Hope is a powerful feeling. It can inspire action, and by inspiring action we experience monumental accomplishments.
At the beginning of this tumultuous year, I started writing down my design process and looked very closely at the WHY and HOW of it all.
After many hours of research, conversations and speaker training series, a clear set of practices and solutions presented themselves… in the most glorious way.
“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” – Audrey Hepburn
This simple, yet profound idea that our future depends on a plethora of organisms that surround us conveys a deeply-rooted message that nature, plants, and gardens are the answer.
Climate change has been rearing its ugly head and scientists say we are now in the 11th hour. That feeling of hopelessness comes up now and then, but wait… the answer is right there… outside your door. It has been this whole time. Sadly, we’ve overlooked it and have been destroying the power it holds.
Plants and the multi-verse of organisms under our feet can:
- Take in, store and transport water vapor – the #1 greenhouse gas. I bet you didn’t know that.
- Sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – the #2 greenhouse gas that we are dumping into the atmosphere at an alarming rate.
- Transpire oxygen – HOLY COW… we need this right?
- Make food – for all organisms, including us.
- Clean water.
- Cool the atmosphere.
- THEN… they can look pretty for us to enjoy.
We get all of that from these amazing beings and don’t even realize it.
This is not meant to bring you down, it is meant to lift you up and empower you to know the solutions to climate change are closer and more tangible than you think. I know what it’s like to feel helpless, and that the problems are so much bigger than one person can change. We are so much more than a droplet… together we are the ocean.
I hear a lot of talk about what does gardening look like in the face of climate change. I would invite you to be questioning, “What does climate change look like in the face of gardening?”
We know what the problems are… it’s time to realize that WE are the solution. Time to act.
Are you gardening as if your life depends on it?