The Heart Room emerged after loosing a big tomato crop to a blight.

In 2004 I planted 40 tomato plants in hopes of canning lots and lots of tomatoes. I had been successful the year before and I was dreaming of a pantry full of homegrown tomatoes to use through the winter months. Every so often, our Maritime Climate here will spread the tomato blight around the island and kill off everyone's crops. We had sunny and dry conditions that year until the middle of August, when it rained for a week. After that morning fogs covered the meadow for another week. It was after that when the blight showed up.

I really reacted to this "tragedy" and had a really hard time throwing away all of my beautiful green tomatoes. I put it off as long as I could, but finally had to pull them all up. As I was cleaning up the beds and raking up the mess, I began to see the impression of a heart shaped room. I played around with the rake and continued until I made a large bed surrounding a heart shape, somewhat like I had in the Center and Omega Rooms.

As I was building the room I realized that I had received a gift — a way to transform my sorrow and heal my pain. It then became clear that this room could serve this purpose for others who come to the garden.

Over the years, many people who have sat in the Heart Room, describe it as a place where they feel no pain. I have witnessed this energy doing its healing work with a woman whose husband suddenly died, with a woman whose daughter committed suicide, and with those who came for a "Healing Grief and Loss" talk in the garden.

It has been used for a small group of women who come to weave prayer baskets from meadow grass, for a Japanese Tea Ceremony, for lying down and watching meteor showers, and for many of our garden talks.

Now the chamomile floor is surrounded by a wall of red and pink old fashioned roses, hollyhocks, daisies, dahlias, cosmos, poppies, tuberose, clarkia, amaranth, salvia, mahogany colored millet, tuberose, and giant purple cabbages!

Here is how the Heart Room has evolved.