"The Lawn Has Got To Go"

When Dan made that statement earlier this month, it was music to my ears! He had just finished the first front yard mowing of the year. If you've read my blog for long, or my book, then you know that Dan and I think our biggest waste of time and energy is having to mow the lawn. Why have we bothered? Well, because we have neighbors across the street who like the manicured suburban look. It's not that we're trying to impress them, rather, it's a gesture of respect. If we were them we wouldn't want to look at a neglected, unkempt yard across the street.

I wouldn't go so far as to call it a "lawn." It measures approximately 46 ft. by
108 ft. I have several herb and flower beds there plus a number of fruit trees.

A traditional front yard is such a waste: a waste of land that could grow food, a waste of time to maintain it, not to mention the fossil fuel used to run equipment and make fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. Add to that the cost to purchase and repair yard maintenance equipment, and it all that adds up to a huge waste of money, for those who care to think of it that way. And all for looks! I maintain that if everyone would devote at least part of their yard or apartment balcony to growing food, we could end world hunger.

Our original plans were for an extensive herb garden in the front yard. I haven't abandoned this idea, but have had a very difficult time getting various herbs established. Some were successes, but I've had many fails as well. Then there's the wiregrass which invades and strangles out everything. Most discouraging.

The area to the left of the driveway is bordered with a concrete wall. It was
where I planted my first year garden and later, strawberries, comfrey, and
buckwheat. Currently there are our almond & crabapple trees & daylilies.

We actually have several small areas which could be put to better use than mowing: the front yard, the side yard (both upper and lower), and the area in front of the garden where we planted fruit trees. All of these are small, ranging from a little over 1000 to about 5000 square feet. There are lots of annual things we could grow: corn, cowpeas, amaranth, buckwheat, wheat, oats, barley, sorghum, sunflowers for seed, hay grass; the list goes on. No, this will not be a strictly permaculture solution, but it will be a self-sufficiency solution. Or at least a step toward growing more of our own food and animal feed.

Our front yard area on the side has two levels, upper and lower, separated by a
concrete wall. In the upper I have an almond tree, crabapple tree, sand cherry
bushes, comfrey, and daylilies. The bottom is bordered by my rugosa roses, red
raspberry plants, a hazelnut bush and azaleas, which I transplanted years ago.

The two areas you see above will be planted in corn. Unfortunately, breaking ground with a garden tiller is hard work and rough on the tiller, but even if we had a farm tractor these areas are probably too small for that. Next to till will be in front of the house! I am so happy with this plan.

"The Lawn Has Got To Go" © April 2014 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

We Think We Found The Old Well

Dan may have found the old well. He recently looked online for tips on finding old wells, and we think it's been under our very noses all along.

There is a broken cap lying around somewhere too.

The pipe as you can see, has been filled with dirt and likely the well is too, either because it's dry or because the residents wanted municipal water when it became available. Our neighbor told us his old well is dry. Like us, they'd hoped to use their's for watering their garden.

Arrow points to location of the pipe we think indicates the old well.
Also note the dryer vent to the left below the porch windows.

The only "bad" thing is that it's located so close to the house, as in inches from the foundation. I say that because I don't like the idea of having to dig so close to the foundation to figure out if it indeed is the old well, and whether or not it's salvageable.

We need to know, because we've already got an idea for the greywater from the washing machine on the back porch.

Idea for laundry greywater soil filtration bed. The sketch also includes a
gate across the driveway from our  privacy fence / firewood storage area

The idea entails building a greywater soil filtration bed along that side of the house. Because it gets the blazing summer sun in late afternoon, we'd like to frame the windows with pergolas, and grow something vining for summer window shade. I don't know what yet, but something that doesn't mind the alkaline laundry water. In the sketch above we've also finished off the privacy fence/firewood storage with a gate.

Before we can get to that, we need to finish the outside of the house on that side. That's a job of work because it involves upgrading the old, original windows, and new siding. The bedrooms (middle one at least) are next on the house goal list  after the bathroom (on hold till warmer weather). Every time we've replaced a window we've had to do the exterior siding as well. I reckon what I'm getting at is that there are a number of steps to be done first, so we have some time to investigate.

