“I live in a vegetative state.”

“This is the part where people say, ‘And they lived happily ever after,’” says Fem Güçlütürk, speaking from the home she shares with her husband, Sezer Savaşli, in southwest Turkey. Since trading city life for a plot of land remote enough to lack reliable phone service, Güçlütürk has found that her days now follow the circadian rhythms of her plants. The PR executive–turned-botanist rises at six a.m. (“Even the dog doesn’t wake up then,” she says) and studies permaculture and edible gardening. After breakfast, she heads into the garden and remains there, weeding and pruning, until sundown. “I live in a vegetative state,” she jokes.

Born in Ankara and raised in Istanbul, Güçlütürk has always cultivated an unconventional path. She worked first in bars�...