Christy Garner

🌸FULL-TIME PERMACULTURE FARM CARETAKER IN THE BEAUTIFUL SANTA CRUZ MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA

• We are looking for a self-motivated individual or couple for a full-time position on our 7-acre permaculture homestead in Felton.  It’s a beautiful heritage property with 400-year-old oaks, a 10-year-old food forest, organic food and medicinal gardens, pond, and a Japanese meditation garden.  We’re looking for someone for whom this is their dream job, in a phase of life where you feel rooted and not traveling a lot.  We want someone who is excited to take responsibility for stewarding this land and can commit full-time to its needs.

BENEFITS:
• We’re offering a salary of $5,000/month for full-time work (approx. 40 hours of work per week) which will be paid through payroll.
• Health insurance benefits.
• Share of organic fruit, vegetables, and medicinal herbs from the property
• Possibility of a partial work-trade for housing on the property (not required)
• Convenient location, 7 min to downtown Felton, 15 min to downtown Santa Cruz, 45 minutes to San Jose.

SKILLS/EXPERIENCE NEEDED:
• Driver’s license
• Organic orchard maintenance and pruning skills
• Irrigation installation & repairs
• Organic vegetable gardening, seed starting, plant care, and harvest
• Compost building and maintenance
• Gopher trapping
• Fence and path maintenance
• Ability to haul mulch and weed whip
• Handy person skills (general repairs/construction projects)
• Ability to organize projects and people
• Farm supply ordering and receiving
• Chainsaw and tractor work
• Responsive on text as property needs arise (taking care of emergencies if they come up after hours)
• Bonus skills include:  Permaculture and/or Biodynamic knowledge, ability to pull poison oak.

LIFESTYLE:
• No smoking/drugs
• Quiet
• Clean background check
• No unannounced visitors

We have 2 large protection dogs, so no other pets will be permitted on the property.  If this sounds like your dream job, please send an email to:  drchristy@simplyvibrant.com to apply.  

Thank you so much!  I appreciate it!

Hello fellow permies!  I purchased an electric Solectrac tractor this past year.  I absolutely love it.  Challenge is that the company recently closed and my tractor is having a computer issue and I can't reach anyone to service it.  Does anyone have a contact for someone knowledgable about the Solectrac tractor and/or has electric tractor knowledge and could help me troubleshoot and/or fix my tractor?

I love having an electric tractor, but right now it is completely inoperable.  I'm so sad, but holding out hope that I'll be able to find someone who can service it.

Hi Kydio.  I just tried the link again and it worked just fine.  You can also access it on our site at:  www.plantonce.com.  Wishing you a wonderful garden.

I wrote the book I wish I had when I started gardening...and it's FREE!  One that has everything you need in one place: which perma veggies to grow, how to grow, when to harvest, and yummy recipes to prepare them.

Learn how to grow the most delicious and nutritious food with the least amount of work. This book is a gift to you, my fellow gardeners and homesteaders. You can access the book below. I'll keep updating the videos and pro tips inside it throughout the growing season. I hope it makes your dreams of feeding yourself and your family so much easier.  I'm rooting for you!  Christy

Click here to access the FREE book!  :)

🌿 We’re looking for a self-motivated individual or couple to care for our koi ponds and Japanese gardens on our 7-acre permaculture homestead in Felton, California.  It’s a beautiful heritage property with 400-year-old oaks, an 8-year-old food forest, organic food and medicinal gardens, koi ponds, and Japanese-style meditation gardens.  We’re looking for someone for whom this is their dream job, in a phase of life where you feel rooted and not traveling a lot.  We’re in a quiet phase of life and looking for someone who can contribute to the stewardship of this land in a quiet and thoughtful way.

BENEFITS:
• You’ll have your own, private 1BR/1BATH home with full kitchen, dining room, living room, and a bonus loft /office. The house has a large fenced backyard with a deck and Japanese maples. Onsite parking. Available April 1st.  Rent is $2400/month.
• We’ll guarantee you 20 hours of work per week at $30/hour to cover the cost of rent.
• Share of organic fruit, vegetables, and medicinal herbs from the property
• Convenient location, 7 min to downtown Felton, 15 min to downtown Santa Cruz, 45 minutes to San Jose.

SKILLS/EXPERIENCE NEEDED:
• Driver’s license
• Koi and pond maintenance expertise
• Japanese garden and pruning expertise
• Responsive on text as property needs arise (taking care of emergencies if they come up after hours)

LIFESTYLE:
• No smoking
• Quiet
• Clean background check
• No unannounced visitors

If this sounds like a fit for you, please send an email to:  drchristy@simplyvibrant.com to apply.  🌿

Gorgeous, delicious, and healing...what more could you ask for? This beautiful hollyhock will be a showstopper in your garden and will give you towering blooms from early summer through Fall. We grow them in a beautiful variety of colors: red, purple, and black. We grow them between our perennial kales and collards as a beautiful pop of color and a great attractant for beneficial insects. The entire hollyhock plant is edible and useful. The flowers are a gorgeous addition to salads. the young leaves can be eaten like spinach, and the root is used as cooling, moistening medicine. This is a true perennial hollyhock. (Alcea rosea)

This is a must for every food forest and perennial garden!  We have seeds for red, purple, and black perennial hollyhocks.

What have been your experiences in growing hollyhocks?  Do you have any photos to share?

This crisp, cold-hardy green is a delicious edible salad green, that has a similar texture to frisée, and is a gentle skin soother.  This effortless salad green goes by many names in different countries:  Minutina, Buck's horn plantain, or Erba Stella, but whatever you call it, it's delicious. It's great tossed into meals raw, is delicious sauteed in olive oil, and can make great skin-soothing medicine.  It loves being cut and thrives in the cool spring season. As a plantain it is a go-to in the garden for skin support. (Plantago coronopus)

GET YOUR PERMA FRISEE (Minutina) HERE!

If Jack really had a bag of magic beans, they would have been runner beans!  Runner beans are our absolute favorite perennial bean.  These beans are gorgeous, yummy, and climb to the sky with ease. We've collected rare runner bean varieties from around the world and have continued to select for perennial nature, amazing colors, and rich, savory taste.  You'll receive a blend of colors from our collection and can enjoy the rich variety of colors of beans and blossoms.  Once you taste our runner beans, you'll forget that any other bean ever existed. (Phaseolus coccineus)

Check out these beautiful beans!