We (my husband, three two cats, an African Pygmy hedgehog, two chickens, and two bunnies) live on 1/5 of an acre, south of the Puget Sound in the Pacific Northwest. We live in a Craftsman home, that occasionally insists on our devoted attention… to be expected with a home approx. 100 years old.
What I love most about our home is the garden, although the house does come a very close second ;0}. The house caught my attention, but the garden grabbed ahold of my heart. We were lucky enough to find a home that already had a plethora of perennial plants:
- Gravenstein apple
- Asian pear
- Kiwis – arctic and fuzzy
- Italian prune
- raspberries
- Fuyu persimmon
- European pear
- unknown apple
- hazelnut hedge
- Serviceberry
- Paw Paw (has since been removed)
- rosemary
- lovage (which I mistook as celery – only once, though ;0})
- sage
- lemon-balm
- oregano
- mint
- rhubarb
over the years, I have added:
- dwarf peach (removed 5/2012 because of peach leaf curl)
- dwarf combo-cherry (would NOT recommend)
- gooseberries
- currants
- jostaberries (a cross between gooseberries and currants)
- autumn olives
- elderberries
- blueberries
- salal*
- kinnikinik*
- Aronia berries
- strawberries – including woodland* and alpine
- huckleberries*
- Oregon grape*
- thimbleberries*
- salmonberries*
- thyme
- lavender
- chives
- Calendula
- borage
- chamomile
- bergamot
- hyssop
- anise hyssop
- lemon verbena
- salad burnet
- King Henry
- germander
- ladies mantel
- Echinacea
- crabapples (4)
- dwarf plum
- dwarf apple (2)
- parsley
- roses
- hops
- medicinal herbs are continually being added
My goal is to create a forest garden and practice permaculture principles (completed my Permaculture Design Certificate in ’09 with Toby Hemenway and have participated in classes with Marisha Auerbach, Jenny Pell, and Sepp Holzer). I want the garden to be filled with plants that nourish, sustain and heal… and, of course, delight the eye and soul =0}
I also want to add to my homesteading skills: extend the harvest, increase the yield, save/share seeds, protect diversity, preserve the harvest, share excess, improve the soil, reduce energy consumption, install a clothesline, harvest rainwater, use greywater, forage locally, gather needed materials from our property/garden for basket-making, garden structures, as well as, the needed plant material for tinctures, tonics, soaps, lotions, and salves. Make and use the tinctures, tonics, soaps, lotions and salves ;0} And most importantly, I want to build a community, where all this can be shared… because I firmly believe, we cannot do this alone… and who would want to ;0}
At times, this all seems like a BIG, daunting task… but then I focus on one little thing at a time (okay, who are we kidding… I have at least three projects, in various stages, all the time – but you get the picture ;0}). It is after all, the little things that bring about the BIG results!
Join me, won’t you?
Kari Ann
YUM. Your garden is DELICIOUS.
thanks Liv!!