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Junk Drawer Gardening [1]

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Date: 2025-03-12

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Keep It Rural, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Like what you see? Join the mailing list for more rural news, thoughts, and analysis in your inbox each week.



Just like every other self-respecting American, I have a junk drawer in my kitchen where all the uncategorizable things I can’t bear to discard go to die.

I have two-inch pieces of twine, a dozen empty tealight candle holders, dead batteries, old solar eclipse glasses, and a spool of biodegradable compost bags rolling around haplessly. Every time my partner brings up the topic – “for the sake of our relationship can you please do something about that drawer?” – my heart quickens and my mother’s voice whispers in my ear, but what if I need that twine?

Thrown into the mix is a collection of seeds. I have tonda di parigi carrots (they’re round instead of long!), butternut squash, cucumbers, swiss chard, sweet peppers, grape tomatoes, and a ridiculous assortment of herbs. I could start a small farming operation with the number of seeds sitting in this drawer, waiting patiently for their time to grow.

Last week, I finally decided to get to work on my junk drawer. Along with the string and batteries, I have a stack of plastic takeout containers that are that shoddy number 5 material – a type of plastic accepted for recycling almost nowhere. I pulled out two containers and filled them with an inch of soil, then sprinkled my assorted microgreen seeds on top. I secured their lids and watched the condensation develop in what I’m calling the world’s smallest greenhouses, courtesy of my local Korean restaurant.

I live in Zone 8b according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) plant hardiness map, a type of farmer’s almanac that shows which plants grow best in different climates. In 2023, the USDA released an updated map that recategorized nearly half the country in new gardening zones because of global warming.

“Overall, the 2023 map is about 2.5 degrees warmer than the 2012 map across the conterminous United States,” said Christopher Daly, the new map’s lead author, in an interview with Oregon State University.

“This translated into about half of the country shifting to a warmer 5-degree half zone, and half remaining in the same half zone,” he said. “The central plains and Midwest generally warmed the most, with the southwestern U.S. warming very little.”

This is a pretty alarming shift over a short period of time, and it affects hobby gardeners like me and full-time farmers alike. The farm I worked on during graduate school was already adapting to more variable weather in 2020, three years before the new hardiness map was released. Freak cold snaps late in the spring and long periods of drought during the summer required the farm to be nimble. They installed hoop houses to create more controlled climates for their plants and timed their watering cycle to avoid the hottest periods of the day.

I’ve been trying to implement similar climate adaptations in my own tiny gardening operation. A big part of it has been using what I already own, like the plastic containers I refuse to throw out and the many seeds I’ve accumulated over the years. With any hobby it’s tempting to buy a bunch of stuff in order to feel like you’re somehow better at the activity you’re pursuing – this year, I’m trying to resist that urge.

That’s because I’ve realized that plants don’t care so much about the fancy new pot or greenhouse setup that you spend tens or hundreds of dollars on. What they care about is a little soil, some water, and room to breathe. Attention to their specific needs can go a long way, but most plants are hardier than we think. Last year I grew several cucumber plants and watered them much less frequently than recommended, but they still bore fruit (albeit bitter, but plants don’t care if they appease human taste buds – all they’re worried about is producing seeds for the next generation of cucumber plants).

Our overconsumption of resources has quite literally changed the weather. And this overconsumption is not dispersed equally across all nations – generally speaking, it’s the wealthiest countries where overconsumption prevails. And it’s no surprise that these wealthy countries are responsible for the highest per capita carbon emissions.

As a resident of one such nation, I feel the impetus to make do with what I already have rather than contribute to this overconsumption. Hence, my season of junk drawer gardening.

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