I grew up in the small town visiting Grandma’s cottage up in the village. Then I inherited a piece of land and initially planted some fig and almond trees and built there a small cottage that’s completely off-grid. Later I added lavender, grown from cuttings, which flowers I dry and store every year. I also have some immortelle bushes, rosemary, and a lot of sage (wild sage) around the land, that I forage and dry. (See how I store it)
Recently, I started with developing the land further by forming and building dry stone walls to prevent erosion. Here is a most recent photo of the beginning part of my dry stone wall and two newly planted olive trees. The gray stuff around the plants is ashes that I collect from my fireplace and use as fertilizer.
Earlier this year I also built a couple of raised beds formed by dry stone walls to see if I can grow here some vegetables. This location is very windy so drystone walls act also as windshields. Here is a photo which shows spinach and rocket grown from seeds:
Update: I just hired a small digger/excavator to move and sort large rocks around my land. That will help me build more drystone walls/boulder retaining walls as I couldn’t move these large rocks manually. Here is a photo of the current work in progress:
I spent countless hours researching how to grow figs, almonds, lavender, olives, and how to live off the grid. You can say this piece of land has become a big part of my life.
I want to share what I’ve learned with you by posting some info and how-to articles that may be of your interest. My focus is on DIY and not expensive solutions. That’s why you will find my recommendation of products that are either free or almost free. I try to follow practical and budget-friendly solutions for any work. That’s why I am using local materials and local plants, hence my dry-stone walls!
The fignut name
I was looking for a domain name that is short and includes “fig” and “almond”. That’s how I came to find ‘fignut‘. I was not aware that ‘fignut‘ term has several connotations. Later on, when I discovered another meaning of the word, it was already too late to change the domain name. So hence the name, I will stick with it for time being.
If you would like to get in touch I would love to hear from you – here is a contact email:
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Above photo: It’s me, harvesting lavender recently