Farm…ish?
Is it a farm, or not?
It is not. Farm-ish is an endeavour to help folks grow an abundance of food, herbs and flowers in their own yards in order to enjoy more self-sufficiency. Everyone’s garden space is unique in their size, access to sunlight, and soil conditions, and every person has different sizes and types of gardens they’d like to grow, so everyone will have a one-of-a-kind “farm-ish” bounty. Working with the principles of permaculture, we will work together with your garden’s special conditions—not against them. This will result in increased soil and plant health, which in turn will give you success in the garden.
How long have you done this, Anja?
Several of you have known me in my previous and still-sometime incarnation as a photographer, and thus, some of you may be wondering what this all is about.
I gardened as a kid with my childhood friend and neighbor, Laura, on a plot my mother let us set up in an out-of-the-way spot in her yard. I know we had this plot for a few years, but I don’t really remember the results or how hard we worked on it. I know we built a scarecrow with a sharpied foam ball and a sunhat for a head, and erroneously named the garden the Doris J Murphy Memorial Garden after our still very-much-alive neighbor, who generously bought us a rose-bush. We went from too young to understand the word “memorial” to being old enough for me to be full of angst and gardening in high heels…because. My love of nature conflicted with my newly arrived love for glamor.
Fast-forward to about 25 years later and a deathbed promise to my mother to keep her garden going. Initially I struggled with the gardening and the grief, but as I worked away in her yard, and in my dear friend Rick’s garden, I realized that there was not much that made me happier than being outside, hands in the dirt, eyes away from a screen, listening to birds and observing the immediate world. The learning curve has been swift and steep, and it has inspired me to go back to school to learn Permaculture, with the plan to help other people learn what I am learning. This goal both aims to encourage self-sufficiency, but also to help others realize, like I did, that gardening is a huge source of joy and participation in the natural world.
This site is a personal chronicle of my learning, which I invite you to join in on, and in the future will be a repository for all sorts of resources for all of us.
