Paper long abstract:

In 1972, Joe Hollis headed out to three acres of land his parents had purchased in the Appalachian mountains with a box of books and some bulk food. A friend from the peace corps helped him build a wooden yurt to live in. Now over forty years later, Mountain Gardens houses the largest private collection of medicinal plants on the east coast of the US, and Joe is recognized as one the greatest living herbalists in the southeastern US. He has made extensive study of traditional healing modalities and ways of living across the world and integrated them into design and practice at Mountain Gardens. Permaculture, Green Anarchism, Taoist ecology, and the "Paradise Gardening" philosophy that Joe has developed offer compelling alternatives and answers to the ecological crisis.