What can we do on a small urban property? **WARNING*** this is a really long post!

[mickey328]

LOL!! I gotcha beat...I'm on hubby #3...but third time's definitely the charm...this one is a total keeper!

I sure don't regret for an instant taking out most of our sod. It takes so much dang water and for what?? Nothing, really. A nicely landscaped garden area with veggies and/or flowers can look even nicer than just flat lawn and it's all useful as well. We have about 3/4 of the lawn left in the back yard but I'm thinking that's going to be shrinking. The border area near the fence lines averages 5 to 6 feet deep where it used to grow grass right up to the fences. I stuffed a LOT of perennial flowers and shrubs back there and now I'm sort of regretting that. I think we need "pretty" in our lives too, but I'm starting to be jealous for space for veggies LOL. Still, veggies don't need to be planted all together in tidy rows...I can easily stuff a couple of broccoli plants in there between the irises, and some bush beans in with the roses. Should actually make for some interesting textures and colors.

I think I'd give up on the orange dirt too and just mulch it all over really well While you're busy growing good things to eat in the back you can be amending the soil in the front with all the nice compost you'll be getting off the back. I love it when things complete the "circle". I envy you that black gold even if you do have the orange stuff to go along with it. What we have here is mostly alkaline concrete. We just can't make enough compost fast enough to suit me. We have 2 bins now and are planning at least two more this season. I'm now hooked with a friend who has a horse, so we can bring home lots of nice poo, and we generate a lot of trimmings and leaves and such (well, we go around the neighborhood asking folks for their leaves and oddly enough most are perfectly happy to have us haul 'em off We just got some rabbits and they're little poo machines...there's some brown gold for ya...don't even have to compost it...just dig it right in. Still, we only have 3 of 'em at the moment, so we could use more bunny berries. Seems we always have more green than brown for the compost though...that's something we'll have to get cracking on more this year.

I'd send you some money tree seedlings if we had any, LOL. It's in short supply here too but I love finding ways to do stuff for cheap or free and I figure the less I have to spend on groceries (garden, chickens and rabbits), the more I have for things that simply have to be bought and paid for. Little by little, we'll get there...keep on keepin' on, Girl!

 

[Tomtommom]

My home was built in 1952, and I bet this tree has been here just as long. Just imagine 60 years worth of composted leaves! If I venture further into the yard it gets a little redder, but nothing as bad as that mess in the front yard. I have this poor little peach tree there that's been trying to grow with all it's might *laugh* We had decent tomatoes last year and zucchini, but the rest didn't do well at all. Bye bye orange dirt. Fiance has been begging me if he could just cover it with mulch (yes hunny, you may.) I think the last straw was when the city came by to give me a notice to take down the "weeds" or else. *laugh* Yeah.. they looked that rough.

And my "lawn" is mostly weeds.. So no big loss there haha. I want to keep some for the kids to play on, but I got the space. I estimate the yard to be 60x120 feet (I have another section where the dogs live). Got a storage building.. but there's plenty left for some grass and the chickies and the veggies.

My spinach is already an inch tall in the green house. I -may- plant them in the front until I get the back done. Right now they have nowhere else to go.

 

[mickey328]

LOL, that's pretty much the natural color of our soil here...Colorado means "color red" and it's aptly named. It's fertile enough but it's mostly clay so it's a gummy lump when wet and like concrete when it's dry. A couple years ago, we rented a power auger so we could plant some decent sized trees....I happened to look out the window and there was DH, leaning on the thing and spinning in circles...he was spinning, but the auger was pretty much stationary! Amend, amend, amend is the rule of thumb here.

Your back is really pretty...and weeds are okay, IMO...as long as they're not noxious or prickly or anything...if it's green and you can walk on it, it's all good. In fact, I plan on "innoculating" our back yard with some weeds this year. I'm going to spread some clover and alfalfa seeds out there and let it all grow along with the grass...it can be mowed and the chicks and bunnies can graze on it as well. Seems like the grass shrinks a little each year...we don't have kids so other than the dogs, I really don't see a lot of point in watering all that stuff we can't eat!

 

[Tomtommom]

It's mostly clover... did not even think about feeding it to the chickens! Funny, the spot I chose for their coop is all clover.. and it didn't click. Blame the winter, I would've realized it had it been blooming.

Fiance still wants a storm shelter, so atleast that corner will remain untouched (a.k.a. grass), the rest shall be mine!

