How to Become a Gardener: Find Empowerment in Creating Your Own Food Security

＂...grow an abundance of crops, including a variety of leafy greens, roots and tubers, and a whole host of fruits... With a garden, [the author] says, you’re not just cultivating a space--you’re cultivating yourself.＂ --Better Homes and Gardens magazine

Take charge of your family’s food security by learning how to grow your own fruits, vegetables, and herbs--and right along with them, you’ll nurture your own inner strength, too.

Food insecurity affects millions of people worldwide. Without access to well-stocked stores or nutritious, fresh foods, those living in ＂food deserts＂ face more hunger and health issues than communities where a diversity of food is plentiful. With the inspiration and knowledge found in How to Become a Gardener, self-reliance and food autonomy are within reach for anyone willing to get a little dirt under their nails and dig in.

Author, health coach, and food security advocate Ashlie Thomas of The Mocha Gardener (@the.mocha.gardener) serves as an experienced and encouraging guide on your journey toward self-empowerment through the cultivation of your own homegrown harvests. With a spirit of respect for others, for nature, and for community, Ashlie walks you step by step through not only the practical ins and outs of gardening--from seed starting to making the harvest--but also through the personal challenges and lessons found within the act of gardening itself.

Regardless of whether you only have space to grow in a few pots or you have enough room for multiple raised beds or an in-ground garden, you’ll find freedom and wellness through the food you grow, along with patience, compassion, and perspective.

How to Become a Gardener focuses on:

• What makes a space a garden and how to get one started
• How gardens can be a symbol of resilience in challenging times
• Finding what motivates you to grow and using it to cultivate nutrient-dense, homegrown harvests
• Why reclaiming your food authority is one of the most empowering things you can do for you and your family
• The importance of finding personal freedom by growing your own garden-to-table food
• How the garden grows you just as much as you grow the garden

How to Become a Gardener is about growing food, yes. But it’s also about finding your strength through gardening, reclaiming your food authority, discovering your motivation, and learning that no matter what your garden yields, it’s always worth the wait.

Ashlie Thomas is a food security and home gardening advocate known on social media as The Mocha Gardener. Several years ago, Ashlie began her gardening journey with her husband on their one-acre North Carolina homestead. Through gardening, she has become more conscientious of local food systems and the health of the environment. Ashlie’s love for wellness and the environment fueled her passion to grow food and bring awareness through practice to growing issues of food insecurity in vulnerable communities around the country.

After spending her childhood in a rural community that lacked sufficient access to nutritious foods, she understood that one way to address this barrier is through learning how to grow food and educating others on what quality foods consists of and from where it originates. Ashlie not only believes that her garden may serve as a spiritually enlightening place to ground and regenerate, but also as an opportunity to deeply connect and give reverence to what she feeds herself, her family, and her friends. It is her hope and mission to empower others to take control of their well-being through growing the very thing that sustains them...good, nutritious food.