Dragon Tree Gardens

09/29/2026

This is a husband appreciation post.

Growing a homestead or a farm is like raising children, it takes a village. Assimilating my poor, unassuming husband into villager-hood is something I knew would be a slow process, but I want to acknowledge all the things he’s done to be part of our food security lately.

He learned to work a farm tractor, and tilled next year’s new growing space for two hours yesterday while I mucked goat pens for our farm friends.
He helped me process and blanch 50lbs of produce for another farm friend a few weeks ago.
He tried all the quail-meat recipes without complaint.
And he, of his own volition, fermented pine needles and made a sourdough starter from scratch so that he can make my favorite bread. I am not a baker, so this last one was like pure magic to me. ♥️
And all between his 7am-5pm job that keeps me home with the kids.

Love this guy.

09/26/2026

Quail eggs are back on the table!

Incubators are full for our end of season hatch, and this summers babies are starting to lay. (Weird, right? Quail are awesome.) Over winter I’ll be growing out new breeding stock for next season, and carefully watching, evaluating, and making decisions about what traits and characteristics we want in our birds to make them the best for backyard food-security. If you’re interested in birds, we will be slimming down our existing flock before winter. Get in touch!

09/15/2026

09/15/2026

See you at the Dee @ 3 😎

09/05/2026

Sometimes you just gotta follow the dopamine and go off script to reclaim your creative energy.
✨ugh✨

08/19/2026

I’ve never really held this hen before, only to move her from one pen to another and to evaluate her conformation. This really speaks volumes about the work done to improve temperament in these critters by breeders like Thieving Otter Farm, where my breeding stock comes from.

08/18/2026

Of all the magical things that happen in the garden, popping open the very first dry bean pods of the season is my favorite. This is Syrian Fire, an impressively productive bush bean heirloom. As the beans dry down they take on a black and reddish amber color. This bean was given to me as part of a network of growers that work to collect and preserve these heirlooms. The first 60 seeds will go back to their original steward to continue being shared and grown, and in the spirit of the kindness and thankless work that got these and others to my hands, our extra seeds will go to local seed libraries in the spring. 🫘

If you have a favorite bean, I’m dying to know. ♥️

08/15/2026

I’ll be set up at Pasty Fest with all of the art things today!

If you miss me at the Farmers market this morning, we will be popping in to the Houghton farmers market this week, Tuesday 3-6.

08/08/2026

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08/04/2026

Wanna see my personal trees next to their pre-bonsai cousins? It took about 5-6 years for both of these trees to go from little shrubs like these, to big-kid bonsai. And even now, my trees have a ways to go before they are “finished” and refined. Imagine the degree of progress I saw each year, to get to this point. Bonsai is slow, sure, but even a single season can give rewarding growth and change.