Friday closed the very first chapter for Sans Souci.
Tyler from Ancient Origins Permaculture finished installing the guild trees—99 trees and polyculture companions—set across 600 feet of swales carved by hand into a surface of stubborn clay. The berm-and-basin swales, built from thirty-six yards of mushroom and leaf compost, will begin the long work of regenerating the soil. Seven yards of river stone are in place to catch and hold water once everything is established.
What most won’t see is how much of this began long before any tool hit the ground. Tyler spent weeks mapping contours, calculating water flow, pairing species, and engineering an ecosystem that won’t show its full design for a decade. His work didn’t just build an orchard; it helped wake this land up.
This place has been cleared, farmed, neglected, and forgotten across generations. Rewilding here is our promise back to it. We love this patch of earth with all our hearts, and our commitment—in projects, in relationships, in everything—is to leave it better than we found it.
Certified permaculture experts John and Lauren drove in from Northeast Philly to help Tyler sink thirty-five varieties into seven guilds that make up Zone 1. And now, with Zone 1 installed, the initial frenzy has gone quiet. A few tasks remain—irrigation, cover crop, starting seeds over winter—but now the work shifts from sweat to patience. As Tyler said before packing up, “We’ve done our part. Now it’s mother earth’s magic.”
I’m already anxious to plan Zone 2 or start another big project—maybe a small pond. Zone 1 took so much time, labor, and money, and yet beside the rest of these acres it feels like a single stroke on a blank canvas. So much of the field is still empty, and I want to rewild it all while it’s my turn to care for Sans Souci—the home and the land.
People keep asking: What will you do with all the food this place will grow? I’m not ready to believe in that abundance until I see it hanging from branches. But if that day comes, we’ll find purpose for it—maybe a farm stand, the Coventry Food Pantry where Lori has ties, or simply feeding neighbors in the growing Agrihood. Too much food would be a good problem to solve.
I spent today using muscles I forgot I owned, clearing turf and preparing space for a pollinator garden, sowing 200,000 wildflower seeds as the final act of this first phase. For the most part, the labor is over. A consciously designed, on-contour permaculture orchard now stands where there was once field. The rest belongs to time.
Stay curious.
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