Philosopher David Cooper argues that gardening provides us with opportunities to practice positive virtues: patience, nurturing, gratitude, acceptance and discipline. My fervent argument in this workbook is that gardening can also be profoundly creative. And creating things is essential to access our authentic selves.

In a time when pure human creation is diluted by that which is convenient, or even easy, this book swims upstream by offering prompts that help the reader access the most authentic parts of themself, the parts that want to generate, and encourages them to do it on their own, the hard way.

Beginning in childhood, this twenty-eight page workbook accompanies the reader through memories and sensations until they identify answers to fundamental questions like: How do you want to feel in your garden?

It incorporates what I’ve learned as a creative writer and an audio journalist generating regular creative content, as a university lecturer walking next to young undergraduates eager to find solid footing through nebulous projects and as a nurse working with first-time moms to help identify and pursue life goals. The garden is the medium, the point is the process.

Available at Goldenhour Books, The Whispering Shelf, Alice’s Garden, Digs Garden Center and Snakeroot Botanicals in Indianapolis.