About Us
Tree School is a learning organization offering deep mentorship, habitat wisdom, and solid, high-level gardening skills to our beloved community members in Albuquerque and beyond.
We approach gardening through the lens of compassion and recognize the importance of tending three garden ecosystems simultaneously:
- The Inner Garden at the Heart
- The Home Garden
- The World Garden
The integration and nurturing of these three gardens are the heartbeat of our Mentorship Program:
Our 8-month gardening mentorship that guides you through the process of transforming your space into a climate-ready food forest and pocket wildlife habitat.
Our Vision
Most of the time, when we get digging and pruning in our gardens, we start close in — with the paths, the plant choices, the decisions — where should the fruit trees go? It’s obvious, it’s ours, it’s close to us.
We get to know our own garden so well, because we live with these trees, this birdbath, the way the sunlight filters across the open space of our backyard in the fall.
At Tree School, when we start in a garden, we start big, far out even — with the bioregion, the watershed, the lineage of habitation, the animals and insects, the beings we can’t see.
And then we go even bigger. We name the elephant in the room: climate change, and the waves of crises arising from that. How do we garden, grow, tend, and harvest in a way that supports life on the planet?
We start with our eyes on the whole world, with everyone’s well-being in mind. Then we design and tend our individual garden as a microcosm of that.
When we think not of ourselves first, but of who else will benefit from what we tend, even long after we are gone, we bring the radical act of compassion INTO our gardening.
And in the process, we tend the gardens in our hearts too.
And when we dig into our internal soil while also digging outside, we get to explore where we’re stuck and what’s going on in that inner garden. We start to remove the rocks that are blocking our inner development, and composting what is no longer beneficial. As we do this, our roots, and the roots of our trees, begin to grow FAR beyond the confines of our individual landscape.
THIS is our approach to gardening at Tree School.
Want to come along?
About Corva Rose
- As a young person I would tag around with my grandfather and great-grandfather in their gardens in San Francisco, relishing the smells of good dirt and fresh onions.
- In my 20’s I lived on a farm in Oregon (in a treehouse!) and then started an organic gardening business in Oakland, CA using my bike and an aluminum trailer.
- After training in aesthetic pruning classes at Merritt College with Dennis Makishima and Michael Alliger, my focus narrowed in on the vast world of pruning.
- I relocated to Albuquerque in 1999, adapting my business and approach to the high desert climate. Over the span of two decades, I built Divine Earth: Aesthetic Pruning and Restoration, and cultivated relationships with my crew members and customers based on love of plants, mutual respect, and a penchant for the spiritual and silly aspects of life.
- After over 20 years of building Divine Earth it became clear that the fullest way to offer my gifts would be to teach others how to tend their own inner and outer gardens. It is with profound gratitude that I closed up my service business and hung out my teaching shingle.
the ecosystem in Albuquerque and beyond.
Our Core Values
- A Holistic View — we look at not only the tree, but its place within the yard, ecosystem, bioregion, and planet. We recognize the importance of tending three garden ecosystems simultaneously: The Inner Garden at the Heart, The Home Garden, and The World Garden.
- Synthesis — our pruning work comes from a Synthesis Approach: A combination of art and science; a blending of Eastern bonsai traditions and Western arboriculture research; a balance of revealing the beauty of the plant and nurturing its health.
- Kindness and Respect — we do our best everyday to allow these qualities to inform how we interact and connect
- Love and Insight — We hold love, inquiry and insight as cornerstones of our work and often integrate the practice of Dharma (Buddha’s teachings). We deeply value religious freedom and believe that all spiritual and religious beliefs are to be held as equally precious.
Our Core Values
- A Holistic View — we look at not only the tree, but its place within the yard, ecosystem, bioregion, and planet. We recognize the importance of tending three garden ecosystems simultaneously: The Inner Garden at the Heart, The Home Garden, and The World Garden.
- Synthesis — our pruning work comes from a Synthesis Approach: A combination of art and science; a blending of Eastern bonsai traditions and Western arboriculture research; a balance of revealing the beauty of the plant and nurturing its health.
- Kindness and Respect — we do our best everyday to allow these qualities to inform how we interact and connect
- Love and Insight — We hold love, inquiry and insight as cornerstones of our work and often integrate the practice of Dharma (Buddha’s teachings). We deeply value religious freedom and believe that all spiritual and religious beliefs are to be held as equally precious.
- Equity and Justice — Gardens are most resilient when they’re diverse. And we believe the world is one big garden. You are welcome here. Bring your full self. We firmly stand with the sovereignty and freedom of very race, gender, sexual orientation, age, ability, culture, religion and income level, and firmly oppose violence and hate. On a practical level, we are committed to the long-haul of social justice and anti-racism work, and participate in formal and informal means of un-learning bias and growing love. We regularly donate to New Mexico Black Leadership Council and Tewa Women United, and will contribute more as Tree School grows.
- Authenticity and Feedback: — We value each person’s authentic experience and expression, and will do whatever we can to create a space where you can fully show up, be yourself, and experience that you Belong. Because you do! To that end, we wholeheartedly welcome constructive feedback, even and especially when it’s challenging. We are all here to grow!
