Congressman Lewis and NCAA student-athletes Garden with Farmer D

On October 24th, over 135 NCAA student-athletes went to Mary Lin Elementary where they worked alongside Farmer D Organics, 150 elementary students, teachers, parents and local volunteers. They planted garden beds and made improvements to the outdoor classrooms and play spaces. The remaining student-athletes, students and volunteers went to Burgess-Peterson where they planted garden beds and improved the playgrounds and playing fields.





NCAA and Farmer D Organics worked together to provide 11 garden beds, plants, soil for Mary Lin and 2 trailer loads of soil for Burgess Peterson, two of the Atlanta Public schools with edible school gardens.



Congressman John Lewis attended the event by request of Farmer D Organics School Liaison, Ashley Rouse. He came to the event to support the community service work conducted by the NCAA athletes and to be a representative for positive social change through action. Congressman Lewis has helped to protect human rights and secure civil liberties in the United States through his leadership during the Civil Rights Movement. His presence at the event inspired all of us to take action for the things we believe; that being organic, nutritious food for our youngest generations.

Camphill Village

During a recent trek to New York, I was lucky enough to visit the Rudolph Steiner influenced living community Camphill Village in Copake. This village was established to provide a working, responsible, and loving home to adults with disabilities and provides them an opportunity at a healthy, holistic, and balanced life. The teachings of Rudoph Steiner, the Austrian scientist and educator responsible for our understanding of Biodynamics, is the central voice in the philosophy of anthroposophy applied to every individual's daily life within the community. Anthroposophy, when applied to the village, means in short that a tight knit community of individuals is created in order to maintain the spiritual integrity of all of its members, especially those in need.



The village is made up of around 20 houses where volunteers and "villagers" (those with special needs) make their homes together. There is a biodynamic farm that provides much of the food for the community and countless learning experiences for all involved. The villagers are encouraged to learn to take responsibility of their futures through daily exercises in therapy, projects geared towards the upkeep of the village, and through interacting socially with a loving community. The volunteers are not paid a salary and generally participate in the program out of the urge to do good work and help those in need.




Below is a video I took while walking through the bakery at Camphill Village. The bakery, cafe, coffee shop and gift shop are popular stops for visitors interested in learning about the community and are open to the public during certain hours. Going to any of these locations is a great way to meet volunteers and villagers alike as well as try their tasty, homemade treats.

Click here to learn more about the Camphill Village community.

Laura Turner Seydel's Eco-Manor Garden

Long time environmental activist and community builder Laura Turner Seydel has carried on the lessons of her father, Ted Turner, and spent a lifetime pursuing sustainability and an eco-sensitive lifestyle. She has put her efforts into transitioning the city of Atlanta towards a more aware and conscious population, focusing on recycling, clean water and air, composting, and living light for the benefit of creatures and humans alike. Just one of her accomplishments throughout her active lifetime is the constructing of the Eco Manor.



The Eco Manor was built in 2007 and serves as the family home to Laura, her husband Rutherford, and their three children. It is a LEED certified home, the first of it's kind in the Southeast, and serves as a blue print for home owners, architects, and interior designers looking to create a healthy, eco-friendly lifestyle for themselves and or their clients. Farmer D Organics was commissioned to build an organic garden that was not only beautiful to look at, but provided the family with nutritious edibles.



The raised beds were built complete with fall vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers. As part of the green building methods employed in the Eco-Manor's construction, the old drywall and other construction debris were filled in above the garage and basement to create a platform for the backyard. This area was the only space with enough sunlight for the garden. The beds were built in tiers with landscape fabric bases to avoid planting directly into the fill soil. This not only offered enough room for the plants to grow, but a beautiful showcase of the fall vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers that would be harvested for their family meals.



To learn how to get your own organic, eco-friendly garden, visit us today!

Harvard Goes Organic

The New York Times ran an article last week about the advancements Harvard University has made towards organic lawn care and landscaping throughout their campus. The switch from synthetic fertilizers to organic compost and compost teas has spread from one acre to 25 acres with hopes of transitioning all 80 acres of grass and plants within two years. The root systems of the grass carpeting the manicured lands of the Harvard campus have reached down six inches into the soil. At one point this soil was so compacted it was unable to support the new root growth of trees, causing them to wither and eventually die. To read the entire article, click here.



It is always exciting when colleges and institutions of higher learning take steps towards more sustainable practices. Utilizing composting systems and compost teas are not only beneficial when organically caring for large lawns and landscaping projects, but just as easy and rejuvenating on your own personal property. Going about transitioning from conventional, chemical treatments of your lawn to organic practices will not only help the natural, beneficial organisms on your property thrive, but also eliminates the presence of chemicals in your child's play area or the parts of your yard you choose to relax. Farmer D Organics offers several products that can help with the everyday lawn problem.


