Wednesday, May 11, 2011

The Gardens



All work around here either comes in a whirlwind of activity or a series of small pecks that make progress excruciatingly slow. With a week and a half off between the end of school and the beginning of our artists' residency in Utah, we've seized the opportunity to dive headlong into the landscaping, and the results have been fruitful. We are watching the weather closely and tomorrow we will decide whether to have a truckload of dirt delivered before we go. But rain looks likely, so we'll see.



Working around industrial design students for the past few years has made me see every problem as a design problem to be weighed out equally in terms of aesthetics and utility. As a result, our new compost bin is a marked improvement for the one at our last house. It was made from repurposed cedar spindles from a carpentry job that, due to a calculation error, yielded a couple hundred extra (it was a big job). This composter features removable front slats that individually slide out to allow access to the compost.



Gathering stones on mother's day from the pile up at the 20 acres in Iola, where my father is engaged in a massive landscaping project of his own. He is "weeding" the woods, attempting to eradicate them of two invasive species; buckthorn and bayberry(?). Its a daunting task, as these two species seem to make up about 80% of the underbrush. Looking around, the task seems almost futile, but we walked through the woods where he had cleared large areas and the progress was quite impressive. He hopes to reintroduce native species that will compete and hopefully keep the invasives at bay. Its interesting to see my father following in my grandfather's footsteps, spending his days up in the same woods. For grandpa it was chopping wood, planting trees, driving the tractor, and sipping on blackberry brandy. For dad it is clearing trails, planting more trees and planning the construction of a cabin/workshop which may begin to take shape this summer. Back at home I'm on knees trying to eradicate the ever-invasive dandelion, one by one because I refuse to use chemicals.



After a year, a housewarming gift from my parents finally sees soil. Three new trees have been planted along the south side of the house; a redbud in the front yard and two apples; a Courtland and a Jonathan, in the side yard. The drainage was not what we had hoped in the side yard, so we may have trouble with the apple trees, but we mounded them up and buried gravel underneath them and now we will keep our fingers crossed and hope that there is pie in our future.



Raised bed of white oak 2x10's with Greene and Greene inspired joinery.