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Dovetails is a blog focused on nature, ecology and permaculture. Curious to know what permaculture is, how it’s influencing home gardens, municipal landscapes, community and site design? Want to understand what sustainable development is all about? Want to start a food garden, but think it’s too difficult and time consuming? Want to remediate your soil or restore your water table? Interested in keeping some chickens for fresh eggs? Dovetails will keep you informed.
I’m a landscape and permaculture designer with a background in history, poetry and literature. Dovetails, as the name suggests, is about bringing ideas and disciplines together. More importantly, it’s also about bringing people together. Perhaps the most wonderful thing about the field of permaculture is how it renders ideological divides irrelevant. If there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that we want to nurture a healthier, more harmonious relationship with nature. We want more nutritious food grown without herbicides and pesticides. And we want greater food security. I believe these are achievable goals, and these pages help point the way.
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About Me
My name is Asa Boxer. I came to landscape design and permaculture by an uncommon, but traditionally well-travelled path. Like many practitioners and innovators in this field, especially in the UK and Japan, I first expressed my love for nature and landscape through poetry. Growing up in Montreal, Quebec, and summering in the Laurentian Mountains, my sense of landscape was influenced by both the City Beautiful movement that shaped the urban experience, and the wild forests and lakes in the mountain range an hour north.
In 2021, I decided to leave the city for greener pastures in the more rural locale of Elora, Ontario. Following a career as a college English teacher in which I focused on the hero’s journey and inner development, I was looking for a less intellectual and more hands-on way to bring my love of nature in line with my ideas of personal growth. So in 2024, I decided to pursue certification in landscape design from the nearby University of Guelph, known for its agricultural and horticultural studies. And I’m also undertaking certification in permaculture design from Oregon State University, home to some of the most prominent leaders in the field.
At present, I’m helping initiate an edible landscape project in Elora to engage and educate locals and tourists alike in permaculture and foraging, while improving landscape practices in public spaces.
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