If you’ve ever found yourself deep in a YouTube rabbit hole looking for the secret to a meaningful life, you probably saw him. A tall, slender man with a silver beard and a wide-brimmed hat, walking through a lush, green jungle of his own making. Joe Hollis, the founder of Mountain Gardens, wasn't just another gardener. He was a visionary who spent fifty years trying to build a literal paradise on three acres in North Carolina.
Then the news hit. People started whispering that Joe Hollis passed away, and for a lot of us, it felt like a library had burned down. Actually, a library did burn down right before he left us, which makes the whole story both tragic and weirdly poetic.
The Day the News Broke
Joe Hollis passed away on November 9, 2023. He was 81.
Honestly, the way he went was just as quiet and intentional as the way he lived. Earlier that year, he’d been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. He didn't make a big corporate announcement. Instead, a GoFundMe was set up by his friends, and the word spread through the community of herbalists, permaculturists, and back-to-the-landers who saw him as a sort of North Star.
He spent his final days in hospice care, but it wasn't some sterile hospital room. He was surrounded by his family and the people who loved the land as much as he did. There's something heavy about a man who spent half a century cultivating life having to face the end of his own, but Joe seemed to handle it with the same "not-doing" philosophy he preached for decades.
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Who Was Joe Hollis, Really?
To understand why so many people are still talking about his passing, you have to understand what he did in Burnsville, North Carolina. In 1972, Joe left Detroit. He bought a small plot of steep, rocky land at the foot of the Black Mountains. Most people would have seen a difficult hillside; Joe saw the potential for a "Paradise Garden."
He didn't just grow tomatoes. He grew one of the most diverse collections of medicinal plants in the Eastern United States. We’re talking over a thousand species. He was the guy who brought jiaogulan (the "immortality herb") to the U.S. He had Himalayan ginseng growing in the woods where no one thought it could survive.
Joe lived off the grid for 50 years. No "landscape" corporate talk here—the guy basically lived in a shack he built himself, surrounded by books and seeds. He wasn't a hermit, though. He was a teacher. Thousands of students passed through his gates to learn how to live without the "edifice of civilization," as he called it.
The Fire Before the End
One of the most heartbreaking parts of his final year was the fire. In May 2023, just months before he died, the central pavilion at Mountain Gardens burned to the ground. This wasn't just a building. It housed:
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- His entire seed collection (fifty years of genetics).
- A massive library of rare herbal books.
- His apothecary filled with tinctures and dried herbs.
- The solar power system that kept the place running.
You’d think a man in his 80s losing his life’s work would just give up. But Joe didn't. He watched the community rally to rebuild. It sort of proved his point—that if you give to the earth and the people, they’ll catch you when you fall. Even as his health declined, he was overseeing the plans for the new library.
Why Joe Hollis Still Matters
People are searching for "Joe Hollis passed away" because they’re looking for a connection to something real. We live in a world of screens and plastic. Joe was the opposite. He was dirt under the fingernails and ancient Taoist wisdom.
His "Paradise Gardening" philosophy wasn't about being lazy. It was about "ecosystem management." He believed humans should be like bears or birds—part of the system, not masters of it. He taught that if we just planted the right things, the garden would eventually take care of us.
What Happens to Mountain Gardens Now?
This is the big question. When a legend passes, the land often gets sold to developers. Thankfully, that’s not the case here.
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Before he died, steps were taken to turn Mountain Gardens into a non-profit. The goal is to keep it as a living seed bank and a place for apprentices to keep learning. A documentary titled PARADISE, filmed by Garrett Martin, is also in the works (or out now, depending on when you’re reading this), which captures his final year and his struggle to ensure the land survives.
How to Honor His Legacy
If you want to do more than just read about him, here’s how to actually lean into the Joe Hollis way of life:
- Plant something useful. Don't just plant a marigold. Plant a native medicinal like goldenseal or black cohosh.
- Support the non-profit. Mountain Gardens is still a working nursery. They sell seeds and bare-root plants. Buying from them helps keep the lights on (or the solar panels working).
- Read his essay. Search for "Paradise Gardening by Joe Hollis." It’s a short read that might actually change how you look at your backyard.
- Stop "doing" so much. Joe was big on the Taoist idea of wu wei. Sometimes the best thing you can do for your garden—and your head—is to just sit still and watch how the plants move.
Joe Hollis didn't just pass away; he planted himself back into the soil he spent fifty years tending. The garden is still there. The seeds are still growing. And honestly, that’s exactly how he wanted it.
To keep up with the rebuilding efforts or to order seeds from his legendary collection, you can head over to the Mountain Gardens website. They’re still carrying the torch, one seed at a time.