One overcast day recently I went out into the neighbourhood with my bike and trailer and 24 saltbush plants.
There was a council worker watering the plantings in the area I’d planned to add ruby saltbush into. I considered turning around and going elsewhere but then decided against it, so I approached her and thanked her for watering and for clearing up some branches that had fallen or been snapped off and dumped. That saved me clearing them up!
I told her I had been planning to add more saltbush and asked if she would mind. She thought it over and said that would be OK and did I have water with me. I did, so she kept watering and I planted 24 more little saltbush.
My phone was pronounced dead that same day, and the phone company I had hoped could fix it looked upon me with pity and explained the obvious irrationality of my wanting to keep my too-old, superseded model phone. They explained the benefits of the new models in terms that utterly failed to convince me. This seems to me such a wasteful approach to anything, let alone a high tech device that will never biodegrade. It made me think about all the clothes I have that have lasted so much longer than three years (the life span of my phone, I think) and that will eventually biodegrade. This same phone was entirely repaired a year or two ago and they wanted me to upgrade then. Too much upgrading.
Anyway, later the day these plants went into the ground, we upgraded to some actual rain. Unseasonable in November but ever welcome. This little message to passersby who may not have noticed the plants beneath their feet or tyres had fallen down. It was found by my beloved and taken home for a wash and now, is back up.
Local & Bespoke 
If everyone in the world was like you wouldn’t it be paradise. Keep spreading your mesage of gentle living.
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Keryn, you are so kind! I can think of some serious downsides to everyone being like me. But there sure would be more saltbush 🙂
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Please Respect the Garden. lovely and so gentle. Upgrade, phooey! I have a very old Flip Phone that serves me very well……..not a Luddite but…
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I am glad you like Respect the Garden. I think the Luddites had some valid points. For one thing, they were facing the loss of their jobs and the demise of their crafts/trades as high status occupations. A lot of people right now could grasp why that might have drawn a reaction!
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Guerilla gardening sanctioned! A timely rain and a good wash. Simple pleasures requiring no upgrade. It is insane that 3 years is obselence.
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Isn’t it, just? Simple pleasures are just so glorious.
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If we could only un-brainwash everyone from the digital/electronics carousel of consumer madness – even that would make such an enormous difference.
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I think the world needs us to consume less… no doubt at all.
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