The First Year's End

*Originally posted on January 1, 2023 on our website.

We have reached the end of 2022 and have been reflecting on our first year on this land. During the first year or so of creating a permaculture landscape, it's crucial to observe. You have to learn where the sun shines during different parts of the day, which native species are thriving, and how water flows and collects. We've done so much observing and doing this past year, so I wanted to take some time to document some of that here.

Driving from Washington

Our first year at Fox Hollow has had plenty of ups and downs, planning, excitement, heartache, blood, sweat, and tears. In September of 2021 , we drove from our home in Washington state to our new home in the Ozarks, where we lived most of our lives previously. Returning to the place you were raised is complex, and not always easy, but we had a magnificent opportunity to lease-to-own an amazing spot, so we took the dive. The trip was a whirlwind of fear, worry, excitement, and possibility (it was also full of spectacular views through Idaho, Montana, Colorado, etc.). When we arrived, the house was not quite ready, so we stayed with family and spent our time dreaming about it.

When we moved in, we realized just how much work the house and the land needed. After so much anticipation, we got to work right away doing anything we could afford to do and chipping away at the ever-growing list of to-do's. At the time, work was scarce for me and we had much more time than money. This required us to be resourceful and make use of what was already here (which included a fully collapsed barn and small landfill) to build animal shelters and garden beds.

We had many indoor updates to do (and still do)

Since compost is the most significant source of nutrients for a permaculture garden, we decided that one of the most important projects to us was to get a compost pile going. We disassembled several pallets and used those to build a wooden box with a lid, and openings on the side covered in wire poultry netting to keep things aerated. I will make an extensive post about compost-making soon.

Around the same time, we went to work building up no-dig beds in different spots on the land as an experiment to see what grows best in which spots. This bed ended up not getting much sunlight under the full leaves of the massive Oak trees in our backyard, so it's a great spot for growing greens, peas, herbs, and flowers such as nasturtiums and calendula.

We learned that we needed to have a primary vegetable garden back in the field so that the plants would have enough sunlight throughout the day, so we built several no dig beds there as well. In this spot, we were able to grow many veggies, herbs, and flowers successfully, such as corn, tomatoes, marigolds, cucumbers, potatoes, pumpkins, massive watermelons, and Tulsi basil. The only issue with this bed was that in the height of the season, wildlife began enjoying the garden as well. An important goal for the coming garden season is to build a fence here.

Damien dedicated himself to digging out one of the small ponds so that it would hold more water from the spring and wet weather spring. We don't have any large equipment, so he has done this work with a shovel and lots of determination. It's several inches deeper in spots, and he has also built a spillway out of the pond to redirect water that would otherwise be lost. We have been digging our first swale! I will make another post about swales in the future, but simply put, they are a way to catch and redirect rainwater to use it more efficiently for the garden.

In addition to setting new goals, the new year is a great time to catalog all of the previous year's accomplishments and appreciate all of our efforts. This year has been a ton of rewarding work. We are so grateful for this experience and cannot wait to get started on next year’s endeavors.

Until next time,

Allyson