Green Thumbs

In the third and final part of how Pilots at Hardsuit Labs kick back outside of work, we will talk about the many green thumbs we have throughout the office - which is fitting as Earth Day is tomorrow, April 22nd!

Especially when we spend our days sitting or standing at a desk all day, doing something else that is not in front of a screen can be very healing. In the past two weeks, we looked at the many incredible things our team is up to.

While working on last week's piece, a clear trend started showing itself that simply needed its own spotlight: Hardsuit Labs has many Pilots with very green thumbs!

Whether it is a passion for house plants, or a desire to create a garden for fruit and veggies, our team is excited about all kinds of plant life. Here are some tips the team would like to share with our readers today- and if you're a fellow pilot, stop by the FunRandom channel and ask for garden tips!

One of our producers has a living room jungle! It started with wanting some green in the house during the lockdowns in 2020 but started to enjoy having a green living space more and more. While we have jokingly threatened interventions before, we're all just envious of the lovely setup our rooms don't have.

As a tip for new plant parents: Start with something sturdy. Pick up a spider plant, snake plant, or dragon tree! Not only are all three very easy to keep, but you can also give them awesome names like Tarantula, Python, and Draconis!

Whichever house plant you end up adopting, make sure you check for toxicity. If you have children or furry, feathery, or scales household members, be certain that nothing you bring home can endanger a curious snacker.

What is great for curious snackers, however, are outdoor gardens!

Let's start with small ones that can live inside your apartment or on the patio, courtesy of our design team. If you can only offer a shelf and a windowsill, you can still grow fresh herbs for your kitchen! Having a small arrangement for green onions, parsley, or even a few small pots for radishes allows you to have access to fresh, home-raised greens! You might even want to grow some catnip for your feline companions.

If you have space to set down a larger flowerpot or even a planter, you can create small beds for cherry tomatoes, salads, and edible flowers. An excellent phrase to use in search engines for more information could be "Container Gardening for Vegetables." Our team would be happy to inspire you with their gardens!

If you are one of the lucky ones to have space for a real vegetable garden, then we hope to inspire you with the promise of a future bounty presented by another one of our producers!

While any garden won't look like much when we start, designing a layout for your garden will deliver on the promise of delicious, home-grown rewards throughout the year, no matter if you wish to use rain barrel planters for potatoes or beds for beans, pumpkins, and kale – a garden will reward your physical work with crisp, fresh greens. Or reds. Or yellows.

To rounds things off: Consider bees.

You do not have to become a veiled beekeeper to bring in the help of winged pollinators. Leafcutter and mason bees are solitary, meaning they do not live in large communal hives, are considered child and pet safe, and still love helping to pollinate your garden! Of course, they can still sting, and anyone allergic to bee stings should avoid them, but overall, their venom is considered less impactful and far less painful than honey bees, hornets, and wasps.

You can either offer up bee homes that can easily be made yourself with online guides - or buy the bees themselves and their preferred housing online!

Our design team has team members who proudly show off their little helpers each year, and we love seeing them build their tiny homes while they help with some gardening needs.

We hope to have inspired you to grow some greens – as decoration or future salads. We close this week with some harvesting examples and leave you with an appetite to grow your own soon!

Special thanks to all our Gardening Pilots for your many lovely photos!