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We were talking about in the climate change thread about how individuals can build their homes and gardens to be more environmentally friendly and it was pointed out that we don't really have a thread for responsible home and land stewardship in a climate change age. So I thought DIY would be a good place to start and avoid the weird nihilism that seems to pervade D&D. This thread is to discuss anything and everything to do with making your house and garden a different kind of green: water table management, installing solar panels, gray water recycling, anything you can think of to make humans not be quite such dicks to the planet we live on. Also relevant would be strategies for gardening in a post-climate change world, neat ways to save energy, and other cool kid stuff like that. I will be updating the OP and Second Post with particularly cool ideas and useful suggestions. This is one of my first threads so cut me a break if I gently caress something up. As for myself? I am trying to buy a nice 5-acre plot in the next few years out in rural Virginia to build a small A-frame house on and have a bomb orchard with a garden and year-round greenhouse. I really want to make my home as sustainable and green as possible so I was thinking of doing strategic window placement for airflow in the spring and summer. Someone mentioned Green Airconditioning but I am not really sure what that is and it is on my list of things to research, any relevant info a goon could provide with either experience using it or if they are in the know would be appreciated. I chose the A-frame because it would leave more space for solar panels, though I am still tinkering with exactly how I could maximize the amount of sunlight hitting them because A-frame roofs are kind of steep so the setting sun might cause efficiency issues. For water retention, I will probably mulch over most of my land for the first couple of years to get a solid layer of topsoil to keep the moisture in the ground for planting my garden and orchard. There is a dump nearby that you can get free mulch from so cost won't be too much of an issue there, you just got to pick the bits of trash out every now and then  A lot of the details for my future home are still tentative, but I like the progress I am making so far. And for those curious, I am building a home instead of buying an existing home because well...Once I buy a piece of property I don't intend to leave it except in a Coroner's van. I want something I will be able to live in for the rest of my given days. One thing I would like to do as much as possible is cut costs down as much as I can with building the house so any advice would be pretty cool. Green building is expensive... TLDR About This Thread The purpose of this thread is to discuss how to live, build, and garden sustainably as individuals in a post-climate change world. Good Topic Guidelines Note: These are are just to get the conversation started for lurkers who might want to get involved in the discussion, but not sure how 1. Ways to deal with pests without using harsh chemicals 2. The science of ecology and green living 3. Neat building ideas and tips for green construction 4. Innovative ways to recycle common materials 5. Sustainable gardening tips 6. Good news in the Environment (It's a derail, but a nice one so I will allow it) 7. Sustainable animal husbandry tips 8. Green project ideas As for Rules for the Thread: 1. Please do not come in here with "LOL, humans are gonna die because of our own hubris, why are you even trying?" There is enough of that in D&D and I would rather not deal with that level of nihilism in here. 2. This is a welcoming thread designed to help educate people on how they can be better land stewards so let's keep things positive and upbeat. I ask this as your friendly neighborhood robot who is totally not trying to lure you into a false sense of security for the A.I. Overlords. 3. Info dumps are a-okay in this thread. If you got experiences and lots of info about a particular eco-method, please  4. You are welcome to share any projects you are working on in this thread. General PSA I am trying to attribute all info posted in the OP to specific posters. If I get an attribution wrong please let me know. I make mistakes despite being a very friendly robot and I want to make sure credit is given where it is due. friendbot2000 fucked around with this message at 14:54 on Aug 13, 2018 |
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Aug 10, 2018 13:26
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Camo Contructions Here are some construction tips and information on how to build responsibly A-Frames
Log Houses Lime Library Here are some book recommendations for those wishing to read more about green living and building:
Chloryphl Cuttings Collated list of Green Gardening tips Pastoral Pickle Eco-friendly Animal Husbandry tips!
Free Permaculture Class Learn about how your house location affects living a green lifestyle and strategies for living sustainably - Courtesy of Dawncloak Chartreuse Critter and Creeper Control Here are some neat tips and tricks for natural ways of managing pests and nuisance plants
friendbot2000 fucked around with this message at 13:49 on Aug 21, 2018 |
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Aug 10, 2018 13:26
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Huh. I actually didn't think of that. Does pressure treating wood diminish some of the carbon sequestrations? One of my archenemies is carpenter wasps, drat things are constantly burrowing into my apartment deck! Speaking of wasp and beelike things, I need to do some research into companion cropping so I can maybe attract some bees. I have always wanted an Apiary because honey = power.
