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 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.

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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

I am excited to bring all of me to benefit
the ecosystem in Albuquerque and beyond.
corva

Our Core Values

Our Core Values

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Mentorship Dates:

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: