Growing with our community: Progress on the Chen project

We're so happy to grow with clients. A few years ago, a client & friend purchased this fantastic house. The facade, with those big blonde brick walls, offers so many opportunities! We began with a crepe myrtle to train and as a nod to the owner's southern roots.

Later, the owner requested a trellis. Last year, the trellis was photo'd below.

This season, the vines are climbing and bulbs in bloom.

A previous owner's dog kennel has been creatively converted into an outdoor patio space. The twining vine is wisteria getting ready to take over the top of the structure!

And hellebores to brighten the day. A note from our client:

"The new plantings are beautiful!!! I was so excited to see them all and am really stoked about the beautyberry and new forsythia bed. I also think you put the rhododendron in the perfect spot on the side yard under the living room windows.

All the plants are coming along so great, and they really add so much to making the house and yard beautiful. Thank you, Kevin! :) I'm so glad to have you as a landscaper!"

We're so glad to have each of you!

From row-home concrete backyard to private oasis: the Conrow project

Our friends, the Conrows, have a fantastic house in downtown Collingswood.  For years, they've had a backyard concrete patio that didn't do much to inspire outdoor fun.  It was practical, sure, but didn't reflect either of their design inclinations, nor offer much privacy.

Kevin and I spent some time thinking about the options (there are so many!).  With a project like this, there are also a lot of unknown variables.  How deep is the concrete?  Is there re-bar laced into the poured concrete?  Ultimately, we found a solution that worked for us and the Conrows.  We'd outsource the concrete removal for an optimal price for them and let our energy be focused on what we do best: building something beautiful.

Concrete begone!  Kevin and his crew began lowering the ground level and getting everything nice and even.

Mike even has a passion for geology!  We felt even more excited to secure the most beautiful slate flagstone.  This is where the project becomes art-- lots of time and attention to create a secure and attractive jigsaw patio.

Space allotted for the beds.  Right now, you see there's no screen between the Conrows and their lovely neighbors.  While these people are all fantastic, we all know the allure of a private oasis.

We wanted to maximize patio space so that the Conrows could fit their table, fire pit, and a few other items that live in the back patio.  Instead of creating a living privacy screen, we installed a cedar trellis.  It's thin, durable, affordable, and as the plant-life establishes, a vibrant screen that's appealing for the Conrows and their neighbors on either side.

As this photo demonstrates, there's a fair amount of shade.  English ivy is a highly successful shade vine, but it's also pretty opportunistic and requires a lot of maintenance. The Conrows are like many Rooted clients-- they prefer low-maintenance.  For those reasons, we elected to plant a shade-tolerant variety of clematis.  It's a little slower to establish, but once it does it offers beautiful purple/blue flowers that are consistent with the larger color palette of the planting.

When we met to do the estimate, we walked through the Conrow's home.  It's a beautiful reflection of both their tastes.  I noticed lots of cool greys, purples, and earth tones.  We wanted a sense of continuity as you enter the outdoor living space, so the planting also reflects a variety of purples with some bright green ferns for contrast.

Love it!  Full privacy, an enchanting patio that directs drainage away from the house, and a perennial, low-maintenance planting.

The Bike Trellis

Kevin was struck by genius.  We would add interest to a blank wall facing our property by building a trellis made from repurposed bike rims.  We knew we wanted to plant conchord grapes, which obviously we would want to trellis.  We put out a call for rims.  Several friends began cleaning out their garages and sheds for us & I think a few might have trash picked!  Then we hit the motherload-- I called Joe Bonaparte at the Collingswood Bike Share.  Space is a premium for the bike share.  Joe was happy to off-load two trunks full of rims.  Gleefully, I struck a deal to offer the bike share volunteers yoga in exchange for their bounty.  

Laz was instrumental as we de-tired the rims.  We found a local spot to recycle the rubber.

We used wire to attach the rims.  It was labor-intensive & time-consuming, but when you have a feline muse all things are possible.

