This is my first year planting a garden on this permaculture homestead. It marks a major milestone and brings a great sense of accomplishment to my psyche.

When we first moved to the San Juan Islands, I had thought I’d have a small garden in the first year. Oh how wrong I was. Not only did we have way more work on our hands with the Farm House Restoration Project than I had originally expected, we had septic issues, well water shortages, extreme deer pressure and way more quackgrass invasion than I ever imagined.

So today it feels good to finally have arrived at a place where there are starts and seeds in the ground. I have even installed an automated drip irrigation system that allows me to rest at ease when away for business. Lessons I’ve learned are:

1. It’s important to be flexible and patient. You never know what life will throw at you, especially when taking the path less traveled.
2. Let time be your ally, it can save you a lot of wasted energy and it allows natural processes to take their course.
3. Planting in straight rows makes planning, cultivating, and harvesting so much more efficient (see BCS Rotary Plow demo).

Going forward, I will update this post with photographs and video that document the growing season here.