Growing herbs, garden dreaming & the healing power of tending your ecology with Xenia D'Ambrosi

It's deep winter now. The time of quietude, slow movement, deep nourishment, and dreaming and visioning.And in the case of gardeners, this is often the time of choosing seeds, planning gardens, considering any shifts or changes you might be considering for your landscape, maybe even learning new skills that can serve you next season. So it's the perfect time to bring flower and herb farmer Xenia D'Ambrosi of Sweet Earth Co onto the podcast to share her embodied knowledge around all things ecological gardening.Xenia sees gardening as not just growing medicine or flowers or food. Instead, she considers gardening to be a way we can tend our local landscape to increase biodiversity, encourage pollinator habitat, restore damaged ecosystems, and ALSO provide benefit for us as humans, too. Her story is interesting. She started out in corporate finance, but ended up as a professional gardener after a cancer diagnosis. She credits having her hands in the soil and returning to seasonal gardening as a huge part of her healing process. And since then, she's devoted her life to not only gardening herself, but also designing gardens and teaching how to garden. In our conversation we talk everything from her healing journey and the loss of meadows all the way to how to choose a location for your garden, which plants to start with and how to start hard-to-germinate seeds. She shares about which medicinal herbs she finds indispensable in her garden, and the myriad ways she works with them. It's an information packed, inspiring conversation.Listen in to learn:how Xenia's cancer diagnosis led her to the plantsabout herbs as her "gateway plant"what ecological gardening is and why thinking beyond typical gardens is importantwhy herbs are indispensable in her gardens, and which ones she loves mosthow to choose a location for your garden and start planningwhat she recommends for seed starting (hint: mimic nature)Resources:Today's shownotes: Get all of Xenia's links here. (Use code: HERBALWOMB for 10% off her cutting garden course!)Episode 6: Gardening for your menstrual + hormonal healthEpisode 20: Earth, Womb & Seed ConnectionGet on the Natural Contraception course waitlist here (Jan 2024)If you loved this episode, share it with a friend, or take a screenshot and share on social media and tag me @herbalwombwisdom.  And if you love this podcast, leave a rating & write a review! It's really helpful to get the show to more amazing humans like you.  ❤️DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational purposes only, I am not providing any medical advice, I am not a medical practitioner, I’m an herbalist and in the US, there is no path to licensure for herbalists, so my role is as an herbal educator. Please do your own research and consult your healthcare provider for any personal health concerns.Click here to send me a quick message :)