RavenCroft Garden

RavenCroft Garden

	History

	Instructor Bios & Services

	Garden & Facilities

Garden and Facilities

RavenCroft Garden is filled with ordinary people doing ordinary things with common plants…And that…is what makes us extraordinary.

Our Garden Practice

We honor and practice the age-old processes that cultivate life. We work with the energy of the seasons, diversify and integrate our lives with other species, use local resources wisely by recycling, reusing and refusing to trash out our beautiful planet, this place called home. Every plant, animal and person is woven into the web of life at RavenCroft by at least 3 strands creating a rich fabric with strength and durability.

In 11 years, we have never watered the lawn or perennial gardens beyond settling in new plants…nor has any form of pesticide or herbicide, chemical or organic been used to stop disease or unwanted growth. None of the gardens have ever been rototilled or dug, We make our own soil, grow heirloom and open-pollinated plants and save our seed from year to year. All of it, Traditional garden know-how, you, too, can practice.

From the garden we make and use our own herbal medicines. We believe everyone should have access to affordable and local healthcare. Herbal Medicine is the primary means of health maintenance and disease treatment used for all livestock and residents at RavenCroft.

We take pleasure in the taste of fresh food and enjoy fresh yogurt, cheese and milk from our goats. Delicious chevre, Parmesan and cheddar cheeses rest in the cellar near the handcrafted wines and elder champagne. In summer, salad and vegetables are out the backdoor. In winter, the cellar shelves are lined with the bounty of summer in the colorful jars of fruit and preserves. You can make and enjoy these garden grown Slow Foods in your home kitchen, too…

All of this on less than an acre!

The First Ten Years

The first 10 years of the garden, the grounds were slowly crafted into several gardens, each with a distinct character and story; found materials and tons of compost created the forms:

The Shadow Garden, under the big leaf maple, is home to dry-shade loving plants
The Womb Garden is filled with herbs and perennials from all over the globe
The Vegetable Garden, yup, good eatin' here
The Maggie Garden, full of roses and lavender, commemorates our beloved Magpie duck
The Blueberry Patch, 8 varieties to nibble from mid to late summer
The Seven Sisters Garden is still working on manifesting it's destiny after 7 wonderful women from Tilth's WWOOF "willing, workers on organic farms" program gave order to a heap of Urbanite
The Dooryard Garden for picnics, classes, lavenders & geraniums in pots, hot tub and COB oven to come
The Hedgerow garden filled with willows, rugosa roses, currants, buddleias, hazels and hawthorns surrounds RavenCroft and creates living walls between the garden rooms
The Orchard with apples, pears, Asian pears, cherries, elderberries and all of the guilds (families of helper plants) beneath and betwixt the trees

The Plants

over 350 varieties of plants, native, exotic and vulgaris or common ones…including 100's of medicinal, culinary and weedy herbs from all over the planet
over 25 varieties of small fruit & berries, the ultimate snack-food
10 varieties of tree fruit
3 varieties of nuts
7 varieties of willow and dogwood coppiced annually for plant stakes, arbors and other building material and goat browse
heirloom & open-pollinated beans, squash, tomatoes, carrots, beets, potatoes, peas, lettuces and brassica of all persuasions

The Other Species

Dawn & Karuna, 2 milking goats, AKA: the chipper shredders and lead instructors
a small flock of ducks and chickens…slug and bug control
3 rabbits…companions, composters, sometimes dinner
3 cats…rodent control, house bosses
5 full time residents, the willing workers!
Myriads of summer class participants, apprentices and visitors
Billions of micro and macro organisms

The Vision

As we leave the mechanical age and enter the biological age this kind of system will be the garden of the future. I hope you'll join us on the adventure as we move toward stabilized landscapes with richness and abundance for all of earth's creatures & micro flora and fauna that are the magic that keep us all alive and well.

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