Tribe Van Tassel

Tribe Van Tassel Turning urban spaces into thriving gardens. Giving garden bundles and helping you get your hands dirty.

I originally was going to talk to you about harvest baskets. But, what’s on my mind is actually this: I’m afraid of what...
06/06/2021

I originally was going to talk to you about harvest baskets. But, what’s on my mind is actually this: I’m afraid of what this “back to normal” transition will do to me and my family.

What happens when the confines of our homes are no longer a demanded priority and what happens when the values that we’ve accrued by choice, a forced respite, or otherwise, are shaken out again - when we introduce more outside influences, more access, more distraction, more pressure.

I was one that loved quarantine and am honestly a bit scared of what it means to go back into the world. (And no, I’m not an introvert.)

I was able to totally run away to the garden, cultivating a place that was so perfectly me. That priority was easy to have as a priority without the demands of outside life. As we re-emerge, as a state, as a country, some of my values are going to be pushed and challenged. It scares me a bit because it’s uncomfortable to swim against the current.

Life in town/the suburbs/the city isn’t designed to be spent at home. Small lots with larger and larger belts of concrete around them arent conducive to exploration. I loved so much that pandemic life meant a return to the yard, to resourcefulness at home. Living in the suburbs, I’ve had to work hard to create a space outside that beckons us, and I can feel more strongly than ever like the outside world is now tugging at the family.

There will be an inverse adjustment for me this round, in the undoing of the pandemic. I’ll just say honestly that it overwhelms me. I suppose the perceived threat is outside influence. My children are becoming of the age where I can see outside influence on them and that quite simply is hard.

However, that’s life. That’s growth and also opportunity.

We all got a glimpse into a different way of being the past year and it makes me think about how to live, how to be, what we value. How we lead and live rooted in the changes that made us better, when a world at large may be pushing us off balance.

Stay true my friends, and never forget, “when the world wearies, and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden”
-Minnie Aumonier

Almost After & Before ✨The Ballerina Garden is a treasured project because I got to be immersed in life for a day, livi...
06/02/2021

Almost After & Before ✨

The Ballerina Garden is a treasured project because I got to be immersed in life for a day, living with a family that I can truly say is honorable, noble, kind, loving, and hardworking. I’d go running back the second they needed me for anything.

They have great garden instincts so mostly just needed me to help make the project happen when there are a million other moving parts on the farm that require time and attention. Sometimes you just need a garden bestie to come jump in the truck with the kids and go pick out peppers with, ya know?

We doubled the amount of beds to bring them to eight total (positioned specifically to watch out for their well), added a greenhouse (otherwise they’d not be able to grow tomatoes and peppers), and the potato patch (behind the greenhouse) is in progress.

Things were flexible and almost all my mapping was adjusted, but that’s totally normal. Once you get into a space it needs tweaking and the plants sort of speak to you. Also, there’s a plant shortage in the US. We went to the local nursery first and got as much as we could, then hit up a bigger store. Even still, we couldn’t find zucchini. Such is life.

The kids helped us from start to finish, bringing this garden mama heart the ultimate joy.

Operation get the entire world and their children to garden is going well!

Also: I lifted an accumulative 1,920 lbs of soil and feel really legit about it.

If you treat the garden like another room in the house, it will be used like any other room in the house. We have picnic...
05/31/2021

If you treat the garden like another room in the house, it will be used like any other room in the house.

We have picnics and popsicles out here, play trucks, snuggle with the dog and read books. We use it like any other space, making it familiar and well-loved.

I also let the kids loose a bit out there, even if that means they eat unripe strawberries and pull up sweet potato slips while immersed in a leisurely bird watching session or game of woodpecker (current favorite game where we all pretend to be asleep and hear a woodpecker aka someone banging on a garden box with a wooden stake😂).

Pro tip: if you give them tasks it helps them damage the plants a little less 🥴but no guarantees.

On that note, the most common toddler garden chores in our house are:
1. Watering
2. Picking kale and peas, etc. most harvesting)
3. Finding “yucky pillars” (bad caterpillars) and feeding them to the birds
4. Making furrows
5. Patting down soil around seedlings
6. Digging holes for seedlings
7. Harvesting seeds for saving

It’s never easier with their help, but always worthwhile. It’s not more time efficient, but it’s definitely quality time.

Today I watched the kids get up from a glass of lemonade and a snack and walk into the garden to check things out, grab ...
05/28/2021

Today I watched the kids get up from a glass of lemonade and a snack and walk into the garden to check things out, grab a bite of green onion, push some dirt around, and overall mill about.

Like all the gardens I’ve had, this one is temporary. Originally we were going to build this space out within the first few months of moving in last year.

But plans change, and so we popped this bed up, and then eventually the berms.

