Permaculture · Sustainable Living · Circular Farming
Touching the soil
changes everything.
For 10 years I've been transforming my garden with permaculture. Honest notes on rare seeds, cuttings and circular living.
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Dasylirion longissimum: The Drought-Defying, Winter-Hardy Landscape Statement
Dasylirion longissimum — Mexican Grass Tree — is one of the most structurally striking drought-tolerant plants for the garden. At HE-QA Garden it sails through summer heat and Sakarya winters with no fuss at all.
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Latest Posts
Is the Dutch Farming Miracle Real, or Just Dependence Wearing a New Face
Lately everyone tells the same story: a tiny country, a giant agricultural export, glass greenhouses, robots, artificial intelligence. But we're always shown the storefront. I wanted to look at what's standing behind the glass.
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Tiger Eyes Sumac: A Compact, Non-Aggressive Variety That Puts On a Riot of Color
I added Tiger Eyes, a dwarf sumac variety, to my garden - from what I've seen, unlike wild sumacs it doesn't spread aggressively, and on top of that it puts on a genuine riot of color throughout the season. Let's look at the story behind this interesting mutation and its garden value.
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Italia (Muscat) Grape: The Aroma That Solved My Garden's Variety Puzzle
My garden has a few different grape varieties - Atasarisi, Alfonso, Red Globe, and a fragrant Italian type - and I wasn't sure which one a particular cluster belonged to. The berry shape and that signature muscat aroma solved the puzzle: it's Italia.
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A Plant Guild Built Around a Lemon Tree: A Multi-Layered Design in an Urban Garden
In one corner of my garden, I've built a plant guild centered on a mature lemon tree - surrounded by everything from a yucca to an evergreen conifer, fragrant climbers to colorful flowering perennials, all layered together. In this post, let's look at both the logic behind this design and the permaculture concept of a 'guild.'
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The Praying Mantis: The Garden's Most Ruthless Hunter - and That Ruthlessness Works in Our Favor
While walking through the garden, I came face to face with a praying mantis - calmly biting off its prey's head first. The sight is a little unsettling, but this ruthless hunter is actually one of the quiet heroes of our garden ecosystem.
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Golden Delicious Apple: The Least Troublesome Variety in My Garden, the Only Tree I've Never Seen a Worm In
Every apple variety in my garden struggles with worms to some degree, but I've never seen one in my Golden Delicious. Is this just luck, or does the variety have a trait behind it? Let's look at both its history and this observation together.
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Violette de Bordeaux Fig: A Compact Tree Hiding a Huge Flavor
I added another one to my fig collection: Violette de Bordeaux. Despite its small, compact size, it's a variety whose rich flavor outshines many others - and one that thrives even in a pot.
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Hardy Chicago Fig: A Reliable Variety That Defies Harsh Winters and Fruits Every Single Year
I added another variety to my fig collection: Hardy Chicago. As its name suggests, it's remarkably cold hardy, and the best part is it fruits reliably every single year - a variety I'd confidently recommend even to someone just starting out with figs.
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Sultane Fig: A Small but Flavorful Variety From My Collection, Tasted for the First Time This Year
I tasted the first fruit this year from my Sultane fig - small in size, but genuinely delicious. A post spanning this dark-skinned French variety's history all the way to my own garden experience.
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Artichoke: A Perennial That's Both Beautiful and Nourishing, Refusing to Give Up Even in Drought
The artichoke is one of those rare plants that offers both visual beauty and real nutrition in the garden, and on top of that, it's a perennial. It struggled a bit in this summer's drought, but came back with fresh new shoots in autumn.
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Peter's Honey Fig: A Golden, Honey-Sweet Variety I Tasted This Year
I finally tasted this year's fruit from my Peter's Honey fig - a golden-skinned, honey-sweet variety that genuinely impressed me. A post spanning the fig's thousands-year history all the way to my own garden experience.
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Strawberry Tree: A Dwarf Tree Whose Fruit Takes a Full Year to Ripen
Commonly called the strawberry tree, this dwarf, slow-growing Mediterranean tree stands out with its bumpy, strawberry-like red fruit. Its most fascinating trait is that the fruit takes a full year to ripen from flower to fruit.
Read more"Keep the cycle, the future is in your hands."
— HE-QA Garden
Permaculture for me is not just a gardening technique — it's a life philosophy. To repair the soil, keep the cycle and leave a richer nature for future generations. Every seed is a trust, every cutting a hope.
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Letters from the Garden
Seasonal planting calendars, rare plant introductions and permaculture tips. Once a week.