The moment you enter Vicky Jimenez’s “Divina Providencia”, you feel the warmth from the collection of over 100 plants. Jimenez, 64, is a San Jose, Costa Rica native who in 2020, turned an empty 15-meter lot full of potential into a garden for food and medicinal plants.

Jimenez, self-described as a happy, healthy worker, manages her landscapes on her own, but she serves a community beyond herself. From teaching youth the ways of medicinal plants to planting greens that attract and feed bees, birds, and butterflies, Jimenez is very intentional about her impact on the world.

“I try to share the Costa Rica customs and I guess you are young and you are the future of the world”, said Jimenez as she described her reason for opening up her home to us fellow exchange students.

To the point of intention, Jimenez named her garden project “Divina Providencia” (Divine Providence in English) after she was instructed by her ancestors to begin planting herbs there. She wants to make the point that as humans, we are made of Earth, and we can use Earth’s properties to heal.

“They [people] prefer to go to the hospitals and take a lot of medicines and drugs and we can stop some aches by just eating or drinking plants”, says Jimenez as she expresses her disdain for agrochemicals.

In her life, Jimenez has undergone 12 surgeries and spent countless moments of her life in the hospital from complications with her liver, intestines, and pancreas. She credits her health today to her herbal lifestyle, which she labels as her therapy. Because of her journey, Jimenez lives her life as a “free spirit”, full of gratitude, optimism, & energy.

Jimenez is committed to educating as many as she can on the benefits of plants so that her legacy does not depart when she leaves Earth. She looks at herself and others as seeds whose growth and health are dependent on what it receives.

“When I talk to people I say we are like a circle, we are a seed,” Jimenez explains. “We’re born, we grow, we take care of us, we take care of our environment, we die, and then the circle begins again.”

In the future, Jimenez has been planning to potentially move to Cartago, Costa Rica, and build a communal farm where she can live a fully holistic and healthy life.

“Maybe we will be building a communal like hippies, but not like smoking marijuana,” with a contagious laughter Jimenez adds, “but drinking Marijuana.”