New Toys

I have to admit the consumer in me is gratified to get some new toys.  I recently picked up some cheap flow meters and a moisture sensor.  (I know, I'm easily amused.)  I especially like the design concept of the moisture sensor, which is powered by the galvanic reaction of the zinc and copper sections of the probe with the dissolved minerals in the soil.  The point is to use just enough water to irrigate (trees and gardens), and to measure that irrigation water use in order to calculate a baseline for "other" household water use, which will feed into a new water conservation incentive program.  Like most multifamily properties in this area, Sage Garden has a single city water meter and a single water bill for the whole property, which the owner pays.  It's an arrangement that works well enough for most places, but the drawback is that the people making the decisions about household water use have absolutely no feedback about how much they are using, and no incentive to use water prudently.  My intent (in the rough concept stage) is to introduce a simple, cooperative, rebate-based incentive program that encourages conservation, shares utility savings with residents, and has no downside for the owner.

As a related footnote, we recently started test driving a consensus-based efficiency improvement program in which the property owner invests in an efficiency improvement (e.g. programmable thermostats), and that investment is recuperated through a voluntary, temporary rent adjustment that is calculated to benefit both parties.

Wall repair

This post was made possible by the help and expertise of my neighbor Steve.  I have a lot of posting to catch up on, including the Fall olive harvest and new trees and gardens, but today's post is about repairing a wall.  Since the day I moved into Sage Garden, this wall has been leaning.

Today, we did something about it.  What do you do with a wall in such a condition?  Well, for starters, I got quotes from contractors, none of whom wanted to consider any approach other than tearing down the wall, dumping the old material in a landfill, and starting over.

Steve caught me scratching my head over this, and stopped by to help me formulate a better alternative.  We brainstormed a little, and finally settled on pulling it straight.  First we had to make room for the footing to move, so I dug a trench like so ...

... and soaked the ground and dug around the existing footing.  We drilled two holes through the wall and fastened eye bolts to a brace on the back side of the wall.

Next, we drove T-posts deep into the ground and connected two Come-A-Long winches between the posts and the eye bolts.

At this point, we really didn't know whether this scheme was even going to work, but worst case, if we broke the wall, I could always go back to one of those contractors and tell them I'd started the demolition for them.  After several attempts, and digging out more mud from under the footing, the wall finally moved!  And all in one piece!  We pulled it up plumb and made forms for new footings to "clamp" around the old one ...

... and poured the first of three today.

We'll see how this develops.

Meanwhile, in Suburbia ...

Our gardens continue to grow at Sage Garden.  Here is the "lasagna garden" I posted about earlier in "First Garden"

So far, we have corn, pole beans, acorn and butternut squash, cantaloupe, watermelon, sunflowers, and cucumbers growing in this plot.  The sunflower you see above was grown from seeds shared by a neighbor.

We're gradually adding more to the herb garden around the olive tree.

By stacking multiple uses in the same footprint (olives + herbs), we not only use space more efficiently, but we also get double benefit from feeding and watering this area.  We've chosen herbs which serve as good "companions" for olive trees, and they're enjoying the shade the olive tree provides.  So far, we have lavender, green onions, rosemary, thyme, and several varieties of basil and sage.  After we get a simple trellis built, we're planning to add grapes.

Today, we turned some junk mail into paper mache, which we will use as mulch.  The easy way to mix it is with a mortar mixing drill bit.  But what fun is that, when you can squish it with your hands?

One thing we have to deal with in some areas where we want to plant is a plastic landscaping barrier, such as this area where a pomegranate tree will go.

But as long as it's there, it serves as a perfect substrate for drying our paper mache.  You can also see our new window shades in this picture.  Some of the gravel we remove from areas like this goes into our French drain which collects rainwater from over the clothesline and directs it to the fig trees.  When we've finished filling that with gravel, our neighbor across the street (not the one with the sunflowers - different neighbor, who by the way is quite the urban farmer) says he could use gravel too.

Trees

Trees take time to mature - there's no getting around it.  Part of our strategy for the first half of 2014 ("Stop the bleeding; start the growing") is to start those things growing that simply take a long time, like trees.  For instance, here are some fruit trees ready to be planted.

Some people say they can see a fairy in this picture.  I say if you want to see a fairy, you'll see one, whether it's there or not.

