How To Master A Site With Minimal Labor And Funds

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Second life of the site

The ancients said: all successes and failures are born in the head first. Therefore, starting to redevelop the site, it was necessary to solve a number of problems:

1. Create the illusion of a "farmhouse".
2. The plot should be easy to cultivate - on the one hand, and on the other - give a good harvest of both vegetables and fruits.
3. Solve the assigned tasks with a minimum investment of funds and physical strength.
4. And, most importantly, the site is needed for health, and not in order to "ditch it."

Gardening is a big communal apartment. Being on the site, you want to relax, and not participate in the life of your neighbors. So it is for them, even with friendly relations. Therefore, a green fence appeared on the plan on three sides of the site. Neighbor buildings, i.e. the area of their main life, they decided to close with three greenhouses. The rest - with the help of trees and shrubs. To visually increase the space of the site, almost all the paths were made curved with planting in places where the paths of trees and bushes were broken. Mysteriousness has appeared - what is there around the bend?

The pension is just around the corner. We were not going to give up potatoes, onions, garlic and other traditional vegetables. But they did not want to divide the site into zones: a vegetable garden, a garden, a flower garden, a recreation area, a utility area, etc. Therefore, they adopted the principles of waste-free gardening (no compost heaps, with minimal use of chemical fertilizers). We used joint plantings so that different plants lived together, helping each other to grow, bear fruit and bloom. They began to study: which plants are antagonists, which are companions; which enrich the soil, and which deplete, and what they bring out of the earth useful; how to ensure that the soil is loose, without weeds (without using chemicals) and with a lot of worms.

I spent the whole winter of 1998-99

reading magazines and books on garden design, watching all the programs "Tips for Gardeners" with a pen in my hands. I did a lot of sketches and, finally, drew the site of my dreams.

For example, a kaleidoscope of beds with a stone flowerpot in the middle appeared on the plan. Flower beds appeared along the perimeter of the site, turning into ridges with vegetables, growing together with fruit and ornamental shrubs. Cascades of flowers, vegetables, shrubs and trees.

The result is a large scope of work. My husband and I cannot lift weights or work in an inclined position. The children grew up, they had their own and not very simple independent life, so they became rare guests on the site (1-2 times per season).

The previously accumulated experience of using the Fokin plane cutter was very useful both for tillage, weeding, collecting root crops, and for removing sod, digging and clearing ditches for drainage. We switched to growing through seedlings on the plot of most vegetables, including even potatoes (the experiment of G. I. Lebedev - planted once, and after two months dug up - and no hilling). They used high English ridges on biofuel - plant waste from the site was used.

We outlined that we needed to buy a light wheelbarrow, a lightweight and inexpensive trimmer, find a container for mixing cement mortar (we picked up an old baby bath in a gardening dump).

The area becomes almost impassable after the rain - paths are needed. After counting, we realized that buying tiles is an expensive pleasure for us. In one of the guidebooks for gardeners, we saw an advertisement for molds for the manufacturer's tiles. Calculated the

costs of sand, cement and molds. Homemade tiles turned out to be four times cheaper than store ones.

Over the years of inactivity, not only the site fell into decay, but also the house. The unfinished foundation sank in clay under the weight of a log house, the roof leaked, and the furnace cracked.

I began to revive the site, and my husband - the house. The main thing was not to forget that the dacha is needed for health, and not in order to lose it.

We planned the order according to the years of the main work on the site and around the house. Working areas around the dwelling have been outlined so that the transformation of the garden does not interfere with the restoration work.

The site plan and work on it were ready. We decided that we will not buy any new bushes, flowers and trees until the existing ones take their place on the site. To save energy, I gave up on annual flowers, the only exceptions were those that heal the earth: nasturtium, calendula and very rarely marigolds.

For fencing flower beds, trees and bushes, it was decided to use clay (cut down pieces) so that the fertile bulk earth would not crumble.

Our new site was planned in the winter of 1998-99. In the first summer, they transferred the plan to the area with the help of pegs. The already growing green hedge was tidied up, and a partly new one was planted along the road between the gardens. We transplanted several trees and bushes already growing on the site. Carried out pruning for

rejuvenation of fruit bushes and trees. We cleared the area for the first greenhouse. So a new, second life of our garden began.

Over the next six years, the site has changed markedly. Half of everything planned is already in place: hotbeds, a warm shower room, a kaleidoscope from the ridges, mysterious paths and much more. The house was tidied up.

The harvest makes us happy: there is enough for everyone, and we also treat our neighbors and friends.

Each stage of the transformation of the site, its rebirth, is worthy of a separate story.

There are a lot of plans for the future! My husband and I are confident that we will succeed. After spending the summer at the dacha, for several months I drink much less medicine, less often there are powerlessness and depression. I would like to hope that our both positive and negative experiences will help other novice summer residents. We are ready to answer all your questions. Our family wishes all gardeners the joy of creativity and work without harming their health.