Welcome to Old World Garden Farms!
Old World Garden Farms is dedicated to sharing our passion of gardening, cooking, and all things DIY!
We are Jim and Mary Competti, and in late 2010, with four active teenage children and two full-time professional careers, we decided to follow our shared dream of creating a small, self-sufficient farm in the middle of Ohio.
Not long after clearing the land, we started a blog to share and document the process along the way. To be completely honest, it was not our original intention to create a Home, Garden & Recipe website. But sometimes, things just have a way of working out – especially when you follow your dreams and passions!
The Story of Old World Garden
In the very beginning, the blog was really more of a way for us to update friends and family. Ones who perhaps thought we might have lost our minds chasing this farm-building dream.
We began writing about all of our adventures. Like planting our first vegetable garden, raising chickens, building our barn, and all of the other crazy projects we found so exciting to tackle. Along the way, we began to post a few of our favorite recipes as well.
We have always had a passion for writing, and found a lot joy in writing our weekly articles. We shared the successes and the mistakes while building our little farm – and everything in between.
And then a funny thing happened. People from all over the country and beyond began to ask us for more details and more information. How did you grow this? How did you build that? And what is your favorite recipe for making salsa?
Who Knew? Old World Garden Farms
We are still not sure to this day how or why, but the blog somehow resonated with folks from all over. First with a few followers, then a hundred, and then a few hundred thousand. To the point now that today, Old World Garden has a little over 15 million monthly viewers, and followers from some 220+ countries.
It is often said if you do what you love, you will never work a day in your life. And for us, today, that statement couldn’t be more true.
Old World Garden Farm
As the website grew, we began to have the opportunity to write and speak about our adventures all around the country. And for two people who love to travel, it made it all the more special.
In April of 2016, we published our first book, Growing Simple, chronicling the story of building the farm. And in 2018, we published our second book, Raised Row Gardening, while launching two additional websites, This Is My Garden, and Make Your Meals.
It was at that point that we knew we had found what we loved to do, and what we were meant to do. Over the course of a few years, we each retired from our “professional” day jobs to follow our passion for gardening, cooking, DIY and writing full time.
Building On A Dream – Old World Garden Farms
Fast forward to the present, and we now have a family of six (6) Home, Garden & Cooking websites that allow us the opportunity to share and help others looking to grow more of their own food, prepare that food – and build and create projects all around their home. (See : Our Websites)
In 2021, we decided to move our farm to a larger 20 acre location to have more room for test gardens, and a space to hold future events, garden classes, cooking classes and more.
You can find us there most days, building, creating, cooking – and most importantly, doing what we love. In general, finding love in the simple things in life at Old World Garden Farms.
Happy Gardening! Jim & Mary
Jim and Mary Competti have been writing gardening, DIY and recipe articles and books for over 15 years from their 46 acre Ohio farm. The two are frequent speakers on all things gardening and love to travel in their spare time.
As always, feel free to email us at thefarm@owgarden.com with comments, questions, or to simply say hello! You can sign up for our free email list in the subscribe now box in the middle of this article. Follow us on Facebook here : OWG Facebook. This article may contain affiliate links.
