Useful plants around the edges
Culinary herbs, pollinator plants, living mulch, and ground covers are low-cost ways to make the farm more useful without pretending every square foot is a crop.
Low-Cost Farm Improvements
Herbs, pollinator plants, living mulch, and soil-building ground covers.
How Shaggy Ink Farms is thinking about culinary herbs, pollinator plants, soil-building plants, living mulch, ground covers, and regenerative practices.
Shaggy Ink Farms
Garden work under Northern California oaks
The garden pages keep the 2027 season build honest: planning, testing, preparing, and learning before claiming a finished farm system.
Current Status
Useful, honest, and still taking shape.
These notes are here to show what is being built and what is still being learned. They are not product pages.
Soil and habitat
The goal is better soil cover, more pollinator activity, less bare ground, and simple regenerative practices that can be repeated as the farm grows.
Grow It Yourself
Related Learn Guides
These links keep the Garden pages focused on what Shaggy Ink Farms is building while sending how-to guidance to the Learn section.
Growing Guide
Companion Planting Guide
Which plants help each other grow — and which ones should never share a bed. Practical companion planting for food gardens, with Northern California timing notes.
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Growing Guide
Warm Season Cover Crops Guide
Cover crops that grow in summer heat — cowpeas, sorghum-sudangrass, sunn hemp, and buckwheat. How to use them to build soil while beds rest.
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Growing Guide
Cool Season Cover Crops Guide
Cover crops for fall and winter — crimson clover, cereal rye, bell beans, and Austrian winter peas. Timing and termination for California growing conditions.
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Growing Guide
Low-Sunlight Vegetables Guide
Which vegetables grow in partial shade — and how much shade is too much. Practical varieties and placement for gardens with less than full sun.
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Field Notes
Related Journal Entries
Dated notes from the farm that connect this Garden page to the real build as it happens.
Plan Your Version
Related Planning Tools
Garden Paths
More garden work
Garden
What We're Growing
A plain overview of the garden, fruit, flower, orchard, herb, and soil-building work taking shape at Shaggy Ink Farms for the 2027 season.
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Garden
Strawberries
Strawberry field preparation at Shaggy Ink Farms, including irrigation planning, soil preparation, and the honest goal of working toward the 2027 season.
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Garden
Cut Flowers
The cut flower project at Shaggy Ink Farms is focused on sunflowers, trial varieties, pollinator value, local production lessons, and building honestly toward 2027 sales.
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Planning a garden at home? The Garden Planner and local growing guides are the practical tools side of this work.