…from the June, 2035 issue
The Doclopedia #2,365
Average Joes: Joe Olsen, Gardener
NAME: Jonas L. Olsen
AGE: 40
LOCATION: Austin, Texas
DESCRIPTION: Joe is a 6’4”, 250 pound native son of Austin, Texas. He has short brown/gray hair, a mustache, and brown eyes. He has a wife and 4 kids. He’s been a gardener for 25 years.
“Yeah, I started working with my dad when I was 15. I always liked plants ans animals and working outdoors, so being the son of a gardener kinda set me up for my future. Got my degree in Horticulture from Texas A&M just about the time that the big Green Genetics thing started up. Now, I specialize in taking care of gardens that have lots of what they call ‘New Plants.’
Take this Walking Rose Vine, for instance. It grows up about 7 feet tall, then starts to bend over. By the time it touches the ground and starts rooting, it’ll be 12-14 feet long and root about 3 feet from the main base. It does that in the spring, then flowers like crazy all summer with these pretty little red roses. Yeah, they do smell great. So, in the fall, it sends up a second vine and than bends over and roots by early winter, before the whole plant goes dormant. Spring comes along, third vine goes up. Then that original bowed vine dies off. You’ll never see more than two living green humps, as we call them. What we do, is bend that new vine back the other way, to send the whole plant back the way it came. So the vine just walks 6 or so feet one way, then 6 or so back. Folks just love that.
Another New Plant is this Tomato Tree. They don’t grow much over 5 feet tall, and they don’t set a whole lot of fruit, but what they do produce are big, tasty tomatoes. I think they’ve got a dozen or so varieties by now. They do pretty well in our Texas heat.”
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