Discovering Our Vision

I'll be honest, we bought the house for the view. We loved looking through tall windows out at our new pastoral 'neighborhood' - seeing the horse stables, plowed and planted fields, the blackberry and oak forest housing our resident coyote pack, and the sprawling vineyard next door.

We wanted land and space, but didn't have a real vision for the property. In fact, one of the first things I did was engage a landscape designer who we had worked with before to build us a plan - some way to create a transition between the house and this endless field that drops off down at the bottom of the property. It's a beautiful plan, but now I laugh, wondering if we'll even get it planted over the next 10 years. Our priorities have shifted.

Now we look toward planting our field, carving out spaces here and there for different needs. The large fenced dog run has turned into our free(ish) range chicken yard. We've planted an orchard along the pathway down to the bottom of the property. A hugelkultur mound sits off to the north, my first experiment with regenerative gardening.

Through the course of learning to keep chickens and experiencing many the failures but also small successes of a large garden, I began to realize I felt really great when I was doing that work. It feels intentional and purposeful to carry in a few collected eggs each morning, or set a large basket with a variety of vegetables from the garden. Something tangible to show for my time invested. Food at its nutritional peak, ready to serve to my family.

The feeling is addicting.

So now we set sights on building a food forest. Our biggest but most worthwhile project so far. Come along with me as we learn how to build and manage a permaculture garden - a forest of delightful organic food - in our backyard.