Common Ground

Four citrus trees on an apartment balcony three flights up. A dramatic Ponderosa lemon. A tomato sharing a pot with a succulent. And a gardening assistant named Stevie who supervises from inside a cardboard box. Is it slightly unhinged? Probably. But even tiny things are still growing through hard seasons.

we hadn't had rain in weeks. The fields to the left—baked bare. The pastures to the right—exhausted, dusty, and parched. But the fog stayed here. Right over our windrows. Right over the exact ground where we've been building soil for fifteen years.

We bought it used but loved, knowing it had started its life at Walt Disney World. Then we followed the thread back — and found Walt Disney's own words about soil and nature that stopped us cold.