Urban Preserve started the way most gardens do, with a tiny seed, an idea that the joy and healing that is found through gardening, is the same energy that drives creativity, growth, and innovation. The work began in 2024, out of a deep desire to get grounded in what it means to work.

After a particularly grueling few years marked by personal and professional changes, Jessica had hit a new level of burnout. And so, she started planting flowers. Dahlias, with their dramatic shapes and colors grow well in USDA Zone 9. So do zinnias, poppies, and marigolds.

The practice of planting bulbs, caring for and growing the flowers, and when it was time, picking a bouquet was grounding. The next step of painting the bouquet was surprisingly gratifying. The full circle of this practice was energizing.

Plant | to cultivate

To grow with intention. To begin, again, and again. Without a plan. With hope. Sun. Water. Soil. and hope. Gardening is an act of resistance. It is an act of resilience. 

To plant is to have faith. To garden is to live with wild uncertainty. 

Pick | an act of choice

Delicate matter, to pick out only the best. To say yes, that is beauty. All the rest is compost. I want that thing. Just that one thing, out of all the rest. And then, the joy of arranging those choices together.

Paint | to capture reality

To attempt to recreate that which can not be recreated, but can only be reflected on. To be present. To try to hold onto a thing that can only be remembered. To know that your feeble attempts to capture the light and the color will never really be enough, but that it is simply an act of admiration. 

Practice | the act of learning, again

It brings back full circle, back again to this next season. It is the act of starting a conversation with community, about what in means to work, to grow, to create.