{"id":85179,"date":"2026-05-13T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T06:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opinionpublica.tv\/portada\/?p=85179"},"modified":"2026-05-12T17:51:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:51:04","slug":"grab-some-seeds-throw-them-at-the-soil-youre-a-gardener-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opinionpublica.tv\/portada\/grab-some-seeds-throw-them-at-the-soil-youre-a-gardener-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Grab some seeds. Throw them at the soil. You\u2019re a gardener now"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Gardening is hard. You have to know the names of plants, sometimes in Latin. You spend a lot of time digging and weeding. You stare at the furrows, hoping the seeds come to life. You worry about weather and soil nitrogen supply. Gardening can also be an expensive pursuit, at least if you want bespoke, handcrafted tools like a $119 weeding knife. All that may be why it can seem like a hobby for rich retirees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a rebuke to that stodgy image, many gardeners are embracing a free-form approach called chaos gardening. It involves two main steps: First, get a bunch of seeds. Then throw them at the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s often a third step, too: Make a before-and-after video to show everyone how you transformed a patch of dirt into a lush scene out of a Monet painting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChaos gardening is the way forward,\u201d one commenter wrote under a popular TikTok video documenting the progress of a chaos garden, adding, \u201cI see people putting little seeds in their individual pots. Nah, no time for that mate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elizabeth Boitnott, 31, who lives in the Blue Ridge foothills of Virginia, got in on the trend two years ago. \u201cI don\u2019t have a green thumb, but I do like gardening,\u201d Boitnott said in an interview. \u201cI came across a video on TikTok, and I just did it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without having done much serious research, she bought some seed packets at Dollar Tree. She ripped them open, mixed them in a bucket and scattered them across a rectangular flower bed. Then she covered the seeds with soil and watered the plot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the while, she was making videos, one of which now has 1.4 million views. It shows how she transformed her humble patch of dirt into a riot of color, with zinnias, cosmos and coreopsis practically mugging for the camera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt feels freeing, especially for people who feel like they\u2019re failing at traditional gardening,\u201d Boitnott said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite its name, chaos gardening has nothing to do with chaos theory \u2014 but it may have come in reaction to the sameness that has seeped into daily life as algorithmic preferences override serendipitous discoveries. It also offers re-engagement with the real world at a time when \u201ctouch grass\u201d has become internet shorthand advice to those who have grown overly dependent on screens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, a successful gardening effort presents a tableau nicely suited to social media: Oh, just a little garden I threw together between marathon training and reading \u201cMoby Dick.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe goal is to keep it fun and not overthink it,\u201d said James Weston, who is known to his hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram and TikTok as Farm Boy James.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI started chaos gardening after a hurricane wiped out a garden I had spent hours carefully planting,\u201d Weston continued. \u201cInstead of starting over the \u2018right\u2019 way, I grabbed a cheap bag of dried beans and tossed them around, and they grew just fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was out there snacking on beans,\u201d he added, \u201cstill getting a harvest even after everything went wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weston had some advice for would-be chaos gardeners: Go big. The bigger the seed, the greater its chance of survival. \u201cBeans, corn, lentils and birdseed sunflowers work great,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can throw tomato seeds out, too, but the idea is to keep it simple.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most journeys into chaos gardening begin at a hardware store or nursery, in front of a metal carousel stacked with seed packets. Here also awaits your first choice: annuals or perennials?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Annuals include flowers like marigolds and nasturtiums. They grow fast but won\u2019t come back the next spring (though they will drop seeds and possibly propagate). Perennials like lavender and sage will return year after year, but they may take longer to grow. Wildflower and pollinator packets often contain both annual and perennial seeds but are frowned upon by some serious gardeners, because the selection can be haphazard and ill-suited to the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a good idea to exercise a little situational awareness. How much rain can you expect? How much sunlight? Dig the earth and feel it between your fingers \u2014 is it sandy? Loamy? These are things to keep in mind as you prepare for your journey into horticultural chaos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou want to prepare your soil, your site, at least a little bit,\u201d said Deryn Davidson, a sustainable landscape expert at Colorado State University Extension in Longmont, Colo. \u201cTry to get rid of weeds. Make sure the soil is ready to receive seeds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Davidson, who has written about chaos gardening, strongly advised covering the seeds with a layer of soil, lest they become bird food. As for watering, that depends on where you live, she added. On the whole, though, the formula is straightforward: \u201cSoil, sun and water is what these seeds need,\u201d Davidson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not everyone is a fan of the trend, or at least the way it has been portrayed on social media. \u201cNature is not chaos \u2014 nature is pattern,\u201d said Robin Wall Kimmerer, a botanist and the author of \u201cBraiding Sweetgrass,\u201d which recommends imbuing modern life with Indigenous wisdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt seems unrealistic,\u201d Kimmerer said of the chaos gardening videos she has watched. The feeling of effortlessness they convey \u2014 a common social media effect, almost always the result of deft editing \u2014 seems to elide the work that goes into a garden, whether chaotic or not, she suggested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want my garden to be natural and biodiverse,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s a good impulse. I don\u2019t think this technique is going to get you there, but that\u2019s an important impulse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boitnott, the maker of the viral video, offered a simple reason for why chaos gardening has become popular: \u201cIt just makes you happy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n