What a great morning! The sun is out and I am enjoying my morning (over 50) cholesterol busting cup of oatmeal. Walking onto the property, the first thing you see are the abundant Dogwood trees
One of many Dogwoods on the Farm
This handsome fella is overwatching the dwarf orchard and coop
Our first spring, here on the mountain, we set up three zone 1 raised beds on our back porch and VP began weeding and planting some herbs and perennials down the driveway. We planted tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, basil, thyme, squash, beans, and radishes and learned some valuable lessons. One- while tomatoes do like shallow soil, support cages require greater depth to be effective. The beds lie on a concrete base and are great for shallow rooted plants, but fruit bearing crops with a high center of gravity are best planted in deeper, better supported soil. We will try them in our larger raised beds near our coop this year. Two- have a way to store your excess production. The six tomato and pepper plants produced more than we could use. By the end of last fall, we purchased a food dehydrator which will get heavy use this season. Feel free to give us your comments or suggestions.
Already producing lettuce and spinach
VP spent much of her free time last year sitting within this area
To our surprise, the perennials are coming out in force. Another great lesson learned; if you design it well, it will be less work in future seasons.
VP did a great job creating this!
Hey Team! Yesterday, I mentioned the water catchment system. Thought I’d put some “meat on the bones”. When we bought the property 18 months ago, we observed the gutter extended about 3 feet from the Northwest corner of the house. Rain would flow directly onto the foundation and was eroding the pad, creating muck on the west of the house and taking expensive mulch down the driveway. The 275 gallon tote helps slow the water energy by allowing us to control how fast water leaves that portion of the property. As unsightly as it may look from the picture below on the left, the tote works! The black plastic cover keeps the water free of algae, and a 50 foot hose lets us move the water to better drainage on the north or southern portion of the house. Yesterday we had almost 2 inches of rain which filled the tote in only a few hours. We still get debris off the roof but three sets of window screen filter most of the junk before it enters the tote from the gutter. Fully filled, we have almost 30 days supply of emergency water for drinking, flushing, cleaning, or watering the garden. The pic on the right is the fenced facade designed to keep the VP happy from the unsightliness of the Founder’s workmanship. ;).
Tote helps control excess water energy. Opaque plastic keeps sunlight out and minimizes algae.
Amy didn’t like the rustic look of the tote so this facade was deemed acceptable (for now)
This is an In Progress Review (IPR) of our permaculture efforts here on the farm. Since retiring on October 1st last year, we’ve completed the online Permaculture Design Course by Geoff Lawton, and begun implementing several design concepts. We now have 275 gallons of rainwater catchment that serves as both an operational reserve and erosion control for the northwestern corner of the home. We’ve increased the available growing area with raised beds and repaired a portion of our shed to serve as a future chicken coop or rabbit hutch. We have lettuce, spinach, and radishes planted last month and have planted dwarf cherry, pear, apples, peach, mulberry, blueberries, blackberries, rasberries, walnut, and pecans. Will keep you updated on what survives our initial foray into zone 1 establishment.
Working hard to stay out of the rat race.