After we got back to our land after a winter of working, one of our first priorities was getting a garden started, and rainwater catchment.
The first pic shows the revised rainwater catchment system for the roof of our summer kitchen. The old system, incorporating a 4" black corrugated polyethylene flexible pipe, slit along one edge and held onto the roof with plumbers' strapping, got forced off the edge by ice over the winter. We started to buy $70 worth of metal gutter, gutter fittings and downspouts, then realized that it would probably get ripped off the roof too, and what would we do with all that slit flexible pipe leftover? So, we cut it in half, and reattached it to the roof framing, leaving part uncut to serve as a downspout to a larger collection tank. The hope is that the flexible pipe will bend under the snow and ice and pop back up in the spring to catch the snowmelt. We'll see!
We had other rainwater catchment to do, but getting a garden in became top priority, so we started clearing more of the Gambel Oak from the shallow slope just below the yurt. Here's a picture of the area before we started.
The third pic shows Jeanne laying newspaper in the cleared garden. We use a no-till method of gardening called "sheet mulching" by some. It worked well back in Maine on mown pasture with good soil, but it's hard to tell how well it's going to work in cleared oak brush on clay soil. It involves clearing or mowing the area (normally this would have been done in the fall), spreading any soil amendments (we used manure donated by the neighbor's llamas), then laying down 2 to 4 sheets of wetted newspaper (don't use the pages with the glossy color print, only the black and white, which is printed with soy-based inks - check with your newspaper printer). This serves as a weed barrier for the first year. Then cover the newspaper with mulch (rotted leaves, seedless straw, rotted pine needles all seem to work fine). When you are ready to plant, get some good soil (we found that the soil from the canyon bottom at the lower end of our land was wonderful and mined some of it for our yurt garden). Poke a hole down through the mulch and newspaper with a garden trowel, put in a couple handfuls of good soil, and plant your seeds right in that plug of good soil. As the plants grow, the mulch can be pulled in around the plant to help keep the moisture in the soil, critical in our dry western climate. When we used this method in Maine, we were able to plant something like 1000 onion bulbs in a day, (we grew them commercially for one season), spent only about 3 person-hours weeding during the summer, and harvested them in another day, and sold them for a net gain of $315. Not incredible wages, but considering that the second year would have been even easier (less prep work required), not bad either, considering we didn't have to commute or dress up to go to work, just wander down to the garden area and start doing.
The fourth photo has nothing to do with sustainability. We attended the Pagosa Spring Memorial Day weekend bluegrass fest for a couple of days. In the spirit of living sustainably, we try to live as frugally as possible, so we volunteered at the festival for five hours in the ticket cabin in exchange for three day passes to the event. This picture shows our view of The Infamous Stringdusters, our favorite group, kicking it up on stage. I'd post a video, but I'm afraid it would take up all of my blogspot memory allowance. They were (are) great!
The first pic shows the revised rainwater catchment system for the roof of our summer kitchen. The old system, incorporating a 4" black corrugated polyethylene flexible pipe, slit along one edge and held onto the roof with plumbers' strapping, got forced off the edge by ice over the winter. We started to buy $70 worth of metal gutter, gutter fittings and downspouts, then realized that it would probably get ripped off the roof too, and what would we do with all that slit flexible pipe leftover? So, we cut it in half, and reattached it to the roof framing, leaving part uncut to serve as a downspout to a larger collection tank. The hope is that the flexible pipe will bend under the snow and ice and pop back up in the spring to catch the snowmelt. We'll see!
We had other rainwater catchment to do, but getting a garden in became top priority, so we started clearing more of the Gambel Oak from the shallow slope just below the yurt. Here's a picture of the area before we started.
The third pic shows Jeanne laying newspaper in the cleared garden. We use a no-till method of gardening called "sheet mulching" by some. It worked well back in Maine on mown pasture with good soil, but it's hard to tell how well it's going to work in cleared oak brush on clay soil. It involves clearing or mowing the area (normally this would have been done in the fall), spreading any soil amendments (we used manure donated by the neighbor's llamas), then laying down 2 to 4 sheets of wetted newspaper (don't use the pages with the glossy color print, only the black and white, which is printed with soy-based inks - check with your newspaper printer). This serves as a weed barrier for the first year. Then cover the newspaper with mulch (rotted leaves, seedless straw, rotted pine needles all seem to work fine). When you are ready to plant, get some good soil (we found that the soil from the canyon bottom at the lower end of our land was wonderful and mined some of it for our yurt garden). Poke a hole down through the mulch and newspaper with a garden trowel, put in a couple handfuls of good soil, and plant your seeds right in that plug of good soil. As the plants grow, the mulch can be pulled in around the plant to help keep the moisture in the soil, critical in our dry western climate. When we used this method in Maine, we were able to plant something like 1000 onion bulbs in a day, (we grew them commercially for one season), spent only about 3 person-hours weeding during the summer, and harvested them in another day, and sold them for a net gain of $315. Not incredible wages, but considering that the second year would have been even easier (less prep work required), not bad either, considering we didn't have to commute or dress up to go to work, just wander down to the garden area and start doing.
The fourth photo has nothing to do with sustainability. We attended the Pagosa Spring Memorial Day weekend bluegrass fest for a couple of days. In the spirit of living sustainably, we try to live as frugally as possible, so we volunteered at the festival for five hours in the ticket cabin in exchange for three day passes to the event. This picture shows our view of The Infamous Stringdusters, our favorite group, kicking it up on stage. I'd post a video, but I'm afraid it would take up all of my blogspot memory allowance. They were (are) great!
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