Vision Stage
Reasons I'm creating an organic garden
- Better for Family
- Healthier eating
- Fresher, safer, cheaper, better produce
- Good exercise
- Better scenery
- Potentially profitable
- Less time spent doing unrewarding yardwork.
- Better use of time and effort
- Better incentives for doing yardwork
- Better for the environment
- More biodiversity
- More biomass than just a lawn
- Less pollution from lawn equipment
- Less pollution from importing produce from far away places
- Less pesticides and synthetic fertilizers (I plan to use none)
- Food for wildlife
- Reuse garden waste as compost/mulch
- What's so important about Organic?
- (Although I feel like all the work going into setting this up cancels out some of this, i.e. chopping down most of the existing plants, delivering huge quantities of materials, etc)
- Produce great as gifts for others
- Serve as an example to others
Broad Goals
- Permaculture design
- Layered vegetation
- Low maintanence
- Self sustaining
- Beneficial plants
- Companion plants (guilds)
- Visually pleasing
- Uniformity in design
- Privacy
- Create an orchard at church with my newfound skills
- Cultivate bamboo to use as building material (fencing, facades, posts, trellises, shade)
- Water garden/pond (mosquito fish, water plants)
- Shade garden
- New backfence
- Large garden area(s)
- Fruit trees
- Arbor
- Pathways
- Drainage
- Water collection (Rainwater, running tap, etc)
- Composting station
- Gardening station
- Grilling station
- Drip irrigation
- Lighting
- Music
- Seating areas
- Wind chimes
- As organic as possible
- Doggy accommodating
- Mary accommodating
- Neighbor accommodating
- Severe weather
- Sewer line/manhole
- Other utilities
- Cost
- Time
- Measure area
- Locate utility lines etc
- Research plants
- Choose plants and estimate space requirements
- Create layout
- Estimate costs
- What's most effective to hire out
- Sanity check
- Divide into stages
