When I Carried Seeds—They Grew Into Love
It’s been nearly a decade since I sold, shared and donated most of my belongings to immerse myself in homesteading, permaculture and gardening. As I left my home to live and volunteer with more than 7 homesteading families I began adopting a new way of life.
I saw myself as a live in apprentice and gave myself to learning and helping the families who took me into their homesteads. We swapped more than knowledge and labor. We shared conversations, meals, struggles, laughter, pain and joy.
In all of my previous adult live I had never really known what it was like to be an apprentice. I didn’t know what it was like to have a mentor, in a professional sense. It seems I am not alone, as apprenticeships are far more rare than they used to be, at least in most fields. (“What field do you work in?” is an interesting expression… “Field” must have come from gardening & farming, huh?)
It was clear to me what I had been missing all those un-mentored years: Receiving intimately passed down knowledge and close friendship with experienced folks, many of whom I call wise elders.
When I transitioned into this new lifestyle I had to overcome huge fears about abandoning my old way of life, my old self. But looking back now, my heart was wise and sure. My heart already knew that this was the path I needed to follow. This was the beginning of a lifelong journey learning to re-connect with my heart.
Not long into this new journey my mind relinquished to my heart and said “Yes! This new lifestyle feels so good and I am glad we made this decision!” In that moment my whole being knew I wanted to homestead.
As my mentors modeled homestead life, I absorbed it all. I relished the time I spent in their gardens. My favorites were the permaculture and herb gardens, in part because I got to meet so many trees and plants I had never heard or dreamed of before. My mentors fully embraced diversity in their gardens and I absolutely loved it!
As I spent time with these plants, making special friendships, I started dreaming of a future garden where I can put down deep, deep roots.
And I began saving seeds.
I saved seeds from any plant that excited me. Herbs, berries, fruits, nut trees, veggies, flowers. I saved seeds when I went to workshops and garden tours. I saved seeds at seed swaps. I saved seeds on hikes in the country and walks in town. I was gifted seeds.
I packed seeds in envelopes and paper sacks. Eventually I had a small box of seeds I carried around with me. I didn’t know when, where or how I would start my homestead garden, but I knew I had seeds.
Seeds, as it turns out are perfect for traveling. They are extremely small and compact yet contain vast amounts of information and potential for new life. My small box of seeds contained hundreds, probably more like a few thousand seeds, and it hardly took up any space in my compact car.
In humid weather I dried seeds on the dashboard of my car instead of outside. At the time I knew enough not to keep seeds in the car during hot conditions, so I carefully tended the seeds in transit and storage. But there is so much I didn’t know.
I was learning about cold stratifying perennial seeds. But I didn’t know that many perennial seeds prefer not to dry out before being planted or cold stratified. I didn’t know that by drying many perennial fruit seeds I was lowering their germination rate drastically. There are so many other things I didn’t know about seeds.
But it didn’t matter because I was learning through experience. And it didn’t matter because I was carrying seeds symbolically. I didn’t know it then, but those seeds represented my heart. They represented a seed that was planted in my heart, and who was beginning to grow.
Years later, today that heart-seed has grown beautifully and is already beginning to bloom and set fruit. I can only imagine how beautiful that heart-seed will become as I continue to age.
Back then I didn’t know the seeds would lead to so much discovery of inner beauty. But I knew I was tugged by the plants and their seeds to collect them. Eventually the time came when I couldn’t take it anymore and I had to start planting seeds. Ann and I found the region where we wanted to live here in Southern Oregon and felt resonance with the local community and ecology.
We were care taking a home and horse to save rent money and live on a beautiful homestead with good soil. We planted gardens there for two seasons. At the same time I started a small nursery to propagate trees for our future food forest.
I started sowing the tree seeds I had saved. I knew that perennials planted from seed take longer to fruit than those that are grafted or cloned. Sometimes many years longer. So I planted tree and shrub seeds in nursery pots to get a head start, knowing that I could take them with me whenever we moved.
Many gardeners asked me why I am planting trees from seed when they take so long to grow? I had lots of answers: It costs far, far less. I have access to more diversity and rare plants. Some of the seeds were sentimental. Seedlings are sometimes stronger and more resilient than grafted counterparts.
