Why I Wrote Lady Ray Starts A Garden— And Why It’s Just the Beginning

Front cover of Lady Ray Starts a Garden, Volume 1.

My planting journey didn’t start in a garden— it started in a windowsill. Just me and a few houseplants trying to survive.

I didn’t know what I was doing, I had just become a new mother and I felt like my life was in flux with learning to navigate all of the new changes that felt so much bigger than me. My identity was shifting, and I found myself searching for something— anything— that made me feel rooted again.

What began as just a little feng shui— just wanting to liven up my space and add some color— quickly turned into total plant therapy. I bought one plant. A basic beginner plant, the pothos— and then suddenly, one plant turned into…five. Five turned into fifteen. And, well, before I knew it, any open space was filled by a plant. My silent justification, “okay, but this one is different.”

My space transformed— not just physically, but energetically. Color. Life. A reason to wake up and check on something other than the chaos.

I was no longer the woman I used to be, but I hadn’t fully stepped into the version of me that was rising— caught between who I’d been and who I was becoming. But not only did my space shift— so did my mind.

It was disorienting, but I just tended to my plants— almost hyper focused and unknowingly tending to parts of me I’d neglected. Softening in some places, strengthening in others. Learning what I needed in different seasons. And as the plants began to thrive, my surroundings started to reflect the inner work I hadn’t yet registered— the permission to grow slowly, to be imperfect, to drop some leaves and still be worthy of love and light.

The chaos had turned into calm. The emptiness turned to intention. And little by little growth became my new lifestyle, anchoring me to joy.

And then one day, I found myself wondering… was this about keeping something alive, or had I really tapped into something deeper? Had I unlocked a green thumb, or had I just perfected the art of buying plants and not letting them die?

The curiosity got the best of me. I needed more of a challenge. I wanted to know if I could grow something from nothing. I decided to try to grow something from scratch— from seed. Not something decorative, but something useful. It felt like the next natural step— moving on from just keeping things alive to learning how to cultivate and sustain them.

 In the dirt, I suddenly felt at home. Like my soul had remembered something ancient— something buried and almost forgotten.

There were days that I’d step outside barefoot and rub my feet straight into the dirt. That grounding became sacred. A need in my daily routine, could finally feel myself return again in the stillness of the garden. There was clarity in the ritual and healing in the harvest. It was more than a hobby, it became my therapy.

And that’s what inspired Lady Ray Starts a Garden. I knew this type of growth and living transformation belonged in the hands of the next generation. The kind of thing that I wanted my own children to experience, hold, and believe in.

I wrote this because I wanted kids to know that growth is possible— even when things feel hard and messy. That they could turn an idea into something real, that their imagination is powerful, and their hands are capable. It’s about learning how to start, how to keep going, and to believe in something you can’t quite see yet.

This book is the first in a five-part series designed to do more than just entertain. Each story is built around the mindset it takes to bring something to life— cultivating inner tools such as the creativity, resilience, vision, and follow through it takes to turn thoughts into things. It’s about giving children the mindset to dream something up and stay with it long enough to see it come to life.

Each book is an invitation to learn how to trust your own unique process and instincts. To explore your imagination and to start with what you have. To push through when its hard and to show up when its slow, because you believed in yourself enough to see things through. Real lasting growth always begins on the inside— its about who you become in the process.

Lady Ray Starts a Garden is its own seed that I hope sparks questions, dreams and ideas in the hearts of every child who reads it. Especially the ones who’ve never seen themselves in stories like these and need a reminder that small beginnings matter.

You too can start, imagine, and finish if you sow a little faith in yourself every step of the way.

Grab your paperback copy for $20 (+ $4 for shipping) online at https://square.link/u/y1EBYb6f or digitally for $9.99 on Amazon https://a.co/d/ejPcAo7 or Apple bookstore https://books.apple.com/us/book/lady-ray-starts-a-garden/id6748266023.

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Let this story take root in your home, your classroom, or your child’s hands— and watch what blooms.