Garden lifecycle: greenhouse, compost, and soil
A lifecycle metaphor for how content enters, matures, decays, and recycles in the garden.
Greenhouse for new content: needs to be quarantined and matured before it can go to the garden beds. Decayed stuff goes into the composter to become soil. Soil could be a pre-stage for seeds? That way, we have a full recycle loop. The greenhouse and compost heap should have their own place on the map.
— Maaike
Gardens aren’t just about planting. They have a full lifecycle: things come in, grow, produce, wilt, decompose, and feed the next generation. This garden should work the same way.
The lifecycle
┌─────────────────────────┐
│ THE INTERNET │
└───────────┬──────────────┘
│
discovery / gap detection
│
┌───────────▼──────────────┐
│ GREENHOUSE │
│ │
│ External content lands │
│ here first. Quarantined, │
│ unverified, raw. │
│ │
│ Review: is it relevant? │
│ Is it good? Does it │
│ connect to something? │
└───────────┬──────────────┘
│
yes, it belongs
│
┌───────────▼──────────────┐
│ GARDEN BEDS │
│ │
│ 🌱 seeds │
│ 🌿 field notes │
│ 🪴 articles │
│ 🌳 complete works │
│ │
│ The maturity system we │
│ already have. │
└───────────┬──────────────┘
│
content ages, links rot,
ideas become outdated
│
┌───────────▼──────────────┐
│ COMPOST HEAP │
│ │
│ Decayed content doesn't │
│ disappear. It breaks │
│ down into raw material. │
│ │
│ Old links, outdated │
│ takes, superseded ideas. │
└───────────┬──────────────┘
│
decomposition
│
┌───────────▼──────────────┐
│ SOIL │
│ │
│ Broken-down ideas that │
│ can feed new seeds. │
│ │
│ "I used to think X, now │
│ I think Y because..." │
└───────────┬──────────────┘
│
new seeds sprout
│
┌───────────▼──────────────┐
│ GARDEN BEDS │
│ (back to 🌱) │
└──────────────────────────┘What this means for the garden
Greenhouse is a new stage: external content that’s been discovered but not yet earned a place. It needs its own space, separate from the garden beds, where things can sit and be evaluated without polluting the main collections. On the explore map, the greenhouse could be a distinct zone at the edge, visually separated from the territories.
Compost heap is where things go when they stop being current. Not deleted, just composted. The insight or lesson behind the content is still valuable, even if the specific link or take has expired. On the map, this could be a corner where items drift to as they age out.
Soil is the pre-stage for seeds. When composted ideas break down far enough, what remains is the kernel: a question, a tension, a “what if”. That becomes a new seed and the cycle starts over.
The full loop: internet → greenhouse → garden beds → compost → soil → seeds → garden beds.
On the map
The greenhouse and compost heap should have their own places on the explore map, visually distinct from the content territories. The greenhouse is warm and contained (things are growing but not ready). The compost heap is earthy and slow (things are decomposing but not gone). Neither is part of the main landscape, but both are visible: they’re infrastructure, not hidden backstage.