Unruly Gardening is a family website project where we share all of the growing, foraging, preserving, homesteading, and crafting projects that we love to do!
Current authors include:
- Jan (herbalist, photographer & best-selling author)
- Mike (mushroom grower & full time farmer; the primary labor force here on the farm)
- Cindy (gardener, writer & crafter extraordinaire)
The Land
We grow on, forage, and roam about 100 acres of land in zone 7 USA, Appalachian Mountain range.
Our landscape features a couple of creeks, a few open fields, and forests filled mainly with tulip poplars, pine, oak, dogwood, redbud, and sycamore trees.
The soil is heavy red clay, and we also have lots and lots of rocks!
We battle persistent invasive plants which include: kudzu, autumn olive, Japanese knotweed, bush honeysuckle, barberry, wineberries, and bittersweet oriental – using a lot of manual labor and the help of 14 myotonic goat wethers.
Like the goats, the pastured pigs (nature’s rototillers!) are also moved around frequently using electric net fencing. These lovely pig ladies below are helping us reclaim and expand all of the overgrown field edges.
Our overarching goal is to help preserve the creek areas which are filled with treasured natives such as black cohosh, bloodroot, slippery elm, lady slippers, and more, plus reintroduce and restore lost native plants to the woodlands.
We have multiple gardens of various sizes, several beehives, and enjoy farming our woods, especially with mushrooms.
Favorite family pastimes include foraging, hiking around the land, looking at interesting rocks in the creeks, and spending time with our 4 rescue cats and 3 rescue dogs.
We have lots to share, so we hope you find something useful, helpful, interesting, or inspiring here!
PS: You can view an informal walk around our gardens and farm (in 2022) at this video: 😊