Hi. I am Renee Wade, the woman behind Natural Collaboration. 

This past winter I did an exercise to discover my top personal values. I was surprised to discover that Wholeness is the word that best describes my number one value. You see, I love understanding the big picture. I love seeing the connections between things and following them out to see even more connections. I love exploring with curiosity and wonder in fields that seem completely unrelated, and discovering that they too are interdependent. I love the feeling of being embedded in a universal network of living and evolving relationships.

For a long time, the Western half of humanity has believed it could get along without concern for the wild world. In fact, the wild world was often thought to be our enemy. Today we are discovering the deep flaws in those perceptions and beliefs. Microbiology is leading the way in both medicine and soil science as we discover that bacteria, fungus, and other microbes behave in organized ways that lead them to be the equivalent of an organ in our bodies, or an organ in the soil.

You and I are both part of the natural world, and my experience has shown me that we can only be truly healthy and happy when we live with a deeply felt sense of that connection. For me, there is nothing better than the feeling of being a collaborative participant in the ongoing life of this planet.

My aim is to help more people rediscover this knowing of their own connection and to become empowered participants in the unfolding of our planet’s natural evolution. 

My own journey to this place has come through the pathway of many gardens. From early years studying and apprenticing at gardens such as Occidental Arts and Ecology and the Chadwick garden at UC Santa Cruz to a deep immersion in creating my own medicine garden at Bluebird Farm, I have followed the trail to uncover my own latent abilities for interspecies communication while also developing the linear understanding of this world through my left brain and rational mind. Both are necessary to future human evolution. We will not thrive if we leave either our hearts or our heads behind.

Gardens are an opportunity to discover and explore the natural world as an ally walking beside you. They are also a great place to discover the vital link between your heart, your head, and the wisdom of the world. In order to do so, a few old stories will be unlearned and some new ones will be found. I love helping people in this process, and I love that part of it is completely down to earth, found in the joy of the sweet taste of foods and medicines grown for you, personally. This world is full of gifts.

I invite you to sign up for a class, read The Living Earth Handbook, or contact me when you are ready to begin a garden. Imagining new possibilities is the first step to creating new realities.