’t work well with savoury IMO.
Haha, what a great description
jokes on you, my manliness is not in jeopardy if I just let all my plants dry out
I grow native plants and vegetables 🤷♂️
I feel like weed does not really belong in either. You don't grow it to be masculine and you don't really grow it because you like to see it. A niche plant that everyone knows exactly why you're growing it.
You can grow hot peppers and not be fragile as well. I hope.
I grew jalapenos and no joke, they were too hot for me. Way hotter than store bought.
Jalapenos have become victims of their own success.
They're so popular and mainstream now that buyers (especially food processors) have started demanding high levels of consistency in terms of spice; Tostitos and the like want to ensure that every batch of salsa and such they mass produce is going to have the same spice level, which is understandable. Unfortunately this drive for increased consistency has led to an overall weakening of flavor, similar to what happened to produce like tomatoes and apples once industrialized farming and food processing created demands for longer shelf lives, consistency in appearance, etc., and like tomatoes and apples, the jalapenos you buy at most stores nowadays are going to be much weaker in flavor than they were in the past.
Jalapenos not sourced from these industrial-oriented seed companies are going to vary much more in terms of spice level based on growing conditions, like temperature and rainfall. There even exists nowadays the "nadapeno," which has jalapeno flavor but minimal spice. You can also remove the seeds and veins of the pepper before eating it, which makes a huge difference in reducing spice levels. Picking them earlier and growing them in "ideal" conditions for lessened spice is trickier, but can also help.
Did you wait for them to turn red? I did and they were crazy hot even after removing all the seeds.
Half of them I did wait, yeah. Plus they were indoor hydroponic grown (People think I'm growing weed in that room but really I grow everything except weed), so I presume supercharged.
Solanaceae are awesome. The fact that half of them will fuck you up is purely coincidental.
Definitely one of humankind's most utilized and important plant families.
I grow all kinds of plants including weed and really hot peppers... but also roses
Don't forget orchids. Manly men love orchids.
If growing only cool plants is insecure then I want to be the most insecure man on earth. Except for weed, that's just ugly looking grass.
I don't grow anything, whatever is in my backyard grows by itself, I just go out there from time to time to forage the useful stuff and watch the wall lizards run around.
I got a plant from my father that he found years ago when we moved to a flat. It was in the corner of the bathroom on top of a shelf. It wash shriveled up and completely brown. That kind of fall leaf brown. Mind you, this plant was discovered easily 4 years after we moved in, so it had not gotten water for at least 4 years.
Crazy thing is, that plant was apparently still alive. We do not know how, but it did not die. Maybe it was feeding of the steam from the shower.
It is now part of our family and has had many cuttings made from it.
It's a crazy plant, it just does not die. I once overwatered it to the point that it's 15 liter pot was filled to the top of the dirt with water and only when I noticed a "puddle" did I act on it. We have one that is literally just in a jug with water. We also had one where the dirt was full of mold, but that plant was just fine.
I researched that little guy and apparently it's some kind of Syngonium.
I grow a lot of those manly plants lol
Decorative plants are great, but harvesting something from your plants (especially if that product is otherwise hard to get / of poor quality / very expensive) is extremely rewarding!
For me it’s “whatever plant I’m least likely to accidentally murder” so usually a succulent of some variety
Y'all are growing venus flytraps? Ngl, sounds pretty cool...
I'm in this picture and I kinda like it. Edit: super hot and cactus
What if the plants I want to grow are those on the right? ... plus some cool looking house plants for decoration and less stale air.
Toxic gender culture is just trying to weave itself into everything.
Grow what you want and be a decent person unconcerned with trends.
NASA released a list of air quality plants years ago, it should have a few suggestions that grab your interest.
Is that really a thing..? Not me. But I also only have enough plants to keep my apartment a bit greener, I wouldn't call myself a "plant guy" by any stretch
I have a spekboom and an impala lily.
Me like hot stuff
I can't even grow plants on purpose, I managed to kill one of those mini cactuses that you're not supposed to water very often. I literally forgot about it and it dried out entirely into a husk. But the plants outside that I don't even care about? Those things are all growing like weeds and they're annoying
You need 3 things: Light, water, nutrients.
Light and nutrients are easier, since they don't require consistency, but it's the watering that's a little tricky.
You should have the right soil and pot for that plant and for you I would recommend an automatic watering system. Then just look at it for the first few weeks and dial it in. Succulents also need dry periods, but you can look that stuff up on the web.
Then just check on it every few months/years and you're good.
Hope this helps.
IDK, I like growing and eating zucchini. Especially Ronde de Nice and Cocozelle. But you have to check pretty much every day during peak season, those suckers can go from hand-sized to arm sized in just a day or two.
Learned a new thing men are insecure about.
If you read the other comments you'll find that most people here have no gendered notion of gardening. This might be a small thing, it doesn't seem like a common thing
That's fine, I'm making a joke about how men are neurotic about things I would never consider. That it is believable that a number of men find planting jalapenos borderline feminine is what is funny.
Hashtag NotAllMen
u sure?
I must show this cactus who is the bigger man
Nice, when is your wife's boyfriend visiting next?
The cactus is here with us now ;)
Trichocereus bridgesii, monstrose form. Called penis cactus or toothpick cactus depending on spines. T. bridgesii contains higher levels of alkaloids, including mescaline, than the more commonly used T. Pachnoi "San Pedro". The monstrose form is said to be particularly potent, although it is slower growing.
Given my black thumb tends to kill anything not tougher than dandelions I'll take what I can get.