Jude Hobbs

"I'm big on biodiversity," says permaculture instructor and landscape designer Jude Hobbs, who describes her own east-Eugene yard as a forest garden. "My focus is edible landscape -- food plants for people and wildlife." A native of the Garden State, Hobbs studied horticultural therapy before she migrated west. She ran out of cash in Medford and spent three years there as a mental-health therapist. "It was emotionally draining," she says. "I decided I wanted to work with plants." She worked at nurseries and taught organic gardening, first in Ashland, where she met Eugene native Jerome Hobbs, and later in Portland while he studied medecine. "As a self-employed person, I needed to diversify," says Hobbs, who launched Cascadia Landscape Design in 1982 and moved it to Eugene in 1987. She also teaches permaculture at LCC, and offers PC certification courses in four states. She supports local agriculture as VP of the Lane County Food Coalition. "The Willamette Valley is a breadbasket," she says. "There's no reason for people to be hungry." Learn more about permaculture and upcoming classes at www.cascadiapermaculture.com.

happening people photograph and story by Paul Neevel Eugene Weekly / 21 April 2005