Rose Hip harvest

From Drop Box

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

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.

Fence installed

This weekend I made more progress on the potager. I installed appox. 38' section of fence that borders the south property line. Next up is to finish the fence trim and begin building raised vegetable beds. Hopefully I'll get at least a few of the beds in before the rain season starts. That'll help me get started with the 2011 growing season as early as possible.

From 2010 Landscape

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.

Summer project progress photos

We're slowly working towards completion on a couple of our ongoing summer projects. Here are a couple of progress photos:

House painting:

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

Potager brick paths and patio area:

From 2010 Landscape

Our urban wasteland kitchen garden

Our kitchen garden started out as a driveway if you recall. Last year we managed to break up and haul out 30+ tons/1800 sq. feet of what was the former driveway. Don't worry, we still have enough driveway to park three cars. This newly claimed area was to allow for two additions: a kitchen garden and an orchard. The orchard is well on its way and the 7 new fruit trees are all doing well.

From 2010 Landscape

I've been a little behind on the kitchen garden/potager. First, this area looks a lot like an urban wasteland since it's as hard as a rock, has poor drainage and not a stitch of plantable soil. Pretty much the single worst set of qualifications for a kitchen garden. Earlier this year I wrote about the project plan for this area and how we're going to transform it into a kitchen garden/green space.

To start the garden project, in the last couple of weeks I managed to get the concrete block retaining wall installed that borders between our kitchen garden space and the 5+ acre lot next to us. The property line is marked with a low creek area that flows with water all winter and helps prevent us from floating away. To help prevent erosion and minimize the risk of flooding, we installed a retaining wall and dug the creek out. In addition, we're raising the soil level of our property approximately 4".

From 2010 Landscape

My least favorite aspect of this project is that when it's all said and done, you won't even be able to see this retaining wall since it will be behind our fence. It was just one of those necessary projects that had to be done to move to the next step.

After finishing the retaining wall, I started laying the brick paths. The kitchen garden is a long shotgun area (18'x36') and will be a high trafficked area since it's the main way to get to the back of the house. Therefore, I wanted permanent paths that were wide enough to haul supplies and lumber to the back where our workshop is located. Today, I completed the first section of the path using brick I found on Craigslist.

From 2010 Landscape

This path will tie into a small 9'x10' patio that will be directly viewable from the picture window in our dining room, and will then connect on the other side with another short path that goes to the gate to our backyard.

As you can see from the picture, the area is very rocky. The dirt is hard packed clay that's impossible to get a shovel in. Eventually, to finish this area I will be building a series of 10+ raised beds for planting in. Once the raised beds are built, I'll haul in decent soil soil. I don't expect to start getting the raised beds built till next year, but it's a perfect late winter/early spring project.

I hope to complete all of the brick work for this by the end of August. I have to balance this task with painting windows and trim, since we're trying to finish up the house painting project. Before you know it, it'll be the rain season here again, but at least this year I'll be standing in front of the picture window looking out and admiring the nice brick work.

Pond 2.0

What's better than a pond? A larger one. We've thoroughly enjoyed our pond, but we've always wished it was bigger. Water is a very addictive thing. To enlarge our pond, we'll be building a second pond, and then joining the two ponds together. To enlarge our existing pond without building a second one would require deconstructing the entire thing. This just isn't an option right now.

Here is a picture that describes the idea:

From 2010 Landscape

The new pond will be a maximum of 20" deep to allow for easier installation of aquatic plants. Here is a picture of the new pond site being dug out:

From 2010 Landscape

In the back of the photo is the skimmer we'll be installing in the new section. My hope is that it'll make this new pond more maintenance free by collection more debris, leaves, etc.