The time and money is well well worth it to me. All the hours spent learning this space, amending the soil, figuring out what grows best when.

Watching the babies help dig holes and get in belly-laughing water fights.

Worth it.

My first garden, a big pot with six plants in it - four of which died - worth it.

My second garden that we built, that I spent hours putting Mexican river rock around, that I sat pregnant and built a really flimsy arch trellis for, that we moved from 18 months later... worth it.
That garden brought me here to you.

This weekend, I get to help expand another temporary garden and a greenhouse because we know what beautiful and big things happen even in the in-between.

There’s wild magic in the in-between.

Start now my friends. Where you are, with what you have. We’re all in the in-between after all, right?

Sometimes I get into a funk when we travel - I suppose it’s sadness as the underlying feeling - when I’m out in the coun...
05/23/2021

Sometimes I get into a funk when we travel - I suppose it’s sadness as the underlying feeling - when I’m out in the country, surrounded by rolling hills, watching a man in an old denim carhartt get out of a dusty truck close his gate after feeding the horses at 630am. I think to myself, “is it possible for a man to learn to love the land like this? Or is it inherent? Does it need to be taught at a young age?”

What I’m really thinking is:
Will we always live in the suburbs? Is my childhood really gone? Will my family ever get to live more connected to the land?
If we did have the chance, would we even like it?

I’m actually feeling mourning. I’m missing the tiny hobby farm I grew up on, and the people who came with that life.

And you know what? That’s ok.

It keeps me pushing. It keeps me intentional. It keeps me dedicated to my own pursuit
and my own call. With the kids, with Joe, with the work of helping you turn your face to the sunshine and get out in the dirt too.

The gardening all started (yes before the pandemic) with a deep need to find some connection to my roots. To find a way to force myself and the kids outside into nature when we live somewhere that requires none of that.

We live in the land of convenience and comfort with Starbucks 2 minutes away, Target 7 minutes, the grocery store 5 minutes. I could door dash ANYTHING and have it to my house in 20.

But that doesn’t shape us well. It eliminates learning and awareness and the feeling of sticky dough between your fingers as you knead bread. The responsibility of watering the garden even though it takes longer than you want it to.
Convenience and comfort take away the days where you get lost in boredom only to discover a new game at the house requiring nothing but some sticks and twine.

So. So, if you’re like me, and you long for the country life with the rolling hills and the crisp mornings collecting eggs, but know maybe you’ll never have that. Know also that you’re not alone, and you’re not without hope. We can still tend our gardens, teach our little ones to chase lizards, and bring the heart of the countryside into our homes wherever they are.

The Amish Farmhouse Garden 🌿 my next project is with a dear dear dear soul, who is an Amish country cook on TV! Her hus...
05/21/2021

The Amish Farmhouse Garden 🌿 my next project is with a dear dear dear soul, who is an Amish country cook on TV!

Her husband, “D”, will be our contractor/builder (pictured on slide 2) and is a master carpenter and mason.

Let me tell you: this family.

They owned and operated an inn while raising their two boys. LeeAnn was even featured in Country Magazine for her flower beds at the inn! They are hospitality born in humans. A hug from Mama Miller is like a return to your childhood home.

But this. This sanctuary is for something different than they’ve had before. This is for a return to that gentle peace and a nod to that passion that lived in all the work of year’s past. Instead of having to plant pallets of perennials and keep things manicured and always perfect, this will be simple and tidy.
Sensory. An exhale.

Just two beds to start, through the arches. Maybe a little seating maybe a tiny coop. Perhaps some beautiful tops on the beds to protect from wildlife.

Feeling deeply grateful to work with a family whose souls are so stunning. LeeAnn encourages me daily with notes about raising the babies just how we are, affirming a life outside and in make believe, but also alongside mom and dad while they work.

She’s a north star for me, and many many others, guiding us along our true paths, and keeping the home fires of our own hearts stoked.

Amish Farmhouse Garden, I already adore you!!!

What’s your ministry? Who are you the patron saint of? What element of our souls are you there to find and set right? My...
05/21/2021

What’s your ministry?
Who are you the patron saint of?
What element of our souls are you there to find and set right?

My ministry is that of the disconnected. The overwhelmed. The shallow and saturated.

The part of your soul that fights to keep life simpler and more grounded also arises from just the opposite.

There’s probably been a time where you lost that. Where you bought into the hype and regretted it. Where you were not who you wanted to be.

You fight the urge to buy more, do more, be more. You want to fit in but also not.

Because what you want really, deep down, is to be unburied. Unhurried.
You want to reconnect with that part of you who sat and made daisy chains as a child, who ran barefoot in a meadow until sundown, who dreamt dreams so big they made you blush. Who cries still at the dawn scene of Pride and Prejudice.

