#postnuclear gardening is prob mostly “huh hope this works” just like real life gardening

[twosides--samecoin]

Fallout thoughts: Plant edition because I think of plants as much as I do Fallout

There's the soil seed bank that exists as part of the soil structure. There are seed/genetic libraries and family seed collections with unique heirloom tomatoes and companies that make a living exclusively selling seed. So, did a solitary postwar scavver know what they had on their hands when they stumbled upon a box of unorganized, unlabeled seed in baggies, housed in a shoebox in some dilapidated farm? Were seed company warehousing/facilities confiscated by governments before the bombs dropped, or were they bought out of their supply by desperate citizens? Were genetic vaults like Svalbard ignored in wartime or were they armed to the nines as a target?

Did a wastelander set off a mine or throw a grenade that caused an explosion in the earth only to note some time later that the same location had grown some interesting plants? Did a curious wasteland child find a book about Darwin only to get really curious about the whole plants growing from lake samples thing, who then tries to find viable plant material in soil samples?

Where are the wasteland botanists who are kept up at night thinking of all the plant life that could be, knowing much of it simply lays dormant, encased in little specks ranging in size from pinheads to little pebbles, waiting for the right conditions to wake up? How maddening is it for them to know there is a ton of seed just underground that might be perfectly viable? The folks who live in northern forests and educate their children on how to identify living trees and when to tap for syrup? The farmers learning to save seed from ripe fruit? The people who stumbled into Oasis looking for shelter, only to walk away inspired and wondering if they could help spread growth across the barren earth? Are there seed swap meets where it's somebody's one chance to ask an elder about how to deal with things that went wrong last season? Where is the person who gets excited when they learn "oh wait a good goddamn minute, seed can lay dormant for centuries?!"

Where are the people who see a world of hope and potential in tending a garden, who don't know what to do but are willing to trial and error?