The gardens at Harmony Hollow are one of my favorite spaces. We drive up to the property regularly just to visit and love on it, and let it love back on us. A visit up the hill to the house always entails a little walk to say “hi” to this area.
I tend to feel sad because of the condition it’s fallen into but then I daydream about what it was like back in the day. You can see how much work went into building and organizing the growing area. I still can’t explain the desire I have to restore this place other than it speaks to me, and I want to honor that.
Steve isn’t as into the gardening idea as I am, so this is going to be a Lori project. Pray for me.
We’ve already given up on thinking we can ever understand how the heck things were set up and run in many aspects of the place. From electrical wiring, to drip system, to various other irrigation areas all over the place, we’ll be starting from scratch.
There was a section of the lower part of the property where Melissa Paxton gardened when she lived there, and a large area that was a tree farm at one time. I have never seen so much drip tubing, hose bibs, and irrigation pipe. It’s everywhere!
John Woodjack lived in a vintage Airstream trailer in this garden area and was known to grow his own food, and garlic, which he bicycled into town to sell. He is described as quite a character who lived on the ranch for 40 years, acting as caretaker after Jeff Cross went missing.
Woodjack’s workshop is falling apart but I still think it’s kind of adorable. At some point we’ll get everything cleaned up and see what we can do with it.
While it seems like it would have been a hard life, it’s inspiring to daydream about what life was like at Harmony Hollow, whether you were camping on the lower part, living in the house, or out in the Airstream. From all accounts that we’ve heard, Woodjack loved the land, and loved the lifestyle. He took his last breath there, in 2018.
