What on earth does pruning plants have to do with self-care? More than you might expect. Candice talks with ‘plant nerd’ and pruning coach, Monica Maggio, about her experience working as a plant care specialist. Monica explains how consciously carrying for perennial plants fosters self-awareness, empathy, and accountability. Monica gets personal, sharing a watershed moment in high school that inspired her to pursue environmental studies and horticulture. Now, after over a decade of working intimately with clients and their plants, she has uncovered a fascinating overlap between pruning methodologies and how we care for ourselves. Candice is all-in on this topic, admitting how her own ‘stuff’ has long been reflected in how she goes about pruning her rose bushes. The two discuss what plants have to teach us about trauma and resilience, and Monica walks us through a handful of helpful pruning techniques. Together, they marvel at how each approach provides a useful metaphor for self-development and our place in the natural order of things. Monica continually invites us to turn our attention toward indigenous cultures who have long embodied an interdependent relationship with nature. She references Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass, who writes: “Action on behalf of life transforms. Because the relationship between self and the world is reciprocal… as we work to heal the earth, the earth heals us.”
Monica Maggio is a fruit growing expert and pruning coach based in Portland, OR. Monica believes good pruning combines science, art, nature, and nurture in powerful ways that help plants (and the people that care for them) thrive. Her business Core Home Fruit, and newest membership project The Pruning Portal, offer a variety of practical resources to help anyone learn to prune with skill and success one snip at a time! Web: corehomefruit.com | IG @corehomefruit | youtube.com/c/corehomefruit
March 23, 2022
Referenced in this episode:
- Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
