why aren't house plants enough?

this morning on her blog you grow girl, gayla trail lamented the signs of oncoming winter and how despite her indoor plants, she would miss being outside in the garden for the next four months.

i understand her sense of sadness. despite a jungle's worth of indoor plants, it just isn't the same as the garden i left. part of it is the level of interaction required. for the most part, all my house plants require is water with the occassional feeding and dusting of leaves and even more occassional transplanting. there is no digging, no weeding, no tilling, no harvest. there is rarely a flower. the dirt in an indoor container just isn't as teeming with life. in the controlled environment of an urban apartment, there is no connection to the seasons, to the earth.

there is just something about standing in the sun with a shovel in your hand (or a rake or a pick-axe or a tiller), about reaching fingers into dirt, about untangling roots before placing a new plant in its new home that makes me feel more alive, more connected than anything else. it's something that even a big pot on a little porch won't be able to replicate.

but at least i'm still surrounded by green.