Jack and the beanstalk
One day when I was a kid, my parents dragged
me along to a garden party. I was even more antisocial then than
I am now, so I disappeared off into the plants for the afternoon.
The garden was a wonder of flowers, fruit, and vegetables, many I'd
never seen before. When no one was looking, I nibbled on the
first currant I'd ever tasted. Somewhere between the broccoli and
the strawberries, I imprinted on that garden just like a baby chicken
can imprint on its human handlers.
Fast forward a decade or
two into the future, and I met the owners of the garden for the first
time in my adult life. The husband had become my co-worker at the
nonprofit, and I was awed when I went over to his house and saw the
garden which I vividly recalled from childhood. The wife is the
main garden tender, and she soon became my garden guru.
Saturday, we went over
to visit them and their garden. As usual, I was stunned by the
results of thirty years of organic soil amendments. Their corn
was literally twice as tall as my corn. And, as you can see in
this photo, they pick their beans with a full size ladder!
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Anna Where is this exactly?