The trickiest part was trellis transport.  We mistakenly built the trellis laying flat, as shown.  It made it easier to attach each rim, but then we had to somehow carry this heavy contraption to the conchord bed.

Luckily, we have a heroic neighbor who heard us alternately laughing and cursing.  With him, we had three adults to carry three poles, carefully, to the already dug holes in the conchord bed.  Kevin quickly concreted the copper poles into the garden bed.

We leaned our climbing grape vines against the rims.

They're already grabbing hold.

Transitioning from cool to warm crops

Delish!  Lettuces from seed are coming up nicely.  We're still harvesting spinach & now finding varieties of lettuces.  That stake near the lettuce is supporting a trellis for cucumbers.  We're hoping to extend the lettuce harvest by letting the cucumbers grow up the trellis & provide shade for the delicate leaves.

Kevin created this bed last weekend.  He incorporated the existing stump in with some re-purposed wood from our neighbor.  The bed is shaped in a triangle to give us an easier turn radius when we wheelbarrow soil  into parts of the yard.  

We haven't grown our own starts from seed over the winter because we travel.  For this reason, we usually purchase a few starts from Greensgrow Farms where we know the plants are organic and non-GMO.  This past weekend we picked up some tomatoes, peppers, and borage.  This bed features two varieties of tomato, sweet red peppers, borage, & basil.  Our friend Sonora turned us onto borage-- companion planting it, basil, & tomatoes together ensure that the tomatoes are flavorful!  Plus, borage is a pretty little plant.  We have several more beds with tomatoes & almost all feature borage nearby.

I have a few friends who have been relentlessly asking when it's safe to plant tomatoes.  I say plant away!  We should be past the risk of a freezing night.  If you're busy, or uncertain about the weather, you could probably plant until Mother's Day.  Enjoy!

Full bellies from the Rooted Landscaping home garden

Here's a sample of what's cooking in the Rooted Landscaping home garden.  In the photo below you see blueberry hill extending along the length of the fence.  In the foreground, against the fence, we've planted two rhubarbs.  Apparently they like buddies.  We planted bare root bulbs where they'll get plenty of sun & have enough room to expand and grow.  We probably won't get much of a harvest for two years.

I'm not a big rhubarb eater, but I do have substantial rhubarb aesthetic appreciation.  These are big focal points in a garden.  They have beautiful color & become fairly low-maintenance once established.  I like to integrate rhubarb into landscape designs for the sheer color and shape.  Edible plants are often lovely.  

Outside of the photo but around where the photographer stood is the little baby persimmon tree.  Given the orientation of the yard, as the tree goes its shade should fall downhill, where we plan a little yoga space (!) & leave the adjacent plants in full sun.

The trench slightly down hill from the rhubarb is now housing asparagus roots.  As the spears begin to poke up we'll slowly add more soil until the bed is level with the grade of the hill.  This plant is also fairly low maintenance.  Most asparagus patches have a life-span of 10-12 years.  We'd like to extend the patch in 5 years to create a nice on-going cycle of asparagus.

Oh, glowing corn.  In the foreground is a raised bed reserved for our friend, Sonora.  We've lured her with land so we get the added benefit of her insight into our growing garden.  See that goofy business with old fence doors & posts behind?  A jerry-rigged cucumber trellis to shade some lettuces.  Give it time.  I have faith.

The rows of logs & soil beyond now house corn seeds & soaker hoses.  There are four rows so that we could interplant corn & sunflowers in diamond patterns.  This is reccommended for corn growth.  They like small hills for water drainage. Given our surplus of logs we decided to hold in the arable soil for the corn with these logs.  It helps direct the water down hill and away from the base of the stalks.  So far so good.

Once we have about three inches of corn stalks we plan to plant the three sisters: squash to crawl over the ground & create a weed barrier, and beans to climb the corn stalks & fix the soil nitrogen.

