Welcome to Tree School!

At Tree School, we teach people how to adapt to and engage with the realities of our changing climate. 

We build strength to do this work together through creating and connecting into the healing spaces of our inner garden, our home gardens, and the shared garden of our world.

Tree School
Photo: MARIA MCCULLOUGH

Join Us!

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Upcoming Workshop

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Learn in the Treemendous Fruit Tree Program

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What if…

…we gardened and pruned and tended in a way that healed, not harmed?

…we cultivated and mulched and harvested in a way that honored those who came before, and planted for those who are not yet born?

…the main purpose of our gardening was not what we could get out of it, but what we could create for the birds, the insects, complete strangers, and the children of the future.

…in our tending of this precious earth, we were thinking not of the now, but were preparing for the challenges that surely lie ahead?

Is this kind of gardening even possible?

I believe it is…show me the way!

We believe in honoring those
who have come before us.

Tree School is committed to creating, promoting, and perpetuating a narrative and future in which nature and people can thrive and coexist, for we are entirely dependent upon each other. Our mission must encompass inclusion, collaboration and support of the ancestral and current stewards of our natural systems. We take this opportunity to acknowledge the ancestral homelands of the Indigenous peoples of the US Southwest that now comprise the 19 Pueblo communities, Fort Sill Apache, Jicarilla Apache, Mescalero Apache, Navajo Peoples in New Mexico and Ute Mountain Tribe in New Mexico. We pay our respect to these traditional stewards, past, present and emerging, who have been the custodians of these lands and waters since time immemorial.  May our work here with Tree School be healing and beneficial; may we do no harm; and when we do cause harm may we be guided to take responsibility, repair, and move forward in a better way.
  • All our seen and unseen family —
    the plant and tree spirits, insects, and flying and crawling friends.
  • All our teachers, both gardening and spiritual.

Leaning against a tree.
Hands in the soil.
Rooted in your heart.
This is where you are home.

Want to Cultivate a Garden
for Inner and Outer Nourishment?

Want to Cultivate a Garden for Inner and Outer Nourishment?

Join our community of vibrant gardeners and inquisitive cultivators DIGGING in to create a resilient world garden in the here and now. As a welcome and thank you for your trust, you’ll get our Pruning Guide, called Slowing Down to Connect.

Want to Cultivate a Garden
for Inner and Outer Nourishment?

Join our community of vibrant gardeners and inquisitive cultivators DIGGING in to create a resilient world garden in the here and now. As a welcome and thank you for your trust, you’ll get our Pruning Guide,
called Slowing Down to Connect.

Mentorship Dates:

The 2024 Mentorship is in-progress, and the 2025 dates have not been set yet.
The following dates/times are when we will be meeting together in person, for our 2024 cohort. Please check to see if you are able to attend all of the following dates, as Tree School has a magic of its own that comes together when we all participate. If you know that you will not be able to make all of the sessions, please indicate this in the application below. If you need to miss a session, we will provide materials/handouts, but there are no makeup sessions.
  • April 20:  (10am – 2pm) We open our circle with a nourishing and welcoming 4-hour retreat/garden time/creative day!
  • April 27:  (10am – 1pm) 
  • May 11:  (time TBA) We will participate in the Yerba Mansa Project Bosque Restoration Day
  • May 25:  (8 – 11am) 
  • June 15:  (8 – 11am) 
  • June 29:  (8 – 11am) 
  • July + August:  We take a break from meeting in person.  These 2 months are Integration/rest/individual project time. There is a Playshop during this time, and we are also connected via Slack.
  • July 14:  Made in the Shade Playshop
  • Sept 7:  (8 – 11am) 
  • Sept 28:  (8 – 11am) 
  • Oct 12:  (10am – 1pm) 
  • Oct 26:  (10am – 1pm) 
  • Nov 2:  Playshop 
  • Nov 9:  (10am – 1pm)
  • Nov 23:  (10am – 2pm) We close our circle with a replenishing and grounding 4-hour retreat/garden time/creative day!

Habitat: Developing wildlife habitat from a place of compassion

You’re very clear about not spraying harmful chemicals in your yard but now you want to learn more about how to actually cultivate a healthy garden ecosystem.

You’re concerned that wildlife are losing habitat at an alarming rate, and your heart hurts thinking about how the climate crisis is affecting them.

You’d like to learn how to make your space both wildlife friendly and a thriving garden that humans can eat from as well.

