To begin.

If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change. ~ Buddha

This blog is about growing mindfulness and cultivating compassion through the practice of gardening, or more specifically, growing food.

Growing your own food can create:

• Green spaces that provide access to nature whose generous gifts include beauty, serenity, and a sense of time and place.

• Food security (nutritious and affordable food accessible to all) as a foundation for a healthy diet, lifestyle and community.

• Connection to your basic needs and survival——what truly is a need and what is merely a want, how what we consume either nourishes us or depletes us, and how 'we reap what we sow'.

• Diligence in reusing, recycling, re-purposing and reducing waste.

• Understanding of the interdependence of all life which results in sustainable use of resources, land stewardship and protection of wildlife and their habitats.

• Friendships among neighbors, stronger, safer communities and a commitment to serving others especially those who are in need.

• Continuous lessons in patience, gratitude, service, generosity, acceptance, diligence, observation, compassion, peace, justice and impermanence.


The goal of this blog is to help increase food security by providing practical gardening information and a tangible model of small-scale food gardening, both its successes and failures. (In this blog, I'll be using Thomas Edison's definition of failure which is just success in identifying ways that didn't work.) It will also be used to raise awareness about: where our food comes from; how our food is grown, produced, processed or manufactured; and how our food can be a foundation for a more mindful and compassionate life.