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Aug 10, 2018 15:06
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Potato Salad posted:What's your budget? Well, my current plan is to get a loan for around 350K. The land prices around where I am looking range from 70-120K, which would leave me around 200-250K for building the actual house. Which would be anywhere from 1200-1500 Square Feet, though I haven't decided if I want a basement yet. I am not sure if that answers your question about budget or not. I am trying to keep things small with a window for expansion because I loving loathe houses that have rooms that nobody ever uses (What the gently caress is with formal dining and living rooms?)
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Aug 10, 2018 15:44
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Rotten Cookies posted:You can try to look up passive cooling designs. Things like an overhang that blocks the summer sun from getting in through your windows, but will let the winter sun shine in to help heat the place. As far as solar panel placement goes, are you dead set on an a-frame? You said it's because it will give you more room for solar panels, but if the angle is wrong and those panels aren't getting as much sun as they can, it defeats the purpose of more panels. At that point, it would be cheaper to place fewer panels at the correct angle. You can also place them in a clearing, or make a covered carport of something. Panels don't necessarily have to be on a house, right? I was actually looking at these to maybe mount on my roof or something. From what I have read about them they are really handy at increasing efficiency of solar. I might put a couple on a pole out of sight if they don't quite blend with the house right. I do want things to look nice after all! My dream is to basically turn my property into the kind of place people would take a vacation in. Green plants all around! As for the A-Frame. I am pretty sold on it. I really like the style and they are easy to build and maintain. Though, the carport is a good idea. I will prob build a detached one so I can put a workshop/potting bench in it and maybe attach my greenhouse to it as well so I don't waste space. I could put a bunch of traditional solar panels on that to power the electric car I am looking to get in the future. I think the county I am looking at allows for it, but I should double check that. Thanks. I plan to have rain barrels set to slow drip hoses to water my orchard and external garden. Odds are I will have a well so I am working out how to dig ditches and stuff to keep rain runoff onto my property to keep my water table healthy. I am also looking into gray water recycling, but that can get expensive... Dawncloack posted:I hope I can one day contribute to this thread. For now, I am profoundly ignorant and live in an apartment. I will definitely look into those classes! And I will add them to the OP! I am a apartment dweller too. I have an acquaintance that is growing Hearty Kiwis...or Hardy Kiwis...I can't remember. They take three years to produce properly but you get like an average of 3-5lbs of fruit a season from them. They are pretty cool! The nice thing about Virginia is we have a pretty healthy water table and are pretty insulated from a lot of nasty natural disasters from our geography. Hmmm, it depends? I think if you are a commerical farm is where you can get into trouble? But I am just guessing on the seed stuff. We got a couple goon lawyers in the Trump threads I might bug them for an answer now that you got me curious. friendbot2000 fucked around with this message at 16:36 on Aug 10, 2018 |
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Aug 10, 2018 16:22
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Thanks dude! Holy poo poo, I just looked up the price tag on one of those smart flower things I linked earlier. It cost 22 grand for installation, I mean, it will eventually pay for itself, but holy poo poo that is a big chunk of change. I wonder if I can get any tax credits for using solar in Virginia? So the average annual kwh usage in America is 10,766. The Smart Flowers generate 3,800 - 6,200 kwh annually. I would be on the lower end because I live in a temperate climate. Still, just one of these lowers my average energy usage by a third and is more efficient than static rooftop solar because it tracks the suns movement and cleans itself at night. friendbot2000 fucked around with this message at 17:34 on Aug 10, 2018 |
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Aug 10, 2018 17:25
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Potato Salad posted:If you don't want this to be a "dump ideas / experience / things you've read" thread please say so Oh, be my guest! This thread is all about dumping info for how to make your home more eco-friendly and fielding questions on green living. You make a good point about heating and cooling A-Frames. I will definitely have to consider that. I have always loved the Craftsman style too. It would give me more options for my study/library! I will definitely look into geotherm heat pumps too! I am saving up pretty aggressively for my dream house here. I do not want to spend the rest of my life paying off this loan so that heat pump thing might be just the ticket to easy heating. friendbot2000 fucked around with this message at 18:45 on Aug 10, 2018 |
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Aug 10, 2018 18:41
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Grouchio posted:Friendbot I have good news: Haha good news is always appreciated in this thread!
