INTERVIEW: Linda Gibbs
I am overwhelmed with all that is stirring in me. There are so many connections and encounters I have experienced over the last few months.
Amidst the stresses and constraints of life there has been inspiration, connection, convergence and pieces of a puzzle coming together.
A key part of these pieces coming together was my time with Linda and Jian of the Soil Sponge Collective. We met at Woodshed Gardens, a regenerative learning space in Malibu, California, where Linda is Founder, Director of Regenerative Education, and Soil Keeper. Jian, is Principal Coordinator of the Soil Sponge Collective and part of the Woodshed Gardens team.
What an absolute pleasure and ABUNDANT time it was. I am so excited to share our conversation below and for all that is ahead
Rooted in Reverence: The Beginning of Tiger Blossom Regenerative
It all began with a gesture of love toward a garden.
Linda Gibbs, now stewarding the Watershed Gardens at Woodshed Recording Studios, was first invited to pick lettuce in a neighbor’s backyard. But before she could harvest anything, she was asked to pause—and send love to the soil. That moment, she says, changed everything.
“I felt so much love coming back from the garden,” Linda recalls. “It was the first time this being was introduced to me. I thought, ‘I need this.’”
That encounter led her to a local garden club, where the very first class was on making compost. There, she met a biodynamic farmer who handed her a pot and a packet of mixed seeds: radish, chard, lettuce, beet and more. Together, they planted a small salad bouquet of 8 species—one pot filled with diversity, color, and collaboration. Nothing grew into a perfect head of lettuce, but instead a symphony of baby greens emerged.
“I would harvest the leaves and make a salad, and that first bowl brought tears to my eyes. I thought, this is why people pray before meals. I felt so much gratitude—it was a miracle.”
That miracle is the seed from which Tiger Blossom’s Regenerative Arm now grows. Rooted in seasonality, reverence, and community wisdom, we are exploring how even a single pot on a windowsill can restore connection—to nature, to self, and to one another.
The Principles of Regeneration
Linda’s journey led her into the heart of regenerative gardening, which is not just a technique—it’s a mindset. A way of seeing, sensing, and co-creating with the Earth.
The six principles she shared are so simple and profound:
Living Roots – it's all about the soil, increase the caring capacity of the soil, you increase the caring capacity of the entire ecosystem, which means it feeds more life. You grow more life, you feed more life, and there's just like this abundant feedback loop that happens.
Covered Soil (Armor) – Protect the Earth’s skin with mulch or green cover.
Least Disturbance – Which doesn't mean no disturbance, because a little disturbance. Like when you cut a tree, the more you cut the tree, the more the tree grows, right? But you don't want to overcut it. Because you could actually kill it if you don't have any solar panels for it to feed itself, which are the leaves.
Diversity – Instead of focusing on a mono crop, grow many species together.
Animal Integration – Invite birds, bugs, butterflies. Don’t be afraid of the cabbage butterflies that everyone tells you that you need to spray, because for me, when those cabbage butterflies eat my cabbage, it comes back even more abundant.
Context Awareness – Honor where you are. Everybody really needs to not compare themselves to what others are doing, you have to look at your own context. The little pot I started with was so profound, but if I tried to take on the garden that my friend had immediately, I mean, I would have failed all over the place, but here I just had one little pot and it was so profound. It changed me.
From Sustainability to Regeneration
So what’s the difference between sustainability and regeneration?
“Ah okay. So think of you get a cut. Do you want to sustain that cut or do you want the skin to regenerate itself, heal itself, and become whole? That's regeneration, sustainability is keeping the status quo. Right now, we have a very compromised ecosystem all over the world. It's nothing to sustain. One person said, sustainability is ahead of its time. First we need to regenerate. Then we can think about sustainability.”
When We Reconnect to the Soil & PLANT LIFE...
What do you believe happens when people begin to reconnect to soil and plant life?
“It literally changes the way they see. They start noticing things that they never notice before. They start hearing from that observation. They can hear their own inner knowing as well as they get connected with nature. As you learn to slow down and observe, I think, it helps you to slow down and observe that voice inside of you as well.”
