I Didn’t Set Out to Build a Library

I was only trying to understand the plants under my feet. Somehow, that became book-length plant monographs, with more already on deck.

Fellow experts, I’ve brought you all here today because none of you are talking to each other.

I didn’t set out to build a library. I set out to teach myself.

When I started approaching these plants as a farmer, not as a botanist or an herbalist, but as someone with the dirt under his nails who needed to actually understand what was growing in the ground he stewarded, I went looking for the whole picture.

The botanists had their corner. The herbalists had theirs. The soil scientists, the ethnobotanists, the phytochemists, each one held a piece, and each piece sat in its own silo, written for its own people, never once turning to face the others. Nobody had put the dandelion in a room and said: here is everything we know, from every angle, and here is how it all connects.

So I did it myself. One plant at a time. To understand them.

That turned out to be the part that mattered most. The facts weren’t the hard part; the facts are out there if you’ve got the time. What didn’t exist anywhere was the bridge. I needed the document that takes the chemistry and the folklore and the soil behavior and the medicine and shows you they’re not separate subjects. They’re one plant, telling one story, in a language we chopped into pieces and forgot how to read whole. Everyone else hands you a piece of the plant. These profiles hand you the whole living thing.

As the outline grew more complete, so did the plant biographies. The dandelion monograph came out at 26,000 words. Garlic at 45,000. Purslane at 34,000. Knotweed at 36,000. Each one is, by any honest measure, a book. I didn’t pad them to get there; that’s just how much there is to say once you take down the walls and let the silos finally talk to each other.

I thought maybe a couple of other plant geeks would enjoy them. I never expected 25,000 of you would sign up. Or that you'd write to me like this:

"I love what you do. I’m new to allotmenting and herbal medicine but your series has changed the way I look at everything. And it’s so well researched and written. I know I’m only able to take in 5% of what you write but such a wonderful record. I wish I could pay you more, maybe one day I will be able to, but know I think what you do is so valuable. "

"Thank you for doing this work. I'm building a market garden in north florida and you've already provided some amazing info. Thank you"

"I think it's important for people to understand the role of plants in nature and not just think of them as useful or annoying. Each has a role to play."

That’s genuinely how this began, a childlike curiosity about the world at my feet. Then, more of you started reading and sharing the value you found. I was pretty humbled.

I also realized not everyone gets as fired up about plant chemistry as I do, so I started making the videos and the summaries. They are a way to pull these big, strange documents down into something you can digest in a few minutes, allowing you to decide for yourself whether you want to go deeper. I wanted the plant to matter to the person actually dealing with it, this season, in your ground, with your problems.

When I finally added up what was already sitting on Substack, I realized I’d built A Living Plant Wisdom Library.

What I’ve gathered so far: Amaranth · Bindweed · Burdock · Chickweed · Comfrey · Dandelion · Garlic · Goldenrod · Horsetail · Japanese Knotweed · Lamb’s Quarters · Mallow · Mullein · Plantain · Purslane · Red Clover · Shepherd’s Purse · Stinging Nettle · Sunflower · Yarrow

Each one is a full monograph, a book-length deep dive, not a blog post, with a new plant added regularly. The companion videos and audio are there to translate them, so you can see whether a plant is worth your further investigation.

And here’s what’s already on deck: Alder · American Vetch · Borage · Chamomile · Cleavers · Crabgrass · Dock · Fireweed · Ginger · Himalayan Blackberry · Jerusalem Artichoke · Knapweed · Nasturtium · Oregon Grape · Pineapple Weed · Russian Thistle · Saskatoon · Scotch Broom · Self-Heal · Sow Thistle · St. John’s Wort · Thistle · Thyme · Tillage Radish · Western Red Cedar · Wild Lettuce · Wild Mustard · Wild Oat

My hope is simple: that this library helps you see the plants around you with more patience, more curiosity, and more practical confidence.

I didn’t build this to sit on a digital shelf gathering dust. I built it to be the tool you reach for when you’re standing in the dirt, trying to make the right call for your land.

For $8 a month, less than the cost of a quality loaf of sourdough, or $75 a year, you get the keys to the entire vault. You get the book-length monographs already published, the audio, the videos, and every new deep dive I add to the stack as the work continues.

If you’ve read the free sections and felt like there was a larger picture waiting to be connected, there is. This is it. Not another stack of articles to fall behind on, but the bridge: every plant told whole, in one place, so the next time one shows up uninvited in your field you’ll know what it’s actually saying.

The door is open whenever you’re ready.

— Jay

Open the Library