A year of becoming high-agency gardeners (+ what's next)


A year of becoming high-agency gardeners (+ what's next)

As we head into the final week of 2025, we wanted to pause and say that this will be our last Thistle Thorn newsletter of the year. And we're feeling incredibly grateful for you.

This community is full of the best kind of gardeners — the ones who see opportunities where others see obstacles, who turn "problems" into elegant solutions, and who are building regenerative systems instead of just buying inputs. Whether you've implemented a single flywheel, redesigned your entire backyard, replied with a success story, or simply shifted how you think about your garden space, thank you. You're exactly why we do this work.

Before we step into 2026, I'd love to hear from you: What garden challenges do you to transform into opportunities next year?

  • Are there specific problems you're wrestling with?
  • Soil issues you want to diagnose?
  • Water management questions?
  • Specific flywheels you want to build?
  • Plant systems you're curious about (polyculture, plant guilds, perennials)?
  • Or maybe you're ready to tackle that "impossible" space everyone says won't work?

Is it impossible to pull it off?

Hit reply and tell us. Your feedback directly shapes what we explore together, and our goal is always to help you become the type of gardener who instinctively sees the wealth-building potential hidden in every challenge and who makes gardening enjoyable.

Thank you for being here, for implementing these systems, for building soil, and for making 2025 a year of real transformation — not just in your gardens, but in how you see yourself as a gardener.

Also, if you know someone who's ready to stop buying solutions and start designing them, feel free to forward this newsletter their way.

The best gardeners are the ones who discover they already have everything they need.

See you next year!

Alexandre and Marina

P.S.: We are currently exploring home gardens in different climates. Next year, we expect to conclude our research on desert home gardens. Following that, we will explore temperate and tropical home gardens. Afterward, you will be able to create a fun, productive, and sustainable garden anywhere in the world (and correctly advise any friend!)!

P.P.S.: Here is a master index of our best writing. See what appeals you:

Compost making

Seed Starting mix making

Tree planting

Water

Swales

Backyard Animal flywheel

  • The Advanced Duck Flywheel That Makes Beginners Look Like Experts And Eliminates Pests For You Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3
  • How Animals Power Your Garden (The Anti-Fragile Nursery Flywheel with Chickens or Guinea Pigs) Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3

Garden Bed

Science and Philosophy

High Agency Gardening

Home garden

How to transform a normal garden into a permaculture garden (our first product!)

€11.96

Transform your Home Garden Vegetable Beds through Permaculture Solutions:​Grow More, Buy Less and Ditch Chemicals

30 pages. Instant Access. Lifetime Use.
Cost less than one bag of fertilizer.

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Thistle Thorn Permaculture

Transform your backyard into a thriving, self-sustaining ecosystem—without the overwhelm. We're former doctors who discovered permaculture isn't just the most effective way to garden—it's the most enjoyable. Every Tuesday, we help you implement garden flywheels that generate abundant yields while caring for the environment. Become a high-agency gardener who sees opportunities where others see obstacles. Start here:

Read more from Thistle Thorn Permaculture

The Tropical Garden Assembly Manual - Keyhole Banana/Sweet Potato/Papaya Circle Garden The tropics are usually seen as a rewarding and welcoming location, but as we have already talked about, this is not the truth. You can mess up very easily and very quickly in the tropics, because of their fragile characteristic and how fast and intense nature is there. However, if you understand what you are doing and have a solid recipe for a garden, you can also be quickly rewarded. There are a couple of...

Your Tropical Garden Could Be Eden—Or a Wasteland in 3 Years The tropics are the most potent growing environment on Earth—and the most fragile. Like a drag racing car, they deliver extraordinary performance, but only when handled with precision, intelligence, and respect for their delicate engineering. When you are in the tropics, surrounded by explosive green growth, and year-round warmth, the biggest mistake is to buy into the promise of endless harvests. "Everything grows here," the locals...

Mastering Arid Landscapes: Irrigation, Traps, and Your Complete Checklist- Desert Garden Part 4 We've dealt with the fundamentals in deserts—the Oasis Flywheel, planting techniques, vines, fences, soil, and mulch. After reading part 1, part 2, and part 3 you understand why desert gardens work and how to build them. But here's what separates gardens that just manage to keep going from those that create permanent sustainable gardens: knowing what to do and what not to do. Good design isn't just...