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Friday, August 10, 2012

It has been a year...

Hello All!

I know it has been a really long time...and I have missed you all!  My computer got a virus that took out my keyboard on my laptop  in addition to some other miscellaneous items and programs...it was a three hundred dollar fix or buy a new laptop!

I never knew how much this blog would mean to me...or how much it would cost when I started it for the ladies on Rate My Space...I never factored it into my lifestyle or thought it would be so complicated to keep a form of trustworthy internet in such a rural place...my sympathies to the folks that struggle with that! I think it is the ONLY thing I agree with Mr. President Obama about...he had a wish to provide internet to EVERYONE!

I am not going into the details of the struggles I have faced in the last year...I survived and that is what is most important, Hee Hee!

I have persevered with my little hut and was hoping to just stay there and out of the big, wide world but it seems that that world just encroaches and seems to want to make me pay in big green dollars instead of living the lifestyle I choose!

Anyways...on to the house and garden...I am going to start where I left off...

Remember when I started talking about sheet mulch gardening? and how my front flower beds and vegetable garden were all started with this kind of "dirt making"?  In March of 2011, the snow started melting... I started with  taking the rest of the siding off the house and planting seeds in the basement under lights...

I had been throwing all the chicken manure and straw...and the household veggie scraps  in the compost bin...it was decided that I needed another bed..why mow when you can grow?

 There was an enormous wild rose bush...it must of been beautiful at one time...maybe...but it was a horrible eyesore and garbage collector! The thorns were so thick and the bush was so rampant it was 20 feet around and 3 feet tall in the middle of my yard!  I sent the Honey out there with a chainsaw...and then with a rototiller...and then...I piled 10 pallets on top of it and lit it on fire...it was STILL GROWING! Nothing killed that beast!  I collected cardboard for two weeks and decided to just sheet mulch over the top of it...I piled all the little rocks and broken bricks from the post holes I had dug.. tree trimmings, logs...anything I could find for drainage and then covered  rosebush, rocks and all...with 10 inches of cardboard....then grass trimmings...then 6 bales of moldy straw...then grass...then chicken manure...coffee filters, egg shells, veggie trimmings...ANYTHING!




 and I mowed around it to kill the little suckers the bush was sending out...and by June...I got this...a big, ugly pile of...stuff...it wasn't all decomposed...it looked like a compost heap but it smelled wonderful...like forest dirt..and you could still see the coffee filters that hadn't decomposed...the Honey had found an old coffee can of seeds in the cabin...from the late 70's and early 80's....pumpkin and zuchini mostly...and I was pretty sure they wouldn't grow...and I was NOT sacrificing MY precious seeds to an experiment...so I planted those old seeds in this pile...

Hmmmm...I had pumpkins and zuchini coming out my ears....and no more rosebush!  The best part about it? the snow that was melting left it so wet that I didn't have to water it...AT ALL...not one drop...

In addition...do you all remember the other beds I was making?



Well...those turned out even BETTER!

This is..was...the start of my tomato garden...the deer were decimating my crops...and I needed something they could not get into...same combination...alternating spoiled straw with grass...and some chicken manure/straw combo...same veggie scraps...coffee grounds plus filters...lined it with rocks and scored a truck load of wood chips from the city compost pile...

I scored old fencing from the back yard along the alley...it was buried in the dirt...and the posts are treated landscape timbers...they are 2 dollars a piece if you buy the crooked ones at any lumber store...but I got mine from the plywood plant for 1.00 a piece...scrounging chicken wire was another ordeal...I ended up buying a roll...to the tune of  $39.00...that just burnt my arse but it was worth it!

I had no fencing in for the first month, just the skeleton...but look at them go! After procuring the chicken wire..I could only afford one roll...but I did have a roll of orange construction netting...lol!



and a door...and a scrounged bunch of doo dads from the auto salvage place...he gave me an entire truckload of old wash tubs, enamel ware, hinges.....just awesome vintage ware for ....get this...TWO DUCKS!


And here it is at the height of summer...




It was tomatogeddon in there!

Pumpkins growing up the fence...












14 comments:

  1. Oh my sweet GOODNESS!
    I just sent you an email the other day...and here you are!!!
    First...you were missed. A.BUNCH!!!
    Hope to get to see you some more...I know how it is time consuming. No regrets though.
    The other thing is...I love the TOMATOGEDDON GARDEN!!! Superb! That door, and wash tubs for two DUCKS?! not two BUCKS???? Hilarious. We fenced around our kitchen garden and hugel-K to keep the chickens out. (YES!!! I GOT CHICKENS FINALLY.)

    I have made a Hugelkulture garden before-just like yours only I don't have a, uh, rose bush on the bottom...but I did have lots and lots of scrap dead-wood. So far, I've grown two wonderful years of of zucchini, cukes, and tomatoes in there. I love it!
    Mine didn't stay wet though...so the top layer was milk bottles filled with water on occasion.
    It has worked out fine.
    The grass clippings and hay and chicken manure...a perfect topping for a hugelkulture garden.

    ...i love what you're doing, Pat

    PS: I love the paint color on your house!!!

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  2. HI! You are the first one I went to see...missed you so much! Your hugelkulture is amazing! spent 2 months in Georgia with my Daughter...she wanted a garden that grew to enormous proportions! sooo...I borrowed your posts and set to making her 3 hugelbeets...everyone in the South thought I was crazy but they were burning up truckloads of pine needles and just good stuff! They went crazy and now she is a firm believer!lol! So glad you got chickens, they just make life good!

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  3. I have never commented but I really admire what you are doing. Glad to see you are back.

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  4. OH. MY. STARS.!!!!!!! She's BAAA-AAAACK!!!!
    So glad that you are okay and I see you've been quite productive. Can't wait to hear more, girl. You were SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO missed!
    Continued blessings...

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  5. Oh, hallelujah, you're back! You've been missed, and I hope you enjoy all the ruckus about your return. Gayle

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  6. Welcome back Lisa! You have been missed and I'm tickled pink! Looks like you did very well. So pretty and green.
    Sandi

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  7. Thank you for the warm welcome back! I missed you all too...so much!

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  8. So nice to see you back, Lisa. I've been checking your site from time to time, increasingly sure you were retired from blogdom. Glad you survived, and that your nutrient-rich garden has thrived. Any updates on the house color and porch plans?

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  9. Hi Lisa! I'm so excited to see you are back! I had only just found you (and read through all your old posts) when you vanished. I kept your link on my blog list in hopes of seeing you again some happy day. Your garden looks wonderful. Did you ever paint the house?
    Lee

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  10. Yipppeee!n I am soooo happy to see you and read about your projects etc! I am sooo glad you;re back.

    Lila

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  11. Goodness Gracious, Welcome Back! I have sent you emails asking if you were ok? And like you said, I wont ask about what happened, but just suffice it to say, glad your OK, and that your back. I just found that your back! I would look every once in a while, Nope, shes not back. But today, YOU WERE BACK! Hope all stays ok with you and know you were worried about!

    Bonnie from Louisiana

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  12. I'm so happy to see that you are back, Lisa!

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  13. Lisa I have just found you, during my xmas / new year wanderings - I LOVE what you have done! Happy 2013, I look forward to exploring more gardening with you. Thank you xx

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  14. Where are you now!? I live your style blesses help me find more of your posts.

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I love your comments and insights!