I couldn’t have guessed my favorite reason to plant trees from seed until I was doing it for a few seasons. I got to know these trees from the moment they popped up out of the soil. I got to meet them as infants. Like a gardener adoring their veggie or flower seedlings, I shared my heart with the tree seedlings.
Tending to my beloveds in the nursery for a few seasons before I eventually started planting them in the ground fed my heart. The relationship was even more special when I planted those trees in the ground, whispering blessings and love to them.
At the time of writing I am now 6 seasons into planting our food and medicinal forest. I am proud to say that despite some losses, a fair number of those original tree seedlings have survived and are still growing here today. Others were shared with friends. A few were sold to recoup some costs. That’s the other nice thing about starting trees from seed, you end up with extras.
Seeds are meant to be shared. Their plants want it to happen. I am smiling thinking of all the past gardens of generations long gone, tended with love all those years ago. Of all the countless gardens around the world where seed was collected and shared near and far, so that our family can grow a garden today.
I feel lucky to be a small thread in that huge tapestry of all humans who ever tended and loved gardens going back thousands of years. Many, many little humans loving plants and trees and collecting seeds generation after generation. Sharing seeds with family, friends, neighboring communities and strangers from far off lands.
How can two gardeners who never met be strangers when we share the same delight for seeds? When we are marveling together at the miracle of new life, when we imagine the wondrous abundance of food that a single tree can produce, when we delight together about the exponential potential of seeds?
We are one heart in wonder together.
Many seeds were designed to travel before they are planted—Clinging to the fur of mammals, carried in the cheeks of rodents, in the bellies of birds, floating on water, parachuting or helicoptering through the air, flung by slingshot pods, and more recently, also carried by humans.
Humans carry seeds to one day plant or share. Carrying seeds is like holding dreams and wishes for a beautiful future. Seeds are held close because they feel like family. Because we knew the seeds’ parents intimately in our own garden, or perhaps we had a chance encounter and felt drawn to their parent in a friend’s garden. Seeds are honored with love and adoration, even adornation. Seeds can be tokens of gratitude and symbols of blessings, life and abundance.
Carrying seeds is an intimate human act that unites our gardens and hearts. When I plant seeds, I am putting some of my heart in the soil so that it can grow and flourish. When I share seeds, I am sharing my heart into the world so that it can open and receive.
Recommended Reading
Free Seed Saving Crash Course
Up your seed saving game in our free video: Seed Saving Made Simple We designed this presentation to help you have confidence knowing how to save seeds from your garden.
Free Seed Resources
We’ve put together a collection of stories, education and inspiration around gardening, living and working with seeds. They are all free and openly available for you to read and explore. Enjoy!
6 responses to “When I Carried Seeds—They Grew Into Love”
Your posts are a salve to my weary soul. I haven’t a garden currently but when I garden again, it will be with my heart like you do!💚
Thank you for your sweet words Christine! They are a salve to my soul too. Gardening sure can be a beautiful, healing practice!
Thank you Noel!
Your story and from the heart-thoughts about your seeds, truly resonate. It is a great gift to be able to truly connect with the plants and the seeds your are growing. This a relatable process for me and I thank you for putting it to words, where I haven’t been able to yet.
Eline, thank you so much for taking the time to respond! And you’re welcome! 🙏 It is so nice when we can have the opportunity to relate with other gardeners and seed growers such as yourself, even around the world, about the beauty of gardening and seed saving. When we save the seeds, replant and share them it can be so gratifying to be more connected with the earth and our human relatives through our hearts. 💚
Hi Noel
Thank you for sharing your seeds story. I continue to be impressed by your heart centered adventure! Yes seeds carry so much energy to create diverse lives. It’s interesting to learn how your life has been evolved in homestead life you chose. You are demonstrating how we can live our lives in authentic way, in real experiences you have been moving through, as real example.I am also learning how to grow new plants with seeds. It truly needs your commitment to nurture seeds with heart centered intent. It’s just like you are incubating your dream come true in the process.
I admire your loving commitment to co create authentic lives. 🐱✨
Hi Masako, I appreciate your feedback, thank you so much from my heart! 💚 It is nice to know that we can relate over nurturing our precious plant babies and saving seed with love. I am excited to hear about your seed starting adventure! What a beautiful way that you described growing plants from seed: “incubating your dream come true in the process.” Ahh, I love it! What a beautiful way to work with plants, holding that intention.
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