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Aug 10, 2018 18:55
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Liquid Communism posted:If you're thinking permaculture, you want a basement. The ground as a heat sink is great. Root cellars are a thing for really good reasons. Awesome! I am going to see if that book is in my local library. If I was to build a basement it would likely be primarily for storage and I might finish it into guest rooms or something. I am pretty minimalist. The only "things" I collect are books, but I plan to build a library to store all those.
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Aug 11, 2018 03:07
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Loving the responses to the thread so far. I was away all weekend watching the Perseid meteor shower on top of a mountain so wasn't able to check the thread. I took my 8-year-old niece up there to learn about science! I am going to do some digging into whether or not you can pressure treat the wood in log houses. Seems like an interesting research question. Thanks for the info dump on Log Houses Divine Shadow! A point I want to bring up to people who want to do composting, if you have a neighbor with horses or even better a horse farm nearby they will gladly give you have poo poo for free as they usually are drowning in it. It makes EXCELLENT fertilizer just mix that in with topsoil and you are good to go. Also, you can make quick and easy leaf mulch every autumn by grinding up the leaves you rake in your yard. Or better yet, go steal bags of leaves people leave on their curb for pickup. There are a bunch of ways to grind it all up, my parents use a John Deere tractor attachment because they have 10 acres, but small batches can be down with a simple lawnmower. Rime posted:Cultivating worms is good and essential for rich loamy soil. YES! Bathouses are great! One thing you need to be aware of is to always get ones with shingles and slanted roofs. Otherwise, you end up replacing it in 2 years from weather damage. Bats even eat invasive species like Japanese Beetles, Harlequin Bugs, and other nasties that eat your plants. The best way to grow a nice big crop of worms for your land is to go to a bait shop and get a bunch of live ones, fill a wheelbarrow full of dirt and put your coffee grounds in that poo poo. Worms loving love coffee grounds and will get nice and fat and have lots of babies. Basically, make yourself a worm gently caress-pit. Once you get enough, just release them into your garden and let em do their thing. European goons need to watch out for the Hammerhead Worm . They are causing all kinds of trouble in European farming and eat all the other worms
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Aug 13, 2018 13:23
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Thread update: I added a bunch of stuff to the OP, feel free to comment if the format looks weird so I can fix it to be more accessible. Or if there is a neat tidbit I missed. I may be a robot, but I am trying my best to be only human. Also, I am trying to source information to the poster so if I get an attribution wrong please let me know. I want to give credit where credit is due. Note: I am writing up all the housing info, it is just going to take some time to format it the way I think looks good. 
friendbot2000 fucked around with this message at 14:51 on Aug 13, 2018 |
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Aug 13, 2018 14:46
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Found a neat list of tips for sustainable gardening from a...well, let's just say I am taking most of these with a grain of salt because I am very wary of new age bullshit that poses as "green living". I am particularly interested in the section on integrating livestock with your gardening. Check it out: 82 Tips for Sustainable Gardening If it passes muster in the thread I will add it to the OP. quote:Integrating Livestock in Your Gardening I was planning on raising chickens or guinea fowl once I got my soil ready for planting(which in all honesty is probably a 2-year investment, my dad is a dirt farmer and it is a looooong process to get rid of Virginia's lovely red clay). I was wondering if I should let the chickens run wild through the garden(it will be fenced off to prevent any critters from absconding with my chickens). My chief concern is spreading disease by ingesting food from the garden. I haven't done a ton of research on that, but it is something that sticks out. Yes, I know you can wash things, I am just not sure I want to take the risk. I am curious about is just how effective chickens/guniea fowl are at eating insects in a garden. Edit: I am also now wondering if guniea fowl and chickens are okay living in the same coop or if they need different living spaces...off to google Edit Edit: Wow...Guinea Fowl are kinda awesome friendbot2000 fucked around with this message at 15:08 on Aug 17, 2018 |
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Aug 14, 2018 13:09
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Banana Man posted:I was always interested in the techniques used on this site: http://www.calearth.org/ That looks super cool and like something from a Science Fiction movie! We absolutely could be using more recycled materials in housing construction. I am going to try to build my house with recyclable materials in mind, but at the same time, Spray Foam insulation is just tooooooo handy to not have in your house. this broken hill posted:yes! in australia we have microbats (they're as cute as they sound) and they're always on the lookout for cosy new hollows. there's one species that usually nests in the underside of a scrub wren's nest, but a friend of mine left a mop standing on her balcony for a few days and a colony of microbats decided to nest inside the head of the mop, where they thrived I am trying to get my parents to put up bat houses in their barn. My dad has an RV Barn(something that I am not too happy about because RV's