At Ashlee Craft’s Tampa Bay-area home, his screened-in back patio is swamped with plants of all shapes and sizes. From heirloom tomatoes to his personal plant family favorite — the Ficus — Craft believes so strongly in the mental health benefit of plants that they literally give them away.
This year, with the help of a grant from the Trans Justice Funding Project, Craft started a seed program to help queer folks in particular have access to seeds and plant cuttings for free.
With some exceptions because of state laws, Craft can mail almost any seed to addresses in the continental United States, along with care instructions.
This form of mutual aid is a passion project for the trans and nonbinary plant enthusiast, who started “The Plant Playhouse” a couple years ago after feeling bad about seed waste leftover from his newest special interest: all things plants.
Then, inspired by seed programs at local libraries, Craft started his own aimed at marginalized folks, trans and queer people, who have fewer and fewer government resources after being caught up in state and national culture wars.
“A lot of libraries and stuff have seed libraries, and I was like, what if I made a more accessible version of that? Because not everybody lives near a library that offers a program like that, and I think it's important for people to be able to grow their own food and flowers and plants and stuff to feed themselves in their communities,” Craft said.
The seed program — which gives out seeds for vegetables, fruits and flowers, because being able to grow flowers for each other matters, too, Craft said — is a partnership between the Plant Playhouse and Exquisite Lore, an autistic and trans-led production company and grassroots activism group.
"Providing seeds for marginalized people helps improve food security, access to nutrition, and personal wellbeing. In a world suppressing our personal expression, gardening is an undeniable outlet for peaceful creativity,” said Jenna Rose, member of Exquisite Lore.
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Craft said the project grew out of their stress about the state of the world. He started thinking about what he could do to improve it.
"There's a lot that I can't do to change things, but like, I can plant a seed and I can grow flowers, both thinking about just the symbolism of that and also literal flowers," Craft said.
Craft believes it's more important than ever for queer folks to figure out what they're good at and use those skills as a way to help their communities. While government programs can be taken away, mutual aid is in the hands of the community.
“If you have to rely on a government organization to help you, then there's always a chance of that help being taken away from you. But with mutual aid, it's peer support, peer-provided aid ... that can't be taken away," Craft said. "So it is self-sustaining in that way. You can still help people, even if the government would rather you didn't.”
Craft said caring for plants is also good for mental health — and helps queer people who may not have supportive family or who aren't allowed to have pets where they live.
If you’re interested in applying for the seed program, you can access the Google form here.
