When my friend bought the Log House which is for sale near the Wilberforce Village community site, I became the caretaker until she came out. She never did come to live here for complicated reasons, but wanted me to have this home. October 2022 was when she finally decided to sell it. Robert (my former husband) is
in charge of selling the place and I am living in the apartment below the main house where he lives. I am helping him get the place ready to sell.
When I first came here, almost immediately I wanted to start transforming the bermuda grass lawn in front of the Log House into a hugelkutur garden. This part of the lawn was just a strip of land about 12 feet by 30 feet, and so it was not a monumental task.
I had transformed a front lawn into a garden before using the technique of putting cardboard on the lawn and piling it with mulch, along with making a hugelkultur bed, so I was fortunate to have some experience.
After seven years of planting various pollinators, letting wild edibles like yellow dock, plantain, chickweed and wintercress go to seed and thrive, and continuing to plant bulbs and plant starts along with mulching and weeding the grass out every year, this are is incredible.
The miracles of nature really show themselves in just the small area which then I extended to the crack between the driveway and a boulder cascade. The house was built on a hill, and a boulder cascade makes a huge wall between the level part that the house is built on and the spacious lawn.
I have been amazed at how much can be grown in an 8 inch crack! I had to stop up the holes with various methods as I tried to put dirt and compost and mulch in the crack. Seeing all that work go down the drain was discouraging, so I used landscaping cloth and old t-shirts to keep the dirt from going down the cascade. Once I had two giant volunteer unknown gourds spring up! That was amazing.
I also would fill up the holes between the boulders with cloth and rocks, then fill with compost and dirt and plant things like comfrey, mint, spiderwort, and plantain. My goal was that ever crack and crevice would burst through with useful plants for eating, healing, to attract pollinators, and just be beautiful.
I’ve been gone for long periods at times, and was not able to water or weed or nurture the cascade as much as I would have liked, but still there is an abundance of good stuff growing and just waiting for the right person who has feet like a goat to maximize the potential of the endless little cracks and crannies and holes that are in the cascade.
There was a time when I was in a great deal of turmoil, and the best way I could deal with my emotions was do use a mattock and shovel and dig a huge trench in an area bel ow the boulder cascade. I had heard about a permaculture technique called a banana circle, https://www.permaculturenews.org/2014/04/08/banana-circles/and I felt inspired to try this method out. There were lots of rocks, some very big, and the exercise and sweat I experienced was very healing. Plus I got rid of about 15 buckets of vegan table scraps that I had accumulated over the months.
I realized that I need to make raised beds, and I expanded the banana circle to become a hugelculture bed. I gathered many hours worth of rotted wood and mulch from the forest bed along with grass clippings I got from the city. I am not sure where I got the dirt! But I had about 100 1 gallon pots, and I lined the bed with the pots and landscaping cloth so the soil would not seep out. That is one of the biggest problems with making raised beds. I didn’t have the wood or woodworking ability to make raised beds, and although I had never heard of using pots, it worked!
The great thing was that I could plant seeds in the pots and grow lettuce, radishes, cilantro and other greens. Wild edibles like dock, plantain, chickweed grew as well. I loved my technique. The raised bed produced a multitude of greens including kale, collards, swiss chard, parsley, cilantro. Robert, my former husband helped me make a low tunnel and the greens grew all winter. That was glorious! He put an electric fence around the garden, which by now had two raised beds plus a section where the chickens could roam free. We put up some cattle panels where I raised tomatoes, squash and beans.
The garden got neglected last year because I was gone during the whole gardening season. I came back around August 2023, and started nurturing the garden again. I chose not to grow a fall garden but I did put up the low tunnel plastic to see if I could have yellow dock and wintercress all year. For some reason, partly because I was not consistent in closing it securely, there weren’t that many greens. But i actually found greens growing outside in parts of the yard that I have nurtured with the cardboard/mulch technique. I also grew longevity spinach and yellow dock in the grow room which I shall talk about shortly, and had greens all winter. Learn about longevity spinach here:
In a list of 50 medicinal plants, I discovered that 12 of the plants that are in the list are growing in the numerous garden areas we have created by building up the soil and planting, year after year. The plants are:
Comfrey
Passion Flower
Yellow Dock
Red Clover
Garlic
Wild garlic
Yarrow
Dandelion
Sage
Milk Thistle
Peppermint
Mullein
Echinacea
Here is a list of most of the plants that are growing on the property. Some come up from bulbs, others from roots, and others are self-seeding. They all have wonderful properties, including:
Medicinal
Flowering
Pollinators
Natives
Edible roots
Fruit bearing
Teas
Cooking herbs
Here is a list of most of them, numbering around 40. I am still identifying other plants that are growing, and I keep thinking of more plants which I have forgotten! If i duplicate some, please forgive me!