are not very green, but he tends to live green and simple and is a good steward of his land so I give him a pseudo pass on his indulgence. The guy hasn't done a thing for himself in 30+ years. Still conflicted over it though.) I gave them a multichambered bat house for Fathers Day and am doing research on the best place and conditions to put it up in his yard. this broken hill posted:horse poo is excellent, as is cow and also poultry. chickens eat everything, not just grass, so they have all sorts of interesting minerals in their poo poo that herbivores don't process as much of. their manure is very high in phosphorus, among other things My Papa had an enormous garden in California and would go to a horse farm with his pickup and I will never forget how they practically begged him to take more poo poo off their hands. The dude was like, offering to fill up his truck too and drive it over to my Pop's house just to offload it. Livestock produces an unearthly amount of poo poo, it is kind of impressive. I was thinking of having the chickens run free in my garden to fertilize things, but I am worried about them eating my produce and the increased infection vector of them being around my food sources. Other than that I might make their pen have access to my composting heap so they can fertilize the compost instead of giving them access to the garden. Any tips on that Broken Hill? this broken hill posted:guinea fowl are my favourite creatures on this green earth! i kept a mixed flock with no problems, the guineas roosted in a tree at night (their choice, they just decided to do it one day) and the chickens slept in the henhouse, and during the day they sometimes foraged together and sometimes in separate species groups. the roosters would go a bit mental when the hens went into season and a few times one of our roosters fought the chooks for good nesting sites, but there was never any blood and they seemed to sort it out themselves. they're so compatible that i gave a clutch of guinea eggs to a broody chicken and this happened I heard that Guinea Fowl are really loud, but on 5-10 acres I shouldn't bother the neighbors too much. I am more concerned about them foraging too far and getting shot by my neighbors or hit by cars Do you have any tips on how to keep them from roosting and foraging too far from home Broken Hill? My plan was to bond them to chickens and make their house super comfortable so they will roost there on the regular. Ah yeah, I read that chickens will sit on the Guinea Fowl eggs and hatch them like they would their own! It is super cool that happened to your flock!
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Aug 20, 2018 13:31
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mundane haircut posted:For small spaces a "chicken tractor" could work (a moveable chicken run that you shift where you want the chickens to munch and rummage). They seem small, though. If I had the space I might divide the garden into three or four sections fenced off and get some crop rotation going with the chickens being allowed in the fallow "field" for the season. I was looking at the chicken tractor method actually, but this past weekend I was going around looking at properties and I am much more drawn to more mountainous topography with a large number of trees. That is why I was leaning towards Guinea Hens because they roam and then come back to their roost. I am "designing" a roost that has all the comforts of "home" to see if I can make it so they stay there instead of where I can't keep track of them. I am aware I might lose a couple of hens on the property due to predators from this method, but foxes got to eat too. I might merge chickens with Guinea Hens and have them flock together. That way the chickens can hatch the Guinea Hen eggs if I manage to lose all of them in a freak accident BigFactory posted:This is quoting kindof an old post, but there’s not really any grant money out there for solar installation any more. You can check with your state but it’s been years since that was a thing. That is kind of unfortunate that there isn't a grant or tax incentive to install solar panels. I think if that was passed we might see a huge spike in people buying solar and help wean us off gas and fossil fuels. Yeah, I have to find a property I want to buy before I jump into whether or not to do battery or power buyback. It is definitely something that needs to be on my mind so thank you for reinforcing that. One thing I am keenly worried about is property taxes as that area of knowledge loving mystifies me on a spiritual and mental level. I am still trying to calculate what my property taxes would be at my end goal of the house, greenhouse, 2car garage with workshop, fish pond, and other assorted property improvements. I wonder if landscaping figures into tax calculations? Also, no worries about quoting old posts. This thread moves slowly so there is zero reason to fret about such things. I accept and encourage all input One thing I have been considering is lining the road into my property with trees, that way the runoff from the road gets soaked up by the trees, prevents erosion so I don't have to put so much gravel down, and having Crepe Myrtles line the drive into your home is just....too loving picturesque to not consider. They bloom multiple times through the year and are hardy swamp trees so they thrive in Virginia weather. I might still put gravel down once they are planted though just to have an added safeguard against erosion, I might just put azaleas around the trees to further make things awesome. The odds are I will have a fairly long driveway into the house so I am trying to think of the best longterm way to make a non-asphault driveway. I love permeable driveways, but the length will get costly. I do know that I do NOT want asphault or a dirt road. Asphault will be a nightmare to constantly upkeep and the mud from a dirt road will be an equal nightmare because I categorically refuse to get a non-ecofriendly vehicle.
