From the Ground Up

It was cold today with a few snow flakes that did not stick to the ground.  There are daffodils, crocuses, and irises coming up in the garden, but the ground is mushy with the thawing and freezing so I did not want to venture out.  It has been a good year for reading garden books inside!

I heard that Jeanne Nolan was speaking at the Chicago Flower and Garden Show, so I thought I would check to see if she had a book in the library.  Sure enough, she did and I checked it out.

Jeanne left home as a teenager to live on an organic farm which was a commune.  This community had some cult like tendencies, and so she eventually left and came back to Chicago.  The skills she learned on the farm helped her later to start her own business in organic gardening in an urban setting.

I also was part of a community in my younger years that had some cult like tendencies, which caused me to move on, although my experience was very different from hers.  It was interesting to read how she went through a time of healing and then found her place as a contributing member of society.

My job changes have not led me to gardening full-time, but I still enjoyed reading what she is doing in Chicagoland and had a yearning to be part of the movement to bring organic food gardening to the suburbs and the city in some small way. Plant food!!