Rain, Finally

We're still in a drought here in California and will be for the foreseeable future but we have been getting some much needed rain. We actually got an unexpected storm a couple months back and I woke up in the early morning to the sound of heavy rain, which wasn't quite music to my ears yet. I had been working slowly on drainage but I didn't have everything connected so I was just picturing the water dropping straight down to where I didn't want it. In the end it wasn't a big deal but it did speed up my work.

I'm harvesting rain in a couple places with the big tank and the older smaller barrels but those have first flush diverters that need to allow the initial water to pass and then go somewhere as well as the tank/barrel overflows. For the large tank, I ended up only connecting one downspout since on even a relatively small roof the tank can fill in just a few storms. This one required the first flush diverter to be mounted a bit higher but then it was just a matter of connecting three-inch drain pipes together using glued and rubber connectors.

Here you can see the first flush diverter with horizontal piece that goes to filling the tank. The vertical piece allows the first flush water to continue down and then out to the daylight end.

Here is the rest of the system. The first flush comes from behind the end of the tank and then parallels it until it connects with the overflow pipe and continues on with a couple jogs to where it daylights at the corner of the carriage house and waters a timber bamboo.

The barrel first flush and overflow connections were a bit more complicated. When building the deck I ran a 3" piece of pipe along the house and under the deck to be connected later. After a bunch of contemplating, I decided on the best way to connect everything, which you can see below.

The filling piece was easy as it just needed some 3" pipe and one connector. The first flush also just needed 3" pipe and connectors but the alignment was a bit more tricky with the 45-degree connector and a Y-connector. The overflow, though, took some thought but with a flexible elbow, 1 1/2" ABS pipe and connectors, plus a reducer I was able to get it to work. It then all connects up with the under deck pipe via an elbow.

At the other end of the deck it got complicated again because I needed to connect a downspout to the drain line. Using a combination of rubber connectors, 1 1/2" ABS, and the reducer, I got that connected in and the water continues off to the left in the picture where it changes from 3" hard pipe to 3" flexible corrugated drain pipe. It then hooks up with the neighbors' downspouts and out towards the front where the plan is to dump the water in the new swales that were put in as part of the neighbors' new landscaping.

There's one other spot I want to show but I don't have any photos so I'll need to add it here or write another post. I also have a few other projects from the summer and fall to show so stay tuned.

New Deck

I don't think I've mentioned this before but I do actually have a master plan for the backyard, which I'm slowing implementing. I had a general layout put together in CAD and then I handed that off to Christopher Shein of Wildheart Gardens, who helped with the planting layout for an edible and somewhat perma-cultured backyard. Some projects I can piece together over long stretches of time; others I feel I have to do in a concentrated burst. Our back deck was one of those since it's a main thoroughfare out the back door to the backyard and workshop/garage. So I took a week off work and with the help of my stepfather, we built it in six days.

I was searching for "before" photos and couldn't find that many. I need to document "before and after" a little better. This photo is from way before, like October 2009, about six months after we moved in. The original deck was five-sided with untreated Douglas Fir decking and framing that was sitting on Home Depot blocks. The wood was rotting but still fairly functional.

Then I cut it down to its most functional, a landing with a step down to grade. You can just see it behind Verónica and Lida.

We started on Monday morning but were so busy building that I didn't take a photo until Thursday when the whole sub-structure was framed. We spent the first two days digging out the grade below and placing the weed barrier and gravel. I wanted a clean, weed-free space below the deck that I could crawl under in case I needed to do anything underneath. That added some extra time and effort but I think it was worth it. The next two days were spent framing the deck. We used absolutely no concrete and instead supported the whole deck on four post spikes. I had to get a little creative with the step but it worked out well and is super solid.

The (nearly) finished product. I had to source the redwood from a couple different places but was able to get all knot-free pieces. I don't think it has the first coat of stain in this photo but I used a darker stain and it looks pretty spectacular. The right side doesn't require a railing but I'll put one in with a trellis above for a male kiwi. One of the best features of this deck is that it's at the same level as the kitchen floor. It makes a huge difference to be able to walk right out to the deck without stepping down. It feels like an extension of the interior.

Spring '14

Spring is here, although with the winter we had, it felt like it always was here except that the trees are now full of leaves; the comfrey returned; and we planted our vegetable garden.

