Dale Hendricks, a plant whisperer, is wise and gentle in his approach to restoring his ecosystem/home property in Chester County, PA, whether it be seeding and nurturing the native bluebells and wild ramp crop on his piece of the planet or graciously gifting his knowledge and experience to countless others. Dale is a local eco celebrity- you mention his name in a crowd (or in these quarantine days, a Zoom meeting), and there is bound to be someone that pours countless words of praise for his presence on planet earth. His restorative work beautifully fits the bill of capturing the deeply soulful acts of eco stewards in this Waxwing blog series.
Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica) seeded and now flourishing at home of Dale Hendricks and Carol Curtis (Photo Credit: Dale Hendricks)
Wild ramps (Allium tricoccum) nurtured and harvested at Green Light Plants (Photo Credit: Dale Hendricks)
We talked on the phone- Dale was in his home’s countryside greenhouse and I was sitting in my urban design studio looking out onto a living wall of native honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), which turns out to be one of the plants that Dale worked tirelessly to propagate in his NorthCreek Nurseries days. We bonded over this cherished plant, along with our shared love for birds, like the hummingbirds that frequently visit this native vine and the brilliantly red Scarlet Tanager that visits Dale, during our interview. Dale is deeply rooted in nurturing all living things and especially is focused on integrating the human element of restoring ecosystems- gardening as a means to obtain building materials, medicine, and food- the supportive and provisioning services offered in natural systems.
Native honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) outside of Waxwing EcoWorks Co. headquarters
This wasn’t always his focus. Dale is former co-owner of North Creek Nurseries, a regionally renowned native landscape plug provider, and now owns a part-time nursery business, Green Light Plants, a small permaculture plant provider. His transition from propagating horticultural plants to embracing permaculture principles arose from observing a lack of the human element in many designed gardens. He saw a niche that he was itching to fill. His agriculture/horticulture philosophy is further illuminated in this Hardy Plant Society article: https://www.hardyplant.org/assets/docs/FeatureArticles/hendricks_permacultureandhorticulture.pdf.
His love for rewilding and conservation generated from reading an article about John Hershey’s trees in a Permaculture Design magazine. The lightbulb went off! “Hershey’s trees checked all the boxes for me- natural solutions to climate change through tree planting and farming in restorative ways”, Dale explained. Selectively integrating edibles into our landscapes, like John Hershey’s nut and fruit-bearing trees, provides a more tree-based farming method, often demonstrated in the tropics, but there was a local temperate example right at his fingertips to study and explore. Dale has led numerous tours in Downington, PA to illuminate and inspire others to continue the work of John Hershey’s food forest plantings of of honey locust, walnuts, pawpaws, permission, and a plethora of other multi-functional trees, that now serve as a living library of locally adaptive plants that were intentionally propagated for human agroforestry. Read more about the history of John Hershey and his local efforts with the links provided below.
American Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana), one of the trees that John Hershey planted in Downingtown, PA (Photo Credit: Dale Hendricks)
Another one of Dale’s permaculture “rabbit holes” is regenerating broken soils. He parallels the health of the human microbiome to the health of soil ecosystems. Growing nutrient dense food means we need to work beyond organic agriculture by understanding plants as living within communities, like humans, while also building robust, biodiverse soil microbiomes that help to deliver nutrients in our food and harvested botanical medicines. I witnessed firsthand one of his soil regenerative practices during my “Bones to Blooms” permaculture training last year- he uses a process called biochar that produces a charcoal-like byproduct that recharges and locks carbon and nutrients in the soil. He didn’t skip beat, joyfully firing up his outdoor kitchen stove and cooking sticks of various sizes to cook up a rich carbon product that he later scattered on his property, with heartfelt intention.
Dale Hendrick’s outhouse with greenroof with the makings of biochar in the background, during 2019 Bones to Blooms permaculture training.
A native plant enthusiast, yet refused to become a native plant fundamentalist, Dale doesn’t want to be at war with good/bad and right/wrong. Dale explained that permaculture changes your thinking, that you begin to live your whole life regeneratively, not just doing less harm. This ties in with his closing remarks that I ask all interviewed eco-stewards about what they envision for the future. Dale sees humans thriving collectively, when living in restorative ways. He believes that “human intervention is sometimes seen as always having a harmful impact, but this is not true, we have a cultural problem, a consumptive problem”. Solutions to the vast array of environmental issues looks different, depending on your geographical location- planting trees makes sense to Pennsylvania. In addition, Dale concludes that, “we all need meaningful work and physical work of pruning, nurturing, and growing things- this needs to be valued moving forward, even in urban environments”.
To read more about John Hershey’s trees and Dale Hendricks, check out these other written works:
Philadelphia Magazine, Downingtown Food Forest | https://www.phillymag.com/news/2018/07/07/downingtown-food-forest-urban-farming/
Shelterwood Forest Farm, Exploring America’s Oldest Food Forest | https://www.shelterwoodforestfarm.com/blog/2018/10/17/exploring-americas-oldest-food-forest
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