In order to have healthy grass, you need to have healthy soil. The Farmer D Organics product line is a fast track towards that goal. Farmer D Organics Signature Biodynamic Blend Organic Compost is a Demeter certified biodynamic compost that is ideal for rejuvenating the beneficial biology,critical to fostering healthy soils. On top of our compost, soil, and other amendments, we offer brewed compost tea and a variety of different composting systems for every price range. To view some of these options click here.


The Farmer D Organics staff is dedicated to helping people feel empowered about their green spaces. If you have any questions or concerns about your landscaping needs, garden needs, or lawn care, visit our contact us page and send us an email with your story.

Harvard isn't the only one in the New York Times! Check out Farmer D's new article.

Introducing Backyard Cultivators

The launch of our newest service has us all busy as bees here at Farmer D Organics. Coming this fall we will be extending our garden installation program into a weekly service where our educated staff return and help maintain the integrity of your garden plot!

Here's how it works... You contact us concerning your ideas for your upcoming vegetable, fruit, and or herb garden, and we'll come look at your property, write up a plan, and test your soil. After we've had enough time to review all of the information and feel comfortable with our plan, we'll contact you back with the actual design of the garden and a quote that covers the materials and labor. We will agree on a date and show up ready to "grow" and begin setting up your garden complete with Farmer D Organics Raised Beds, Farmer D Biodynamic Soil Mix, organic fertilizer, plants, seeds, drip irrigation, and more. After you have your dream garden in place, we'll send Farmer D Organics garden specialists every week to make sure your garden is growing and healthy to serve you, your family, school, and or business. If you would like to put in a composting or worm system, we'll set it up and make sure it works. If you want to put in a chicken coop, we'll set it up and make sure they're healthy and cluckin'. We'll even harvest your produce or teach you some quick tips for knowing how and when to pick your goods!



This program is specifically designed for the hard working american who wants to eat fresh, delicious treats, but doesn't have the time to grow it. It not only provides healthy food right from your own soil, but it saves money at the grocery store and in the gas tank. If you are worried that setting up a garden right before the winter is a bad idea, don't be! There are several plants that can withstand the temperate, Georgia winter and besides, having your garden set up in the down time of the winter makes spring planting a piece of organic strawberry shortcake. Farmer D Organics gets pretty busy in the spring and you never know when we'd be able to schedule a visit. Contacting us about this exciting new program early is taking one step closer to healthy food, the natural way, right in your own backyard.

Send us an email for more information!

Hanging with Alice Waters

Spent the morning with Alice Waters and Marsha Guerrero, Director, Special Projects for Chez Panisse Foundation. We toured the Children's School Garden and the Morningside Elementary Garden and cafeteria. It was fun to walk in the cafeteria and hear lots of kids shout hey Farmer D, remembering me from our planting day in the garden a few weeks back. It was such a pleasure to meet Alice, Marsha and Craig St. John, who is an Emory Alumni and now a TV producer in Los Angeles. We had a vibrant discussion about best practices in school gardens, chef cooking lessons and much more. We are very excited to work with the Edible Schoolyard, Feed and Seed, Slow Food and lots of other great local and national organizations to help get better food in schools and inspire the youth to be healthy stewards of the planet and their bodies. Here's a picture of the Morningside Garden after all the rains, it held up really well.

Seattle trip

This past weekend I went up to Seattle, WA for my good friend, Ronny Bell's, wedding. Ronny and I met at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 1995 and when I told him I was working on an organic farm near Madison, WI where we both happened to be living at the time, he asked to come check it out upon our return. Ronny came out to the Prairie Dock Farm, where I did my first apprenticeship, and he decided that day he was going to work in the organic food business. After swatting mosquitos for me as I raked in rows of cover crop, he thought farming may not be his cup of tea, so he started an organic home delivery business that grew to serve well over 3000 families. So as you can imagine, the wedding was very organic and his best man was Andrew founding Farmer of Full Circle Farm, a 240 acre organic farm serving over 8000 families in Washington and Alaska! Andrew was nice enough to take me on a personal tour of the farm with his wonderful wife and children and allow me to go grocery picking along the tour. Here are a few pics of Andrew's farm, the amazing wedding venue, which is a Paul Newman Hole in the Wall Camp for children with special needs. This incredible place is called Camp Korey and is the site of the original Carnation Dairy and Nestle retreat headquarters. The people there were truly amazing and passionate about their work.

Another wonderful and passionate person I met along the way is Amy Pennington of GoGoGreen Garden and founder of Urban Garden Share. After giving up my plane seat to a soldier who clearly needed it more than me, I found myself with a free unplanned day in Seattle. Amy was nice enough to step away from writing her soon to come out book and took me on an amazing tour of Seattle's community gardens, the arboretum and an organic restaurant called Tilth. Another restaurant we stopped at for cocktails and a rooftop garden tour. This cool rooftop garden was put in by my new friend, Colin, of the Seattle Urban Farm Co. who run a similar business to Farmer D Organics of creating and tending urban gardens. Oh, how I love Seattle!