flowerweaver
Deeply Rooted
Formerly, I was a native plant and wildflower botanist for a national botanical garden, where I worked in environmental education. I left to direct a regional river conservation and nature tourism non-profit for many years. Since leaving corporate life behind I split my time between farming (developing drought-tolerant vegetables), art (silver smithing, painting, fiber art), and music (guitar, voice). All of which makes me happy 
For the past 14 years my husband and I have had a five acre place in a remote southwestern river canyon, semi-arid Zone 8 where three different ecosystems come together. There's no cell phone service but I do have DSL; it's a 3 hour round trip to a grocery store, 4 hours for organic so (in good years) we endeavor to produce most of our own food. We have a small zoo of pets--dogs, cats, chickens, sheep, and a donkey--about 70 animals in all--and honeybees and hummingbirds. In June we were directly hit by a tornado (I fractured my thumb and spent the rest of the summer in a cast) so we are still trying to recover from all that. Lots of repair work to be done. We've also seen our share of severe drought and floods. Never a dull moment here and a challenging environment for gardening!
Our place is very diverse for its size; there's a short grass prairie, riparian wet weather creek, small wetland, wildflower meadow, oak/juniper/mesquite savanna, a rocky desert area, cedar brake, mountain views. Around the house I have a cottage garden of all kinds of flowers. The vegetables are grown in many small fields tucked into the natural areas. Everything is connected by a series of trails.
Since 2008 I have regularly journaled under the same name about gardening on MyFolia. You can also find me on the Homegrown Goodness forum. Recently I was nominated as a possible board candidate of the Grassroots Seed Network, a newly forming non-profit.
I look forward to getting to know you!
For the past 14 years my husband and I have had a five acre place in a remote southwestern river canyon, semi-arid Zone 8 where three different ecosystems come together. There's no cell phone service but I do have DSL; it's a 3 hour round trip to a grocery store, 4 hours for organic so (in good years) we endeavor to produce most of our own food. We have a small zoo of pets--dogs, cats, chickens, sheep, and a donkey--about 70 animals in all--and honeybees and hummingbirds. In June we were directly hit by a tornado (I fractured my thumb and spent the rest of the summer in a cast) so we are still trying to recover from all that. Lots of repair work to be done. We've also seen our share of severe drought and floods. Never a dull moment here and a challenging environment for gardening!
Our place is very diverse for its size; there's a short grass prairie, riparian wet weather creek, small wetland, wildflower meadow, oak/juniper/mesquite savanna, a rocky desert area, cedar brake, mountain views. Around the house I have a cottage garden of all kinds of flowers. The vegetables are grown in many small fields tucked into the natural areas. Everything is connected by a series of trails.
Since 2008 I have regularly journaled under the same name about gardening on MyFolia. You can also find me on the Homegrown Goodness forum. Recently I was nominated as a possible board candidate of the Grassroots Seed Network, a newly forming non-profit.
I look forward to getting to know you!
. I look forward to learning about your gardening experiences and I'm sure others do as well.
Welcome 