I have transplanted a bunch of Mondo grass and put it around that tree. Should help the soil from washing away like it had been. Then a circular path around the tree, paths spreading out like sunrays

One to the back where the dogs live, one to the porch, one to the chickies, one to the veg patch. I'm excited. I need some money to buy a bunch of pavers haha.

My step-son has been helping me build the compost. He's been gathering worms for the "worm hotel".

 

[mickey328]

Our chicks are kinda stoopid...they LOVE dandelions and clover and other weeds...but only if I pick it and toss it in their run. We use a portable one and even when we set it right over a nice patch of their favorite dandelions, they don't graze on it. I'm not sure if they know it's even the same stuff I throw in there for 'em, LOL

Why not make your own pavers? I picked up a bag of quikcrete and one of those plastic trays (the cheap ones) they use to set under plant pots to catch the run off. I mixed up the concrete and sprayed the inside of the trays with baking spray and filled 'em up. When they dried, I popped 'em out and stuck 'em in the ground. Way cheap and they look fine! if you want different colors, you can even get concrete dye to mix in with it.

I've heard the name Mondo grass, but am not familiar with it. I think what we have here at our place is mostly a blue grass mix. If we keep it really, really well watered and mowed just so it ends up looking really nice but...imo something that just "looks nice" isn't worth all that $$ and effort, LOL. It is important to have something to anchor the soil, though. We don't get much rain here, so it's not a huge issue for us. I still don't like to have bare dirt around though...that's just inviting nasty weeds to colonize it, LOL. If we don't immediately plant, we mulch as heavily as we can to keep the weeds out and help condition the soil.

I'm almost obsessed about making more compost over the next few years. If I could, I'd replace the top foot of soil over our whole property with good compost. First thing is to snap up some of the free pallets posted on Craig's List all the time and get a couple bins built. Then I can envision us hauling a lot of stuff home to compost. We already compost everything we can from our own use, but I'm thinking we can make much more of that black gold if we start hitting farms for manure, neighbors for their leaves, tree companies for their chips and coffee shops for their grounds. I want to really start churning that stuff out!

 

[Tomtommom]

That's a pretty good idea. I figured all that concrete starts adding up too, though. I am hoping to find a big bunch on Craigslist..

Mondo grass is related to monkey grass, only shorter. You never have to mow it because it doesn't get taller than 2-3 inches. It a deep dark green color and gets little blue berries. My dogs used to pick the mondo grass to sleep in, because it's so thick.. Weeds barely grow in the stuff. It spreads pretty slowly and if you have to buy it, you pay a few bucks per 1qt container and you'd need A LOT. I inherited the stuff with the house. It's been spreading real good last year for some reason.

Folks often use it between pavers. It makes for an interesting design.

I will take a picture when I'm done transplanting it

 

[mickey328]

Great, I look forward to the visual. I wonder if you could dig it up and divide it. I've done that with clumping plants before...put one in and at the end of the season divide it in two and keep doing that every year or sometimes even twice a season. Does it need a lot of water?

If you have any recycle stores around that specialize in building materials, you can often find part bags of quickcrete for very reasonable prices. I bought a bag at Home Depot and got about 20 pavers out of it, so it seemed fairly reasonable. That was several years ago though and I'm sure the price has gone up considerably since then. DH and I hit a couple of our building material re-stores just a couple days ago and I saw in the shed they had out back quite a few part bags of the stuff...didn't go in to look at the prices, but I'm sure they'd be pretty reasonable...couldn't hurt to look, right?

 

[Whispering Winds]

Me too, on the strawberries, and we helped a guy tear a trailer apart (mobile home) and got a ton of good lumber that would be perfect for the strawberry project. It is so pretty!!!

 

[oldrooster]

Where we live temperatures in summer sometimes go up to 130* in the sun, so we put our potatoes in the shade. They got some morning sun and that was enough.
If you make comfrey tea you can pour the liquid on the plants and put the leaves on the compost heap, or around the plants. It stops smelling soon after you poured it out, it's just the pouring part that can get rather

See if you can get a copy of John Seymour's fab book The Complete Guide to Self-Sufficiency. He tells you how to store vegetables like carrots and potatoes, what soil each and every vegetable like... it's a treasure of information.

I didn't know it got that hot in Ireland....

 

[3riverschick]

I don't know if it was mentioned... There's a good book out there on the 1/4 acre homestead. I saw it at Barnes and Noble. It has 1/4 in its title
Facinating book.
Best,
Karen