Howard Zuefle: Nurseryman, Yogi, Linchpin

Since coming to serve as Nursery Manager at Growing Value Nursery, Howard “Howie” Zuefle has proved himself to be invaluable to Cincinnati Permaculture Institute on so many levels: teacher, nursery manager, advisor, designer, installer, consultant, guide, friend. He wears these hats as easily as he wears his winning smile. He says he owes it all to his basic desire to eat well. Wild forage of food and organic growing of food are among his many passions and pathways to that end. 

His knowledge and experience, combined with his community network in East Price Hill, and other Cincinnati neighborhoods, made him the likely force with both the “Seeds of Change” and the “Boots on the Ground” programs, funded by grants we received in 2024-25. He rather single-handedly consulted, designed, selected, instructed, and installed alongside more than a dozen of our 27 Food Champions at their sites.

All while he was creating and managing the perennial edible nursery stock at CPIs Growing Value Nursery. He takes skillful care of our plants, the high quality of which continues to be praised by GVN customers.

More on Howard Zuefle in his own words:

Howard has been on his journey to find a way of living that integrates our human role in our local ecology for a good while now.  For him it took a car accident to motivate him to look beyond the quick fixes mainstream culture throws at us.  

The journey started in studying neuroscience and psychology at University of Cincinnati.  Then a clear need to be outside took the steering wheel, which brought an internship at the Civic Garden Center, a Permaculture Design Course with CPI, Foraging Mentors, Farming Mentors, and the rich Earth centered community of Cincinnati into his life.  

That was all on the going towards the connection with nature outside of himself part; there was also a coming into his own nature side of the journey by integrating the experience, which has involved embodiment practices, somatic experiencing, yoga, grounding/earthing, and learning to stay with the uncomfortable parts of living.

Finding local food, water, and the community that it takes to allow those to happen has been another major variable on the journey.  When one finds real food and the nourishing feeling that accompanies it there is no going back.

Howard is always looking to do Permaculture consultations, Botanical surveys, Nature Education, lead Foraging excursions and support others on their journey to a harmonious way of living. You can email him at HowGround@proton.me.

Food Champions of Cincinnati: Mary Dudley

In 2024, CPI received a generous grant award from the City of Cincinnati's Boots on the Ground program and set about growing and nurturing ten “Food Champions" around the west side of the city. This year, we are inviting our Food Champs to share their stories. In this article we’d like to introduce you to Mary Dudley.

Mary is a pivotal person in the CPI Food Champions stories. Her tireless efforts weaving community through gardening has brought more connections than we can count. She tells her own story below…

Mary on the back porch of her Westwood home near Mt Airy Forest

I am a seeds & soil kinda gal.

I find my fondest moments are those when I am filled to the brim with excitement as I prepare soil for a new garden bed, stirring the black compost with soft brown peat. Since my daily schedule is unpredictable, the time to fill and seed these freshly churned beds occasionally falls under a shining moon and I go to bed soil streaked and hoping for a gentle rain to awaken the sleeping seeds. Once the seeds germinate and put on new growth, I nurture them with trellising structures compiled from unused items pieced together with love and twine. My passion is for the resilience of the plants who boldly root themselves and make life blossom in the face of rain, wind, drought and heat, fending off pressures from herbivores along the way. I love sharing my plant fascination with others and working together to protect the fertile spaces of our community for many generations to come. 

My current volunteer work through the nonprofit Westwood Grows (started in 2022 in an effort to support public gardens in the Westwood neighborhood of Cincinnati) focuses on celebrating neighbors who plant native gardens, cultivating community through seed and plant swaps, and empowering those who sustain existing food forest installations in the community with tools and education.

While a bountiful harvest of fresh produce is desired, the real value lies in the daily interactions I have with neighbors turned friends in the form of compost conversations, texts with fuzzy pictures and questions of identification, smiles shared from snacking in the garden, and friendly honks from drivers who wave their gratitude as we pull up weeds along the road. It is through these relationships I am the most nourished. 

To learn more about Westwood Grows and meet the team, visit our website: www.westwoodgrows.org and check out our upcoming events including plant swaps at the Westwood Farmers Market and the Westwood Native Garden Walking Tour hosted in collaboration with Seeding Community.

Growing together,

Mary Dudley, she/her
Botanist, Educator, Nurturer
Website / YouTube / LinkedIn

Meet Our Graduates: Ayla Bella of Rooting Resilience

CPI students come from all walks of life and bring a diversity of experience and knowledge to our community. In this feature we introduce you to some of our graduates, the work that they’re doing, and how their permaculture education has benefited them.

Rooting Resilience: A Young Nonprofit Focused on Community Forest Gardens

Hello, everyone! My name is Ayla Bella, I am a 2023 graduate of a Cincinnati Permaculture Institute Permaculture Design Course (summer intensive at Antioch College) and the founder of Rooting Resilience, a permaculture-based organization. I’m excited to share our vision with you!

In my city of Columbus, Ohio, much of the public land I see is greatly underutilized. Parks have grass lawns that provide no protection from urban heat, community centers and libraries are bordered by landscaping or grass, and many lots lie vacant. Similarly, there is a great disparity in tree coverage between communities, varying from 41% to 9%. The city has several wonderful initiatives, like the Urban Forestry Master Plan, to address these issues, but more must be done.

Rooting Resilience, the nonprofit organization I am establishing, is focused on creating community forest gardens on this underutilized public land, with the mission to cultivate resilience, equity, community empowerment, and connection to the earth and her inhabitants. Forest gardens have the opportunity to address many problems at once by reducing food insecurity, climate change impacts, and inequity in access to food and green space - but I’m sure you all knew that already! We have been networking with the Columbus community for several months and have an eye on a few sites for pilot projects in the spring in partnership with Recreation and Parks. 

If this mission excites you, below are some ways you can help!

1. If you know of nurseries or seed companies that may be interested in donating plants, seeds, or materials please contact us at rootingourresilience@gmail.com. 

2. If you’re interested in supporting us while staying up-to-date on our projects, follow us on Instagram (@rootingresilience) and Facebook (Rooting Resilience) and share these accounts with others!

3. If you’d like to make a financial contribution to support our forest garden pilot project, this link will take you to the donation page for our fiscal sponsor, Local Matters. Important note: for a donation to go to Rooting Resilience, you must write “Rooting Resilience” in the donor notes section of the donation page. Otherwise, you will be donating to one of Local Matters’ other worthy causes! 

If you have any other thoughts, ideas, or connections, you can reach us at rootingourresilience@gmail.com. 

Thank you for your support!