Welcome to the Offering Garden

This xeric garden has been an oasis where, over the past 17 years, people have come to learn about native plants and to admire their beauty. It has been a generous provider of nourishment and shelter for native bees and other pollinators, birds, furry four-leggeds of all sorts, and even toads.

One day earlier this spring, as I was in the garden asking how I could contribute positively to my own community, I came across a stone a friend had left a couple of years ago near a beautiful ornamental oregano plant as an offering to the spirit of the plants and their power to heal. “There is your answer,” the garden replied - grow the circle of those who can find meaning here, open it to everyone, and make this a locus of love.

I invite you to wander the paths, letting the plants speak to you, absorbing the astounding variety, diversity, and form that comprise this miniature ecosystem. Take inspiration from what you hear, see, and learn, and in reciprocity, leave behind a token of your desire to “grow a place of hope for a time beyond our own” (Martín Prechtel).

So that all offerings made here reside in the spirit of love, whose qualities extend beyond all divisions and partisanship, we ask that you respect the following guidelines:

OFFERINGS

Offerings may consist of

  • Natural objects (shells, stones, feathers, cornmeal, etc.)

  • Handmade objects (beads, weaving, metalwork, pottery, etc.)

  • Prayers (silent or written - there is a prayer house into which you may place your prayer. When the house is full, the prayers will be read aloud and burnt)

  • Songs (the plants love being sung to, with or without instruments)

Offerings may not consist of

  • Religious symbols

  • Country flags

  • Symbols of any kind representing a set of beliefs

  • Political slogans

Offerings should be small

TIMING

Leave your offering any time between dawn and dusk

PLACEMENT & PROTOCOL

  • You may place your offering next to a plant that draws your attention and speaks to you, near the stone “altar,” or in the prayer box

  • Leave anything you see where it has been placed

  • Please take seeds of any plant you like - spread the love!

  • We may be weeding or tending to the bees when you visit; feel free to ask questions (or pull some bindweed)

BEES

There are two active beehives on the east side of the cherry tree. The residents are busy gathering pollen and nectar and can be seen throughout the garden on whatever is blooming. They will leave you alone as long as you do not walk directly in front of their hives, blocking their flight paths.