Sunday afternoon, as I sat with G watching the rain and listening to its melodic sound on the tin roof of the screened porch, I was struck by the realization of just how much we have both changed since moving to the farm some four years ago.

We’re not the same people. We have become more in tune to the rhythms of life here, more connected to this place, this land, and, in so many ways, more sustained by it.

While reading that afternoon, I came across a quote by Harry Middleton that perfectly captured what I was feeling. In “On the Spine of Time” Middleton writes:

“It is important that sometime in a man’s life he get to know a place, become bound up in a special piece of geography. Such a place need not be vast, exotic, brutally wild. It need only be a place that increases him, nourishes him.”

Having grown up coming here to visit her grandparents, G shares a lifelong connection with this piece of ground. My connection is short in comparison but runs throughout the entirety of our relationship from dating to marriage to starting a family and raising our children.

Over the years prior to living here, the farm was often our getaway for mini-vacations and holidays. It’s a special place with special memories like a girl’s and boy’s first fish, first deer, and first turkey.

I knew when we made the decision to move here that things would change. The most obvious change was the move from the city to the country. We traded convenience for quiet.

We anticipated most of the changes, however, I think we greatly underestimated how much living here changed us and the way we think about so many different aspects of our lives.

What we eat, where our food comes from, what we consume and buy, what we throw away, what impact we have upon the environment — especially the environment directly underneath our own four feet — are just a few of the considerations that immediately come to mind.

We’ve both always loved the outdoors and cared for the environment; however, a shift has taken place in both of us. What I see is a level of caring that goes much deeper. Perhaps that’s the “increase” that Middleton references.

We think differently and, also, much more thoughtfully than the couple that moved here in 2020. A prime example of that is our landscaping.

A year after the renovation of our home was completed, we decided it was time to landscape around the house, and we met with a local landscaper to do just that. The ground was basically a blank canvas as all the old holly bushes, boxwoods and privet had been removed during the demolition phase of the remodeling.

G knew what she wanted and, to her credit, what she wanted would have been much more in line with our current way of thinking around the use of native plants. She wanted wild, not manicured.

What we got was a mix and, although it was aesthetically pleasing, much of it would have been better suited for a house in town. For instance, the oakleaf hydrangeas, which are native, fit perfectly with the plan G had in mind, but the boxwoods, which are not native, would have been a better choice in a formal English garden.

During my rainy-day reading Sunday afternoon, I also came across an inspiring article in Garden & Gun entitled “The Art of Rewilding” about a Virginia couple that has turned their farmstead into a “wild sanctuary” that they use as “a natural classroom to nurture native species and budding artists alike.”

The couple, Leigh Ann Beavers and Paul Cabe, “forbade the use of pesticides and dedicated eight acres to wildlife, researching native species and building the habitats that would beckon them home.” According to Beavers, “I wanted my children to grow up in a house where they could look out every window and see that there were birds and insects.”

Our children are grown, and we don’t technically have plans to turn the farm into a classroom, although G has toyed with the idea of goat yoga; however, we are invested in transforming our yard and pasture into a haven for wildlife, birds and insects by planting native trees, grasses and wildflowers.

With fall planting season on the horizon, we made a list Sunday evening of several of the natives that we would like to plant, and I reached out this week to good friend Dudley Phelps at Mossy Oak Nativ Nurseries for advice.

After talking with Dudley, I felt much better about what I had begun to perceive as a somewhat daunting project. We’ll take it one tree, wildflower and native grass seed plug at a time and learn from and enjoy the process along the way.

Take time this week to think about native plant species that you can incorporate into your local ecosystem, be that yard, pasture, or farm. A couple of great places to start would be Mossy Oak Nativ Nurseries (www.nativnurseries.com) and Kyle Lybarger’s Native Habitat Project (www.nativehabitatproject.com).

Until next time, here’s to seeing you out there in our wild and native great outdoors.