Couple Turn Rocky Hillside Into Mega Food Forest, Provide Homegrown Food to Community

'Our kids have been involved in the project since day one. They were the inspiration for it.'

Courtesy of Taylor Raine

Two years ago, a California family took up a huge garden project to beat the pandemic blues. Together, they transformed a scrubby hill into a food forest that’s now providing plenty of fresh food and fruits to their friends and neighbors.

Mom-of-two Taylor Raine Koutroumbis and her husband, Stelios, worked hand in hand during the 2020 lockdowns, making their dream project come to fruition. It wasn’t just any old makeover. The half-acre area of their property was set on a hillside and was completely overgrown. So much so, that their neighbors had taken to calling their home “the jungle.”

It seemed impossible—especially alongside the challenge of homeschooling their two children—but the couple succeeded in turning their wild patch of land into a bountiful food forest, full to the brim with trees, plants, and flowers. Their food forest became a real family affair and the perfect classroom for their children. Today, their kids are not only top-notch fruit pickers and eaters, but they also enjoy spending time in the lap of nature.

Koutroumbis says their food forest is a “constant reminder” of all the beautiful things God has created in the world, helping to deflect their attention away from the negative. She says the family dreams of having a larger property to create a really massive food forest—a place where people could come and learn about “the joys and benefits” of growing their own food.

Taylor Raine Koutroumbis working in her new garden. Courtesy of Taylor Raine

Evelyn and Christopher harvest fruits from their food forest. Courtesy of Taylor Raine

Evelyn helping in the garden. Courtesy of Taylor Raine

The Dream

In May 2020, a few months into California’s strict lockdowns, the family was struggling to cope with harsh, lonely times.

“We were all going stir crazy,” Koutroumbis said. “Our house sits on a really steep hill and didn’t really have much of a yard. No neighbors wanted to get together for a play date, the parks and beach were closed, and the kids were going wild inside the house.”

Koutroumbis, who holds a degree in organic agriculture, started brainstorming ways to make a little fenced-in yard so that her two children—Evelyn, 8, and Christopher, 4—would have a place to burn off their energy without her needing to hover over them.

Together with Stelios, 36, she began watching online videos about building a retaining wall, which would allow them to level some ground. Before long, they were lugging in bags of cement, pouring it into the makeshift wall they’d built, leveling the small patch, and laying grass. And a yard for the kids was ready.

Taylor Raine Koutroumbis pouring concrete to build a new retaining wall. Courtesy of Taylor Raine

Stelios Koutroumbis works on his backyard wall with the help of his son, Christopher. Courtesy of Taylor Raine

Stelios Koutroumbis working outside with his kids, Evelyn and Christopher. Courtesy of Taylor Raine

Evelyn and Christopher helping with the harvest. Courtesy of Taylor Raine

What started as a small home improvement turned into project after project as the couple began to realize their dream of planting a food forest.

“Maybe it was the high of completing such a big project on our own,” Taylor Koutroumbis said, “or maybe it was the fact that our house started to look way nicer when we put some effort into it. Maybe it was the madness that settled in from weeks of staying home, but whatever it was, we soon set our sights on the hillside below the little yard.”

Teamwork

Stretching from their house to the street, the land was entirely taken over by English ivy, giant succulents, 70-year-old landscape plants, and a ton of garbage—thrown down from a lookout point on the street above. They dove straight in and started ripping everything out.

“It took days. We were so sunburned and just exhausted,” Koutroumbis said.

Now exposed, the hill looked like a wasteland. The ground was hard, rocky, and neglected, and the physical labor was tough. With weeds already trying to spring back up, the couple was in a race to replace the plants and maintain the integrity of the hill—all the while working, looking after their son and daughter, and homeschooling.

Halfway through the project, Taylor Koutroumbis became overwhelmed by the task that seemed never-ending. But the couple dug in their heels, and carried on.

“My husband is really the hero here,” she said. “He had a vision for where things would go and made it work, even when it seemed impossible. We make a good team.”

