Why Garden?
In a society increasingly bent on “convenience” and consumerism, gardeners use their own hands to craft their food from scratch. Their slow food starts at the seed.
In a culture that increasingly focuses on self, gardeners align themselves with the larger forces of nature.
Surrounded by constant overt enticements for ease—an ever-increasing diet of that which is done for them—gardeners instead choose to spend their time nurturing the soil that creates the plants that create the food that they can then prepare themselves.
In a culture that increasingly inculcates that the path to happiness is through increased focus on self, gardeners find peace in nurturing other pieces of existence and contentment in watching them grow.
Surrounded by proclamations of those focused on themselves, flagrant shouts of “look at me” to fill a need for belonging, gardeners know there’s greater wisdom in putting themselves in the hands of that which is larger than themselves—the weather, the sun, the earth, the cycles of life and death—and feel small and humble by comparison yet find a sense of belonging words cannot express.
But why? Why are we gardeners somehow drawn to making “our daily bread” ourselves from the soil and plants that we’ve nurtured? Something beyond budget compels us. Something in our hearts knows we need it just as sick cows know to peruse new pastures for healing herbs. And why does it feel so calming, so healing, so normal? Why does this noble endeavor tug at the heart of so many of us and why does it bring us finally home?
Who Is This For?
Neophytes, Veterans, and Experts!
This website is meant for all gardeners, and all gardeners will benefit from the knowledge contained herein.
For neophytes, newbies, and novices, it gives them a solid grounding the in most important fundamentals. This then serves as a critical foundation for all of their future learning.
For Veterans, it expands garden knowledge—and places all other gardening information—in the context of the most vital actions they can take to increase and support their gardens’ health.
For Experts, it honors their efforts and wisdom in giving these fundamentals primary importance, puts their most critical wise practices into a coherent whole as a constant reminder of what’s truly necessary, and, hopefully, adds a nugget or two they can use.
Fundamentals First
This entire blog, website, and book were created based on a deeply held belief that we all benefit from our work in our gardens being grounded in the fundamentals of gardening—those practices that provide the most dramatic benefits for our time and effort—and when all of our subsequent learning and work emanates from that solid foundation.
Especially in this age when many of us are both disconnected from centuries of passed-down knowledge and skills and also overwhelmed by too many sources of information that often distract us from focusing on the most important aspects of our gardens, all of us can use time focusing on the most important, powerful, and consequential fundamentals of all gardening—and then grow outward in our skills from there.
With a firm foundation in these fundamentals, we can grow our knowledge in increasingly nuanced aspects of gardening in ways that, because it’s based on this solid foundation of all great gardening work, may soon rival that of even many experts and will certainly give the results all gardeners desire.
We all benefit in a plethora of ways from these practices and their larger context being more made more explicit. Making them into a united whole that is explicitly stated to all is our tonic for garden misinformation and half-truths.
We describe more about benefits for each of these types of gardeners in the post below.
Why Now?
Information Overload Yet So Many Feel Unable
We exist surrounded by a surfeit of information on gardening, yet so many of us are simultaneously unsure if we know enough to get started, or continue, on our own. Growing up disconnected from gardening ancestors who’d naturally teach us their wise practices, many people find it difficult to learn the full panoply of gardening skills online or feel confident enough in their abilities to start and learn by doing. What’s more, the gardening information given from many sources seems incredibly complex, often leaving students of gardening feeling overwhelmed and anxious. There’s both bitterness and sweetness of living when we do, and both the troubling and the triumphant of our living now are the reasons I wrote the book and created this website and YouTube tutorials.
Who Are We?
About the Author (and one of the partner gardeners)
The best way to describe myself is to describe why I do this, a separate piece that probably gives the best appreciation for who I am.
Beyond that, at my core, I’m a gardener and a teacher. Few things give me more joy than those two endeavors. But why I do this is more than that.
My core also contains deeper tenets of self-determination and reverence for each part of the created world—both those clearly living and those less so, the rocks, the rivers, and trees that Maya Angelou so eloquently describes—that lead me back to gardening as the most powerful action I can take and teaching it as the most powerful gift I can give.
Immersed in nurturing plants and learning about the natural world from as early as I could interact, learning bird songs before colors and winter tree identification before multiplication, was all part of my glorious induction into the worlds of the two-green-thumbed gardeners and students of the natural world bestowed upon my by my loving father. Being someone who’s found peace, tranquility, and wholeness in those pursuits, to say I was lucky is clearly an understatement. Even more importantly, however, his teachings and example have set the stage for me sharing these experiences with those kindred spirits with similar aspirations and yearnings but who weren’t as lucky.
I believe, somewhere in our hearts, we all share the twin desires to have our hands in the dirt and grow some of our own food. It’s our birthright that harkens all the way back to our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Although our hearts still long to express these skills as if they were vestigial parts of ourselves, severed appendages we can almost feel with a ghost itch, many of us have lost our link to this birthright simply because no one passed this knowledge on to us. Some links in that chain may be broken now, but I hope to remedy it as simply as I can: by helping those newer to the craft to learn to grow in themselves and in their gardens and reminding those more experienced to remember to focus on the most important parts first—and to be gentle with themselves if they feel they fail. I can think of no cause I’d rather spend my life undertaking than to mend and reforge those sacred bonds.
About the Photographer (and one of the partner gardeners)
Like my father, at her core, Jen sees and appreciates beauty—and lives to share that, and the immense joy it brings, with everyone around her. She regularly stops me in my tracks, noticing something I would never have seen that transports us both to another place and a fuller joyous appreciation of the world and the beauty it contains.
I’ll leave to rest of this explanation of herself and her reasons to her, ready when she is.
Why Share This?
A gift was bestowed upon me starting before I could remember. It’s a benefaction that grew in me over the years until it eventually filled my soul with an ineffable sense of wholeness and completeness. This is only part of that story, but it’s the first part on which all others were founded. And now I’d like to share the first part of that story (found in the post below), and that gift, with you. As stated above, Jen loves elevating others, and so sharing the beauty and gardening that bring her joy and peace is her way to attempt to bring that peace and joy to others.
My Voice, the Benefits, and an Homage to the Greats
In this heart-baring post, Judd explains why he keeps his soul and voice in this work as much as possible, where differing perspectives fit in, and why this work has become an homage to the greats of gardening, as well as a way of passing their wisdom on to newer gardeners, and something from which he hopes even the greats can benefit.