Last week, I did something I never thought I would: I walked to a busy, prominent junction in Dublin City, rolled up my smart jacket sleeves and shirt, took off my headphones, and put on some old gardening gloves. I spent a few minutes pulling wet cigarette butts, trash, and dirt out of a broken, abandoned cast-iron stench pipe filled with cement and bricks. I added homemade compost and rooted sedum cuttings from my collection to the top of the pipe, covering it with grit to give the sedums a better chance of survival. Sedums are excellent pollinator plants for challenging spots.
People watched me from their stationary cars at the traffic lights. I had passed the disused stench pipe, which had served as an ashtray, for years. During the COVID pandemic, someone had planted a snowdrop in the pipe, which looked glorious during those gloomy days. But the snowdrop eventually disappeared, and I imagined its ghost every time I passed. I wanted to plant something that could survive and thrive. As a trained garden designer, I looked in my garden for hardy plants and propagated some from cuttings. I had everything I needed; I just lacked the courage to act. My private mission felt daunting, so I delayed it for weeks, worried about being confronted by strangers or seeing my effort destroyed the next day.
I catastrophized my small project, weighed down by the fear of judgment from strangers. Yet, despite the chaos I imagined, I am proud of myself for taking action and felt joy after my work was done. Environmental damage surrounds us, but through small individual or collective efforts, we can make a positive impact. We need to step away from phone screens and get our hands dirty. We can do this on our own; we don’t have to wait for a group or consensus.
I waited a week before passing by the disused stench pipe again today. The plants are still there, thriving and flourishing. Nobody dug them out.