The fig tree above (foreground) is sitting about where it will be planted.  This area, which is just south of the house, used to be home to an oleander, which was suboptimal for several reasons, including 1) it blocked the sun during the winter, 2) it doesn't produce any food, 3) it requires trimming, but because it's toxic, the trimmings can't be used for mulch or composting or burning.  The fig will grow fast, with big leaves to provide shade in the summer, but since it's deciduous, it'll let the warming sun shine through in (late) winter.  It will get all-day sun here, and its water needs will be easily met by available greywater.  It will yield a delicious, high-demand crop, and the trimmings can be used for burning, mulching and composting.

The pomegranates will go to somewhat drier locations.

We're also taking care of the trees that are here already.  This olive tree was surrounded by dead, sunbaked clay soil.  We'd like to maximize our olive harvest this year, so we amended the soil, irrigated, mulched, and planted some companions.

Is it just me, or does that look like a fairy standing next to the tree?  Must be the evening light playing tricks.  So far we have sage, basil, oregano, and lavender, with thyme, rosemary and green onions waiting to be planted.  We're also considering grapes for this area.


Finally, here's another fig tree, which will get plenty of sun and greywater.

Umm ... do you see ... never mind.

First Garden

We've started our first garden plot at Sage Garden.  For this plot, we're using some time-tested gardening patterns - namely, sheet mulching and the 3 sisters.

We started with a 9' x 13' area that gets morning sun and afternoon shade.  Its willingness to grow is attested by the weeds that were thriving in it.  It's protected by fence on 3 sides from wind and critters (making it easy, if needed, to completely surround it by erecting another small fence), and it's not far from an existing hose bib.

Here's a before picture.  (Thanks for the pic, Liz.)

You can see the cardboard boxes that we collected as everyone moved into Sage Garden.  These are an important ingredient of sheet mulching.  First, we set the cardboard aside.  One patch of ground was bare and particularly hard, so I loosened it with a garden fork.  I didn't turn it at all - just cracked the ground so water could seep down into it.  Then we hacked the existing weeds; we simply cut them low and left the cuttings in place.  To this we added manure, spread the whole mess evenly, and then watered generously (using tap water with a chlorine filter).  Next came the cardboard.

We used those boxes as our weed barrier.  We considered the surrounding area and the potential for weeds to encroach.  To the south (left in the pictures) is the neighboring property, so we'll set a walkway of pavers on that side.  On the north, on the other side of the fence, is our parking lot, so that'll be easy to manage.  To the west is soil on the other side of the fence, so we'll have to keep the weeds there under control.  And to the east you can see grass and weeds, so we'll continue our paver walkway on that side.

On top of the cardboard, we dumped about 20 gallons of sawdust I happened to have on hand, and mixed in more composted manure.  Then we laid down a soaker hose, spiraling in to cover the area well.  Finally, we added a couple inches of mulch.  I'm a little embarrassed to say I bought some organic mulch (seems silly, when so many people are trying to get rid of yard waste that's perfectly suitable for mulch).

We added stepping stones to define a central area, where our 3 sisters will live.  To plant seeds, we just scoop aside the top layer of mulch, poke a hole in the cardboard, place a few handfulls of soil in the hole, and plant in that soil.  Over time, all the layers will decompose into humus-rich soil.

"3 sisters" are the traditional trio of corn, beans and squash.  First we planted the corn in a ring in the center.  Once the corn is about 10" high, we'll intersperse it with bean seeds.  The corn forms a framework for the beans to climb on, and the beans fix nitrogen in the soil.  After the bean seedlings show, we'll round out the trio by planting squash around the perimeter (still inside the path of stepping stones).  The squash will spread out and its broad leaves will further protect the ground from evaporation.

We'll also pack in other plants around the outside of the stepping stone path.  For instance, we planted sunflowers in the NW corner.

Thank you, Liz, for your help on this garden plot!

Music from Scrap Material

We have some leftover 1" conduit from our laundry project (see post below), so we're going to put it to use.

Here's the first prototype.

You guessed it - wind chimes.  The pitch of this one is A4.  It's surprisingly easy to get a pleasant, sustained tone from a piece of scrap.  There will be some design modifications, but the plan is to create 2 complementary sets of these - one set with A C E G A E, and the other with F(5) C D F A.  So one set will sound an Am7 chord, and the other, an Fmaj6.  The combination will have quite a complex of possibilities, hopefully with a pleasing balance of consonance and dissonance.  Time will tell.

Project Afoot

There's been a project afoot at Sage Garden.  It started with a trench.

And continued with a shed (thanks to my Dad for his help on this).

Next came a clothesline.

There will be a white tarp overhead, which will shed water to the right.  One thing we have an overabundance of here is granite, so ...

Let's put it to use, right?

Give me a few weeks, and the first phase of this project will be complete.  Let me know if you'd like to come take a look.  That's all I'm going to say for now.