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Sep 17, 2018 14:44
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Liquid Communism posted:Domestic solar is pissing into the ocean as far as getting off fossil fuels for power generation. Still takes nearly as much energy (usually from conventional power generation) to produce the panels as they will generate over their lifetime, along with rare earths. Yeah, you have a point about that. I was more hoping that more people getting personally involved in green energy might change the conversation to be more anti-fossil once they see the reductions in their bills and stuff. this broken hill posted:i am 100% in favour of guinea fowl as a catch-all solution to all your poultry problems. unless, and i cannot stress this enough, you live in a built-up area and want to remain friends with your neighbours. I am going to read the poo poo out of that thread my friend. I am looking into buying 5-10 acres so no worries about having neighbors who will burn down my house etc. Also gonna post so many goddamn "No Hunting GTFO my property" signs on my acreage and turn any unused bits into a nature preserve because I am a goddamn male Disney princess that makes friends with chipmunks and trees n poo poo. Queen Victorian posted:I think you need compacted river gravel (the kind with the small rounded pebbles - makes pretty attractive roads) and stone-lined drainage ditches and possibly culverts (depending on terrain) to manage runoff. Put some gravel down along with appropriate drainage, steamroll it, then when it gets too muddy/starts washing out, put down more gravel. Repeat a few times over the course of a few years and eventually you'll have a nice, firm, not-muddy gravel road. Thank you for this! I will definitely look into that. I was thinking of collecting large river rocks and lining the ditches with them and put in the tubing to divert excess runoff to plant beds. One frustrating thing I am going to have to figure out is how to put in a drain field for a septic tank system without having to clear-cut any trees. There is nothing that breaks my heart more than clearcutting. I legit look away out of guilt when I see it on the highway. Speaking of septic systems. Does anyone have any good resources on the best way to maintain them and minimize the amount of cleaning they need? I dislike the idea of having a truck take away all the waste and dumping it god knows where. I have always wondered if you could just nuke them with that bacteria that eats all that crap. I was also toying with the idea of an experiment with a "plastic septic system" where I get my hands on those bacteria that eat plastics and see if I can have a mini plastics disposal site. It is a weird idea that probably won't work, but one that I want to tinker with. I was thinking of using to dispose of cellophane and other non-recyclable plastics.
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Sep 18, 2018 14:04
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I have been so busy following politics and canvassing for the 2018 Midterms that I completely forgot my own drat thread. Sorry folks! This isn't quite a sustainable strategy for the home article, but it was posted in the Climate Change thread and I found it to be very interesting regarding alternative power storage. https://qz.com/1355672/stacking-concrete-blocks-is-a-surprisingly-efficient-way-to-store-energy/ One issue I foresee regarding my personal homesteading plans is internet access. If was to move to the mountains of Virginia, reliable internet access could be...spotty and my job would be working remotely. Any goons have any personal experience with satellite internet service?
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Nov 1, 2018 15:42
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DesperateDan posted:I dont know about satellite stuff, but I have looked a few times at long range wifi setups- 3/4g is too spotty to be reliable where I farm but I'm within a mile or two of my mother in laws place which has a reasonable connection- it's pretty cheap and easy if you can stick up a pole at each end with directional antenna with line of sight, homebuilt solutions seem to be able to reach several miles. What kind of upload/down speeds do you get with that setup Dan? Do you need a cooperating partner to set this up? I legit have no knowledge of directional wifi stuff.
