Can Potatoes Change The World – Part 2
If you remember from last time, the discussion was about potato buckets that sent me down a rabbit hole, wondering if they could change the world. Except I hadn't quite gotten to how they could possibly do that yet.
I mean it started simply enough - I had neglected some potatoes that sprouted, I had some buckets, some soil and hay, and a question:
What happens if I try this?
This being, planting the potatoes in the 3 gallon buckets I had and covering them with straw. Little did I know that the rabbit hole would only get deeper!
That question led to the first version of the potato tower (now called the HarvestTower™ - I'll explain the details in a separate post), which led to the realization that vertical growing was possibly a better solution, which led to more questions, which led to answers, which led to more questions.
Do you see how easily and quickly the rabbit hole grows?
One of the answers to one of those questions was hexagons! I realized that the breakthrough wasn't vertical growing - people have been doing this for centuries - it was the shape - the hexagon!
Commercial farmers grow in rows because it's easier on their machinery - to sow, feed, and harvest.
Urban farmers scale this down and grow in rectangular beds - still rows.
But nature rarely - if ever - grows in rows. It grows radially! Like spirals!
If you look around you'll see spirals everywhere! Our galaxy is a spiral! Hurricanes from above are spirals. Even wind, which we often think of blowing across the field in a straight line creates a spiral when opposed by another wind.
Now think of seeds scattered by that same wind. They're not going to end up in straight, neat rows. They're going to have a radial pattern to them.
A spiral is hard to replicate consistently in a modular garden system, but the hexagon gives us a practical way to echo that radial pattern.
And if you look around, anywhere nature needs strength, efficiency, and connection, you'll find a hexagon! They're modular, strong, and one of the most familiar patterns in nature.
So I decided that since the HarvestTower™ was a hexagon, and it's such an awesome shape, the garden beds would be too!
That was the moment the Hideaway Hex Garden System™ was born with the HarvestTower™ being the first component. Since then we've added the HexBed™, HarvestSpire™, TwinHive™, MiniHex™, and more. As a matter of fact the HarvestSpire™ has a sibling that hasn't been named yet but may end up having the biggest impact of all! You can check out the current line on the home page of this website or in the PDF download at the end of this post.
The thing is though, HHGS™ isn't just about gardening. As a true system, it has other components that meld beautifully together. As a matter of fact, there are 6 core pillars (yes, I see the correlation to the name) that HHGS™ is built around: self-sufficiency, health, food awareness, beauty and function, community, and regeneration.
And these pillars are held together by one core principle at the heart of HHGS™ -
Now this is not intended to be a biblical intervention, but this verse from Galatians is a principle that transcends gardening and can be applied to all aspects of life.
If we take the care to sew good habits, community, stewardship, and connection, we will reap the benefits of those efforts. This is the belief and the core driving principle behind HHGS™.
Ironically, it can start with sewing a single seed in a HexBed™. A garden bed can be something much more meaningful.
A bed can grow food.
A HexScape™ can grow confidence.
A neighbourhood of HexScapes™ can grow connection.
Connection can grow a community.
A community can grow stewardship.
And the cycle repeats where stewardship plants a seed to grow food.
This is where this whole rabbit hole has been leading. From a bucket of potatoes came a tower.
From the tower came the hexagon.
From the hexagon came the system.
And from the system comes this invitation:
Start where you are. Grow from there.
If you want a deeper look at the full Hideaway Hex Garden System™ concept, I’ve included the HHGS™ information booklet below as a downloadable PDF. It explains the system, the products, the philosophy, and the bigger vision behind creating your own Hexscape™.
Because sometimes the thing that changes how you grow food starts with something as ordinary as a sprouting potato in a laundry room.
