Our Urban Ranch’s New Facade

The front yard continues to steal my attention. After disassembling the roof over my earth oven (sadly, it was falling down), I found a new use for the supporting logs I once scavenged from the banks of the Colorado River. This new facade at the entrance of our pathway was remarkably easy to erect, thanks to the three pieces of rebar I had already hammered into each of the logs. This new structure won’t last forever either, but it will look inviting and interesting for as long as it does manage to survive.

Front “Yard” Project Completed

It only took two months to spread all that mulch around my front yard, but I am finally done. It took so long because I insisted upon digging up all the grass in my front yard and much of the dirt in each of the quadrants before dumping about six inches or, in some spots, a foot of mulch in its place. What I am hoping is that whatever rain falls on the front yard will settle in these basins, eventually turn the mulch into a nice soil, and provide water for the bushes and plants I hope to plant there.

Last week I acquired more recycled and tumbled glass from the landfill by the airport and poured it on the path that winds through the basins. After it rains, the glass sparkles.

All in all, I am happy with the way the project turned out and am looking forward to watching it age. Added bonus: none of the guys who drive around town looking for yards to mow will ever knock on my door again.

Magnificent Mulch

Here’s an example of how I am getting smarter in my old age. A year ago I was happy to drive across town and haul scavenged materials back to the homestead. One back injury later I have figured out that it’s better to allow others to do the heavy lifting.

Some of my ultimate goals for the farm are helping my fruit trees get big enough to actually bear fruit, turn my clay into usable soil, and controlling and trapping the flow of rainwater that hits my property, and to do all that I need lots and lots of mulch. While you can get it at the landfill for free, I recently discovered another way of acquiring it and all it took was a simple email. I asked the folks at Davey Tree Service if they wouldn’t mind dropping a load of wood chips in my driveway the next time they were in my neighborhood and the very next morning they did just that.

My neighbors probably think the huge pile of wood chips sitting in my driveway is an eyesore, but to me it’s beautiful, for it represents one more step along the path towards prosperity for the Inner City Farm.

Earth Floors

One MRI, three cortisone shots in the back, and countless hours of physical therapy, and the Inner City Farmer is back! Sort of. To finish up the the earth floor in the Man Cave (or Brandy Library, if you prefer) I needed to employ the services of Frank Meyer, and I am so glad that I did because Frank is simply the best. He’s easily in the top three or four out of all the earth floor makers in the world. Think about that. It was like having Michael Jordan stop by to help me work on my jump shot.

Frank took care of applying the first coat of linseed oil to seal the floor and left me to do the rest. He heated the oil up so that it could be spread thinner. Even so the clay was “thirsty” and the floor drank up four gallons of the stuff. For the successive coats the oil hasn’t needed to be heated, but I have thinned it by adding some Citrusolv, which I got at EcoWise. The Citrusolv helps the oil dry quicker and it makes it smell better, like oranges!

I have added four coats total at this point and plan on adding one more. It’s taking about two days for each coat to dry. But soon–within a week?–the process will be done, and we’ll be able to start using the room! For those interested in learning more about earth floors, a good article was written about them in the New York Times several years ago, and, of course, Frank is one of the main people featured in the article.

Ouch

So what happened to the usually diligent Inner City Farmer? He is currently suffering from a ruptured disk in his back that occurred while he was digging a hole in the front yard. Until this thing gets better, updates will be sparse.

The Fall Garden

After two summers battling the elements and losing, I think I’m finally starting to get it. If you want to garden in Texas, you need to take advantage of the three seasons that actually produce vegetables–fall, winter, and spring–and go on vacation for the fourth, the brutally long and hot summer. In the past the last thing I wanted to do on a hot August day was start a garden, but this year I sucked it up and did it.

Much of the morning last Sunday I spent making these raised beds. The rest of the day I spent filling them with Hill Country Garden Soil from the Natural Gardener. On Monday I planted peas and beans; on Tuesday, summer squash. I’ll sow the seeds for the rest of the garden later this month: cabbage, spinach, lettuce, carrots, and Swiss chard.

