Earth. Soil. No Need to Call it Dirt.

There are footprints that track from my room to the front door and my fingernails are brown and dry. All are tell tale signs of an afternoon of play in the garden.

My friend Ana is in the process of turning her front lawn into a community vegetable garden, although for now it may look like a pile of leaves, dirt, and straw bales to the uninformed observer. Yes, as you might imagine, there is a method to her madness that will soon be made evident to her gawking neighbors. I know you'll hear me out while I explain.

Last fall Ana piled a few layers of cardboard and a bunch of leaves over that vast expanse of a sorry-shade-of-green otherwise known as her front lawn. With a winter to rot, a bunch of other soil critters decided to make it their home and much of this has already begun the composting process while putting an end to that pesky, wasteful grass.

The next step: SOIL! EARTH! Because she wanted to plant this year, Ana ordered ten cubic yards to get a head start. And oh the fun we had spreading it this afternoon.

As a second project, we formed a couple of raised beds in the lawn between the street and sidewalk from straw bales. I hope the city appreciates our beautification plans. We covered the bales in coffee grounds to get the composting started, and we will soon add soil and plant starts to complete them. This not only is an easy way to create a raised bed, because soil microbes are breaking the straw bales down, we can extend our growing season from the heat that they give off. Clever, huh?

And the fun will continue all summer, since I will be calling this beautiful place home on June 1st! I'm very excited to be moving into a house where I won't have to content my foraging and growing cravings to a few pots on the back porch. Okay, so I have like a dozen pots...it's still not nearly wild enough for me...

Greening our path to self-sufficiency, starting our own quiet revolution, and we're laughing a lot while we're at it. The ultimate goal of Ana's project is to create a nourishing garden that encourages healing and play. She has a counseling center out of her home called Developing Resilience that will soon be offering guidance in nutrition and gardening as therapy. Good food, dirty hands, healthy spirits.

Now, who's house is next?