This little raised bed is showing some life.  We planted the sweet peas & chard early.  They're said to be nice companion plants & provide an early harvest.  There's a big ole chard leaf coming in against the warmth of the log border.  There are more peas planted in other parts of the yard with natural trellising.

Early yields of onions and red cabbage.  We're waiting for the onion leaves to fall over to begin harvesting, drying, & curing the crop.

More food & fun to come!  Yum!

Haulin'

Some of what catches a ride in Rooted wheel barrows.

 These bike rims were generously donated by the Collingswood Bike Share.  Stay posted as they magically transform into a trellis for conchord grape vines!

A boy in his barrow.  Chilling for lunch.  Digging in dirt elicits deep thoughts.

To all you lushes out there...

We need your help.

And your empty wine bottles.

You get the idea.  The post is one of our clotheslines.  I've planted this raised bed with sweet peas that we're hoping to train up the post.

We're beginning to run out of felled logs to frame out raised beds.  For several beds, especially those with undulating edges, we're using buried wine bottles to hold in the soil.  In the area surrounding this bed we're hoping to plant something nice & soil-amending, maybe vetch, maybe clover because the neighboring grape vines are said to like it.

The first time we saw buried wine bottles was at Aaculaax, during a trip to Guatemala.  If you want to see the inspiration in person, check out the yoga retreat I'm leading there next year!

We had collected crates of empty wine bottles from family vacations.  We used them all.  Do you have wine bottles you would donate?  Contact me to coordinate pick-up.  Blue bottles are best!

Food Forest. It's happening.

Kevin & I are slowly transforming our suburban home into a small farm.  Or, we're working towards sustainability, both in terms of sound environmental stewardship & being rewarded with food from our land.  Our home & property are fixer upper's so there have been long periods of preparation.  We look forward to having the space more self-sufficient.  Maybe that's a pipe dream.  Maybe we look forward to just maintenance work.

We called in some friends & spent a cool, sunny day installing some delicious new fruit trees, bushes, & vines!  In the space between our clothes-lines & our neighbor's garage, we built raised beds for conchord grapes & a fig tree.  The garage will give some nice wind barrier for the fig.  We plan to construct a trellis out of bicycle rims about a foot from the neighbor's garage.  That will give the conchords something to climb.  For fun, I planted sweet peas at the base of the clothesline posts.  My hope is to train them up the posts.  We'll see if it works!

Our backyard is full of roots & rocks.  We've been sheet mulching the yard even while we plant food in raised beds.  The raised beds allow us to grow vegetables to keep us encouraged!  It would be years before the soil was sufficiently root free & healthy enough to give us much of a food yield.  This way we can slowly support the soil while getting the quicker rewards of raised bed gardening.

After clearing the weeds we added some weed barrier.  Cardboard works great!  It's water permeable & will break down within a season or two.  This first growing season, when weed prevention is crucial, it will function just fine!

We added composted soil on top, planted the conchords & fig, & ran soaker hoses to give the new guys a long drink.

We went through the same process across the yard along our neighbor's fence.  We're calling this area "blueberry hill."  After prepping and building beds we planted 10 new blueberry bushes & transplanted two existing bushes that were struggling in a shady area of the yard.

 Lots of sun & drainage on blueberry hill!  Perfect.

At the far end we planted a persimmmon tree.  When it reaches full size at 15-20 ft it's shade radius shouldn't interfere with the blueberries getting lots of sunshine.

 A close-up of one of our new arrivals.  We planted a variety of blueberries for nice cross pollination.

We also planted two hugelkultur beds of raspberries & blackberries.  There was much debate about where to create the berry bramble.  We worked with what we have & created two thickets in front of four new fruit trees.  We planted two varieties of apple tree that cross-pollinate well, a black cherry, and peach tree.

Lots of fun talk of what to plant next & where.  Kevin made home-made pizza for the workers.  We happily soaked in sun before getting back to work!

Stay posted as these new additions take root.