It would be wonderful to have the old well as a source of irrigation water at least. Even better if the water was potable. That's all speculation and we're not even positive it is the old well. It will be interesting to find out.

We Think We Found The Old Well © March 2013 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Indecisiveness & The Repotting Plan

I have trouble sometimes, with decision making. Not all things, but some things, at times, will render homesteading progress stuck in the proverbial mud. I've seriously examined this in myself, and wondered if it is actually indecision or procrastination. There are times when I'm a champion at putting things off.

From left: dwarf banana, olive tree, lemon cypress, ginger
(with volunteer tomato), and Katy in the background

Sometimes though, nothing gets done because of lack of knowledge, or questions about the outcome. One thing I don't want to do, is make an uninformed or hasty decision which I will regret later. Such was the case with putting off the where to plant several potted plants. Some are indoor plants and needed a larger pot; genuine procrastination. Some really need to be planted. Somewhere. It's the not knowing how big they'll get and how they will fit into my general landscaping goals that puts to brakes on progress.

Two American cranberries with a dwarf thyme in center

Sometimes I have trouble making a decision due to weariness. I simply run out of energy for all the things that need to be done. Sometimes it's a matter of time; I always seem to have more to do, than time to do it in. That's when I have to remind myself that there's often a difference between things that are urgent, and things that are important.

What do I mean? When considering a day's to-do list, I may feel it's urgent to get library books returned before they start to accrue a fee, but it is more important to get the tomatoes canned before they spoil. The sense of urgency regarding the library books however, can nag me until I do something about it and put off things that are truly more important. I have to ask myself which is worth more to me, the spare change to pay an overdue fine, or the potential loss of food for preservation.

Making potting mix from compost & filler soil from the old swimming pool

Another example, I decide to stay home and can those tomatoes. In the middle of putting the jars into the water bath, the phone rings. My sense is that I must answer it (urgency) rather than let the answering machine get it (prioritizing according to importance.) Recognizing the difference is important, because urgency affects me emotionally. It's not only nagging, but driving. I end up feeling slavish, disorganized, and ultimately frustrated.

Repotted (front left): 2 American cranberries & dwarf thyme
(back left) dwarf banana, lemon cypress, ginger, olive tree

With my plants, making a decision about where to plant them was never urgent. I knew they could get root bound and die, but other projects always crowded the inevitable out of my mind. Neither did it ever seem more important than other things needing to be done. I finally had to put the task on a to-do list and commit myself to getting the job done. Did I decide where to plant the ones that needed it? No. In the end, my plan was to repot them all. In the end, I was able to put the location decision off for a little while longer.

It's a temporary solution, which I realize will still need to be addressed in the future. Even so, the plants are happier and I'm happier. If only I could repot all of my problems, concerns, and indecision.

Indecisiveness & The Repotting Plan © August 2011

by Leigh at http://my5acredream.blogspot.com/

Fine Tuning The Master Plan

One of the things on my winter to-do list has been to work on my herb garden plans. Getting my seed order in has prompted me to set about this task in earnest, because I need to decide where to plant those seeds!

To help with this, I've turned to two of the volumes I mentioned as being on the nightstand, Edible Forest Gardens by Dave Jacke. These books are similar in content to two other books I read last summer, Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard Into a Garden and Your Neighborhood Into a Community, by Heather C. Flores, and The Self-Sustaining Garden: A gardener's guide to matrix planting by Peter Thompson. Neither of these are nearly as extensive as Jacke's books, but they served as a good introduction to a concept which has been a goal of ours for as long as I can remember -- to steward every square foot of our land for function as well as beauty.

I set about to plan my herb gardens by taking a look at the Edible Forest Gardens chapters on design process (ch. 3, vol. 2). As I read through the section, "How to Articulate Your Goals: Four Options," I quickly realized that my first step needed to include a consideration of our land as a whole. Even though I had previously drawn out a master plan, we now needed to refine that plan to better fit the herb gardens into the big picture.

Copies of all our master plans are available in my book, 5 Acres & A
Dream The Book: The Challenges of Establishing a Self-Sufficient
Homestead. For more information, click here.

