Last weekend we took a trip to the Frontier Culture Museum and Monticello. The gardens were all amazing. So many ideas and varieties! I wonder if I can grow artichokes in zone 6?
I had forgotten how much I like clary sage. This patch is beautiful.
I love this support for tomatoes.
The rainwater collection system was quite extensive. Those "boardwalks" that extend out from either side of Monticello have a collection system of channels going to gutters which lead the water to cisterns. Unfortunately for Jefferson, his cisterns leaked a few years after being built and he ended up having Monticello's water hauled up from the river (an 18 hour day for his slaves). Any new structures we build for animal housing/sheds will have some sort of rainwater collection system.
The fencing at the Frontier Culture Museum gave me many ideas. Just need to learn how to make all those split wood pieces (and learn their names). I would love to have my vegetable garden fenced like this.
And hurdles! Love hurdles! So useful: create a temporary pen/ gate/etc.
We had a great time at both sites and came away with so much inspiration.
I want a rainwater collection system, too. Watering my garden from the well is not my ideal because my well water has a LOT of iron in it and it passes through a softener. Not good for plants....and if I use up a lot of water during the day from the well, I bathe in orange water at night.
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine taking a bath in orange water! Even knowing it is just iron is still a little creepy. We also have a lot of iron in our water and have 2 in-line filters which helps. When we had a water softener it was "upstream" of the hose bibs so I could get water for tea and for the garden and animals.
ReplyDeleteWe looked at a house with a great rain water collection system on the pole barn. The gutters led into a 1000 gallon tank, then into a 500 gallon tank. The tanks were up hill from the garden and animal pens. It was a great property but the house looked like someone fixed up a mobile home.