About Us

I'm Dennis and I help grow adaptive gardens for my neighbors (human and non-human!) and want you to do the same. This is my third year offering low cost bare root trees. And I hope to offer native plant starts, garden starts, and seeds in the future. 

Growing native plants may be the best hope we have to thrive. We can grow native food plants that feed everyone: insects, birds, and even humans. This is the best strategy, I think, to feed each other as the weather and culture at large gets more chaotic and wonky. Many of these plants have already been adapted to the local conditions for thousands of years, and they have the best chance to adapt to new conditions. What a wealth of strength and resilience growing along side us everyday! What crops can grow without destructive insecticides, fungicides, heavy fertilizers, and heavy use of plastic? Native plants and other locally adapted crops.  

Native food crops we can help grow right now: wild plums, muscadines, grapes, squash, corn, hot peppers, hazelnuts, acorns, hickory nuts, black walnuts, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, sochan, and more! For more on this approach see Native Plant Agriculture by Indigenous Landscapes. As Doug Tallamy and others have explained, Native Plants are required to feed soft bodied caterpillars for birds to survive. We can produce food for ourselves while also creating great abundance for all those around us. Trees, like Wild Plums, are host to an estimated 362 insect species! Other non native plants can't do that right now (at least not yet).

Corn, squash, beans, and hot peppers didn't always grow here (Western NC aka Cherokee Tsalagiyi Detsadanilvgi lands), for example, but Indigenous people adapted them to this area through hard work and observation. Deepest gratitude to them. We owe everything to the ancestors who came before us, but especially the genius Indigenous people who helped crops like corn, beans, squash, peppers, and tomatoes stay alive for us to eat today. (For more on this approach see Joseph Lofthouse's book Landrace Gardening and the website https://goingtoseed.org/) Cowpeas, butternut squash, and tomatoes currently grow wild in my yard, for example, providing a lot of healthy food without much of my input. Amazing! Maybe gardening doesn't have to be so difficult and expensive? 

Sharing such resilient trees, seeds, and food is how I want to thank the ancestors who helped bring such amazing food to us. Let's grow adaptive gardens together!

Thanks for reading!

Dennis

dennis.lanigan at gmail.com or FIVEZEROFIVE-470-1013