The new master plan is similar to my first sketch, but more accurate I think, in terms of building size and placement, and the yard. Some things, like the fence line, are still approximate, but you get the idea. Some things on the sketch have already been implemented, others are future.

What this exercise did for me, was to more clearly define the separate "landscape" areas for which I need to plan:

• Herb gardens in the front yard
• Bird garden to the right of the house
• "Orchard" between the veggie garden & zig zag fence
• Almond tree area across the driveway from the herb gardens. This is where last summer's garden was.
• The "backyard" left of the house, which will serve as a recreational area

Here are my thoughts on these areas at present, including an update of what we've done so far:

Herb Gardens

This is actually my target area at the moment and I'm working on a separate post for that. Details soon!

Bird Garden

Currently:

• Bird Garden is the view from our kitchen and dining room windows, also from the back windows of my studio.
• Has two bird baths, two seed feeders, and one suet feeder
• Is shaded
• Is fairly private from the road
• Serves as a walk through area to the vegetable garden

Planning:

• To develop it as quite area / bird sanctuary type shade garden.
• Benches for seating
• DH would also like to put a solar fountain there. I wonder though, how well would a solar fountain work in the shade???

"Orchard"

Does four fruit trees qualify it to be an orchard??? I just don't know what else to call it.

Currently:

• Have planted two dwarf pear trees and two semi-dwarf apple trees.
• Added the zig zag fence to define the area.
• Planted elder bushes in two of the "zigs" on the garden side of the fence; daylilies and daffodils planted on the road side.

Planning:

• This area needs the drainage tended to. We almost planted the almond tree at the bottom of the tree row, but fortunately discovered an underground rain puddle there before we put it in (which is why we planted it where it is now). It needs a series of swales to direct rain runoff down the slope, and a cistern/pond at the bottom to collect it away from the trees and shrubs.
• This spring I'm going to plant a mix of orchard grass and ladino clover there, for ground cover, for some nitrogen fixing (which the apples and pears will appreciate), and for whatever small amount of hay we can get.
• Plant more flowering and fruiting shrubs in the fence zigs and zags (on order).
• Also need to consider the strip of ground on the side of the road. I don't want to have to maintain it by mowing. Maybe plant a short perennial clover there, like White Dutch? (Also considering this for the shoulder of the road near the Leyland Cypresses.)

Almond Tree

This is where I had last summer's vegetable garden.

Currently:

• Area defined by a concrete border
• Almond tree newly planted
• Daylilies and daisies planted along the roadside edge

Planning:

• Original plan was to plant a big shade tree here to shade the house's southwestern facing windows and front porch. This plan was upset when we needed a quick place to plant the almond tree. The almond tree will not be as big, mature height of 15 feet, spread the same, so I'm not sure how much shade to eventually expect for the house.
• Still need to shade those windows. Currently thinking, muscadine vines on trellises(?) One thing I've discovered is that these windows only get setting sun in summer. In winter the sun sets directly to the front of the house.
• Not sure what to do with the rest of this space. On the original master plan, it was labeled "shade garden."
• Will put my strawberry plants there in the spring, where last year's green beans were.
• Also considering putting my forsythias along the line farthest from the house, to provide some visual privacy from cars coming from that direction.

"Backyard," Recreational Area

I have "backyard" in quotation marks because it's really a side yard, but will serve as a backyard would.

Currently:

• Shaded by the big old oaks.
• Open with little to no shrubs or undergrowth
• Easily accessed from the back door
• Fire pit for camp fires
• Recently transplanted azaleas to define the area and create a privacy hedge

Planning:

• DH wants to build a barbecue pit and smoke house here.
• Maybe I can get an outdoor oven into the bargain???
• Will be the only area with "lawn"
• Need to consider growing replacements for the oaks. They are old and we don't know how much longer they'll last.
• Need to consider seating and dining. Picnic table?

I should mention one other book which has been helpful in planning these areas, What Plant Where, by Roy Lancaster. This book was recommended to me by Canadian reader, Val. Though it doesn't deal specifically with edibles and medicinals (the qualifying feature for what I plant), it has been helpful nonetheless, as it divides plants according to specific landscape categories such as size, shape, color, soil, sunlight, position, seasonal features, etc. (Plus, being a Dorling Kindersley book, it's a treat to look at.)

