Plant the Change - The Orta Blog

If you remember from Seed Saving Nerd Out (SSNO) Part 2, two categories of plants require isolation for your saved seed to breed true:  Insect- and...

Have you ever had the experience where giving a name to something clarifies and legitimizes fuzzy mental notions?  Bee Watching has done that for ...

Gardening teaches you to plan ahead and to be patient, two virtues I'm not naturally blessed with.  If you want homegrown tomatoes in August, you ...

As a thank you to my brother-in-law who saved my bacon this week, I put together a little care package of seeds that are appropriate to start righ...

Have you noticed the sky today?  The gathering rain clouds??  I've been waiting ages for this weather to direct seed annual flowers.  Of course yo...

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.