Permaculture, Homesteading, and Community Building // Reflections and Photos From Working With My Land

My family and friends are the blood of the land project - without them none of this would be possible. A big shoutout to my brother for watering, my mother for being the animal caregiver, my father for landscaping, construction, and non-edible garden expertise, and my friends for constantly coming over and being stoked to get dirty in the soil and make work feel like silly play.

Diversity creates resiliency. I have over 100 different types of edible plants in the ground right now, and they are thriving. I’ve found so many benefits with this diversity of crops. First, if one crop fails it’s okay - I have 99 more! Second, the diversity draws in many different beneficial pests, creating a system of integrated pest management. Third, diversity just makes my life fun! I’ve found so much joy in planting a new herb and then come harvest time trying to figure out how to cook with it. Fourth, I get to observe how different plants interact with each other and how some can mutually benefit each other through proper design. Diversity of people creates resiliency too. Living with people of different generations, races, genders, and socioeconomic background has created a community with an abundance of knowledge.

Everything takes me two times longer than I expect it to…it has been a practice of cultivating patience and compassion for my own timing.

I’ve learned to approach my projects with an acceptance that they might fail. In fact, I invite failure into my life. Without failure, I wouldn’t learn what factors create a successful environment. I’d rather fail a lot in the early stages of creation than build my foundation full of holes that I didn’t even realize were there.

To live in time and place has allowed me to reintegrate and become of the land. When in relationship to the land and working with it every day I am present in the current moment and in the current place. For me, this is a re-becoming of place. I am Anwen, of these particular hills in the Bay Area.

“Doing” is not necessarily the most efficient way to get things done. If I “do” something (put up a greenhouse, plant a certain crop in a certain area, ect) without spending prior time observing the space and the possibilities, then I haven’t taken the time to make the design as efficient as possible. This could create an inefficient system, requiring a lot more of my time in the future. I have had to practice patience and accept that observation is just as much “doing” as the other work.

Just like the phrase - “don’t go grocery shopping on an empty stomach”, I’ve also learned that my eyes can be bigger than my stomach when crop planning. I love tomatoes, like I really love them. Does that mean I needed to plant 200 tomato plants? Probably not… Good thing I have my canning & preserving setup ready for this crop!

Having a puppy is so rewarding, and it is also so much work. Often I will look at my puppy, Blossom, and get overwhelmed with love and gratitude. I just want to play with him all the time. However, the reality of my life is that I can’t be around all of them time. It takes a village to raise a child…thanks family! I am so thankful that I have support in raising Blossom and am also thankful that I didn’t try and get a puppy when I was not living in community, as that puppy would have been bored and would have lacked needed attention.

I have created a mission statement for myself - “to heal people, community, and land through plant medicine”. Having a mission statement has been grounding. Whenever I am trying to make a decision, I always ask myself if the decision is in the highest service to my mission statement. If not, that is a good indication that I should re-evaluate that decision.

The more I give, the more I receive. I have never believed more in abundance. I am in reciprocal relationship with everything around me. The more I give to my plants the better they will grow. The more I give to the land, the better it will feed my plants and hold me. The more I give to my friends and family, the more they have to return to me. I’ve found that the simple act of giving shows others that they already hold abundance which they too can share.