It always seems that this time of year, we have so many jobs we want to get done “before winter!” We keep hacking away at them, but it’s getting colder and colder every day. This last few days, we’ve been busy putting the garden to bed and hauling composted horse manure onto our back yard. I got the garden all cleared up, then plowed it to turn in the thick reed canary grass mulch I’d put on the tomato, bean, and potato rows. Our tiller wouldn’t handle that thick a mulch and we wanted to get it underground to rot over winter. So I plowed it, then ran our raggedy old disc over it for half an hour. I’ve still got some work to do on it, but it looks pretty good now.

Will’s been hauling black, composted horse manure — by the dump truck load — from the pasture onto our back yard. Previously, it was very rough, steep, and rocky. Full of wild raspberry bushes and weeds, it was not a thing of beauty! He spent an afternoon, grading the old yard with Old Yeller, our trusty bulldozer. Yesterday, he finished hauling the black dirt-compost and got it all smoothed out nicely.

Not only are the big rocks buried deep, but we also have MORE back yard and it’s much flatter. Eventually, we’ll put in a nice goldfish pond and flower beds. But next spring, we’ll just seed it with grass and wil be able to keep it mowed and under control. Gradually, we’ll put in a retaining wall for our someday walk-out basement and we’ll add flowers, shrubs, and herbs here and there. For now, we’re tickled pink with the huge improvement! — Jackie

7 COMMENTS

  1. we are cutting our propane use everyyear also;but it’s the electricity i want to get rid of. we are working on it but its going to take me a while. here in the south its muggy hot in the summer,about like walking into an oven;therefore high electricity biils. anyone have any suggestions,please pass them along.

  2. Nancy,

    Yep, but it’s an old leaker that Will welded good enough for heating our hot tub quickly…but not enough to trust for our home heating. We may get a new one for the house, but they DO use a lot of wood. Here it’s about 10 cords a year or more for the average house. Of course you can also heat your water and perhaps a garage or other outbuilding (greenhouse???). We’ll keep you posted. We’re cutting our propane use every year, in some way or another.

    Jackie

  3. Is that an outdoor wood stove I see in the bottom picture? I want one so bas. We fill our 1000 gal propane tnak about once a month. Way to expensive..

  4. Zelda,

    We already have two 4’x4′ raised herb beds in our house garden, which is right off the front door. I’m going to add more herbs in and around our flower beds, when we get them built, in the new back yard. So many of them not only taste wonderful, but look pretty nice, too, mixed in with flowers.

    Jackie

  5. Joni,

    Yep, maybe. But before it was a tangle of weeds and wild raspberries, not to mention steep hills and rocky dips. Now we can mow it with the rider until we get flower beds and trees/shrubs planted. So that’s a work-saver. But we don’t mind extra work. If you don’t do anything, you don’t get anywhere!

    Jackie

  6. Jackie, instead of herbs here and there, take a look at the various forms of herb spirals. It looks like you have space for a 6 foot diameter round spiral or a 6 foot square (6 ft = a 3ft reach) close to one of your doors, and that’s where the herbs are most useful. Old timers put their herbs as close to the back door/kitchen as possible. An herb spiral is easy to build a hoop tunnel over and put a frost blanket inside, so you’ll have fresh herbs most of the winter. I built a round spiral, transplanted all of my herbs from various places around the garden, and it’s a wonderful asset to a garden, to the bees, or to a cook. And it looks good. Wish I had built it sooner and will make it larger in 2012.

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