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Hot take: manicured botanical gardens teach you less than a cracked parking lot does
Three years ago I started keeping a list of volunteer plants growing in the cracks of the Kroger lot on Bardstown Road here in Louisville, and I've found 41 species so far, more than the labeled beds at the garden downtown. Everyone wants to chase rare orchids in a greenhouse, but has anyone else noticed the toughest botany lessons are happening in pavement cracks and alley edges?
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noahward1d ago
Honestly the same thing happened to me with a gravel alley behind my old place. I started taking phone pics of whatever popped up between the rocks and ended up with like 30 something plants in one summer, way more than the fancy beds at the park near me. What really helped was going at the same time every week so I could see stuff come up, flower, and die off instead of just catching it once. I also stopped pulling anything until I knew what it was, which is how I learned half of it was just weeds I'd been yanking for years. Tbh you learn more from watching a plant survive on almost nothing than from reading a tag on a pretty one. Keep that list going, that's real data.
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