Plant the Change - The Orta Blog

This year I’ve been digging into Pagan Solstice traditions as a way to connect more deeply with nature and our collective heritage.  I’ve come across a few that appeal to me as a gardener, and that I suspect you all might like too. Here they are:

Only recently have I begun to see why natural dyeing has become such a popular topic in the gardening and sewing worlds.  Last month during the Et...

One of the best ways to have healthy plants is to grow varieties suited to your particular soil and microclimate.  And the best way to do that is t...

August always brings the vacation problem for gardeners.  How do you keep your garden alive during the hottest, driest, most productive season?  He...

Since when do you put on make-up to get dirty "making?" Since making became infotainment about the thing being made, that's when.  I'm chuckling a...

If I had to pinpoint the very beginnings of Orta it would be this moment:  On a squinty-bright afternoon about 15 years ago that smelled like eucalyptus and dust, I was suddenly overcome by stillness and interconnectedness, like the descriptions I’ve read of people seeing God.  But instead of Grace, I saw garbage. 

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago.  The next-best time is now.

The same could be said for blogs.

When Orta was in its infancy, I asked Tina Seelig, a Stanford professor of entrepreneurship and mentor to me what I should do to turn my side hustle into a going concern.  “Start a blog,” she said. “Tell your story as it happens. Convert people to your cause. Then, by the time you’re ready to sell anything, you’ll have fans who could turn into customers.”  That’s probably the best advice I ever didn’t take.

September is seed saving time!  Most annual plants will be setting seed, and warm, sunny days are perfect for collecting dry seeds.  Last Monday I gave a talk at a local library on how to save seeds.  In this post, I'll share the same ideas with you.