I’m grateful for how my garden has taught me about healing, care and slowing down. This Spring marks the third year of me being committed to my garden. I didn’t always love to garden, I felt too busy to get into it for most of my life. But oddly, I learned to grow food from a toxic ex who loved to garden and was very good at it. I would always be amazed at how he could be so great with plants, yet so mean and terrible with his human connection skills. It was like the garden was one place where he could show care.

For the duration of our relationship, I was mostly a garden helper. But when I finally kicked him out of my life, I knew that I needed to rebuild the relationship to the soil and to the crops. I felt plants were a witness to my suffering and once I was solo, they were like “We got your back. Take care of us and we take care of you.”

So I made the garden mine and I spent a full year replenishing the soil and getting rid of old patriarchal energy. I built a little stone pathway, and figured out a logic of where things should go, as opposed to a big wild patch. I planted the stuff that I liked, zucchini, eggplant, potatoes, cannabis, and lots of flowers! I have worked hard to heal the soil, as I’m healing my own inner ecosystem. For the first year, I would remember my ex when I was in the garden and I would get sad. But little by little, new memories came and the plants reflected my vibe. My garden became completely transformed. They became abundant, healthy, and wild in Favi way! YES, wild as in they grew massive! My persimmon tree this year gave me 75 fruits. My weed was strong AF too.

Now, for the first time I’m growing corn and it’s amazing!!! Whenever I need to make big decisions, I sit in my garden and talk to my plants, especially to the corn. I am a descendant of corn and I’m deeply connected to this crop.

In order to get free, we must also cultivate a relationship with the land and the natural world. Working with the soil is healing work, it is the work of reclaiming our ancestral practices and knowledge.