It's hard to believe how thirsty my tomatillos and chiles are. I started a kitchen garden in 2018 which helped me understand farming a bit better in little ways. #fafdlstorm 1/8 
But nothing compares to the way I've completely internalized the revolutionary nature of the invention of irrigation 600 years or so. 2/8
When it's hot and sunny and hasn't rained in weeks, the trees and shrubs and plants in my neighborhood stay green and plumped with turgor pressure, while my crops require watering every day and sometimes twice a day or they wilt in a matter of hours and die within days. 3/8
That leads to two things we all know but don't necessarily get in our bones.
1. Irrigation was foundational to civilization and we are utterly and precariously dependent on it to this day. We best take care of our sources of water. 4/8
1. Irrigation was foundational to civilization and we are utterly and precariously dependent on it to this day. We best take care of our sources of water. 4/8
2. When we say that crops are 'domesticated' plants, we really mean it. Some are more resilient and low maintenance than others, but they all tend to be even more dependent on human inputs than even our landscaping plants. 5/8
There is a reason why you don't find stands of feral corn or tomatoes in meadows and forests even though there are vectors for seeds and pollen to travel off-farm. 6/8
Given the amount of attention I have to pay to the 6-12 plants I manage within arm's length on my windowsills, I respect all the more what it takes to keep 100s or 1000s of acres of crops, bred to be protected and pampered, adequately watered and protected from pests. 7/8
My jalapenos keep getting hit by aphids or whiteflies🙁. Which helped me experience a bit of the precarity farmers experience in trying to create a controlled environment so exposed to the vagaries of nature. 8/8
CORRECTION: 6000 years or so. And probably closer to 7000 actually.
P.S. Heatwaves really got me thinking about the logic of growing plants in pots. In a heatwave, instead of the sun simply bearing down on the surface of the soil where the roots are insulated from the worst of the heat ...
... in a pot, the tiny oasis of soil is pounded on top and from the sides by the sun and from the heat from every direction, especially for my pots sitting on a scorching cement window ledge.
It's like trying to grow basil in a frickin' kiln. (I bring them inside when it gets really bad).
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