Earth Advocates Research Farm

We’ve been on our 48-acre farm since 1991. Earth Advocates Research Farm is located on a dry Oak-Hickory ridge in Northern Lawrence County.  We believe in living the green life. We are off grid (we run on Solar photovoltaics) and have 11 cisterns with a total of 96,000 gallon capacity on which we run the farm and gardens using regenerative agriculture techniques and strategies ala Permaculture.

Our focus is ethnobotanical research, finding those useful plant species that do well in our middle Tennessee climate.  Those that do well here are neglect and drought-tolerant are the ones we bring to market to share with our “neighbors”.  Our market focus is on edible landscaping – both food for the body and the spirit.  We test the climatic limits on several plants – such as figs and pomegranates, cactus and unusual fruiting trees, shrubs, vines, etc. sharing those that survive and produce well here.

We offer a variety of seasonal plants throughout the year:

Spring – mid-February through the end of June

Trees/Shrubs:  Blueberries, Quince, Figs, Cacti, Thorny Hardy Oranges, Chestnuts, Goumis, Pomegranates, Black-Cap Raspberries, Wineberries, Thornless Boysenberries  Cornelian Cherries, Thornless Honey Locust, Black Locust for a woodlot, Pecans, Black Walnuts, etc.

Herbs (both edible & medicinal):  Parsley, Basil, Cutting Celery, Lemon Balm, Mints, Rosemary, Rue, Feverfew, Garlic Chives, Horseradish, Lemon Grass, wild basil, borage, etc.

Heirloom tomato & chilies (extras from our garden), air potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes), Egyptian onions, etc.

Edible and pretty flowers:  Hellebores, annual Larkspur, Passion flowers (maypops), flowering Ginger, Tree Peonies, Milkweed, Blue Stars, Dianthus, Mexican primrose, Candy Lilies, Salvias, Surprise Lilies, etc. all of which are either perennial or self seeding annuals.

Bamboos – hundreds of ground covers to tree types including one clumping species we have found to do well here in middle Tennessee.

Fall – mid-September through Thanksgiving

Great time for planting trees and shrubs --  Blueberries, Quince, Thorny Hardy Oranges, Chestnuts, Cornelian Cherries, Goumis, Thornless Honey Locus, Black Locust, Pecans, Black Walnuts, Red Maples, etc.

Some herbs.

We offer tours of our farm by appointment.

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  American Hazelnut Plants
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  Fresh Picked Ginger
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