Other areas of consideration

• Field #1 - will be used for grazing/browsing for livestock (goats and chickens)
• Field #2 - we're hoping to have at least part of it plowed this spring for field corn and ?
• Researching eventually alternating the two for growing and grazing

Other new features in the Master Plan

• Greenhouse - the best idea at present is to put it next to the carport. My clothes line is there now, so this will have to be moved. A greenhouse location has been something of a problem, because the sunniest places on the property are near the road, and I don't want the greenhouse near the road.
• Rainwater catchment tank - behind the greenhouse(?). Possibly others?
• Bees - hives on the south side of the coal barn where they'll be shaded in summer by the magnolia and fig trees, and protected by the barn from northern winter winds
• Pond - well, that's not new but it still is a future project
• Coal barn & animal shed - these were replaced by a barn in the original master plan. We're rethinking this and are leaning toward replacing the respective buildings in their current footprints. Unanswered question - are they large enough to meet our needs?

Undecided - not on the master plan

• Rabbits - we've discussed these in terms of meat and manure. The hesitation stems, I think, because I used to have Angora rabbits for fiber, (more on that here), and these were pets. It would take a mental adjustment to see them as livestock and to butcher them.
• Pig - for meat, manure, and lard. This isn't on our radar yet, so to speak, but something we mention from time to time as a possibility.
• Hay storage - can use the coal barn car port, but need to think of a better location. This is a consideration in regards to building a new barn or replacing current sheds.

Fine Tuning The Master Plan text and photo copyright 7 February 2010
by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

'Tis The Season For Transplanting

When the weather cooperates that is. And we have a lot I'd like to see transplanted!

When we first moved here last May, the yard was very neglected and overgrown. I did a lot of clearing around the house, and discovered some things I'd like to keep, even though it means relocating them. The dormant season is the best time to do that, so for the past couple of months, I've been working on transplanting as much as I can.



One thing I'm relocating is hardy hibiscus. I have a lot of them around the place, including several large bushes that someone must have planted years ago. Now however, saplings are coming up all over the place.

I didn't have to think long about where to move them to. My idea is to plant a row of them on the road side of the row of Leyland Cypresses we planted last July. I'm putting them in front of and in between the cypresses, in hopes that they'll give neighbors and passers-by some pretty color to enjoy with an evergreen background. This will also serve to as give us more privacy while the Leyland Cypresses grow large enough to do the job themselves.

The little hibiscus saplings are leafless now, so you can't see them very well in the photo below, but they are there surrounded by little piles of mulch in front of the evergreens...

I'm not planting them in a very straight line am I! Obviously my eye-ball measurements aren't so good. :)

I've also been finding what looks like irises scattered around the property.

I'm gradually moving them closer to the house where I can enjoy them.

Also in the process of being moved are these azalea bushes...

They were hidden behind the house and are too close to the foundation. To move them I pruned them rather severely in hopes of keeping the above ground part of the plants about the same size as the root ball.

They're being moved to the side of the house, behind the spot where we had our summer garden. In the photo above, you can see three that have already been moved, a hole for the fourth, and two bricks designating where the last two will be planted. Since we don't have a backyard behind the house, I'm hoping these will define the side yard under the big old oaks. This area will be recreational, and will serve as our back yard. The only downside to transplanting them is that I had to prune off the flower buds. That means I'll have to wait a whole year before they can blossom.

I also have some forsythias I'd like to relocate (I took this pic before they lost their leaves) ...

I'm just not sure where, yet. They offer nice color in both spring and fall but these are in the area being fenced in for the goats. That's one reason I'd like to move them, but also because I don't think they're getting as much sun as they like to bloom well.

Then I have this bucket of bulbs that I picked up when we first tilled next year's garden...

I'm hoping these are daffodils, so I've planted them to find out. Along with these are the daylilies I found blooming last summer ...

I replanted some of these last summer, but there are tons more which are also in the goat field. I took both daylilies and mystery bulbs, and planted them in the roadside triangles of the zig zag fence...

On the garden side, I've already planted two elderberry bushes, and plan to plant more blueberries, some red raspberries, and a rugosa rose bush as well.

