Refresh
We are currently refreshing the soil in our raised garden beds. This entails me ripping everything out and Stephen moving the new soil from the truck in the front of the house to the back. This highlights a design flaw but one that I new was there. When designing a garden you always want a way to get a truck or some such device close to the garden for the necessary inputs (compost, mulch, new plants). Our garden is around the house on the east which is about as far from where our cars are as you can get. I knew this but could not figure a way around it. We are not on level land and the area around the garden is either swale or sloping. Neither would easily support a road. Also, I realize I need to be mulching our beds WAY more than I have been. I am really a lazy gardener and need to attend to this personality trait. A little work every day is so much easier than Herculean efforts a few times a year.
We have been having warm weather and it's depressing me. The big Sandy storm that hit the east coast was so violent and heart-breaking for so many and yet here we have clear sunny skies (although all summer we live in the low but constant fear of fires). In a few days the temperature is supposed to dip and some rain is headed our way. I sure hope so. I really don't want a repeat of the winter that wasn't of 2011. The chickens seem well suited to their new coop. I love getting eggs now and have been giving them all the garden bed debris. Either the deer are sucking our little micro-pond dry each night or it has sprung a leak. I really wish the deer would move to their winter feeding grounds already. A friend mentioned that maybe we have changed the environment around our house so much now that they might stay. Oh no! Didn't really plan for an increase in deer numbers due to all the yummy plants but I should have. Nothing is static in nature especially deer numbers.
This first photo shows the new chicken coop in the garden. It sits in front of the Fuji Apple which suits the apple just fine. The larger tree in the foreground is the Peach I never wanted. It has done remarkable well, so just goes to show you what I know. The coop is designed for ease of use and with the directions of storms and wind in mind. As you can see, to the west is the egg collection and a window. To the east and south which are our storm sectors no openings except when I need to clean the whole thing out and then a huge panel lifts up. To the north, which you can't see, is the entrance for the chickens and two more windows. In this photo the coop does not have the metal roof on that it now has. The photo underneath shows the same land summer 2009.
This second photo is taken from the kitchen window. I wanted this shot because I have one similar from when the grasshoppers hit in 2009 and the plant diversity is so much more now.
I also like to take photos from my desk looking out the window to the west. This view used to be just grass with large oaks far in the distance but now it is full of trees and green. It makes me have hope when I feel overwhelmed by our losses and mistakes.
I want to make a bee forage bed in addition to all the other bee forage plants but I can't figure out where to put it. The begun but not completed grey water area is really bugging me now. Note to self: never start something that large and then stop. I also need to devote some beds to perennial veggies like asparagus, artichokes and chives. What kind of permaculturist am I?!! This last photo is from a family road trip we took in Sept. This is looking down at Mono Lake California close to the border with Nevada.
We have been having warm weather and it's depressing me. The big Sandy storm that hit the east coast was so violent and heart-breaking for so many and yet here we have clear sunny skies (although all summer we live in the low but constant fear of fires). In a few days the temperature is supposed to dip and some rain is headed our way. I sure hope so. I really don't want a repeat of the winter that wasn't of 2011. The chickens seem well suited to their new coop. I love getting eggs now and have been giving them all the garden bed debris. Either the deer are sucking our little micro-pond dry each night or it has sprung a leak. I really wish the deer would move to their winter feeding grounds already. A friend mentioned that maybe we have changed the environment around our house so much now that they might stay. Oh no! Didn't really plan for an increase in deer numbers due to all the yummy plants but I should have. Nothing is static in nature especially deer numbers.
This first photo shows the new chicken coop in the garden. It sits in front of the Fuji Apple which suits the apple just fine. The larger tree in the foreground is the Peach I never wanted. It has done remarkable well, so just goes to show you what I know. The coop is designed for ease of use and with the directions of storms and wind in mind. As you can see, to the west is the egg collection and a window. To the east and south which are our storm sectors no openings except when I need to clean the whole thing out and then a huge panel lifts up. To the north, which you can't see, is the entrance for the chickens and two more windows. In this photo the coop does not have the metal roof on that it now has. The photo underneath shows the same land summer 2009.
This second photo is taken from the kitchen window. I wanted this shot because I have one similar from when the grasshoppers hit in 2009 and the plant diversity is so much more now.
I also like to take photos from my desk looking out the window to the west. This view used to be just grass with large oaks far in the distance but now it is full of trees and green. It makes me have hope when I feel overwhelmed by our losses and mistakes.
I want to make a bee forage bed in addition to all the other bee forage plants but I can't figure out where to put it. The begun but not completed grey water area is really bugging me now. Note to self: never start something that large and then stop. I also need to devote some beds to perennial veggies like asparagus, artichokes and chives. What kind of permaculturist am I?!! This last photo is from a family road trip we took in Sept. This is looking down at Mono Lake California close to the border with Nevada.
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