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Nov 1, 2018 18:56
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Hmm, I will have to look into the cost/benefits of all these. I have to wonder how resilient fixed wireless solutions are in weather events and high wind conditions(The image I have in my mind is equipment on top of a pole). It is ridiculous how highspeed internet has not been rolled out to rural areas though I think I remember seeing something Google was trying to do with balloons that created wireless infrastructure? Anyways, I have been trying to limit food waste as much as possible, but because I live in an apartment I can't compost so any food that does start to go bad I end up having to toss. I have already started shopping weekly instead of meal-planning for multiple weeks, but I am looking to try to narrow the waste gap even more. Any tips? Also, how does one get their hands on fruit tree seeds? Like, most fruit trees are grafts so they are stunted for easier picking, but I am not sure I want to do that. There is something to be said about being able to sit under a big apple tree ya know? Plus, I want to be able to feed local wildlife with the fruits I can't eat. I also worry about a lot of the corporate distributed seeds because I am naturally suspicious of agricorps. friendbot2000 fucked around with this message at 15:22 on Nov 19, 2018 |
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Nov 16, 2018 17:24
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Sorry for letting this thread wither on the vine. A lot of poo poo has happened in life lately that left me with no space in the brain box for things. The good news is I am getting married and have fallen rear end-backward into homeownership! The bad news is that OH MY GOD I HAVE A HOUSE NOW AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! So I have been planning my yard and am just beating my head against the wall because the Pandemic closed the dump(free mulch!) so I can't get the mulch needed to get rid of this accursed Virginia Red Clay. So my yard plans are set back by possibly a year. And well...my full yard plan is basically a 2-year mulching regime followed by FINALLY starting to plant stuff. So far my garden plans are as follows: - My new house sits at the bottom of two hills. I think it's like...a full acre? possibly 3/4ths of an acre. Anyways, because it sits at the bottom of these two hills we get quite a bit of standing water pooling about and just loving LOL if I am going to finish the basement without doing water abatement stuff. So my idea is to terrace the hills and plant my garden there and at the top plant bushes for a privacy screen from neighbors(and their drat kids rollerskating on my grass), likely Azleas because they are Virginia Natives and my favorite. - Once the terrace is done I will put a trellis around the entrance to my shed and plant two Hardy Kiwi's. They aren't VA natives, but they will survive the winter and produce a fuckton of fruit once they start producing. - Thinking about planting a Paw Paw tree. It's a VA native fruit tree and the name amuses me - I want to replace the lovely wooden deck and replace it with a stone patio - Plant all sorts of veggies in the terraced gardens and do some companion planting with herbs so I don't have to use pesticides - my parents's neighbors have horses so I have unlimited fertilizer for the garden, though the HOA might have a problem with that. I think I can get away with it if I bury the horse poo poo so it doesn't smell, but that remains to be seen. Later on I will take some pictures of the prospective land so the thread can see the "Before" retrospective and give whatever pointers they have! friendbot2000 fucked around with this message at 16:36 on Apr 30, 2020 |
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Apr 30, 2020 16:34
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Your Boy Fancy posted:There Was Time Now, so the garden of Chidi House, the humble abode that only gave us stomachaches for a year and a half, is springing up nicely. Dude, I am doing the best I can to see if I can pressure my state government to take what DC is doing in regards to "paying" people to clean their poo poo up because that would be frigging awesome to see happen across a whole state. I know Dominion Power is trying to get it's greedy paws into solar power like the foul botchlings they are so it's anyone's guess how that's gonna play out. One of my favorite things the local dumps in Virginia do is they give away the mulch they make by grinding up the yard waste for free as long as you can carry it away. Sometimes if you catch the guys working the equipment at the right time they will fill up your truck/trailer in one fell swoop with their earthmover equipment. You have to pick some of the garbage out of the mulch, but it beats the massive price tag from places like Home Depot and stuff so I will happily pick out the bits of plastic for what I am paying for it! Have you considered looking into some ground cover plants to replace sod and weeds?? Things like ferns or common blue violets. Here is a cool list of Virginia Natives(Likely DC Area natives too) : https://choosenatives.org/articles/plant-native-ground-covers-make-america-green/ I also found a cool article about getting rid of your lawn and planting cool Virginia native plants: https://www.arlingtonmagazine.com/lawn-gone/
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Apr 30, 2020 19:17
