There’s a richness to gardening that Lauren Alexander finds alluring. I asked to learn more about this sentiment. No — it’s not the money and wealth kind of “rich” she’s referring to. Rather, it’s an even greater richness — one that’s filled with aliveness, that allows for the experience of life’s wonders and lessons. Even a self-elevation in spirituality.
“It finds you,” she says.
Lauren is my former boss. We worked together at a marketing technology company back in 2013, where we helped optimize a wide range of digital marketing campaigns. We never really talked about food. If at all, it was probably about grabbing a quick breakfast burrito, salad, or sandwich across the street.
Much has evolved since then. She’s now VP of Marketing at Neurohacker Collective — a company focused on making wellness products, a mother of two young children, and a passionate gardener who dreams of growing more food for her family.
We reconnected as the world came to an unexpected shutdown in 2020. Amongst the dread, I found solace in seeing pictures of Lauren’s fresh vegetables through social media. It moved me to see the transformation of her outdoor space from year to year. The love she felt for her garden was unmistakable.
I recently spoke with Lauren about her journey into gardening: how it began, what it’s meant to her, and what she’s encountered along the way.
Jen Ho: Could you tell us a little bit more about how your interest in gardening started?
Lauren Alexander: I discovered that the average produce travels 1,500 miles from farm to my plate and that even produce marked “locally grown” travels between 50–100 miles. As I started to do the math, I realized I could make an impact just by growing a little lettuce and tomatoes. Of course, that led to growing much more.
JH: That’s amazing. Can you share something you learned as you got started?
LA: The system needs bees to work. I didn’t realize until I started a garden that to grow, say a cucumber, a bee has to go from a male flower on the cucumber, and then hopefully that same day a female flower is open, and the same bee has to go to that female flower.
When I started my garden, I had zero bees. I had to hand-pollinate everything, and it was so much work! I sat there one day and was scratching my head, asking, “How the hell did this work in nature?!” One day I’d have all male flowers and the next day, I’d have only female flowers. It was infuriating. By the time I got a full-size cucumber grown, I felt like a mother, father, and midwife!
I eventually bought an ‘African Blue’ Basil plant. A few weeks later, I heard the gentle hum of bees, and I said to myself, “Today’s the day the bees arrived.” Since then, they’ve been working from sun up to sun down every day of the year. I love those guys!
JH: So you’ve attracted pollinators to work together with you to grow food. What is the experience like to taste the food that you’ve grown?
LA: As I’ve fallen in love with the explosive tastes and fragrances of the produce from my garden, it’s changed my palate for grocery produce and restaurant eating. I don’t think I have ever had a tomato as good as a tomato from my garden. The burst of tangy flavor of fresh tomato, not to mention the varieties. I have the luxury of growing exciting and rare varieties I’ve never found in even specialty markets: ‘Black Cherry’ Tomatoes, ‘Berkeley Pink Tie-Dye’ Tomatoes, ‘Purple Cherokee’ Tomatoes, to name a few. ‘Chinese Pink’ Celery also comes to mind…Mmmmm, my mouth waters just thinking about biting into a crunchy stalk.
Wow, I can probably never eat a salad at a restaurant again from having my lettuce from my garden bursting with flavor in electric ways.
JH: Besides being able to drastically reduce food miles and produce a diversity of fresh foods, what else has growing food meant to you?
LA: It’s given me a new perspective on food. Having a garden, or growing any kind of vegetable, makes you appreciate the amount of work that goes into a bite of food.
It takes months from seed to harvest, sometimes longer to get the output. And when I can finally sink my teeth into something I grew, it’s so joyous, so indescribable.
Just weeks ago, I entered the next phase of my garden by adding chickens. The richness of having a garden and chickens is unmatched. Having chickens makes me appreciate eggs, and in a way, that’s spiritual or mystical. I love my birds deeply; I had no idea how hard a chicken works to lay an egg. Sometimes she takes over an hour to labor out an egg. Each day when I find an egg, I’m so filled with gratitude.
I’m still bewildered by the emotions in my journey from being so removed from how my food is made, to where I am now. I dream and pine, thinking about the day when I can afford a more extensive garden, more chickens, and more animals to feed my family.
JH: What are some of the biggest lessons in your gardening journey that you’d like to share with the next generation and for others around you?
LA: The garden is full of lessons about life, humanity, and love. Every day, I’m astonished by the life lessons I’m taught. One of the key lessons for me is about development: every seed has its own developmental schedule, and there’s little you can do to alter it meaningfully. Some of the most beautiful flowers take a long time to blossom…months germinating with almost no signs of growth above the surface. They need extra care, special watering, and extra love but do not show any signs of growth.
As a gardener, you have to keep the faith, knowing that they will eventually blossom, and you have to keep caring for them even if your efforts don’t show up. It’s truly unconditional love when you think about it. But one day, something springs up and then a little more, and sometimes it grows a massive amount outwardly in a short time. I’ve seen plants grow several inches in a week!
Alternatively, some seeds like squash are fast. They seem to pop above in one day and are fruiting in 45 days. Both the fast growers and the slow are loved equally by the gardener. They are doing as they should. There is a design, and it’s perfect and very individual to the plant.
JH: Wow, that’s beautiful…
LA: There’s a deep compassion for others when you think about them in this gardener’s perspective. Everyone blossoms at their intended time.
There’s also self-compassion. I don’t have to be going at the pace of everyone around me. I may not be the same kind of seed. This realization about myself has given me this deep, relaxing peace that’s incredible.
JH: If you could share one or two things with those who are itching to nurture change or start a garden but feel they cannot, what would it be?
LA: Just start growing something. Don’t wait for perfect conditions. Trust me, you’ll redo your layout a dozen times anyway…I have. But each season you learn something new. So it’s essential to show up each season.
Also, be willing to fail and love the failing. I’ve been super outcome-oriented about everything my whole life. Gardening is the first thing I’ve ever done where I can genuinely say I just enjoy it. I’ve failed a lot: lost crops to bugs, burnt them in the sun, overwatered, over-fertilized. Honestly, name a mistake, and I’ve made it. But I can’t get away from starting over each time. There’s something inside me that needs to grow, and I’ve activated it. I wager many of us have this hunger in us yet to be awakened. It’s been so fulfilling, and I’ve only just begun.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. All photos courtesy of Lauren Alexander.
