“Come forth into the Light of things,
Let Nature be your teacher.”
William Wordsworth

“We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive,” he wrote, arguing our survival depends on freeing ourselves from the “optical delusion” of separateness and “widen[ing] our circle of compassion.”
Albert Einstein

Welcome to The Holistic Garden blog! I hope you enjoy your visit and perhaps even take away some ideas to try or at least find yourself inspired and encouraged.

“Holistic Garden” is a term I came up with back in the 80’s to describe what has now become popularly known as a regenerative or permaculture garden. Since the early 60’s I have been working at growing as much food as possible in the most sustainable, low-input, earth-friendly way, exploring and experimenting with “whole systems” with the understanding that everything is interconnected.

You will find information in my Blog on:
…building a “natural” frog pond,
…hugelkultures
…rain gardens and swales
…fruit tree “guilds”
…perennial food plants of many kinds,
…medicinal plants,
…creating habitat for butterflies, bees and other pollinators,
…food for growing healthy soil and livestock,
…and the many creative uses of plants, including fertilizer, baskets, gates and fences, mulch, shade – and beauty…

You can find out more about me if you are interested – on the About page.

The Holistic Garden section is taken from a book I wrote in 1990 and will help you get started in designing and creating your own permaculture garden, no matter how big or small your space.

The garden you will see pictured throughout this site is on 5 mostly wooded acres in southern Oregon that I share with two of my sons. I moved here in late 2007. The soil here is decomposed granite, which makes the most amazing paths – but needs a huge amount of help to grow even a decent weed!  We pretty much started from scratch here, tucking our garden into the forest that surrounds us.

Thanks for coming and for hanging out, if you do.