Some pics of our place (British Columbia)

[Joel_BC]

When the snow ain't here...

Well, I've already introduced myself in various ways over the past couple weeks. (No need to wave hello, really... you folks have already made me feel welcome. ) We're in the mountainous southeast corner of BC, Canada - the Canadian province that lies just above Washington and Idaho states. Nine acres. The outdoor gardening season runs around five months, sometimes longer. Been here since the early '90s. On the Farenheit scale, our temps run more or less from 0 to 100 during the year, with a snowy winter.

Excuse the range of sizes with these pics. They've been used for varied purposes in the past, so I had sized them differently.

The north side of our house, showing the barn I rebuilt and added onto in the background. Originally, we boarded a friend's horse in the barn - but I converted it into a sculpture studio for my wife, who is a professional artist. (Earthen floor to joist/plywood floor on one side, concrete floor on the other; electrified the building; installed wood heating; installed better plumbing.)

Part of one of our gardens in spring. The fall rye cover crop is the green on the left, there's a rototilled strip down the middle, and a mulched garlic bed on the right. This is part of our larger veggie garden (which is about 30x100 feet, overall).

Here is a stand of corn in a block in our larger food garden, probably August (not sure). Anyway, weather conditions have been changing, summer nights have been cooler last couple years. I've had to experiment with varieties in order to get any corn to mature & ripen.

This is a view of a willow tree and a pond my wife and I made. My wife designed the pond area. The stones that we brought in weigh from less than an ounce to about 500 pounds.

Part of a bulb onion crop in 2010. Probably doesn't matter too much, but the variety of these was Copra. But we grow several bulb onion varieties... also green onions, and leeks.

 

[Wannabefree]

LOVE the pond Looks like a very nice little place. You have good looking garden soil too...I'm SO jealous I have red clay, but we're working on improving it.

 

[Joel_BC]

LOVE the pond Looks like a very nice little place. You have good looking garden soil too...I'm SO jealous I have red clay, but we're working on improving it.

No need to be jealous about our soil! If we didn't constantly work with it, it would be quite infertile. Were on a bench at the foot of a mountain ridge. The better natural soil in the valley is bottom land, to the east - down below us toward the river.

The garden area pictured is a sand/silt combination, as far as the mineral-soil aspect goes. Our smaller food garden (about 25x30, something like that), nearer to our house, is almost pure sand in the meneral aspect. But we build with mulch, rotted manure, and cover crops. This last fall, we top-dressed with alfalfa meal.

 

[Wannabefree]

LOVE the pond Looks like a very nice little place. You have good looking garden soil too...I'm SO jealous I have red clay, but we're working on improving it.

No need to be jealous about our soil! If we didn't constantly work with it, it would be quite infertile. Were on a bench at the foot of a mountain ridge. The better natural soil in the valley is bottom land, to the east - down below us toward the river.

The garden area pictured is a sand/silt combination, as far as the mineral-soil aspect goes. Our smaller food garden (about 25x30, something like that), nearer to our house, is almost pure sand in the meneral aspect. But we build with mulch, rotted manure, and cover crops. This last fall, we top-dressed with alfalfa meal.

Well it looks great! I wish I was as far along as that and my soil looked better, but then, I am impatient sometimes We have been adding manure, and compost for the last two years. I haven't had time this year for any cover crop. We are slowly building ours though, and hope in a few years it will look as nice as that and have less of the red clay tint to it. It just takes time.

 

[the funny farm6]

Wow, pritty as a picture! You should be proud.

 

[SSDreamin]

Love the barn! I want one of those, but think I may have to settle for something much smaller and a whole lot shorter

The pond is beautiful! Willows are my favorite tree. We had a huge one in the side yard when I was growing up - used to swing from the branches. My Dad was not so fond of it, as it clogged the septic lines

 

[Beekissed]

You have a beautiful place, Joel. I must admit, though the land and features are simply beautiful and rustic, I keyed in on your soil right away also.... Same reason I drool over perfectly stacked, split and dry fire wood when I drive by someone's house, I guess. My kids make fun of me over it.

Your soil looks sandy and dark...is it silty, bottom land soil?

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

Hello from Chase BC.

Love the looks of your place, and the studio, what an dream.

 

[Joel_BC]

Your soil looks sandy and dark...is it silty, bottom land soil?

It's silty upland soil. Silty & sandy, tending toward "incoherence" - meaning, if you take a handful of it when damp and squeeze it, it falls apart when you open your hand. We canm and do, enrich it, in terms of fertility. On its own, it doesn't have what's considered to be good tilth - the only (slight) improvement in tilth has been due to the organic matter we're constantly adding.

It's steep around here. We're on the lower slope of a ridge, conifer-covered, and the top of which is around 6000 ft elevation. We're about a quarter mile from actual bottom land, on our neighbors' places eastward... downhill from us.

The soil, per se, isn't really to be envied. Except in the sense that we do live in the country and have land, and are not stuck with a small-lot city situation. So we're blessed in that way!

We've worked to improve a basically poor soil situation.

 

[Beekissed]

Wonder if you could add a little clay in which to suspend your carbonaceous and nitrogenous offerings to the soil?