The Plants Are CONSIOUS
How do you think people can see plants as collaborators, not just resources?
“Ah. Well, it's interesting because I was talking to somebody about this recently. And I realized that I took a class in Wise Woman Tradition of um of herbs, right? So it's Wise Woman Tradition of Healing, how to use the herbs, but what we did was we sat with the plants very still, very quietly learning to drink the tea, not knowing what it is, blindly, and asking the plant to share its medicine, having someone there afterwards to say what the medicine is and realizing oh, I wasn't making it up! Something was communicating with me. And you start to realize that these plants have a consciousness and I was really thinking about that recently because it's not been something that I myself teach. And I was thinking I have to somehow incorporate this because it was so profound for me to understand the consciousness of plants and trees and realizing that their language is different than ours.
There is a concept of getting away from materialism, that consciousness comes out of matter, but it's actually the other way around. That there is consciousness and then matter is created. Then we realize, oh, that means there's a consciousness that created everything and it is a different consciousness because it looks different, but understanding that they have a consciousness and then beginning to work with them and they become your friends. You never feel alone and I mean, you never feel alone. And you know, they become allies for you.
They they pop up in your yard when all of a sudden you've got some lyhatic issues. I always wanted um cleavers. It's like it's a common weed. Why doesn't it show up in my garden? And I was having some lymphatic issues this year. Boom, what shows up in my garden? All of a sudden I realized oh my gosh, that's cleavers. Right when I needed it.
Oh, I have another great example. In the east of the United States, there's a lot of ticks, a lot of Lyme's disease and there is a plant growing there all over the place, which you can't remember the name of it now. Shoot.. if I'm remembered, it be much more profound. Anyways, everybody's trying to kill it, but guess what? It is the anidote for Lyme's disease and it's out of control on the East Coast where the Lyme's disease is.
Why Regenerative Education Matters
Why is regenerative education in why does it matter in today's world?
“Well, I think, honestly, a regenerative mindset is where we need to go. Gurdjieff talks about different levels of consciousness, right? So first there is extractive, right? Which looks at things are a resource, purely and simple, that is it. They are a resource. That is Extract. Then you have Arrest. So that's like, I'm going to go on the streets. I'm going to pick it and I'm going to I'm going to do my protests and I'm going to fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, and I'm always looking for a fight. Right? And, you know, they all have purposes, but they're they're a small purpose. But if that's all I do, right? So then we move to the do good one, Savior. I'm going to fix. Right? But then there's that beautiful part of we can all share wisdom. I learn from you, you learn from me, right? Then there's Regenerative, but I think the Regenerative is all of these working together. You know, it's more holistic and it's more whole.
One of the things I'm learning from my education around regenerative thinking and regenerative practices is that I'm getting away from that binary, that “me and the other”. And if we can stop “othering” and allow that I have something important and you have something important to say, and they might be at conflict, but somehow we can find a win-win- that's Regenerative.
And so I think it's so important because that's is how we're going to find peace in the world and healing. And we're not going to find it until we find it within ourselves. And once we find it in ourselves, the solutions for mother earth are so simple and so easy and they will they will happen because people are living from that mindset. Yeah.”
BABY STEPS ARE BIG BIG
What do you think is important for beginners?
”I think starting small, baby steps. And seeing failures as wins, as a wonderful learning opportunity. So not being afraid to fail. And uh and just, you know, taking that first baby step, no matter how small it is, is you know, big, big, big, big.”
Welcome to the Regenerative Arm of Tiger Blossom
This is the beginning.
With Linda Gibbs, Graeme, and others, we are co-creating classes and content that invite you into a regenerative rhythm:
Growing pot salads
Making botanical arrangements from your own garden
Tending soil and self
Practicing creative reciprocity
Awakening your own inner knowing
Whether you have land or just one pot… regeneration begins where you are.
“In joy and sadness, flowers are our constant friends.”
Tiger Blossom Regenerative will help you collaborate with them.
