100th Post – Fall 2011

What been happening? 
I will now give my readers updates every season or so.  This is our fall update.  It is also special because it is my 100^th post!

I’m moving the yard design heading above into the body of the text, since I will up date four times a year. So if you already read these next two paragraphs-sorry.

I must ask that people plant native plants!!!!!!

There are several reasons:

Native plants will grow easier and will be healthier because it is their native soil and climent

Using little or no fertilizers

They support native bugs that feeds our native bird population

The non-native plants does not support native bugs or birds life-chain of life
If you have seen an increase in crows it is because the native birds are not thriving in your area!  Crows will take over when they have the chance.

Raised bed in May

Raised beds with covers

Our yard will have very little lawn (which is a grassy area that is cut and watered).   Lawns use a lot of water that could be used to water eatable plants.  We will be having mostly raised beds to grow food.  I found a great web site that has videos that give you step by steps ways to grow food to be sustainable and reduce your carbon footprint on our planet.

http://www.gardengirltv.com/

The grass and blueberry plants in October

Garden/Yard – Here are some pictures that show you how well our yard and garden are growing.  We had an exceptional crop of produce this year.  I didn’t even take any pictures of our garden…sorry.  Next spring I will take pictures and share them with everyone.

Rain garden in October

This is a picture of our rain garden.  I planted some native flower seeds and the entire area was bursting with blooms and birds this summer.  It was beautiful!  This is where the rainwater will be fed to that comes from our home’s roof.  The plants will filter the water impurities before it travels to the water table.

The house – This summer, I complained about the heat in the house and the ventilation system didn’t seem to bring in the cool night air like it was designed to.  Well, when my husband and sons were cleaning out and changing the filters down in the ventilation system he found another switch for the controls.  OPPS!  We thought we needed to just turn the switch on the wall in the closest to adjust the controls.  Now we know what we did wrong and we will be able to fine-tune our ventilation system for living conditions next summer.

This fall, Oregon has had record rain fall for the first two months and now it is cold and sunny.  We have turned on our pellet stove twice and otherwise we have had no heat on in our home!  It has been very comfortable.