PLEASE JOIN US IN WELCOMING DENISE CUSACK ON JUNE 26TH, 2023 AT 5PM PT/6PM MT/7PM CT/8PM ET
Denise started growing medicinal herbs in pots on her deck living in the city. Over the past 20 years she has expanded from pots to a small urban garden, to a suburban lot, into multiple community garden plots, to bartering for growing space on a farm, to finally owning her few acres in the country. She has always looked to expand in simple ways that allow for more yield in more space, but without a lot more labor. Denise is a big proponent of keen observation and slow expansion to organically grow plantings of both perennial and annuals in polycultures, guilds, and integrated bed plantings. This allows her to adapt based on the data and conditions, to try new things and grow more varieties, and reduce the impact of pests or weather conditions through companion planting and buffer plants. Denise will share more about her history of growing at different scales, tips for organically expanding food and medicine gardens using SMARTER goals, using regenerative practices to make the garden work better for you, integrating smart tools to help manage the space, managing integrated spaces using both annuals and perennials, and using that 11th permaculture principle, “Use Edges and Value the Marginal” to target areas of future growth and expansion in the garden.
Denise Cusack is a clinical herbalist, certified aromatherapist, and a certified permaculture designer with over 20 years of experience in the natural health and wellness community.
Denise loves speaking and sharing with others how to use permaculture principles and ethics to make our gardens, families, businesses, and communities better via regenerative practices, mutual aid, collaborative community models, and sustainable smart systems.
Denise is owner of Wholly Rooted Farm, a small family homestead and medicinal herb farm, where she grows over 250 varieties of medicinal herbs, and over 500 species including food, on a few acres. Denise is an avid seed saver and medicinal plant grower, and has volunteered as the Herbalists Without Borders Seed Grant Coordinator and US Donation Distribution Coordinator since 2018. Wholly Rooted Farm is a United Plant Savers Botanical Sanctuary, where we also grow at-risk and endangered medicinal and native plants. Wholly Rooted Farm is a medicinal herb farm, plant conservation space, and an online school educating folks on topics including permaculture and regenerative practices for herbalists, aromatherapists, and holistic practitioners. Find out more about Denise & Wholly Rooted at www.whollyrooted.com.
