Dear Reader,

Last February, one of the growers we mentor, Lindsey knocked her curtain rod loose in her kitchen. The rod that held her seedling trays in place.

Every seedling she had started, lettuces, microgreens, pepper, went flying. Soil on the walls. Trays on the floor. An hour of cleanup.

She could have cried. She almost did.

But she didn't quit.

By March she was filling raised beds with cardboard, straw, old leaves, and half-finished compost from a bin that had spent the winter getting — her words "quite wet and stinky."

By April she was harvesting salad greens regularly. This is her deck

And this was her backyard.

She fugured out how to get a cattle panel home in her sedan. She ended up renting a Home Depot truck for $20. Her kids were jealous she got to drive it.

In June, Lindsey harvested her first flowers.

By July (the month every gardener wants to throw in the towel) she was in her garden after dark, checking for new cucumbers by flashlight.

I asked her what she told herself on the hard days.

"A rainstorm would come through and water everything deeply, or I'd notice an army of assassin bugs or praying mantises, or find a hornworm covered in beneficial parasitic wasps — and I'd just be reminded that Mother Nature has her own way. I can support a healthy ecosystem. I don't have to carry it all."

In August she went on vacation for ten days. She mulched heavily, asked her mother-in-law to water, and braced herself.

She came home to find everything mostly fine.

"The things that weren't fine," she told me, "probably wouldn't have survived even with my careful monitoring and intervention. Learning to step back and let things happen is a lesson that applies to many aspects of my life."

By September, Lindsey was leaving bags of tomatoes on her neighbors' doorsteps.

She grew eight varieties of tomato, six types of pepper, four varieties of lettuce, herbs, flowers, microgreens, beets, carrots, radishes, peas — and several varieties of melon that she lost completely to cucumber beetles.

"Into the compost you go," she said of the failed melons. "Thank you for your service to this ecosystem."

Last week a praying mantis fell on her head while she was wandering through her trellises.

She's not sure if that's good or bad.

I asked Lindsey what she wished someone had told her in January.

"Only grow things you really like to eat. And it's kind of freeing to just remove something you don't care for."

And what does "good enough" look like now, compared to what she thought it meant last winter?

"I realized that not every bed has to have something in it all the time. Dialing back a little gives me more room to actually watch the seasons change and pick up on those subtleties — which is why I garden in the first place."

I share Lindsey's story because she is not a professional gardener.

She doesn't have a farm. She has a backyard in Northern Virginia, a deck, some grow bags, two kids, and a full-time job as a nurse.

This is what permaculture gardening looks like in a real life. Not perfect. Though doesn't this picture look IG-worthy to you?
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Just persistent. Curious. Willing to try again after all the seedlings spill on the ground.

We hope Lindsey's story encourages you to keep on growing, no matter what stage you are in your garden journey.
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​Or keep on being faithful to doing what you are called to do today, even if that's the dishes or caring for your loved ones. Because unlike the garden, the fruits of that labor may go unseen.
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And if you'd like to see exactly, what a full season of growing looks like in person....

Fall Farm Tour: Oct 17-18!

We're opening our home (not Lindsey's), Bethany Farm for the Loudoun Fall Farm Tour on October 17 and 18. Guided walks, garden workshops, plants and produce to take home, a snack under the tree. Plus, Dave and my daughter will be baking straight from the garden!

Grow abundantly,
Nicky & Dave

P.S. Lindsey — thank you for letting us share your story. Your garden is extraordinary. And 2027 is absolutely your year of berries.

P.P.S. Not local to Northern Virginia? Our Seed Saving webinar on October 20 is the next best thing. → Register here​