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Man in Overalls helps you
GROW
YOUR
GROCERIES

Drawing on 20+ years of experience growing food in the Deep South, I'll take your food garden dream and make it a reality. I offer turn-key food gardening support services here in NE FL: Raised beds, built and planted to get you started. Micro irrigation so you don't have to worry. Ongoing maintenance & education to keep you successful. I'll help you #GrowYourGroceries the easy way by sharing my expertise & doing the hard work for you.


  • See Project Photo Albums HERE
  • Learn about Man in Overalls' Magic Mix & other products, HERE.

    • How It Works
    1) Design
    photo credit: Agata Gardner
    Most projects begin by scheduling a site visit for me to confirm the best spot for your garden, help you imagine your food garden design, and, together, make a plan to get you growing your groceries. Then again, you may already know exactly what raised beds you want and where you want them; you just need someone to make it happen. If that's you, I'm just a an order away away. Either way, based on your food garden dream, preferences, and price-point, I'll provide a design concept and estimate for your review. Next...

    2) Installation
    photo credit: Inga Finch
    I'll line up materials and install raised beds filled with my Magic Mix and set up an automatic micro irrigation system to make sure everything thrives. So far as seasonal veggies and herbs, I'll give you a list of options. From here, you have a couple of choices...

    3)Planting
    photo credit: Inga Finch
    Based on what you want to grow, I'll bring seasonal starts and seeds, and plant for you. Then again,  you're likely interested in learning all you can; in which case, you're welcome to join me for a one-on-one planting tutorial at no extra charge. From there, as part of my turnkey planting service, I'll check in with you a few weeks later to advise on next steps. Growing forward, I can provide...

    4)Maintenance & Education
    photo credit: Inga Finch
    Different food gardeners need different support. Based on your needs, I offer:
    • Basic: Seasonal Support. I will come seasonally to clean-up, deliver my Magic Mix & top-dress to maintain soil fertility; offer guidance; and I can also replant to help you get a good start. (By default, I offer support seasonally to all my customers).
    • Grow the Easy Way: Monthly Support. I will check on and maintain your garden monthly to keep things tidy and productive, so you can just do the easy things, rest assured, and harvest the bounty. Feel free to join me in the garden for Q&A as I work (starting at $85/month + incidental materials & supplies).

    Most Projects 
    begin with a site visit
    -


    Education & Consulting
    "I strive to cultivate a new generation of gardeners and farmers. If we grow it; we'll eat it, and we desperately need a diet change in this country for the sake of our life expectancy." From hands-on how-to workshops to inspiring stories from the good food movement to team & network facilitation, I didn't "fall off the turnip truck yesterday" as they say. Email for speaking engagements.
    • To learn more about my past experience, take a look at my About page.  
    • To schedule a workshop or start a consulting relationship, just send me an email. 

    Most viewed Man in Overalls posts of all time

    Why Can I Eat Bread in France, but not the USA?

    By
    Updated 10/31/2017 as the National Organic Standards Board meets in Jacksonville, FL. This may well be the most important thing you read this year for your health. (Originally written in 2015 while I was traveling-- and eating bread-- with my wife in France.) I've got a food riddle for you from Paris, France: Why can I eat bread over here when it makes me sick at home? I'll share my best guess in a minute, but first, a little personal background. Since my senior year of high school, I've not been able to eat much bread at all. For five years, I was severely hypoglycemic, and everything I ate had to have more protein than carbohydrates. That meant, in effect, that I spent my years of college beer-less and eating lots of salad with meat on top. I ate tons of vegetables, very little fruit, basically no carbohydrates to speak of, meat, nuts, eggs, and cheese. If I accidentally ate, say, meat loaf that was, unbeknownst to me, made with bread in it, I'd spend the n
    Read more

    Man in Overalls - It's Like Washing Your Dishes

    By
    I often hear folks joke, "Yeah, I had a garden once. I put in all this money & effort, and I only got a handful of tomatoes. Each one of them cost $27!" And they usually end by saying something about not having a green thumb. My first tomatoes of the season I smile and think about a mental model I've been working on: Growing your groceries is like washing your dishes. While they're raving about how many plants they've killed, I'm thinking, "It's not your thumbs. I bet you don't have a sink. And if you do, are you using decent soap or that garbage from the dollar store? And did you mention you've never washed dishes before in your life? And you're surprised you broke a couple wine glasses with no more experience than a four-year-old?" My eyebrows furrow involuntarily belying my thoughts, "Really? That doesn't seem all that surprising to me." But, of course, not only would saying all that confuse people, it&#
    Read more

    Man in Overalls - The Valley of Food & Ag Startups: Warren Wilson College

    By
    If you're interested in tech, pay attention to Silicon Valley. If you're interested in food and agriculture, Swannnoa Valley, more specifically  Warren Wilson College , is the place to keep on your radar. Man in Overalls with (L to R) Mary Elizabeth, my wife and Rachel (Williamson) Perry, WW alum and herbal tea entrepreneuer I'm an alum and proud of it, class of 2008. I studied community organizing, wrote a 140 page thesis about social movements as my capstone. Nathan, as college Freshman on WW Electric Crew. (Look for the blue water bottle) It's a work college, one of seven in the country. Think universal work-study, so in addition to whatever one's academic track, students are also working in the cafeteria, the library, admissions, as carpenters, lock smiths, lab techs, and-- per the agricultural legacy of Warren Wilson-- as row crop, animal, and vegetable farmers, gardeners, and edible landscapers.  Personally, I worked on the electric crew a
    Read more

