Food Forests Are Horrible Ugly Awful Places that Make Your Neighbors HATE You!!!

(Food Forest in June of its first year at Lillie House. Ugly? Heck no! Not at Lillie House! PS – all those beautiful flowering plants are EDIBLE!) Gaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!! This is driving me crazy! I keep hearing from people that one of the LAWS OF NATURE of forest gardens is that for AT LEAST the first few years they’ll be ugly tangled messes that will drive your neighbors to drink – and then rotten egg your car, T.P. your house and vote you off the island. 5 times this week alone I heard this concern from 5 different people! I’m not entirely … Continue reading Food Forests Are Horrible Ugly Awful Places that Make Your Neighbors HATE You!!!

Reviewing the Past, Planning the Future

Today, I’m spending a few moments remembering the last growing season as I continue to plan for the next one. Here are some of my favorite images from 2014’s garden along with some things I was particularly happy about last year: The garden was “thrown to the wolves” and managed to fend for itself, making a huge leep into becoming self-regulating with little maintanance beyond “chop and drop” mulching and mowing.   Almost no watering was necessary. Beyond the obligatory “watering in” at planting time, our garden was completely self-watering last year.  A year of harvests–we ate something out of … Continue reading Reviewing the Past, Planning the Future