Cosmos
Bee balm
Lemon balm
Yarrow
Echinacea
Peppermint
Apple mint
Oregano
Comfrey
Yellow dock
Wintercress
Comfrey
Passion Flower
Yellow Dock
Red Clover
Garlic
Yarrow
Dandelion
Sage
Milk Thistle
Peppermint
Mullein
Echinacea
Here is a list of most of the plants that are growing on the property. Some come up from bulbs, others from roots, and others are self-seeding. They all have wonderful properties, including:
Medicinal
Flowering
Pollinators
Natives
Edible roots
Fruit bearing
Here is a list of most of them, numbering around 40. I am still identifying other plants that are growing, and I keep thinking of more plants which I have forgotten!
Cosmos
Bee balm
Lemon balm
Yarrow
Echinacea
Peppermint
Apple mint
Oregano
Comfrey
Yellow dock
Wintercress
Dandelions
Morning glories
Four O’clocks
Plantain
Dead nettle
Chickweed
Gladiolas
Iris
Daylilies
Obedient plants
Asian lilies
Jerusalem artichokes.
Cilantro
Sweet peas
Passion fruit
Cow peas
Lambs ear
Sedum
Naked lady lilies
Marigolds
Mullein
Ferns
Milk Thistle
Milkweed
Solomon’s Seal
Tansy
Purslane
Butterfly Bush
Morning glories
Four O’clocks
Plantain
Poppy
Dead nettle
Chickweed
Gladiolas
Iris
Daylilies
Obedient plants
Asian lilies
Jerusalem artichokes.
Cilantro
Sweet peas
Passion fruit
Cow peas
Lambs ear
Sedum
Naked lady lilies
Marigolds
Mullein
Ferns
Milk Thistle
Milkweed
Solomon’s Seal
Tansy
Purslane
Butterfly Bush
Marjoram
I continued to work on expanding the garden which produced a ton of beautiful Jerusalem artichokes one year along with some lovely potatoes and sweet potatoes and lots of the easy to grow cowpeas which now volunteer every year. One year I grew enough winter squash to eat all winter through spring. The sunflowers another year were fabulous. The soil just gets better and better because I have added composted chicken manure from the chickens that Robert has grown. The garden is eager for someone to come and nurture it and grow tons of food! I do see a volunteer kale, lots of dock, but it is early yet to see what will volunteer.
In addition to all of the above, I continued to put cardboard and mulch along the bottom of the cascade and now have a milkweed garden which could host all kinds of plants because the grass is no longer there, and a narrow bed with flowers and herbs stretching a nice length. Along the garden fence there is a lot of yellow dock. Dock is one of the best plants I have found to eat in salad chopped up finely, and it yielded leaves all winter!
Well, I am hopeful that whoever buys this land will love gardening and will enjoy learning about all the plants that are coming up. I hope to be here to introduce you to the beautiful plants that demonstrate our Creator God’s wonderful creativity, love, abundance and healing powers. Whenever I look up the plants I am growing, I find that most of them are either medicinal or edible for food. That is exciting and healthy!
Oh, I forgot to mention that there are two Arkansas Black apple trees and an asian pear tree. They need some attention, but they are about 6 years old and bearing fruit. There are also wild berries–black berries and wild raspberries. The great thing about it all is there is a spring that is so prolific that I was able to water all the plants if necessary during the short droughts that we have had. With all the mulch and organic materials, plus many drought resistant plants, not everything needed watering.
If you want to plant trees and berries, I have prepared the soil for you in many places!
What do you do to make your soil great, and grow lots of plants? What resources do you recommend?
