Pastures and House Lawn

Cactus Island blog begins!

April 9, 2020 /
The East Pasture, after removing invasive plant species and problem pasture weeds that commonly overrun disturbed areas.

It has been just over eleven months since we moved here in rural Williston, Fl from down South in Estero, and what a monumental restorative effort it has been. My mother named the 8.21 acre property on a sub-tropically wooded sand hill “Cactus Island”, as old time Florida settlers once called such highground areas “islands”. It is also a reference to the abundant yellow-flowering prickly pear cacti found throughout the property and to the enormous numbers of Florida-compatible cacti I’ve grown from seed in the ever-expanding nursery. We completely hand-renovated the house, built food garden enclosures, created permaculture mounds for orchards and restored the land by manually weeding it of invasive and noxious pasture weeds.

James V. Freeman is an established visual artist (oil painting) with a deep interest in natural history, plants and farming. He has had numerous solo shows, a solo museum show, an upcoming museum show and his work has been featured in many publications to date. He currently has a studio in Williston, Fl at the family farm and homestead, "Cactus Island", and as a farmer, specializes in growing columnar cacti of the Caribbean and Gulf countries as well as the aquatic Madegascar Lace Plant. James and his mom Sharon manage and develop the permaculture homestead.

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