April 29, 2006
Terracing
I wrote earlier about the beds and paths we built outside my back door on Monday, and on Thursday and Friday we continued that project.
Behind my house there is a deck, was a yard, and is then a series of garden beds. The one closest to the house sloped fairly sharply, so we set out to extend it and give it a firmer downhill wall using the logs left over from earlier cutting. Because a box elder had been chopped down near this garden, we used the box elder logs, digging trenches for them and fitting them together.
Josh digging a trench for terrace supports.
Fitting a trench to a tree.
Most of the time we were able to fit logs without too much cutting, though we did break out the chainsaw at one point to split a log that almost fit. We also managed to use a gigantic piece, digging it a trench that let it fit into the wall where otherwise we would have used two logs stacked.
Using a huge log for two levels.
We preserved most of the flowers in the bed, digging them out and putting them back when necessary, and extending the bed toward the house made that much easier. Then we seeded all of the beds with Dutch White Clover mixed with inoculant, and covered everything over with straw and mulch.
Completed terrace.
The straw has the unfortunate effect of blending everything together, but when there's more green there I'll be posting more pictures that will hopefully give a clearer impression of what we did. I've also posted a gallery of pictures of the project.
Posted by simon at April 29, 2006 7:39 AM in my house , permacultureNote on photos