If you’ve never been to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, CA, you need to do whatever it takes to get there. The Esalen Farm and Garden encompasses all the best of biointensive agriculture, beauty, and spiritual connection to the land. It’s a must see. If you can’t add it to your itinerary soon, here are some photos to tempt you.
Flowers are a huge part of the Esalen ecosystem.
Sweet peas taller than any human are free for the picking.
Scissors included.
The garden overlooks the ocean, fog drifts across the flower and vegetable beds all day long.
A chicken coop lives behind the flowers, tucked in with a lemon tree.
This hen eats the grass through the bird netting. She doesn’t care for lemons.
Fires in the local mountains turns the sky red as the sun dips toward the ocean.
Monarchs love all the flowers on site.
Lettuce and flowers go hand in hand.
Every color of the rainbow is represented in the garden.
Rows efficiently planted with a plenitude of crop diversity.
Gotta love a dahlia garden. Support is everywhere at Esalen.
Name that umbel!
Interplanting is a key component of biointensive gardening. Esalen does it so well.
Great post and photos, Christy. So glad you’ve fallen into the enchantment of Big Sur, especially at Esalen Institute. I’ve been to Big Sur but never had the pleasure of going to Esalen farm and garden. Through your pictures I can only imagine what it must look like at different times of the year. Fabulous! Thanks for all the great info, podcasts and videos you give us. Hope to see you at OVF one of these days.
Thanks for your great feedback, Sharon. Esalen is a very special place. I hope you get a chance to go there some day. It’s entirely worth it, and as a friend said to me once, “You’ll never remember how you came up with the money, but you’ll always remember the trip.”