The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

Jack and the beanstalk

Picking beans from a ladderOne 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!



Anna Hess's books
Want more in-depth information? Browse through our books.

Or explore more posts by date or by subject.

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.



Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.


Wow, that looks like a beautiful place.
Comment by Fostermamas Mon Jul 27 15:06:35 2009
It's stunning. That's what I'm working toward --- I figure maybe I'll get there in 30 years.
Comment by anna Mon Jul 27 17:12:14 2009

Anna Where is this exactly?

Comment by Jayne Tue Jul 28 09:38:11 2009
I know it looks fake, but really it's real! This is at a friend of ours' farm about 30 miles down the road.
Comment by anna Tue Jul 28 10:18:52 2009





profile counter myspace



Powered by Branchable Wiki Hosting.

Required disclosures:

As an Amazon Associate, I earn a few pennies every time you buy something using one of my affiliate links. Don't worry, though --- I only recommend products I thoroughly stand behind!

Also, this site has Google ads on it. Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to a website. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to users based on their visit to various sites. You can opt out of personalized advertising by visiting this site.