After clearing the weeds from "the jungle," the Koutroumbis family set to work planting a new garden. Courtesy of Taylor Raine

Steps leading to the Koutroumbis's front porch, with their hill garden to the left. Courtesy of Taylor Raine

Since clearing "the jungle" and planting the new garden, the plants on the hill are thriving. Courtesy of Taylor Raine

An aerial view of the Koutroumbis's new garden on the hill. Courtesy of Taylor Raine

One of the first things they did, after treating the weeds and mulching the land, was tree shopping.

They discovered a discount nursery and settled on six fruiting olives. When picking up the olive trees, they happened to notice a nice pomegranate tree in the lot. It was cheap, so they picked that up, too. And it all snowballed from there.

The Garden Becomes a Classroom

One of the real beauties of the living, breathing project is the effect it’s had on their children, especially on Christopher, who was just 2 years old when the work started.

“Our kids have been involved in the project since day one,“ Taylor Koutroumbis said. ”They were the inspiration for it, and they loved every minute of the process. Kids love being outside, getting dirty, and doing real hands-on things.”

The Koutroumbises set up a little “mud kitchen” outside for the children to play in while they worked, and the garden became a classroom, with plenty of small jobs for them to do. Together, they watched butterflies emerge, caught lizards, and even saved an injured hummingbird one day.

Evelyn and Christopher playing in the "mud kitchen." Courtesy of Taylor Raine

Evelyn and Christopher playing in the garden. Courtesy of Taylor Raine

Christopher playing in the "mud kitchen." Courtesy of Taylor Raine

“They must have ruined every bit of clothing that they had that first year, playing in the mud and digging holes and climbing around on the hill like wild people,“ Koutroumbis said. ”It was a really nice escape from the pandemic for my daughter, especially, because she didn’t have to think about all of the things that had changed or that were lost for her.

“She wasn’t so depressed, missing her play groups and friends and all of the things we used to do outside of the house, because we were suddenly doing this amazing thing all together.”

Evelyn playing in the garden. Courtesy of Taylor Raine

Evelyn and Christopher climbing trees in the "food forest." Courtesy of Taylor Raine

Evelyn in the garden, where she spent much of her time during COVID-19 lockdowns. Courtesy of Taylor Raine

Fruit and Flower Bonanza

Two years on, their harvest is bountiful. More than 20 avocado trees bless the hillside next to the fruiting olives, an abundance of vines, and “tons of citrus,” including sweet limes, Bearss limes, pixie tangerines, and white grapefruit.

Then there’s more fruit: two varieties of mango, passion fruit, an endangered fruit called a mamey, three types of mulberries, jaboticabas, nopal cactus (which makes delicious cactus fruits all summer long), pomegranates, persimmons, peaches, plums, figs, bananas, and the list goes on. A smaller garden space holds tomatoes, greens, a variety of vegetables, and a ton of herbs.

This year, Taylor started focusing her attention on cultivating flowers, which she uses to decorate the family’s home.

“I was shocked to learn that most of the commercially sold flowers are actually grown overseas and shipped in,” she said. “Flowers are expensive and not really sustainable when they’re grown like that. So I started growing my own.”

Since the start of the gardening project in 2020, the fruit trees are now producing bountiful harvests across the property. Courtesy of Taylor Raine

Taylor Raine Koutroumbis with some of the harvest from her garden. Courtesy of Taylor Raine

Some of the harvest from the "food forest." Courtesy of Taylor Raine

It’s safe to say that their neighbors, who once “despised the house,” are now much more appreciative. The family shares their fruits and veggies with them, and with anyone who comes by.

“Our neighbors have become a lot friendlier these days,” Taylor Koutroumbis said. “Our house is no longer the tragedy of the neighborhood, so that’s nice. The yard is so peaceful. It’s like a little escape. It is really just a neighborhood home with a large yard, but anyone who comes over can feel it. There is peace amongst the plants.”

She stresses she doesn’t want to give the impression that she has some kind of “super green thumb.”

“Anyone can do this,” she said. “Anyone can garden—no formal education required.”

Taylor Raine Koutroumbis with a vase of flowers she grew in her garden. Courtesy of Taylor Raine

Arshdeep Sarao contributed to this report.

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