Out with the season

Summer is quickly slipping out of our fingers. From the look of things, this fall is going to be a cool wet one in the Pacific Northwest. Sometimes we can skate through till late October without much rain, but that's not likely to happen this year. We're frantically trying to finish up the many projects we started this summer.

House Painting

We're determined to finish painting the house event if it means taking a couple of shortcuts. It just doesn't seem right to let this project stretch into its third year.

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

We still have a bit of work to do on the front of the house, namely the eves and the very top peak.

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

We're near complete on the second peak on the South side of the house. This side of the house was in the worst condition, and therefore has received the most attention.

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

Finishing up the window trim on the south side. Tomorrow, I'll paint the inner window frames to finish up the job.

Potager

We're making progress on the Potager. Finished the fence trim, and have hauled dirt in to level it out.

From 2010 Landscape

Next up is to build the first raised bed. I'd really like to get at least one of the beds in this season, but we're really fighting against the clock on this project.

Mulching and Prepping Beds for Spring

Brought in a half yard of mulch to cover some of the beds I put in this year. I topped this bed with out 3-4" of mulch, covered with newspaper, and then topped with straw. Hopefully this bed will be more fertile come next year.

From 2010 Landscape

Soon we'll be moving indoors where we've really got our work cut out this year. We're going to try very hard to finish the kitchen within reason. That means installing the remaining walls, tiling, installing upper cabinets, and installing counter tops.

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.

From concrete to green strip

Building a green strip down the south-side of our house in place of the existing driveway has been a huge project in the making. First step was to remove approximately 1500 sq. feet of concrete (32 tons total), followed by weeks of raking up rocks and broken concrete bits. I knew going into this project that it would be a huge job, but I think we still under estimated the effort involved. As with all large projects, this one is paying off big in personal satisfaction.

This weekend was one of the final steps in the transformation: hauling in fresh top soil that will eventually become the substrate for the vegetable garden and orchard. There is still a lot of preparation before the project is complete, but it's coming together nicely. We're racing against mother nature to try and finish this project before the rains start falling and the fall/winter season begins pouring on us. I'm looking forward to the calm months ahead.

The goal is to have a small scale edible garden in place by spring 2010. We're closing in quickly on successfully reaching our goal.

From 2009 Landscape