NOAH SEELY and Jahnavi Hastings stand underneath one of their numerous fruit trees on their roughly one-acre property in the Brush Prairie area. Currently, the two have planted more than 50 fruit trees, along with fruiting vines, shrubs, nut trees and more.
CHESTNUTS AND PERSIMMONS are just a few of the unique fruits and nuts that Jahnavi Hastings and Noah Seely grow on their property in Brush Prairie. The duo is hoping to make their edible landscaping skills into a business to assist others with creating an edible landscape.
A WINTER BANANA APPLE (a late season heirloom variety) is shown here, one of the many fruits from fruit trees grown on Noah Seely and Jahnavi Hastings’ property in Brush Prairie.
JAHNAVI HASTINGS and Noah Seely grow a variety of fruit, berries, nuts and vegetables on their one-acre land in the Brush Prairie area. Shown here are amber autumn olive berries, which are not only delicious berries, but also fix nitrogen in the soil, helping the plants around them.
BRUSH PRAIRIE – Several years ago, Jahnavi Hastings and Noah Seely started planting a variety of fruit trees and growing different kinds of food at their one-acre home in the Brush Prairie area.
About three years ago, Seely and Hastings started grafting their own fruit trees and each year since have been able to increase the number of plants in their home nursery. The decision to start grafting the trees and plants stemmed from a desire to save money, as the designs of their landscape require many trees, shrubs, vines and other beneficial plants.
As their abundance of trees and plants continued to grow, Hastings and Seely decided they wanted to help provide the community with edible and useful plants, as well as their design/edible landscaping services. From that, the idea for their business, Abundant Earth Design & Nursery, was born.
“People don’t realize you can do so much with a small space,” 28-year-old Seely said. “The best way to describe what we want to offer people is edible landscaping. We want to show people they can produce food right where you live.”
In addition to providing edible landscaping assistance, Hastings, 25, said they plan to also sell some individual plants from their nursery and also provide plants to customers who want site designs.
Seely and Hastings pointed out that although people’s habitats vary greatly – ranging from a few garden beds to a whole farm ecosystem – all of these areas, regardless of how big or small they are, can be designed to provide health and beauty for people, animals and the environment.
To give a rough idea of what the edible landscape design would entail, Seely said they would meet with a potential customer, do a consultation, conduct an assessment and site analysis, and then find out what the customer really wants and what kind of food they like and want to grow.
“We will look at the ‘what’ and the ‘so what,’” Seely said. “Really, the client will do most of the designing by telling us what they want.”
Seely and Hastings said they plan to offer some entry-level packages for the edible landscape design, which could include things like the most basic ways to design an edible landscape.
Once fully planted, Seely and Hasting’s homestead will have more than 100 productive fruit trees, two dozen fruiting vines, 300 shrubs, about 40 nut trees and 1,500 square feet of vegetable beds. Currently, their land is home to more than 50 fruit trees, vegetable beds and more. They are currently still planting trees, installing shade structures on their buildings, creating an outdoor kitchen and building a passive solar cottage made from their own posts and on-site milled lumber.
The different kinds of fruit that Seely and Hastings grow on their land is anything but the ordinary apples and pears. They have mulberries, persimmons, amber autumn olive berries, pawpaws (the largest edible fruit native to North America) and more.
As the business gets up and running, Seely and Hastings plan to provide clients assistance with the many aspects of ecological design such as site analysis, installation of edible and productive landscapes, improvement or rehabilitation of established systems and long-term maintenance.
In order to be able to start this business, Seely and Hastings are in need of funds in order to help with government licensing and permitting, truck and home office repairs, build their nursery stock and a few other odds and ends associated with getting the business off the ground. They currently have a fundraising campaign set up on IndieGoGo.com.
They have a fundraising goal of $15,000 and the campaign will be open on the website until Feb. 11. As of Jan. 6, the campaign has raised a little more than $1,500. Their campaign site can be found here https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/abundant-earth-design-nursery#/. Or go to www.indiegogo.com and type Abundant Earth Design & Nursery in the search box.
Seely and Hastings are asking that anyone who likes what they’re trying to do share their campaign website, online and offline.
Seely grew up in the woods of southwest Washington, attending Prairie High School. He became interested in gardening and self-sufficiency in his early 20s, and decided to take a Permaculture Design Course in 2009. Permaculture is a system of agricultural and social design principles centered around simulating or directly utilizing the patterns and features observed in natural ecosystems.
After taking this course, Seely began converting his land in Brush Prairie into gardens, as well as planting the beginnings of their “food forest.”
Hastings grew up in Olympia and during her late teenage years began learning more about plant medicine and gardening. While studying at Evergreen State College, she interned at Calliope Farm, an organic vegetable CSA farm, and took workshops on Permaculture, which inspired her to keep learning more.
