Old Mill Eco Island: Nature Sanctuary & Sustainable Design + Education

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Sustainable Living: Design, Education, Stewardship

🌳Restoring + conserving 5 acres of woodland + watershed where a gristmill stood into native habitat + nature sanctuary.
đź›–Renovating cottages into unique, artistic, naturecentric homes.

A little stroll around the gardens and woods to see how many aster species I can spot- I'm at 9 or 10...If you don't hav...
09/24/2026

A little stroll around the gardens and woods to see how many aster species I can spot- I'm at 9 or 10...
If you don't have at least 3 species what are you even doing.

There are 2 times a year the mostly native gardens and landscaping here shine so brightly that I get angry when I have t...
09/24/2026

There are 2 times a year the mostly native gardens and landscaping here shine so brightly that I get angry when I have to not be outside in them. That's the late July to mid August stretch- and right now.

The last 2 weeks in the gardens here. The shift to autumn light from the brighter, warmer days of summer. Still hold ove...
09/15/2026

The last 2 weeks in the gardens here.

The shift to autumn light from the brighter, warmer days of summer. Still hold overs from late summer bloomers. Autumn blooms like the many asters and goldenrods starting.

Never underestimate September in native gardens.

09/14/2026

As we start creeping towards one of the most wondrous times of year here in New England, we're also headed towards the window where you can have a great visual of the ecological nightmarescape that is central CTs issue with burning bush. Forests are about to be bright red and the color is beautiful until you know what you're looking at.
Burning Bush in part continue to be planted because people love the bright color. In this series, here are some suggestions for our native shrubs that are big on color but while actually boosting the biodiversity and function of our local ecosystems.
I say 'cherry', I meant 'berry'. Although chokecherry are also stunning native shrubs- really more like small trees.
So, if you're looking for a hardy, suckering shrub for your landscape with near florescent orange foliage and nutritious berries plus pretty white blooms in spring, check out Aronia arbutifolia + melanocarpa (Red and Black Chokeberry).

08/28/2026

Most of my emotions are grief and rage, at an existential scale. Paired like a confusingly fine w**e with love and glimpses of joy and compassion. It's a heart breaking happy hour.

The daily death and destruction I witness-
in the form of the endless fu***ng lawns and cutting of lawns and pesticide signs on lawns during my monotonous work days in suburbia

or in the images and footage of glaciers collapsing and ice caps melting and murdering tons of innocent people and destroying villages

or wild fires ripping through every corner on earth

and bombs exploding

and people being kidnapped in my home state

and people freely fu***ng giving our humanity away to AI as if it's not at the cost of our children's future land and water and air and ability to make a living and survive for much of our population

It's all too, too fu***ng much.

Some friends visited me today in the midst of the grief and I'm grateful for their care. And I'm sorry they must coexist with colonial humans and our callousness and inhumanity.

Truly what the f**k are we all doing.

08/24/2026

On stewarding the lower 'yard' to return to meadow.

Sometimes the acts of care for the land- depending on the space- yields better results than any native garden or landscape install ever could have.

Seeing this meadow shape shift over the last 5 years has been one of my favorite projects to witness and has been one of my greatest shifts in perspective on what is beauty and challenges our ideas of yards and neatness.

I didn't add much in the way of new species this year to the gardens...except this one. And I can easily say I am most e...
08/23/2026

I didn't add much in the way of new species this year to the gardens...except this one. And I can easily say I am most excited about it.

This is Liatris novae-angliae - New England Blazing Star. The only liatris species native to our region here in CT.

I do have some prairie species and dense blazing star gifted from previous years but honestly they pale in comparison so far to this species and how she's perfoming in the un-amended clay soil of this new bed.

I'll now rehome the prairie species because liatris species do readily cross pollinate and I'd love to be able to collect and grow these seeds in the coming years.

She's become a rare species in wild populations as we destroy and develop more and more of her habitat.

On the one hand, it's not the best practice to introduce rare species to cultivated spaces because it can cause some confusion for scientists tracking and protecting natural populations. This was grown from seed collected in MA. And I always debate if I'm hedging a bet with local ecotypic genetics when adding plants like this. I'm hoping the benefits and rewards outweigh and outperform the risks associated here in central CT where our natural spaces barely exist at this point.

She's a really awesome plant.

On the grief that defines our generation, on knowing you are witnessing the lasts of anything, on the cocktail of hope a...
08/17/2026

On the grief that defines our generation, on knowing you are witnessing the lasts of anything, on the cocktail of hope and fighting and despair and holding it all.

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