Next step: soil

[miladycarol]

I spent my afternoon in the yard working on the veggie bed. I'm laying bricks where treated lumber once was. I had dug it all out two years ago, laid weed block, then run out of cash to buy the bricks and soil. I've been buying the bricks over the past year and have almost all of them. I was out there this afternoon shoring up the bricks so they lay more or less even. I'll need the soil to kind of plump up any remaining slumping ones.

Eventually, I'd love to brick in other areas of the yard and make nicer gardens there, too. I have an ornamental maple tree that I housed in a wooden barrel for 9 years. The barrel is falling apart around it and the tree has laid a tap root I'm not willing to break. I'm thinking I should just brick around the perimeter of the barrel and fill the rest in with soil. So many plans. So much dirt to move.

Comments

[thoughtsbykat.livejournal.com]

We have lots of plans too. We'll start out slowly. I'm sure your yard is lovely. What ever happened with that rental house you were trying to 'give' away?

[miladycarol.livejournal.com]

We had to close the contest and return the entry fees due to a state ruling. The contest never finished, yet we contacted the woman with the most votes and declared her the unofficial official winner and asked if she'd like us to donate $50 in her name to one of the proposed charities and she picked one. We talked for a bit and then asked if she wanted to rent or rent to own the property. The family met us for coffee, we took them on a tour and they loved it. Really, no one who chooses to live in the PNW could help but love it. It's gorgeous. We had them over for tea on Sunday and to hear him speak of rounding the bend in the road and see his house serenely set in the woods waiting for him like heaven's doors thrown open to receive him was pure poetry. I'm so glad someone who really loves the place lives there.

Thanks for asking.

[wyliekat.livejournal.com]

Cannot believe the weather is warm enough for you to be able to do some garden puttering. I am big with the jealous.

[miladycarol.livejournal.com]

I understand. I really do. I came from the frozen ground and blizzards in April and May weather of northern New England. I picked here on purpose. My goal is to use what little sunlight I have to best advantage. I'm hoping to grow a crop of tomatoes that can be canned for the winter and maybe experiment with some other full sun veggies to see if I can make it happen. Mind you, every morning this week has seen my bird bath frozen, so we're not out of the winter woods yet. It's just that we also have so much rain that the ground is soft. It's the perfect time to dig holes. In summer, when most others dig in the dirt, our clay-rich soil becomes impacted and intractable. It's best to be out with an extra layer digging now.

[wyliekat.livejournal.com]

We've got clay soil here, too. Which means it takes forever to get to the digging in the dirt stage, post-winter.

[miladycarol.livejournal.com]

Well, you're north and not too much more east of me in Oregon, right? I guess that could be expected. Unfortunate for digging, great for building adobe, I suspect. If I didn't have to worry about so much rain, I should have built a straw bale raised bed, eh? *grins*

[wyliekat.livejournal.com]

If only adobe were useful in this climate. ;-}

[miladycarol.livejournal.com]

Isn't it? Well, I should think straw bale would be effective. I am led to believe the thickness of the walls insulates the interior temperature. If the house was heated to 18 degrees and it was 3 degrees outside, I would think it would take a great deal of time, after turning the heat off, for osmosis to even the inside temperature with outdoors. At least, that's what I'm led to think. There are people in Oregon who've built them and live in them. If I had enough land, I'd experiment with an art studio in the back yard built in straw bale -- just to see if it works for long term.

[wyliekat.livejournal.com]

I know there's been some talk in these necks of the woods too, about straw bale insulation. I don't know if it's made less practical by the extreme weather, or if there is some kind of adverse house insurance impacts. Or maybe it's flourishing and I just don't know about it!

Geo-thermal heating, on the other hand, is a growing trend up here.

[miladycarol.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've been chomping at the bit for geothermal heating/cooling for almost a decade and a half. In Oregon, it's mild enough that retrofitting the house for it would cost more than it would save for a very long time. If I were to build the house from the ground up, though, I'd start off with geothermal right away.

Yeah, geothermal with solar panels and a wind turbine... *dreamy sigh*

[wyliekat.livejournal.com]

I dream about that house when I win the lottery.

[thakur.livejournal.com]

You need a 'bobcat':)

[miladycarol.livejournal.com]

Indeed... though I'd rather it be the large machinery than the cat. I have small dogs, you see. *smiles*