Making an Earth Floor for the Tool Shed

Guess who’s back playing in the mud? After staying indoors for what seemed like an eternity away from the summer heat, I have emerged from my summer hibernation. Several weekends ago, I was given a metal tool shed that will finally give me some place to store all my tools. It came with a roof and four walls, but, alas, no floor. Most people would have simply poured a concrete slab and called it good. But, as you surely know by now, I hate concrete worse than I hate Nazis.

So I started digging a square hole in the ground.

Then I dug trenches on the outer edge of the square hole so that water would drain away from the future floor.

Next I filled in the hole with all the septic gravel that was left over from making the earth floor in the Man Cave.

After erecting the tool shed, I then starting digging clay from my pit/future pond in my back yard. Thanks to the drought, the clay was rock hard so I soaked it in water, let it dry a little in the sun, then sifted it through a wire screen.

Just as I did on the previous earth floor, I used two parts coarse gravel and one part clay for the first layer. It’s like slicing cold butter into a flour mixture when making a pie crust. All the little bits of butter/clay should get completely covered by the flour/sand. I then pounded this layer with a tamper.

I’m going to let it dry a little–the clay was still quite moist when I mixed it with the sand–before I start on the next layer.

The Fear

So, yeah, I’ve been a little removed for the past month or so. Just surviving, really. The heat came early this summer and hit hard and won’t stop. Living in Texas, as far as I can tell, used to be all about counting the number of 100-degree days in July and August. This year, like last year, the 100-degree days started in early June, and all-time record highs continue to be set what feels like every other day. 105. 107. Oof. My trees and plants have all gone into shock. My garden is dead, save for a sweet potato vine that’s flourishing and some hardy basil that’s contributed to five or six batches of pesto (along with the pecans off my tree) and that I am now propagating, piece by piece, in cups of water scattered throughout the house. My relationship with the outdoors has been pretty much put on hold lately. All projects stopped. And then the other morning, when it was only 90 degrees outside, I made this fence thing at the very front of my front yard. It’s going to look much cooler, at least from the street, once I have attached the pieces of weathered cedar fencing I scavenged several months back. I intend it to function as more of a berm than anything, a little hill that keeps rainwater on my property instead of trickling off. Plus, in the process of digging the dirt to make these berms I will be creating little depressions where that water will hopefully end up. Here, I intend to plant hardy native plants that can survive on their own from one good soaking to the next. This was something I have been wanting to do ever since I saw Brad Lancaster speak. He transformed his tiny lot in Tuscon from a barren desert into a lush oasis simply by designing his landscape in such a way that every drop of rain that hit his property stayed on his property. Sinking water into your soil, our soil, may be the greatest investment you ever make, for there vegetation and the creatures that feed on it will flourish. Meanwhile, the City of Austin continues to chop down trees because, get this, they were getting old. As if trees don’t know how to die on their own.

Published on CNN

 

I just published this little story on CNN.com. Anyone can do it. The beauty of modern technology.

Rainwater-Harvesting Guru Brad Lancaster Rocks Austin

I dropped the ball on this one. I’ve been spending so much time tending to the garden I forgot to hype Brad Lancaster’s visit to Austin. For those not familiar with him, Brad is a rainwater-harvesting guru from Tuscon, Arizona who preaches (and practices) taking the path to “a bun dance” (you have to see him to understand this joke) and not scarcity when it comes to water conservation. He’s also pretty damn funny.

I first saw him speak at the 2007 Natural Building Colloquium and was so impressed I swore I would drop everything to see him speak again if he ever came within 100 miles of Austin. Well, he spoke at least four times last weekend so odds were good that I was going to get to see him, and I did. His talk at the AMD campus just off Southwest Parkway was every bit as enlightening and inspiring as I hoped it would be. The event was well attended, and I got the sense that it could serve as a real lightning rod for change. When Brad explains how much water we waste as a society flushing our “waste” down the toilet, it makes you want to scream. The important thing is to remember who to scream at.

Fortunately for those who missed him speak, you can still learn all about him at his website or by ordering one of his books.