One afternoon, she took a long walk in a gravelly, barren tract of land near her home. In a small dip, she found a single lupine growing in the rough ground. The emerald-green leaves and strong upright stems lined with beautiful violet flowers were in stark contrast to the bleak landscape the lupine was growing in.
Her mother told her that there were areas full of lupines and that all the lupines were the descendants of a few seeds someone had brought from Alaska many years ago.
Kristin read about lupines on the internet and discovered that they were nitrogen-fixing plants that could be foundation plants in a process to make soil fertile again. The lupines could survive in very poor soil and, each year when they died back, their leaves and stems broke down into humus that other plants could grow in.
She found out who owned the land where the single lupine grew and asked if she could attempt to rehabilitate the area. The owner laughed at her idea but gave her permission to try.
Near the end of the summer, Kristin collected seeds from the lupine plant. She dug holes about half an inch deep and planted the seeds about a foot apart. After a few weeks she began to see sprouts. When the first snow of winter came, the plants had half a dozen leaves that would be protected by the cold blanket.
The next spring, Kristin was pleased to see that almost all the lupines had survived. In the summer, she watched them grow into large plants with tall, attractive spikes of purple flowers. That fall she had hundreds of seeds to plant.
Encouraged by her success, Kristin decided to move on to the next stage of her planting scheme. The following spring, she researched what kinds of trees might be able to survive in that environment, and she planted some Sitka spruce, Russian larch, and black cottonwood.
Every year she expanded her patch and planted more varieties of trees, shrubs and grasses. She dug a small pond to be a ready source of water. Birds, insects and animals made her garden their home. It became a place of regrowth and healing for Kristin.
When she inherited money from her grandfather, she bought several acres of the land she had been rehabilitating. People started to visit her project and were inspired to try similar projects elsewhere. Out of barrenness had come life, beauty, and hope for the future. The stalwart lupine's will to survive in the most difficult circumstances was a lesson for everyone.