You’re ready to put your compassion for the seen and unseen beings around you into action, and have your outdoor space be part of the local (and world!) habitat quilt.

Results of the program:
You feel confident in your good-hearted gardening practices, and through the process of certifying your space as Wildlife Habitat, you become an informed and knowledgeable habitat advocate. You get to see more wildlife using the space and receiving benefit, which feels so good!

Community: Cultivating community, belonging, and hope

You feel some isolation and disconnection after the last 2 yrs, and some fragmentation between what’s happening internally in your heart and externally in the world.

You might feel intimidated or unsatisfied by mainstream gardening classes or instructional videos that don’t feel like they speak to your sensitive heart, your worldview that includes equity and justice, or the sovereignty of the Indigenous peoples who are the original stewards of this bioregion.

You long for instruction that speaks to your specific garden and helps you develop the skills you need.

You are ready to be part of a like- minded community of supportive gardeners who are digging deep together, creating a world where we all feel we belong.

Results of the program:
Through getting to experience the tangible support of the community working in your yard, and learning with the other Tree Schoolers over your six months, you feel connected, supported, and supportive. Through building connections with others in the program, you experience feeling cohesive, integrated, and hopeful.

Joy: Mixing your adaptive gardening methods with JOY

You feel fearful and anxious about the unraveling of climate, both locally and globally. You want to know how to effectively prepare for what’s coming, and how to pivot and respond as things change.

You’re ready to learn as much as you can about climate adaptive practices, but you don’t want to feed your fear in the process.

There are so many methods out there, and the clock is ticking. You want to make the most of the time you have, but you know that a light touch and a loving heart will be more fruitful than pushing for results with a worried state of mind.

You are ready to learn how to cultivate joy in the midst of all we are facing, and then co-create adaptivity from this playful place.

Results of the program:
You feel joyful, confident and clear about how to foster more adaptability, and what actual steps to take. You learn the skills needed to transform your yard into the climate resilient garden you want.

Strategy: Moving from confusion to strategic planning & achieving your goals

You look at your garden and wonder where to start and what to do. You don’t want to do it ‘wrong’ but also don’t want to get trapped by ‘shoulds’.

There might be gaps in your skills and figuring out what exactly you need to learn is a bit daunting. Maybe you’ve tried a lot of things and gotten mixed results.

You are tired of getting sporadic help, not really making the progress you want, or it’s slow and feels fragmented and not cohesive. You are longing for some deeper transformation in your yard and your relationship with it, not just a superficial ‘fix’ that addresses one aspect of the garden but not the whole.

You are ready to create a strategy that lays out exactly where you are going with your garden space, what skills you will develop, and how to achieve your goals.

Results of the program:
You are clear and on-track, with momentum, and feel happy with yourself in the process.

You receive help with a plan/design, and also with making solid, important decisions – thus saving time/money.

You learn the gardening skills you need, and experience cohesive, steady, holistic progress that continues and develops into the future.

Engagement: Moving from overwhelm about the world to engagement with the world

You feel deeply about the climate crisis and the suffering in the world, and want to be a positive force for healing and change, but you find yourself getting overwhelmed and frozen about how best to use your energy in service.

You are ready to use your garden space to be part of the solution.

You want to learn what  your role and your next step is here, and how to move into engagement with the world that is grounded and steady.

Results of the program:

You are able to use your depth of feeling to become a more effective, loving presence in your spheres of influence (family, neighborhood, circle of friends, city, or workplace).

You feel clear, on-purpose, and good about your role and engagement in the world.

Important notes about communicating with me:

  • Phone/texting: I prefer to not be contacted via phone or text at this time. If you are a previous Divine Earth customer and you have my phone number, I ask you to please respect these new guidelines to help me keep my health and sanity. Thank you!
  • Emails: I answer emails between 9am and 5pm, not before or after.
    My aim is to answer emails within 24-36 hours.
  • My device boundaries: I turn my devices off for chunks of the day. On the weekends I pick one full day to have all tech off. This feeds many birds with one scone: I become more focussed when I’m ‘on’; I can relax and recharge more easily when I’m ‘off’; I become less beholden to the energetic/emotional tug of the ever-present and yes so helpful gadgets in my life (as one of my Teachers says, created by distracted people for distracted people); I can more easily tune into the outer gardens and the inner garden in my heart.