Thursday, January 29, 2009

Potager Design - Day 2

Another snow day. Everyone is home except C. She had to go to work even though none of the kids would be there. Don't ask... The rest of us are here stepping on each others nerves, and being generally grumpy. Good day for garden planning. So, I sent the kids out to sled and set about sketching out some ideas in a bit more formal way. After I got everything set out on the table so I could work, I heard screaming coming from the yard. Like any concerned parent, I glanced out the window to see what was going on. No blood, no broken bits, just kids playing in the snow. As I stood watching them play I noticed the the patterns of foot traffic in the snow. My last sketch had some bold lines saying Here IS WHERE THE PATHS MUST BE, but looking at where people and pets actually walked (and where they didn't) gave me a bit more flexible perspective. Adding that observation (I tried to take a picture, but the camera, even my frustrating one, captures all the details. It was very difficult to notice the patterns in the picture.) to some further details that came out of last nights discussion produced a slightly different, hopefully better design.It's not that easy to see, but I couldn't fit it into my scanner.

Thoughts?

3 comments:

inadvertent farmer said...

I see you all threw a few curves in there...can you live with them, lol! I think it looks grand but then again I am no designer. Are the paths brick? I just love brick!

Beach Bum said...

I remember hearing about a new college construction where for the first year, they put down sod and saw where the paths developed. After that first year, they constructed the sidewalks where paths had been worn in the sod.

Anonymous said...

Unity College in Maine watched where the paths developed and then built permanent walkways as Beach Bum mentioned, it worked well there.

Your plan is beautiful on paper. I suspect the fruit trees would benefit from such a spot, assuming they would be somewhat protected by the buildings. It is hard to comment though, without knowing more about the site -- where North lies, how much shade the buildings create, what direction the prevailing wind blows.

One other thing that comes to mind is whether there might be lead in the soil from the house. I ran an urban garden project and we had huge problems with lead. We overcame the problem by using fairly deep raised beds filled with new soil.

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