Another Composty Day – and Our Garden

I set up the kindling dryer – very simply the old soil screen under the shed roof. Amie and I hauled some more kindling, because I figured once it starts snowing it won’t be visible and for the picking anymore.

I also finished the putting to bed of the beds. As I was looking around when I was done, I thought I would share some pictures and show you parts of our property that I rarely show. Click on the thumbnails to see the image larger.

This is the view North (from the Front”, see below):

• three large beds under straw, two smaller beds to the right, which will be mainly berries and herbs. We hope the grass corridor in between will withstand the runoff erosion (the grass didn’t take too well) until we fix the problem next Spring (see below).
• There is a very large bed in front of the house (16 x 4 feet) for herbs.
• The veg garden (hoop house still without plastic) lies to the West of  the house.
• Behind the house is a large backyard, which is just trees, forest floor (no grass to speak of), and a playhouse. It is entirely enclosed by a chain link fence, and that’s where I hope to keep the chickens.
• Around that fence runs a strip of “wild”  area, home to squirrels, chipmunks, birds, snakes, foxes and deer, and behind that runs a lane 0f conservation land that forms a great wildlife corridor.

Above is a 180 degree view, from East (driveway) to West (veg garden) – so curl the image around your field of vision.  I labeled it so click on the image for a better view. From East to West:

• loam under blue tarp on parking lot
• the driveway runs from behind it down to the street
• a “wild” thicket  which in Summer provides a lot of privacy, the mosses there are beautiful and we’re leaving it as it is: maybe a narrow path with a small moss-covered stone bench hidden in the thicket.
• I drew in the proposed ditch which will carry runoff and rainwater to a small wetland below
• the two terraced beds you see to the left in the picture above
• grass pathway that leads down to
• the “Front”: septic leach field, bad subsoil, choked with weeds and mostly shaded: our greatest design challenge
• three beds you see to the right in the picture above
• more “wild” thicket where we could grow mushrooms
• two tree stumps that we’ll make into a bench
• more wild area behind that, where the horse path runs all the way to the back of the property
• vegetable garden