Welcome!!
Hello and welcome to this space.
Inspired by some gardening and environmental advocates on substack like Jack Wallington, Kate Bradbury, Huw Richards, and others I thought documenting our gardening adventures here would be fun.
Our gardening journey and knowledge base is an aggregation of knowledge, experience and encouragement from family, friends, serious gardening influencers (on social media) and professional/celebrity gardeners like Monty Don (Gardeners World), Costa Georgiadis (Gardening Australia) and the entire team at Gardeners World (UK), Gardening Australia (Australia) and The Beechgrove Garden (Scotland).
The “Old” Garden
Over the past decade+ we lived and grew in our home in southwest Florida where we developed a productive and wild food forest garden. During our time there we expanded the garden up to 1-acre where we made trails, managed the wild areas, boosted biodiversity with tons of native plants, numerous veg beds, and fruit trees. As we added space (i.e. bought 0.25 acre lots), we kept the existing native vegetation like oaks (Quercus spp), pine (Pinus elliotti), saw palmetto (Serenoa repens), cabbage palms (Sabal palmetto), etc. and removed exotic species like Brazilian pepper (Schinus terebinthifolia) and others.
Over the decade we imported tons of organic matter (rarely exported) and transformed the soil around the house from lifeless fill dirt to organic rich and productive soil. However, after the decade plus, the changing climate and several hurricanes that flattened the garden we decided it was time to find uproot our lives and seek refuge in a far away land where we could start a new garden.
The “New” Garden
It took a while to find a new space but after more than a year of looking, viewing, putting in offers, etc. we found our new plot, actually it’s more like a small farm or arboretum. The new garden covers 15-acres encompassing a home from the 1840s. The garden is a mix of open areas (~5 acres) and a mix of wetland and upland forested areas. The area around the house has some several small formal garden beds and ornamental fencing. Our intention is to refresh and plant more natives in these few existing garden beds. Also dotted around are nest boxes for small birds such as Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis), of which there are many flying about already. It seems that the forested areas were not a priority for the former owners and therefore haven’t been managed properly, other than some trails cut through and random where random brush piles were placed. An additional complication is that the house, being from 1840 has had very DIY laissez faire repairs done through time and is in need of significant and expensive attention.
Broadly, our goals with this garden are to build a productive veg patch and greenhouse, improve and boost the existing gardened areas, plant an orchard and manage the forested areas to improve wildlife habitat. Managing the forested areas will be brutal at first but ultimately it’s going to make a more resilient and productive ecosystem. We also intend to add biodiversity through the introduction of more tree species and native plantings focused on wildlife habitat for pollinators, birds and larger wildlife like the herd of deer that move through the forest (we saw the deer on our third day here). In one of the larger open spaces where it gets seasonally wet, we have plans to convert the grassy area to a wildflower meadow.
We waited to “name” the garden, we let it introduce itself to us. Within the first couple of hours of walking around the property we began to notice the abundant wild strawberries (Fragaria virginiana) scattered around. We jokingly started singing Strawberry Fields by The Beatles. The property is also located at the highest point on the road with a downward slope from the house to a wetland area in the middle of the property. We started firing off names till we came to “Wild Strawberry Hill” and it stuck.
The Goal
So what’s the deal with this substack? First and foremost, this will be a space to share and document the transformation of the garden and its unique areas. As we delve into rewilding, ecosystem management, habitat enhancement, production (i.e. fruit and veg) and native plant gardening, we will also throw in some ornamental (i.e. non-native) gardening as well for fun.
I intend to produce posts approximately every other week. These posts will be alternating between 1) updates on gardening projects and progress and 2) information on native plants. The garden updates are to share our garden to a broader audience, and initiate discussions on various gardening topics. The information on native plants is a little self-serving as I learn more about the native plants in this region.
Together with my wife, The Pessimistic Gardener we have big plans for the garden and I hope you join us for the journey.