All this seems like a lot to do, but we do love being outdoors. I'm not sure how many plants we'll get moved before spring arrives. Rain was the deterrent in November and December, though we got quite a bit transplanted. Our forecast for the next several days promises nightly lows in the teens and daytime highs in the mid 30s, so if the ground freezes, digging will be out for awhile, for both transplants and fence posts!

'Tis The Season For Transplanting photos & text copyright 

January 2010 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Planting A Privacy Hedge

About the only thing I wish was different about this place is that I wish we were a little farther off the road. In addition to the house and front yard, both cleared areas have road frontage. It's not a main road to the next town, but there are several housing developments on it. One problem with that is the noise and traffic. Oh, sometimes it's quite, but other times it's not.

The other problem is that I don't like the sense that everything we do can be viewed by either our neighbors or by passers-by. Please don't get me wrong, our neighbors are very nice, and the passers-by are usually driving too fast to take much notice, but I'm a very private person. That may be because I'm a social klutz, or perhaps it's because I'm contemplative by nature. Either way I don't like being in the limelight and I don't like the feeling of being on display.

The remedy for both these problems, I felt, was to plant a privacy hedge. I figured it would be several years before we would be able to plant it. When I saw an ad in the paper for bargain priced 4-foot, 3-gallon trees Leyland Cypress trees, I was ecstatic. They are evergreen, lovely to look at, and grow both quickly and thickly. We went and bought as many as our little Chevy S-10 would hold.

We decided to plant the hedge along the roadside edge of the field north of the house. First we had to wait a few days for the utility companies to come out and mark where we couldn't dig. And because we don't want the electric company to come out and top them all in the future, we planted them just inside the power line.

We had about 175 feet to cover. Planting trees six feet apart doesn't cover the full length, but it's a good start and I feel better about it already. These are supposed to grow at a rate of 3 - 4 feet per year, which means that in a few years I'll have the privacy I'm wanting.

Although these guys don't meet my self-imposed requirement that everything we plant be edible, medicinal, or for natural dyeing, they were the right thing at the right price at the right time. Hopefully they will do well.

Planting A Privacy Hedge is copyright July 2009

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Uncovered

You may recall that I mentioned in an earlier post how overgrown our place was when we first got here. Initially, it was quite overwhelming. We decided to start with the yard and begin to clear around the house. I could tell that at one time, it had been nicely landscaped. The azaleas, nandina, and crepe myrtles were obvious, but years of neglect had hidden other things. As I slowly began clearing out some of the overgrowth, I started uncovering some wonderful things. For example, under this pecan tree ....

..... is a hedge of Beauty Bush (Kolkwitzia amabilis) now liberated from sapling trees, vines, and other miscellaneous unwanteds.

The hedge edges the front yard, and also creates a visual privacy barrier from the road on that side of the house. The flowers are fragrant and the bees love them.

I've already mentioned that I discovered wild muscadine grape vines in the woods ....

But I also discovered a domestic grape vine in what we're calling the pasture...

The poor thing is being supported by a metal stake with two tomato cages piled on top of one another. Even worse, it's in mostly shade. Still ....

... it's managing. I will have to research transplanting these and find a sunnier spot for it next summer.

Another discovery ...

.... daylilies in the overgrown field on the other side of the house. I need to transplant these too, before we fence it in for grazing.

And here's something I didn't realize was there until I started clearing brush behind the house ....

Fig trees! Complete with baby figs! These need more sun too, to ripen. But by clearing out a number of small trees, vines, and shrubs that were trying to choke them out, I've been able to provide them with more of that.

So. How much progress have we made in our clearing out project? Well, here's the view from my kitchen window just after we got started .....

And here's the view now .....

By going slowly I can be selective. I realize that much of it will want to grow back, since it's being cut down rather than pulled out by the roots. Still, it gives us a sense of the yard and the land. And if we can keep it mown around the house, we should be able to control it better.

The eventual goal is to landscape the yard completely with edible, medicinal, and dye plants. That may take awhile to accomplish, but it's nice to see that we have a head start with what's already here.

Copyright by Leigh 18 June 2009 at http://www.5acresandadream.com/