Are you ready to roll up your sleeves and get sweaty? To get down and dirty in the soil? For women, the word 'garden' has always been a verb. We don't just sit in it, it's something we do. Foraging since the beginning of humankind - collecting fruits and berries, identifying edible plants - we developed the extraordinary vision, refined motor skills, and eye for detail needed to successfully grow our own food. No wonder women are considered the inventors of agriculture, while across cultures, deities of harvest and fertility have been female, from Isis in ancient Egypt to Roman goddess Ceres (now you know why grains are called 'cereal'). The following centuries, thanks to something called patriarchy, women would be barred from becoming professional gardeners, but that didn't stop them from performing essential gardening tasks such as pest control, picking fruit and weeding. Even now, when we enjoy the glories of gardening - hands in the dirt, head in the sun, sweating away - we seem to revive the instincts we share with our hard-working ancestors. We feel wonderfully alive. As avid gardener and actress Louise Erickson once said: "Gardening requires lots of water - most of it in the form of perspiration." Yes, we sweat in order to reap our rewards one day, but often, the greatest reward is the sweating itself!

"Sweat and soul collide in the garden...
with growth as its result."
- Jo Brielyn