The Hands That Planted The Seed for Terra
From Colombia to the Netherlands, and eventually Portugal, Erika’s path has taken her across places and cultures. Today, home is in the Algarve, where her relationship with gardening began, and where the first seed for Terra was planted.
A New Home, With Something Already Growing
When Erika and her husband, Jesse, moved to Portugal in August 2023, they were looking for a home that offered the best of both worlds: the calm and space of rural life, with the convenience and connection of being close to town.
After a few viewings in Albufeira, they came to Loulé, where they found a villa surrounded by mature olive and fruit trees, with enough land to slowly make it their own. The house already had a strong connection to the landscape, but it was the potential of the outdoor space that caught Erika’s attention. There was room to grow, experiment, and shape the land over time — although, at that point, there was no grand plan for what it would eventually become.
There was simply one thought that kept coming back to her:
How wonderful would it be to grow as many different fruits as possible here? And so, she started planting.
From Fruit Trees to A Vegetable Garden
One tree led to another. Then came the vegetables.
The more Erika planted, the more curious she became — about gardening, about the land, and about what else she could grow there.
As her confidence grew, so did the garden. But creating it meant learning from the ground up. The plot had to be cleared, irrigation introduced, and the land understood: where the light fell, what grew well together, and what each season allowed.
Gradually, beds were built, and the layout began to take shape. Some things were carefully planned; others came through trial and error. Erika learned by doing, observing, listening, adjusting, imagining, and slowly finding ways to make better use of the space.
With every season, and little by little, the garden became a more established space.
“Gardening changed my sense of relationship – with time, with life, with myself.”
— Erika Rodriguez, Founder
The Garden Taught Erika A New Way of Living
In the garden, Erika not only learned the practicalities of growing, but also the beauty of slow growth, the changing pace of the seasons, and the simple satisfaction of harvesting something she had cared for with her own hands.
It became the place where she felt more grounded amidst the movement of everyday life and she found balance in every sense: emotional, mental, and spiritual. Mentally, there was less thinking and more observing, and in the simplicity of caring for something and watching it grow, she found a sense of calm and wholeness that became increasingly important to her.
Over time, spending time in the garden also made her more aware of what she ate — where food comes from, how it is grown, who grows it, and how much time and care existed behind something as simple as a tomato or a handful of herbs.
Perhaps the biggest change, though, was in the way she experienced time itself. As Erika describes it, in the garden, there’s no need to rush from one thing to the next. Turning the earth, cleaning the ground, adding compost, watering, planting, pruning, or simply caring for what was already growing could keep her there for hours. Almost as entering a new zone. A zone where you just want more and nothing can pull you away from it.
A quiet act of reciprocity: the more time and care she gave to the garden, the more grounded and content she felt in return.
That experience planted the seed for Terra.
It inspired her to build on the idea that when we connect with the natural world, in any way we can, we return to our senses, we land in the present moment and life begins to feel lighter, more intentional and whole.
One Season at a Time
Today, Erika’s garden is shaped by the seasons. She grows what she and Jesse love to eat, what suits the land and the space she has, and what sparks her curiosity, often experimenting with different varieties simply to see how they grow.
And the garden is never quite finished. With every season comes something new: a corner to improve, a different way of growing, crop rotation, or simply something she has yet to learn. Because when it comes to working with nature, there is always more to discover.