Spring has a way of telling the truth.
All winter, the garden looks quiet. Beds rest. Trees stand still. The greenhouse hums in the background. Then the days stretch a little longer, the soil warms, and suddenly you can see it. Life was there the whole time. It was just getting ready.
That’s the feeling behind a new project Will Holland and I are dreaming up, and it’s an offshoot of Sowing Success.
We’re calling it the Cultivating Care Community.
The idea is simple: invite leaders from local Home Care and Human Services organizations here in metro Atlanta to come talk with me in the garden. Real conversations about what care looks like today, what’s getting harder, what’s getting better, and what leaders are carrying that most people never see.
And because we’ll be sitting among seed trays, soil, and plants that are doing the slow work of becoming something useful, we’ll pull on a parallel that has been hitting me more and more lately:
Care is grown, not manufactured. It takes time. Attention. Consistency. Good systems. And a lot of unseen work.
Why a garden conversation
A garden is honest. If you skip the basics, it shows. If you overcomplicate it, it pushes back. If you build the right conditions and show up consistently, it rewards you.
That’s also true in Human Services.
The best care organizations I’ve met aren’t trying to do “more” in the abstract. They’re trying to do what matters with steadiness and quality. They’re trying to keep promises to clients and families, even when hiring is tough, documentation is heavy, and the pace never lets up.
And they’re trying to protect their people in the process.
In the garden, you learn quickly that thriving is rarely an accident. It’s usually the result of thoughtful inputs, good timing, and daily discipline.
I think there’s something powerful about having these conversations outside of an office, outside of a Teams meeting, and outside of the usual pressure. Just leaders, in fresh air, talking about the work that matters.
What we’ll explore
Cultivating Care will be grounded in practical, real-world questions, like:
- What does “great care” mean in your organization right now?
- Where are you seeing strain in delivering care consistently?
- What’s getting in the way of your people doing their best work?
- How do you keep quality high when the system keeps demanding more?
- What are you doing that you’re proud of, even if nobody notices it?
And alongside those questions, we’ll weave in lessons from the garden that translate surprisingly well:
- What makes healthy soil, and what that teaches us about culture Healthy soil is built through biology, organic matter, balance, and consistency over time. Company culture is the same. It’s shaped by what you repeatedly put in and protect.
- The law of the harvest, and how it changes the way you plan for real change You can’t plant today and expect fruit tomorrow. The harvest always lags the work. The best leaders plan for seasons, not sprints, and they stick with the inputs long enough to see outcomes.
- How caring for a plant translates into investing in employees Water, sunlight, and healthy soil are simple, but they’re not optional. Employees need the same kind of steady investment: clarity, tools, support, coaching, and room to recover so growth can happen without burnout.
- Why nurture matters, and how it leads to fruit In the garden, nurture produces vegetables. In Human Services, nurture produces consistent, dignified care delivered by supported people. What we nurture bears fruit for our patients and our teams.
This is not meant to be performative or polished. The goal is to be real, useful, and encouraging.
Pilots now, launch in late April or May
Right now, the concept is still in its infancy, which is actually the best time.
We’re going to run a handful of pilot conversations in the garden as we head toward spring. We’ll learn what format works, what stories resonate, and how to make this valuable for leaders who are already carrying a lot.
Our aim is to launch in late April or May, right as the garden comes alive.
That timing feels right. When everything is waking up and growing, it’s a good moment to talk about how we grow organizations that deliver care with excellence and humanity.
Invitation
If you’re part of a Home Care agency or a related Human Services organization in metro Atlanta, and you’d be open to coming to chat with me in the garden, I’d love to hear from you.
You can email me, or DM me on LinkedIn if you don’t have my email.
I can’t wait to share what’s going on in the garden, and even more, to learn from the people who are in the business of delivering care every day.
More to come later this quarter.
This post first appeared on January 16, 2026 in Sowing Success, my weekly LinkedIn newsletter on leadership and organic farming. Read the original on LinkedIn.
