Mothership, Virginia, Zone 7B
April Building
Quick video showing the construction of our newest, affordable and functional raised beds.
Back in April 2020, I drew up the first sketch of what has become Use Love Group’s headquarters, affectionately called “Mothership” (pictured above and below in its various iterations).
Now the USE LOVE headquarters, Mothership is a small garden space with a big heart. My goal is to develop a productive, regenerative garden that is as useful as it is beautiful. This year, we hope to produce enough herbs and flowers for small markets as an outreach arm for our community programs and an income stream eventually. We will also produce all the demonstration plants for our classes and camps.
This garden is a space for learning and refining gardening practices. It is just as much a space for coming home to oneself and reconnecting to ancestral-self-elemental knowledge. It is space to revel in beauty, delight in tasty foods, study helpful medicines, and learn from our mighty and tiny teachers, the bugs, birds, and plants. It’s a space to breathe, be, learn, and work. Finally, it is an extension of our philosophy that true learning happens experientially.
This is the original drawing and plan as part of my final project for my Master Gardener’s certification. It’s changed a bit, and some of these pieces are still yet to come. Isn’t it cute?
Little Bit of Origin Story
In 2020, I was working as a fast food worker and a merchandiser at a garden center while I worked through the coursework for my Master Gardener certification. I scrambled up coins and dollars and found ways to repurpose cheap and found materials. I started a baby nursery for the broken off plant parts I saved from my garden center work.
Since then, the space has undergone many changes and refinements. Now in 2022, I fondly look back on the beginnings of Use Love Gardens.
The in between…
I look forward to sharing the pictures, videos, and writings that precipitated what has now become USE LOVE’S headquarters
Onward…
I also want to invite you to follow along with how this space continues to develop.
I named this garden the “mothership”, as she’s small but mighty with all the foundational essences we need for USE LOVE to continue onward, a lot like my actual mother. This garden will serve as the sanctuary she has already been for years as well as our chief demonstration garden.
Follow along with updates below.
May Greeting
