Rose Hip harvest

From Drop Box

Rose Hips we harvested from our Nootka Rose plants in an effort to make tea.

Potager paths and patio are in!

It's been one of the hottest weekends of the year so far. Nonetheless, I was able to finish the brick work for the paths and patio through the potager garden. That's one project I can now mark off my list!

Photo of the final product:

From 2010 Landscape

Next up is to build the arbors over the paths and haul in dirt to fill the space so that it's all the same level as the paths and patio. Maybe I'll do that once it cools down a bit.

One gate down

Completed the new garden gate to compliment the section of fence I finished a couple of weeks ago. Went with the same vertical slat style as the rest of our fence, but with a little embellishment on the top to help distinguish between what is fence and what is a gate.

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

Overall, a very simple design. I used a frame and panel design using lap joints to hold the frame together. I cheated on the skinny short slats that appear to protrude through the cross member :-) In fact, they do not. I considered cutting mortises, but then decided I'd like to get the project done in a day. Who will know besides for me and all the readers of this blog? Next step is to find attractive hinges and to mount. I've been looking at the extensive hinge selection at Van Dykes.

Happy to have this gate done. I have about 5 more to build in total, and I'm not sure when I'll get them all done. The design of this one was quite simple, so at least I'll know how to do it when the time comes.

Spring potager

We're starting to collect the needed supplies and building materials for our outdoor spring projects. This year we intend to build the potager, which is a fancy French work for kitchen garden. Our kitchen garden is on the south side of the house in the former area of the driveway. Last year, we went through the painstaking task of removing 30+ tons of concrete to make available 1800 square feet of dirt!

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

The "dirt" that's underneath the driveway is hard pack clay and rock fill, which isn't exactly perfect for a kitchen garden. On top of that, it doesn't drain at all and tends to hold standing water right next to the foundation of the house. Again, not good. Therefore, we're going to dig out a good portion of the fill dirt and bring in new soil and lay drains. To accomplish this little task, we've got to shore up the creek that runs alongside our property that helps carry away the winter rains. We were lucky enough to find large landscaping blocks for an incredibly reasonable price that we're going to use to shore up the creek.

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

Upon completion of that, we'll then be able to dig out a good portion of the fill dirt/rock where the beds are going to be and haul in dirt. Once all that's complete we plan on laying a brick path and patio for a finished look. Over the paths, we're building craftsman style pergolas to allow for better use of the vertical space with items such as pole beans, hops, etc.

Here's the latest pile of bricks I collected for this little project.

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

Once all that's complete, we should be able to plant an onion and perhaps some lettuce by August. Ha! Who knew something as simple as a garden could turn into so many steps. I guess I wouldn't have it any other way.

2010 garden planning

I've got one thing on my mind in the dead of winter, and that's the upcoming growing season! After two years of garden planning, hauling dirt, removing concrete, etc., I can start to get serious about planting the remaining trees and getting the production garden ready. I've spent the past two months flipping through my Raintree Nursery catalog, and have chosen a few select edible and ornamental varieties to plant next year.

• Olympia Blueberry: Small antioxidant packed blueberries.
  
• Bluecrop Blueberry: A larger blueberry. More productive, but less antioxidants.
  
• Ananasnaja Kiwi: Nothing beats fresh kiwi fruit picked directly from the vine. I ordered three plants in total, one male, and two females.
  
• Asian Pear: This particular dwarf pear tree contains four Asian pear varieties.
  
• Fig (Madeleine Des Duex Saisons): Figs do exceedingly well in the Pacific Northwest, and are an extremely attractive and productive fruit tree.
  
• Hops: Both golden and tettnang hops for interest, and for beer making in the future.
  
• Russian Tea: A small bush, reaching 2-3 feet in height. The leaves are picked and used to make a black tea. This one is entirely for fun!
  
• Kwanzan Flowering Cherry: This will work perfectly in my Japanese inspired Pacific Northwest landscape design. The flowering cherry will add color and interest during the early spring months of the year.
  
• Paper Bark Maple: I went back and forth on this decision, but I've decided to plant a Paperbark maple alongside the pond and waterfall as a focal point. This maple is very slow growing and remains small to medium size with pruning.
• Red and Black Currant: Why not. I know nothing about Currants, but they were thrown into my order for free.
  

My original thinking was to plant all of the fruit trees in the area where we tore out our driveway, but I have since changed the plan. Instead of planting all the fruit trees in one area, I have now decided to scatter them around more throughout the landscape. By doing this, I've reserved more room on the south side of the house for sun loving production berries and vegetables.

A friend of mine introduced me to a permaculture themed website recently that's had a huge affect on my garden plan. I strongly recommend a visit to PathToFreedom.com if you're planning an edible food production garden.

Next up on the list is to determine what vegetable varieties to grow next year and to place a seed order. For Northwest gardeners, I strongly recommend Territorial Seed Company, which selects varieties compatible with our cool climate. I've been ordering from Territorial for 4+ years now, and have had an excellent experience. I'll be keeping my order small this year, since we've got a large number of house projects planned for 2010, so we'll have our hands plenty full.

Are you planning your gardening for the upcoming year? Post a comments, and share your spring time dreams.

It was Summer last Week

With the teasing introduction to summer we've had here, our interior projects have slowed in favor of exterior projects.





We have started to dig a pond just off the deck, and are using the fill dirt to build up the area our waterfall will cascade down from. We used concrete chunks to build up a retaining wall against our North property fence. Once the mound of dirt is finished, the concrete wall will not be visible. Our new pond is much bigger than our old pond in Seattle, which was constructed out of an old water bed frame that we found. Our new pond will reach a maximum depth of 3 feet, and is approximately 20 feet long and 12 feet wide. Once it's all done, it will be decorated in with large rocks, plants and landscaping.

Boe whipped out 54 feet of the fence on Memorial day he's been planning for awhile. There are a couple of items remaining to complete the fence. He's going to add two cross horizontal pieces of trim boards onto the front of the fence to give it a more finished look. Then, he has to install the horizontal cross sections between the lentils at the top. And finally, he's going to trim in the trellis sections between the fence panels, which are made out of steel rock-sorting grates that I picked up from Second Use. All in all, we're very pleased with the outcome of the fence. Once it's finished off with landscaping and vines, it'll be a real masterpiece.