Cultivating community through homegrown food around the table has always been a long held passion of mine. I love the connection and celebration that summer gardening, cooking, and gathering friends around the grill brings. It’s a ritual I’ve deeply missed since the pandemic began. Nothing brings me more pleasure than crafting a freshly harvested meal after a day spent tending the garden, then sitting down to a seasonal table scape to enjoy the evening with family and friends. I am thrilled to welcome that winning trifecta back into my life this summer with special thanks to The Home Depot, Traeger Grills, and Bonnie Plants.

We’re well into the growing season and while swoon-worthy photos of lush veggie plots saturate my social media feed, I can’t help but feel a little left out as my garden looks a bit… unconventional this year. I’m not letting it get the best of me because deep down I know I’m making magic. When it comes to cultivating a garden from scratch, or rather, fully regenerating a soil ecosystem from dead to thriving, it’s a slow process.

As record drought grips the western US, yards and gardens everywhere are suffering. I cannot underscore enough that as our planet continues to warm and endure extreme conditions, water-wise farming and gardening is essential. The truth is that we often don’t need to water our yards and gardens as much as we think, we just need to implement water-wise gardening methods. Here are some ideas to help you conserve water in the garden.

On a blazing day in the garden there are few things more revitalizing than sipping an ice cold herbal water. Crafting hydrating waters infused with freshly clipped herbs, flowers, juicy berries, and spritzes of citrus quenches thirst and invigorates the senses. Floral and herb infused water can also offer medicinal benefits.

I’ve been going through a phase of intense deconstruction; both in my yard and in the landscape of my personal life. I’m learning that healing old wounds in relationships is not all that different from re-landscaping. Resources like sun, healthy soil and water (or vulnerability, understanding and acceptance) need to be present. In both regards, one must be willing to do the work. Bottom line is that it’s hard manual labor - literally and figuratively. It is possible, though, to regenerate the land so things can grow once again. But until then, this is the place I find myself in - a phase of deconstruction.

I just spent the day working in the garden. It creates a certain sort of soreness in all the large and small muscles that is most gratifying. As I dust off my knees, hang up my tools for the day and rub my allergy itchy eyes, the only thing I want to do is take a long hot soak in the tub. It’s my favorite way to nurse my body after a hard day in the yard. So I turn to a few of my favorite floral plant allies to quickly craft up a nourishing and soothing blend of bath soak and body oil. As a bath soak and body oil blend, chamomile and rose is divinely aromatic and calming. As I soak the day away at golden hour and watch the buds of rose and chamomile swirl in the steaming waters around my knees and hair I dream of the flowers that will soon burst to life in my freshly prepped garden.

I know it will take heaps of muscle and a generous amount of care to revive this old plot for spring planting, but there’s no other work I’d rather be doing. I am a gardener. I carry the energy, the vision, and the heart to cultivate magic. Here’s my best master gardener tips for amending soil and preparing your garden beds for spring using the no-till method.

For those that aren’t obsessed with gardening, it may come as a shock to learn that it is absolutely necessary to shop for seeds in January. However, January is truly the best time to shop for seeds preceding any spring gardening activities. Purchasing seeds early helps us plan our kitchen gardens appropriately and schedule out the best days to sow seeds before seed-starting season arrives in March.

Gardening by the phases of the moon may seem like a mystical or superstitious way to cultivate plants, but in fact it’s a biodynamic gardening method that farmers and gardeners have practiced throughout the ages. Sowing and harvesting with the moon has turned many of my mundane garden tasks into magical rituals that strengthen my awareness of the cycles of nature. It has helped me cultivate a thriving and beautifully productive garden landscape that nourishes both my body and soul.

So you’ve planted your edible garden (perhaps for the first time), and now it’s summer and your plants are starting to grow. What an exciting time it is to be in this stage of the growing season! If you are new to gardening or lack confidence in growing a bountiful and nutrient rich kitchen garden, then these summer garden maintenance tips will not only help you keep your garden healthy, but make sure it thrives and produces a delicious harvest all summer long.

Weeding has become an essential self-soothing routine these weeks at home lately. On the worst of days it’s a task to distract me. Other days it feels more like a sacred meditation, or an intimate dialog between me and Her. In this therapy session with nature, she reminds me that things are not always as they seem. Labels are deceiving. A “weed”, after all, is only a flower growing in a place where someone doesn’t want it.

Growing our own food to be more self-sustaining has never been more important than it is right now. During these fearful times of this evolving economic and pandemic crisis, knowing that I could grow all of my household’s food if necessary gives me great comfort. If you are anything like me, you are dying to get seeds into the ground in as soon as possible so your family can be that much closer to eating delicious home-grown veggies. Knowing what to plant and when can be overwhelming as a beginner gardener, but I’m here to demystify this process, share my best tips as a master gardener, and help you get your dream kitchen garden started.

When I add a new tool to my collection, I’m not just buying a tool to get the job done, I’m buying an extension to my hands that will garden and forage with me for the rest of my life. These tools will become my allies and comrades in all my ventures, and so I regard tool buying as one of my most important gardening and foraging tasks. Nevertheless the sheer amount of tools on the market can be overwhelming. Knowing what tool is best for what job, or learning what tool can help make many tasks easier takes time and experience. So I’ve compiled a guide to share the gardening and foraging tools that I cannot work without. And I’ve shared what tasks I use them for, too.

Whether it is your first time growing a kitchen garden or you’ve grown crops before, putting plans on paper is a good way to start. This time of year (when my green thumb is really aching for work) is when I do my best garden dreaming. And this eventually evolves into creating a kitchen garden that feeds me well and brings me joy. While dreaming up a garden is a lovely indulgence, I have to admit that when first beginning gardening it can be an overwhelming task to make plans that will actually work. So, I’ve decided to help you in this process. 

In an effort to put a little pep in my step during these mid-winter blues, I decided to do a small project that might satiate my green thumb. And it’s true, I have learned that making a kokedama garden, while sipping on a cheery sunshine latte, is the best help for these mid-winter blues. Plus, a mood-lifting playlist while crafting only made this project that much better. I’m glad to admit that before long I found myself grooving to the music and wiggling out the grouch inside of me.

The primordial pull to gather, preserve, stock up, and nest before the first Winter storm is very strong. Autumn, with it’s cooler temperatures, presents the perfect time to do our best gardening work. It is the work that prepares our garden for the following growing season. Here are my fall gardening tips:

In springtime, the sound of trickling water signals the snow melting in the warmth of a brighter sun. The smell of damp earth indicates the thawing of the ground. The first fuzzy buds begin to form and shoots of green peek through the soil. The energy of life, and possibility, is palpable. Here are my spring gardening tips…

As we stride into high summer, I look forward to reveling in all the abundance that comes with a summer harvest. I’ll fill my basket until it’s heavy laden with ready garden ingredients. Then, I’ll dine al fresco on all of this delicious organic goodness. Here’s my midsummer garden harvest (and how I’ve grown them) that will soon be adorning my plates for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.