Gardens in Space

Humans transforming their space environments with living plants is very important to me, and it's only partly because I love gardening. I love the idea because it's a twist on the classic science fiction look and feel from Star Trek and Star Wars and the space-based sci-fi books I read growing up. The spaces in those ships were mechanical and industrial. Star Trek the Next Generation at least had carpet, but it was still very beige and office-y in the Enterprise's main look. Space in the future was hard metals and blues, as spare as the emptiness out the window.

One thing I learned from reading Mary Roach's popular science book, Packing for Mars, is that astronauts, and even people on Earth who work in submarines or spend long, snow white seasons in Antarctica, crave greenery on their return after being without it in their environment for months on end. From my own experiences, I can say that hiking or walking in the park do wonders for my own mental wellness, and if we know that now, in the future when we are sending generation ships to the stars, I absolutely believe we will be sending them with gardens and parks as well as food plants. 

Not to mention the ecosystem services that plants provide. The Expanse novel, Caliban's War, does a great job of showing how humans use plants to regulate their atmosphere on distant moons. And what could go wrong when the delicate plant system gets out of whack. Like on Earth, they could have a huge role in creating oxygen, drawing down carbon dioxide, or filtering water systems like marshes do. Plants on your space ship open up whole new areas to speculate with, and combine with technology, instead of reverting to plain technobabbly solutions. They also give your characters a whole new dark forest to wander through. (Ha! Dark forest 🤣 I crack myself up.)