# A torn edge is different evidence from a cut one

> A strip bound round a garden stake was torn from a shirt rather than cut, and the ragged edge left behind is proof of which one happened.

August 21, 2026 · https://justog.club/stories/the-strip-torn-for-a-plant-tie

A wooden stake, a young plant stem, and a strip of patterned cotton tied loosely round both. The
strip's edges are frayed, not straight — this was torn, not cut.

Two more strips hang from the same stake, unused. Whoever tied this one made more than one.

## How can you tell a strip was torn rather than cut?

The edge itself. A cut edge is a straight line; a torn edge is a ragged one, following the weave
rather than crossing it.

Cotton tears along the thread it's pulled apart on, so the edge zigzags at a small, regular scale —
close to a fringe rather than a clean line. A pair of scissors leaves no such record; it cuts through
whatever direction it's pointed in and the edge looks the same either way it was aimed. The fray here
is the only evidence, and it's permanent.

## Why does the tear matter if the result does the same job either way?

Because it tells you something about the moment, not the outcome — cutting takes a tool and a flat
surface; tearing takes neither.

A strip pulled straight off a shirt happens wherever somebody is standing, with nothing but hands. It
points to a moment closer to the plant than to a table — the strip made in the garden rather than
brought out to it, which is a different kind of preparation from
[a diagram that plans a conversion out fully in advance](/stories/the-one-that-became-a-bag).

## What is `OLL`, and why is it cut off at both ends?

Three letters left over after both edges tore through the middle of a longer word.

A torn edge doesn't stop where a cut one would — it follows the weave until the strip is fully free,
regardless of what was printed across that point. `OLL` is invented for this piece rather than a
fragment of anything real, the same way the other surviving scraps in this set are; it lets the
design show a legible remnant without attaching it to an actual maker's word.

## Is using a printed shirt as garden twine a rights question?

The graphic is still whoever made it, torn or whole — but a fragment this short, on a strip nobody
will read as a garment any more, is a low-stakes version of the same question.

An invented fragment sidesteps it entirely, which is why `OLL` was built for this design rather than
lifted from something real. The strip itself is yours to tear the moment you own the shirt; the print
that happened to be on it is a separate matter, the same as with
[cloth pulled from under a sink for any other reuse](/stories/the-rag-bag-under-the-sink).

## Why cotton, specifically, for tying a plant to a stake?

Because a soft woven fabric spreads pressure across a wider band than string does, and a growing stem
is thin enough that a narrow tie can cut into it as it thickens.

A cotton strip a couple of centimetres wide sits against the stem like a soft splint rather than a
wire; it holds the plant to the stake without the stem having to push against a hard edge. That's a
mechanical reason, not a sentimental one — the same logic that would apply to any soft strip, printed
or not.

## What do the two spare strips tell you?

That tearing one strip is rarely a one-off — once a shirt is being pulled apart for this, it's
usually pulled apart into several strips at once, not torn to order as each tie is needed.

The two hanging unused are there for the next stem, or for retying this one once weather works the
knot loose. That's the same logic behind [a sheet doing furniture-cover duty while it still carries a
pleated curtain heading](/stories/the-dust-sheet-that-used-to-be-curtains) — a stock of ready
material kept on hand, rather than each piece prepared only when needed.

## Does this print well outdoors, on cloth that's going to weather?

Flat pattern and a hard-edged fragment like `OLL` hold up fine — sun and rain fade colour and fray
the tear further, but they don't blur a flat print the way they would a soft gradient.

A pattern with enough contrast to still read once the strongest colour has faded some is worth
choosing over a subtle one, since outdoor use is the one context in this set where the print is
expected to change after it leaves the shirt.

## How do I get one made?

Describe the pattern at [JustOG](/) — the colours, the scale of the repeat, and whether a fragment
like `OLL` should be legible in it. Pick a direction, drag the crop frame, see it composited on the
real garment, and it's made to order and shipped.

Designs other people have published are in the [shop](/shop).

Three letters, torn through at both ends, tied round a stake in a garden.