Living Ground is a soil-to-plate project in southern Ecuador, connecting healthy soil, nourishing food, natural medicine, education, and community.
Gratitude
Cafe
Nourishing foods, ferments, and herbs prepared fresh from the garden each day.
Personal Health
Stays
A private, one-on-one stay guided by your body, your food, and your terrain.
Self Reliance
Courses
Learn practical skills in soil, food, and living systems for daily resilience.
Living Ground
Hostel
Stay within the rhythm of the land with simple comfort, food, and daily flow.
Land
Consultations
Guiding land restoration through soil, water, and regenerative design practices.
Hands On
Workshops
Hands-on learning in food, soil, and self-reliance through guided experiences.
Explore the Living Ground Library
Books, field guides, digital editions, and writings exploring Ecuador’s wild plants, the soil and human microbiome, terrain-based health, and Live Blood Analysis for the lay person. Digital books are available directly through Living Ground, printed editions are available on Amazon, and Leisha’s blog shares the ongoing journey of Living Ground in Ecuador.
Building Living Ground in Ecuador through soil restoration, medicinal plants, microbiome education, self reliance, gardens, food, and ecological healing.
Our Gratitude Cafe Menu
All Week
9am – 6pm
VISIT OUR GARDENS, STORE, CAFE, AND SECRET GARDEN — OUR GARDENS ARE OUR LIFE AND OUR TEACHING TOOL. HOSTEL AND EDUCATION CENTER FOR ECO-TOURISM, APPRENTICESHIPS, AND VOLUNTEERS.
location
Leisha’s Education Books
Wild plants hold the wisdom of the earth, offering food, medicine, and resilience. This book teaches you how to see them again.
Walk through gardens, forests, and forgotten paths. Learn the uses, folklore, and beauty of wild plants. Rekindle your connection to nature’s generosity, one leaf at a time.
Each page invites you to honor the soil, the plants, and yourself. Discover how the smallest weeds are teachers and healers waiting patiently to be noticed.
50 plants that grow anywhere
The Plants Stories
Leisha
Founder of Living Ground
Southern Ecuador
Ecuador Plant Guide
The Living Ground of Ecuador explores the wild plants, medicinal herbs, food plants, trees, mushrooms, and ecological relationships woven throughout Ecuador’s landscapes. Rooted in fifteen years of observation and lived experience, the book connects soil biology, traditional plant knowledge, microbiomes, food systems, and self reliance. More than a field guide, it is a reflection on rebuilding relationship with land, plants, and living systems.
50 plants that grow anywhere
The Plants Stories
Leisha
Founder of Living Ground
Southern Ecuador
The Live Blood Guide
This guide reveals the hidden story within your blood, teaching you how to observe, understand, and restore your inner terrain through holistic, microbe-friendly practices.
The Soil Microbiome
Explore the unseen life beneath your feet, learning how soil microbes create fertility, resilience, and health for plants, animals, and humans in a thriving ecosystem.
Human Microbiome
Discover the vibrant microbial universe within your body, and how nourishing your inner ecology supports immunity, digestion, mental health, and balance through food, connection, and care.
Living Ground is a self reliance team who are building houses, landscaping, creating dream spaces
Existing & New Gardens & Landscaping
Stay Connected
Stay connected with new articles, reflections, medicinal plant knowledge, soil and microbiome education, self reliance ideas, garden experiments, and updates from Living Ground in Ecuador.
ARTICLES • GARDENS • SOIL • MICROBIOME
Sharing the wisdom of Self Reliance
Frequently Asked Questions