Let’s replace the busy with the beautiful. Let’s grow a garden, pull up the onions, make it from scratch just because we can. Because that is our privilege. Because that is our calling.

Let’s linger just a moment longer to catch a hummingbird at rest, or to pinch a piece of mint to twirl in our tea.

Here to remind you of the gift that is contrarily slow, purposefully patient, largely quiet, and truly you.

100% of beans, peas, and strawberries don’t make it in the house. We’re starting to see a rapid decrease in bunching oni...
05/18/2021

100% of beans, peas, and strawberries don’t make it in the house. We’re starting to see a rapid decrease in bunching onions as well, kale and chard are no longer safe either.

These kids I tell ya. Makin’ me proud.

It’s a unique rhythm. Sun sets, and I race outside to do the majority of my gardening. I have dusk as the longest day pa...
05/14/2021

It’s a unique rhythm. Sun sets, and I race outside to do the majority of my gardening. I have dusk as the longest day part to get outside and work continuously, which is still maybe only 45 minutes.

B eventually always finds me, trailing behind my hose, stepping on it to see me turn back with an eyebrow furrow. Or checking on caterpillars, chatting with lizards, or stealing chard leaves to snack on. Sometimes he works a construction site with his tiny excavator or follows stink bugs around.

This is our normal, and it’s the best part of my day.

Always always always, these are the moments that make me feel like all is good and all is right.

Also a pro tip: fertilize after sunset, on wet soil, once the dog has gone out for the last time and the babies are done taking their turns watering and tinkering.

They’re calling it Vitamin G. It’s now proven and prescribed-by-doctors good for you. Doses of gardening. For reducing a...
05/11/2021

They’re calling it Vitamin G.

It’s now proven and prescribed-by-doctors good for you.

Doses of gardening. For reducing anxiety, depression, stress, and lack of focus.

Additionally, they’re talking about how good for you healthy soil is. How children exposed to good dirt are healthier throughout their lifetime.

It’s not just about “go outside and get some air”. It’s the dance with nature. The listening, the smells, the pushing in of the seed with your own hands. The fresh taste of peas snapped off the vine. It’s the practice of gardening.

👩🏻‍🌾Swipe to read some of my favorite quotes found in the research. Yes, I’m reading scientific journals for fun. We’re there now. 📑

The past few nights, after the rest of the family’s been read their stories and kissed fifteen times and had a tickle-ba...
05/10/2021

The past few nights, after the rest of the family’s been read their stories and kissed fifteen times and had a tickle-back, and I’ve maybe peeled my head in to watch them sleep a bit (husband included), I’ve been in the thick of researching greenhouse planting.

Designing and planning out a garden and greenhouse for someone else comes with some responsibility, ya know?!

I want every family and person that I work with or come into contact with to leave my presence and feel so inspired and capable. I want my enthusiasm to catch and carry them into their own garden journey.

A lot of that will depend on the success of the endeavor, so the prep work is necessary to make sure we’re setting up for a thriving season.

This homemade structure is stunning, and with the raised beds flanking it, it’s just 👌🏼*chefs kiss*. They use raised beds too, which I think adds the ultimate charm. They plant mostly perennials and cut flowers in theirs, which is fineeee by me! Although you all know I’ll never give up my veggies.

The greenhouse project I’m working on is high altitude, and will allow for tomato and pepper growing! We’ll be planting into the native soil with some compost, and I’ve got some fans and a thermostat outlined to go in there with a cute table and some galvanized tubs for potting soil and seed starting.

But, what else do we need? Leave your best greenhouse tips here if ya have them!!

Pay attention to those moments that lift the hair up on your head. That make your eyes sparkle snd your soul light. And ...
05/06/2021

Pay attention to those moments that lift the hair up on your head. That make your eyes sparkle snd your soul light.
And pay attention to those moments that stick in your throat and darken your mood.
Listen to words unspoken.
Learn to trust yourself.

That’s my recipe for finding your ‘thing’.

My gardens have seen my darkest days. And also my brightest. I’ve dropped tears onto the petals of pink cosmos and laughed while my son chomped kale off its stem while running. In fact, I sort of think gardening chose me.
It’s calming. Stress, anxiety, and depression reducing. It’s consistent but ever-changing.
It’s an escape, at home. A retreat and a mere room off the house.

My gardens have seen my double chin and a couple of evening gowns, a few cuss words and a lot of deep breaths. They’ve been there through the loss of life, and the start of it. They’ve inspired me and also disappointed me, but never left me.

Above all, the garden has been a place where I get to work and play and think and wonder. Where my children can do the same, and witness the evidence of miracles in the absolutely ordinary.

For all the reasons on all the days, gardening is my thing. What’s yours??

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