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Okay, so as I mentioned before I kinda fell rear end-backward into getting a house. Upon getting engaged my fiance's mom decided that she would move up to Maryland to live with her boyfriend so the question became what to do with the house? My fiance has Crohns disease so she can't exactly afford to live elsewhere due to medical bills so she still lived there. I brought up...well, why don't we take over the mortgage? And well, we are not the proud owners of a 4 bedroom/2 1/2 bath home and there is just....so much I want to do with it. But first...the yard because of all the things I want to do that is the cheapest and takes the most time to get started. I will probably be posting kitchen stuff later on when we secure the funding to remodel the kitchen. Anyways, very little mulching has actually been done and any goon who knows Virginia knows all we got is loving red clay for soil. That just simply won't do for the jungle I plan to create lol. Mailbox and attached yard   Our property line goes all the way out to the wooden fence on the left. I am thinking of mulching over that entire area for the next year or so, alternating bark and leaf mulch, then turning the soil after a month or two. I am still putting together my plan for what I want to plant in this area though. I know that the side yard next to the house I plan to put raspberry bushes and maybe some blueberries along the fence line. I haven't poked around in that access covering to see what that actually is so what I plant around it will be dependant on that I suppose. But this area gets a LOT of water buildup when it rains so I want to put some thirsty plants there to prevent that from seeping places I don't want it to go. Rest of Front Yard   The rest of the front yard is just....sod. Sod as far as the eye can see. The azaleas in the front are real puny and I can't tell if it's because the front yard is primarily shady, there are no nutrients in the soil to spur growth, or they just get cut back to within an inch of their lives all the time. I want to expand the tree bed and ring it with rocks( to contain ground cover) and plant some pretty ground cover that isn't a vine. I also want to extend the mulch line to the street and plant more flowering bushes or thirsty plants. There are some boxwoods behind me in that picture that I am going to tear out because I loving hate boxwoods. We also want to get some ferns to put around the Bleeding Hearts so they have some company. I am a little curious what the thread's thoughts are on a driveway replacement option. The front yard is in near-constant shade so in the winter it ices over pretty hard and I am uncomfortable with the idea of using salt all the time because I don't like the idea of it running off into places it shouldn't. Side Yard  These pics might be a little repetitive and I apologize for that! Anyways, only one thing to say about this place: BERRY BUSHES! The side yards and back yards get oodles of sunlight so they are perfect for berry bushes! Still haven't figured out an attractive way to protect the berries from critters, but odds are I will share the wealth and let the critters have their share Shed/Mudroom  Around the door I am going to plant 2-4 hardy kiwis on an overhanging trellise and be swimming in fresh fruit once they start producing. The wooden deck is going to go and I am probably going to grade the incline myself with mulching until I can get the funds together to put the stone patio in. One thing I have been pondering is how well the hardy kiwis will do if I put in a permanent stone walkway/ramp(for the wheelbarrow) to the shed. Back Yard    The property line goes all the way to the rear neighbors fence. I was thinking of terracing the hill and putting my vegetable garden in the tiered planting terrace. Then putting flowering bushes along the edge of it to give the yard and house a natural privacy screen. Not sure exactly if it will look how I imagine it in my head, so critiques welcome. I was going to make the terrace go all the way up to the "future" patio line. and raise it up by a foot or so, that way the lip at the bottom is a bench of sorts. I was thinking about making the terrace go all the way to the end of my house, but that leaves a question of what to do on the other hill. Side Yard p2    I haven't the foggiest what to do here. Do I grade it flat and put in another vegetable garden? Rain gardens? do more of my terrace farm? I suppose it depends on what the HOA will let me get away with on that front haha. But one thing is for sure, I want to get rid of this loving sod because I don't want to mow all this goddamn grass. Again, open to suggestions and comments on how to better make use of water resources available to me. If you think you have a better idea for parts of the yard, go ahead and sling em out. We are in the planning stages right now and its a blank canvas that I hope to turn into a lush greenspace full of tasty fruits/veg and beautiful flowers
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Apr 30, 2020 22:13
