thegreenerdream

October summed up.

November 7, 2016mariamayfleming

October saw a lot of sunshine and quite warm weather here in the West of Ireland. We have been busy finishing up work on our conservatory and have started to transform the space in front of it into a garden full of stones and colourful plants. We are blessed to have so many stones turning up in the soil whenever we dig a hole to plant a tree or shrub and our plan is to really show of their beauty in this space. There will be some paths snaking through the space, manly created from big flag stones with some gravel. Bigger stones and rocks will form built up areas in between the paths creating planting spaces for our many Japanese Acers and other plants that have lived in pots for the last few years.

Mulch.

October 31, 2016mariamayfleming

There is one thing that above all else has helped us in the creation of our garden over the past few years. Mulch. It is the single most effective way to eliminate competition from grass and other unwanted plants when young trees and shrubs are developing. It also helps to keep the soil moist in dry spells and many types of mulch feed the soil as they break down. Our aim is to create a forest garden, a place with many useful trees, shrubs, groundcovers and vines growing together, mimicking natural woodland. As the years progress the need for mulching will be less and less. The natural leaf litter and the shade cast by the growing plants will eliminate the need for most types of mulch. But for now it is essential.

The reciprocal roof.

October 18, 2016October 18, 2016mariamayfleming

This is possibly our last post in the series about our roundhouse construction. We have now reached the top of the building and will tell you about our roof. Reciprocal roofs have probably been around for millennia or at least from the 12^th century in China and Japan.

Our cottage before the extension.

A soft spot for moss.

October 14, 2016October 25, 2016mariamayfleming

Moss is not very popular. In many parts of the world moss is something people are trying to eradicate from their gardens and green spaces. There are countless chemical products designed to get rid of moss. We have a difficult time understanding this. Moss can bring so much to your green space. It grows very well in shady and damp places where other plants might struggle. It does not need cutting back; it suppresses other plants considered weeds. It comes in many different shades and shapes.

Dazzling September.

October 3, 2016mariamayfleming

September has drawn to a close but the glorious warm autumn sunshine is still present. We are looking back at a month full of colour in our forest garden..

The even greener dream.

September 29, 2016September 29, 2016mariamayfleming

We are very excited to present to you the new, updated version of our blog. The aim is to make it more readable, easier to navigate and hopefully a more visually pleasing experience. There will be a few weeks of ongoing transition work happening. We never realized that a “read more line” could be added to each blog posts so that you only see the first few lines of it. We will add these lines to all of our old posts over the coming weeks, creating a more user friendly blog. We will also slowly add pages filled with information about our forest garden and ecologically friendly building practices.

Other dreams.

September 22, 2016September 29, 2016mariamayfleming

A few months ago a friend of ours said we should get a copy of Mary Reynolds’s book; The Garden Awakening. Our friend said she thought we would thoroughly enjoy it and she couldn’t have been more right. The book arrived in the mail one morning and our building and gardening projects were abandoned for a few hours, while we poured over the book with a feeling of coming home.

Reflections on August.

September 9, 2016September 29, 2016mariamayfleming

As we are writing this the rain is streaming down the window and when we look back at the month of August we realize that we have had many days like today recently.

Our tomatoes that started off so promising have succumbed to the damp and are blackened by blight. Next year we will try to grow them in our new conservatory or maybe if we are lucky our planned poly-tunnel.

Visiting the ancients.

September 6, 2016September 29, 2016mariamayfleming

There has been a short break in the blog posts on thegreenerdream. This is due to our recent holiday, visiting family in England and camping in Wales. We travelled on the ferry from Rosslare in the south of Ireland to Pembroke in Wales. As we want to be as green as possible we chose not to fly off to some far away country for our holidays, but to combine family visits with a few days of camping and visiting friends.

A work in progress.

August 25, 2016October 20, 2017mariamayfleming

Our long awaited conservatory is starting to take shape. Yesterday we added the polycarbonate and it was a pleasure to sit under it today and listen to the soothing sound of raindrops on the new roof. Some people might argue that a polycarbonate roof is not green and does not suit our lifestyle where we are trying to use less of the earths rescores. But we believe that the benefits will outweigh the carbon footprint for creating the sheets. We will now have a place to dry all our laundry, eliminating any need for a tumble dryer. We will be able to grow a lot of our food that needs the higher temperature and cover provided under the roof. The conservatory will work as very effective insulation for the rest of the house, reducing the need for heating considerably. It will also be a lovely place to sit and chat with friends and family. We built our framework from local trees and branches and bought 4″ by 2″ timber.

thegreenerdream

The last day of June.

June

Wild times in May.

A year of memories.

From Gazebo to Pergola.

Building our sustainable home.

Let’s build an ARK

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