Tracy Garden is a dream of regenerating a healthy, beautiful Earth for our grandchildren. All our city and suburban lots across the country make up a significant land area that, by careful soil practices, can be regenerated to help balance our global climate.
Inspiration
The more I learn about the microbes in the soil, in my gut and in plants, I see vast intelligence and cooperation at work keeping all life alive. Billions of life-sustaining interactions happen inside our bodies every moment. I’m not in charge—something very intelligent regulates all life. Tracy Garden is a place to begin working with that intelligence. Paying very close attention helps us notice synchronicities (as Carl Jung described) and learn to cooperate with nature instead of pushing her around.
Climate
Tracy Garden is our way of attempting to help reverse climate change. We won’t do it alone, but by learning to grow food in harmony with nature rather than against it we can shift minds and hearts. Plants pump 30–50% of the sugars they make by photosynthesis into the soil; microbes return water, minerals and disease protection to the plants, and help store carbon in the soil, creating a soil carbon sponge that holds water and helps cool the planet.
Nutrition
The processes that renew nature also grow the healthiest, most nutritious plants. Many soil microbes make their way into plants, and when we eat those plants beneficial microbes support our gut health.
Neighborhood Community
In addition to partnering with nature, Tracy Garden promotes cooperative neighborhood communities. Microbes are already cooperating—many use quorum sensing to coordinate. Microbes and plants cooperating can inspire human neighbors to work together to solve social problems while we become better neighbors with all of nature.
Future
Cooperation in nature inspires us to seek a quorum with our fellow humans to perfect cooperation with ourselves and nature. I have five grandchildren—this motivates me to act and to help others to act.
Education
What we learn at Tracy Garden is passed to gardeners, volunteers and visitors. We also teach others to make Johnson-Su composters to rebalance fungal/bacterial ratios and promote the soil benefits described above.
How Can You Help
There are four aspects to our work:
- Work in Tracy Garden applying regenerative soil methods.
- Keep up with research and advances in soil regeneration.
- Create and update events like our play “Microbes Always and Everywhere.”
- Work with groups to create Johnson-Su composters to rebalance fungi:bacteria balance.
Help
There is just not enough time to do all we want to do. You can volunteer to help in Tracy Garden and learn by doing, help build or organize a group to build a Johnson-Su composter.