I didn't think we were going to get to it for a while but sometimes you just have to go get the starts and put them in the bed. We have tomatoes, lettuce, lemon cucumber, slicing cucumber, kale, Swiss chard, beets, squash, and tomatillo. I also have the second bed ready to go; I just need to fill it with the soil mix.

We helped our friends James and Sarah move a couple weekends ago and they gave us this green pot, which had a dead Japanese maple in it. I bought a new one and potted it. I'll plan to give it back as a housewarming gift when they find a permanent place. I also planted our Lisbon Lemon that we got from a couple friends when we first moved in to our house.

After losing my colony, I was exploring options to repopulate my hive. I was hoping a swarm would move in or that I'd catch one but instead the brother of our friend, Brooke, is starting a mead business: Magic Bag Meadery. He's partnering with a commercial apiarist who wanted me to host a couple hives. I was also able to buy a colony from him. His are the fully silver hives and mine has the silver super on top of two blues. I also planted that Japanese maple in the chicken area hoping that something will thrive in there.

The hives. The third one is from my friends Rachel and Sophie and is still empty. Thomas, the apiarist, said he'd bring another colony out next time he comes, which would put four active hives in my yard.

Green Wall

I recently completed this green wall, which was inspired by this vertical garden made from a reclaimed pallet. This is actually the second version and, as I rebuilt it, I documented the process as follows:

This was version 1.0 right as I started dismantling it. I used reclaimed 2x3s from the house across the street and reclaimed tongue and groove sub-floor from our carriage house for the slats, which you can see stacked up in the background. The problem with this one is that I filled it with soil like they did in the linked website above but, as I learned afterwards, this method results in the soil moving slowly downward and compacting the bottom portion over time.

Here you can see all of the succulents removed and most of the soil. The black layers at the bottom are landscape fabric on the inside and pond liner for waterproof-ness on the outside.

I used only a few slats along the back as if it were a pallet and then stapled the two layers to those. This resulted in some bulging as I tried to move it around, which made it feel somewhat unstable.

So I removed the rear slats and cut a piece of plywood to fit from a pallet I found on the street. I screwed it on temporarily for fit.

I then removed the plywood and added two new layers of pond liner and landscape fabric between the plywood and the frame.

I folded the two backing layers towards the front at the bottom and screwed on the bottom slat. The I trimmed the two backing materials on all sides.

This time I created little planter shelves for each row using ripped T&G and fence boards. I screwed the slats to these and then attached the slats back to their original spots.

This shows each level with their shelves.

To hang it on the wall I made a french cleat from a piece of 2x3 and added a 2x3 spacer at the bottom.

For the soil I thought I could just fill the cupped portion but that does't allow the succulents to project out. So I laid the whole thing flat and filled the cupped portion plus the space above it and planted the succulents into the space above. You need to let the succulents take root so that they don't fall out. Theoretically the succulents should grow upwards and the roots should move downwards into the cupped portion and hold the soil completely together. I probably only waited a couple weeks before hanging it, although it could have probably used a little more time.

For the succulents, I got all of them at Home Depot. They sell small succulents for $2 each and each row has six. That adds up with eight rows but almost everything else was free so material-wise it was around $100 or so. You could mix and match for a different look but I like the uniformity of each row having the same succulent so every time I went to Home Depot I would check the selection and see if they had six of something I liked. It took time to assemble all of the rows but well worth it.

Bee Trouble

My hive was doing so well last year that I thought I'd come into spring strong but something must have happened over the winter. I assume it was varroa mites, which I had treated for last year but I didn't check again during the winter. By the time I got into my hive to check how things were going, there was a very small bee population. I found the queen so I thought the colony might survive. I dismantled the whole hive and put five frames in a nuc box in the hopes that I could give them a smaller space to occupy and then build it back up. But when I went in last weekend, I couldn't find the queen and there were even fewer bees. So it's time to start over. I'm hoping to catch a swarm or maybe a swarm will find my empty hive. Either way I'm not giving up and this year I'd like to get two going so that I can use one to help the other if need be.

 That's the nuc box on the right.

Five frames with a a few bees but no queen by this point I think.  

Since I dismantled the hive, I was able to harvest a number of full and half full frames. I got just over thirty pounds of honey.

I made some new labels for the honey jars.