    Man in Overalls - Growing Great Soil

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    Good soil will basically grow your groceries for you, but how do you build great soil?  The answer is that there are two options:  a quick & easy way and a DIY, hard(er) way.  So we're on the same page, I'm continuing my  #GrowYourGroceries The Easy Way  series by digging into the how-tos of growing great soil. These stories and techniques will likely make the most sense after reading Geeking on Good Soil , my last update. (I outlined where I was headed in  The Big Picture.) As I was saying, the easy way to build a great soil is to fill raised beds with a terrific compost-based soil mix like my  Magic Mix  to jump start your food garden  productivity  from year one. From there, seasonally, you simply top-dress each season before planting with another few inches of compost-based soil mix. This is how I manage my own food garden and those of my customers.  Why? Because at the root of things, I'm a lazy food gardener, and long ago I decided to embrace it. 😎
    Read more

    Man In Overalls - My Compost System

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    Composting, they say, is an art form. But, truth be told, I'm just too lazy for all that. My own compost philosophy is, "Crap rots in the woods, doesn't it?" But really. :) Whenever I think of home gardening systems, I always reflect back on my grandmother. She gardened up until the week she died at 93. She planted by the signs and assured me that's why her collards were not eaten up by bugs and were able to grow for 3 years running and up to 8 or 9 feet tall. She had a little rototiller, planted straight rows, mulched by spreading leaves to keep the weeds down. She threw out a little 10-10-10 from time to time and kept the cabbage worms at bay with Sevin dust. She hoed if the weeds called for it. But mostly, she harvested. Her pots were always full and her freezer always stuffed with produce: collards, mustards, turnips, peas, tomato gravy, squash, you name it. Now, I don't use 10-10-10 or sevin dust, and I'm not big on tilling. However, the thi
    Read more

    Man in Overalls - Summer Garden Blues & What To Do

    By
    Welcome to mid summer in the Deep South! If you're anything like me, you're actively looking for excuses to avoid going outside this time of year. The heat doesn't so much radiate down from the sun as it seems to rise from the side walk. Rain helps- for about ten minutes- and then simply adds to the humidity as it vaporizes on the payment, so that it feels like you need a snorkel to make it from the house to the car, but of course, it only gets worse when you turn on the AC, and that first puff of hot air feels as though someone just wrapped your face in a plastic bag - not to mention that if you cut your grass yesterday, you're going to have to do it again... tomorrow. And, lets not even talk about how fast the weeds grow this time of year! Or the insects seem to multiply! Oh, home... :) Here's the good news: If your garden looks a little worse for wear, it's okay. Really. Mine does too. As much as I aim for- and largely achieve- a productive & beauti
    Read more

    Man in Overalls - How to Start a School Garden: Design

    By
    Before you get to build your school garden like this, before you can help kids get their hands dirty like this,  or teach kids in your school garden like this, there are a few things you've got to take care of first. The #1 most important thing you've got to do is build your team. I say- with no exaggeration-- that human infrastructure is THE most important aspect of developing a successful school garden. But, I already wrote about building your school garden team last time. Assuming you're on track with that, a simultaneous step is to begin developing your school garden design. Here are a few things to should consider as you develop a school garden design: Purpose In your school garden interest meeting, one of the first questions you should ask is: "Why are you interested in a school garden?" Interestingly, this question serves two purposes. First, it helps the team gel because there will likely be a lot of overlap in answers. This will
    Read more

    Man in Overalls - When to Plant Tomatoes

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    " Plant 'em in the spring. Eat 'em the summer. All winter without 'em's a culinary bummer ," as John Denver sings in "Home Grown Tomatoes."  So, just when should you plant* your homegrown tomatoes? Or, more generally, when should you plant your spring food garden? (For an abbreviated version of this post revised & published in Edible Northeast Florida, click here. ) Since tomatoes along with other spring favorites like squash, corn, green beans, cucumbers, peppers, and the like are "frost sensitive" (in other words, they'll die if it freezes), it's all about the "last frost date" for your area. Unless you're a weather savant and remember the last freeze for the past twenty years, you'll have to do some investigating. You could look up your Plant Hardiness Zone  on this cool "interactive" map from the USDA, and you'd learn that Jacksonville is in zone 9a, Tallahassee is in 8b, and At
    Read more

    Man in Overalls - An Ode to Collards (Now with my recipes)

    By
    I love growing my groceries in the fall - watching the miracle of growth, having ready-access to the freshest produce money-can't buy, the many flavors, getting to try new varieties - all while the temperature drops to more and more pleasant levels. I enjoy growing most anything in the fall, but, if I had to choose just one thing to grow every fall for the rest of my life, it would be collard greens, hands down.  It's a health thing and an effort-to-yield calculation, but in the beginning, the roots of my collard green passion were seeded by family. When I was a kid about 9 or 10, just a couple years into gardening in the front yard , my aunt, the family documentarian showed me a clipping of my late grandfather from the Graceville New (or was it the Jackson County Times?) beneath his 9ft collard greens that he had kept alive multiple years, growing them into small trees. Not to be outdone, my grandmother grew a collard forest of her own. Seizing the moment, my
    Read more