One year in this fledgling forest of posts
Thank you for being here.
A year ago today I hit the publish button here for the first time, and the introduction post, Heaven is a Forest, went live. There was nobody around to see it, of course, until I made a few more posts and then started slowly telling people Future Tiny Forest existed, that I was doing this thing. At that time, all I had really done, gardenwise, was plant two trees and a swath of dinky conifers out back along the chain-link fence, where nothing but grass had been. So all I had to share, from the start, were correspondingly underwhelming photos plus some sketches and dreams. But I wanted to have begun documenting what I’m making (whatever shape it might gradually take), and I wanted anyone who might be interested in following along to be able to do so. I knew it would be challenging to write a garden blog about a garden that had barely begun to exist, and honestly it’s been even more so than I imagined. So I’m truly grateful to those of you who’ve been here as it has, in the past few months, started to become more legibly a garden-in-progress, and not just asphalt and fantasies.
A lot has happened along the way — the courtyard has changed everything, and those dinky conifers in the future forest are really starting to do their thing. Most unexpected among the developments is my having decided to go back to school and hopefully pursue garden design professionally, in some capacity. And I’m excited to have more to share as all of it continues to grow and evolve. So I hope you’ll stick around for year number two. Maybe even tell a friend about it?
To honor the anniversary, I thought I might highlight some of the top posts here from the past year, which you may have missed depending when you arrived. Naturally, the posts that have been around longest and featured on the home page have accumulated the most views: the aforementioned intro, the carporch (so different now! need to update), the driveway potager recap from last year. And also my visit to Russel Wright’s Manitoga. In the current season, the most popular posts have included the one about building the raised bed and painting the garage, the post on sheet mulching that I debated even sharing, and the one where I laid out my fruit garden plans. My personal favorites are the planning ones: the courtyard master plan, the mown meadow, creating my plant wish list. I also dearly love the interview with Briar Winters about her garden (another big hit with you all) and hope to find time to do more of that, as I’ve intended.
My one regret, for lack of a better word, is that I haven’t been able to get more of you to talk to me this past year, so I’m going to try again today. I would love to hear from you in the comments about what you’ve enjoyed most in year one and would like to see more of going forward!
In any event, thank you again for being here! Lots more to come ...