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Dawncloack posted:Yeah, that was my first thought ttoo. Not a usamerican here, but by god have these forums provided with HOA horror stories. Yeah, our HOA is spoken of in hushed tones in Virginia as being one of the most strict in the state haha. They friggin banned rollerblading and skateboarding. I have half a mind to run for the board and become a cool kid insurgent candidate! I found a loophole for the terracing. By HOA bylaws, retaining walls are permitted so I got my in there because the "terrace" is just a series of retaining walls dontcha know! They dont have any ban on vegetable gardens, but they used to so thankfully that got overturned. I think if I explain to them that the mulching is to make the yard lusher they might make an exception there. I just loving HATE sod and want to not have to mow as much lol. Kaiser Schnitzel posted:I think terracing the back yard would be a good idea (or just do sort of raised beds, but like stairs instead of actually doing much digging?). I don't think your soil is as bad as you think-just look at all those big, happy, mature trees! Virginia red clay isn't bad soil at all, it just needs a little organic matter and nitrogen and you have to be a little careful about digging in it when it's really wet. I did not know that about azaleas! Thank you friend! Tell me, do you have any suggestions about hardy kiwis? VA winters get collllllld so I was hoping to get an perrenial that can survive the winters and settled on those One thing I am trying to puzzle over is how to do some sustainable water management to limit the water needed to water my future gardens. I was thinking of hiding rain barrels from the HOA somehow or catching run off from the roof(not sure how safe that is for plants though). I just need to disguise it from nosy neighbors. We do live in Virginia so we get a substantial amount of rain every growing season, but with climate change its anyone's guess. And lol I am TERRIBLE at gaging spacial distances like acreage so you are prob right haha. friendbot2000 fucked around with this message at 15:50 on May 1, 2020 |
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May 1, 2020 15:46
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he1ixx posted:I also should note that the taxes are high because we're building an expensive house on 14 acres of extremely coveted area of town. I'm sure most properties aren't that high in Stowe (but they still aren't cheap by any stretch). Please do this! I am looking into shooting for a netzero home in...the suburbs of all places so any info you give helps me too! I will be posting my yard plan scribbles on graph paper soon as well!
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Jun 10, 2020 01:37
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Lead out in cuffs posted:Runoff from the roof is what usually goes into rain barrels. It's rainwater, I'm pretty sure it's fine for plants. The place I live in is rated as one of the most restrictive HOAs in the state. The only reason I fell backward into homeownership here is because my fiance's mother is giving us the house because she is moving up to live with her boyfriend and well...we needed a place to live. The house only has like 100K left on it in an area where house value is like 450K so it was too good of a deal to pass up. Don't get me wrong, if I am able to do what I want with the yard...this quarter-acre plot will be the most beautiful on our street. But our bylaws for the HOA is like...War and Peace. Of course you can get ANYTHING approved in an HOA system as long as your neighbors approve, and you got a decent plan. Our neighbor does technical drawings for a living and he is going to draw us up a 3d model of what our yard improvements will look like for our proposal so that is going to put us over the edge to approval. I have a sketch of the plans I drew up on graph paper and will post it shortly. Garden update!!! The Sea of Sod has been broken and the good earth has seen fit to provide us with it's bounty...with one caveat. I am having some issues getting pollinators to come visit the once barren desert of flowers and pollinate my pepper plants. Which is why we parked the USS BeeCool next to the garden as a landing pad/bribe. The Garden gets sun ALL day so the plants are SUPER BEEFY. We named the Tomatoes: Tracey, Timothy, and Thomas. We are pretty sure Tracey is going to play basketball. The garden is 100 percent commercial pesticide/fertilizer free. We fertilize with egg tea(basically you steep your eggshells in water for a few days, and use it to water the plants, then grind up the shells and spread them through the soil. Eggshells are filled with all the stuff plants love and if you have a fiance who has Crohns Disease and eggs are one of the things she can easily digest....you get a lotta eggshells lol. We conditioned the soil with leaf mulch and loam from my dad's dirt farm so it made the plants SUPER happy. USS BeeCool  Garden pt 2  Garden p1  I am kinda worried that the bees and pollinators don't really know we are here. The tomatoes are producing, but the peppers are not and well...I was an idiot and forgot it takes time for perennials to get to the point where they will flower because I have a case of the dumb and planted Hollyhock, lupine, and another perennial that I cant remember its name from seeds and forgot that bees need flowers to know where your garden was. So I planted on the other side Marigolds, Snapdragons, and zinnias. The marigolds have flowered, but the Zinnias are being lil bitches and haven't flowered yet. I am..not a patient person evidently. he1ixx posted:
Hrm...we are planning to put solar panels on the roof of our house because we get sun all throughout the day, but it sounds like you are going for a larger array than our plot can accommodate? How big is your array? And in your research with diving into net-zero emission households, what can places that don't have the real estate required for a large array of solar do to get as close to net-zero as possible? Or for homes that are already built and can't do a lot of the house design stuff you are listing to lower emissions? I am also VERY interested in insulation as I am prepping to replace a lot of the insulation in this house so I stop bleeding energy and money in the winter/summer.
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Jun 15, 2020 15:38
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