I haven’t posted about the house is a while, ’cause, well, I was kind of tired of talking about it 🙂 But, we’ve been in here almost 3 months and we are all loving it! I’m really looking forward to our first winter so we can use the radiant floors and wood stove.
So, in the last 3 months, we’ve finished up some projects, like shelving in the bath closet, built a computer nook desk, rearranged the furniture about 178 times… we have to mount the door to the secret nook, and finish building the kitchen book shelf and I think the inside projects will be pretty much done! Wahooo! Then there’s tackling the outside (if you can’t hear the dread in my voice, it’s there, believe me!) We’ve still got a boat load of construction waste to deal with. All the left over wood (that is not usable for building) needs to be chopped up and stacked for fire wood. There are big piles of gravel, sand, and roof dirt to deal with, and trash here and there. It’s not actually too horrible, it’s just dealing with it! We’ve given ourselves until the Fall equinox to get stuff cleaned up, ’cause that is when we are finally going to have our house warming party! I would really like to get working on preparing the ground for a garden next year, but I have to say, that totally intimidates me! Our ground is complete hard clay and nothing but ragweed grows in it! So, I guess I need to till it all up and add a ton or two of compost and minerals. We’re not sure if we are going to plant in the ground or use raised beds. Any thoughts on what you prefer? I’d like to pack as much food into as small a space as possible so the space is used as efficiently as possible. I’m also hoping to plant lots of fruit trees and bushes and maybe some nut trees. Right now we have one peach (with about 10 fruits on it), and one nectarine.
Oh, and we’ve had lots of rain in the past 3 weeks, so the living roof is really taking off!!
Sounds like a perfect raised bed situation Maria – and you already have wood to make rough sides, gravel to put on the bottom for drainage, and loose dirt to fill them with. 🙂
Raised beds. Really. Keith has a spectacular garden every year,and gets loads of compost from the town for soemthing like 40/truck load. There is a book he used that encourages raised beds and organic everything else. Good luck! Post a picture of hte secret nook! It sounds intriguing.
I’d go the raised bed route, too. They dry out a bit faster, but you don’t have to till and you don’t have to deal with the hard clay.
I agree with the others. We have raised beds and I love them. Google square foot gardening to take full advantage. Have fun!
As for Kathy’s comment on drying out – you could use a venetian well (I think that’s what they call them…) which is essentially a big plastic milk jug with holes in it that you bury in the center of them. You fill them with water and it helps maintain the moisture.
John Jeavon’s “How to Grow More Vegetables: And Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine” is a very useful resource.
He encourages double digging. I’ve done both, double dug and created raised beds…and have great results with both. Raised beds is definitely the quicker method.
With regards to Jeavon’s book, it has diagrams that illustrate really neat concepts like planting companion plants in hexagonal patterns to make the most of your space. The book also has a good variety of premade plans (how it will all be laid out in the garden, when to start seeds, when to put in the ground and so on)
I’m glad to hear things are going well!