starting small

nursery ~ 11JL31

vegetable garden ~ 11JL08

Shrubs, to be planted around the yard, will mostly be started from seeds, cuttings and roots. Many native shrubs are not available at local nurseries and garden centres and the cost for the number of shrubs required is prohibitive. A nursery is being set up to grow several hundred shrubs to sufficient height and maturity that they can be successfully planted out; it will take a few years in most cases. There is room for roughly 330 shrubs at 92.5 cm diameter. We are, in the meantime, using part of the nursery to start grasses, forbs, and sedges from seed. And a portion of the nursery has been set aside for a personal use (non-native) vegetable garden.

We are eager to get this facet of the project going as shrubs will take the longest to mature. However, we were unable to continue developing the nursery in 2011. And we do not have material yet to plant in it. Perhaps next year.

layout

Water from the west yard is used to irrigate the nursery. Both nursery and west yard can be drained completely, if need be.

nursery detail

All totaled, there are five parallel ditches running lengthwise through the nursery. Ditches 3 and 4 are the deepest. Ditch 2 is not quite as deep. And ditches 1 and 5 are the shallowest. The middle three ditches (2, 3, & 4) fill with water which is backed up by a mini-dam where ditch 4 exits the nursery. The outside ditches (1 & 5) drain the adjacent rows into the middle to keep them as dry as possible. As well, areas midway along ditches 3 and 4 are low enough that they can be flooded. These spots are for growing shrubs that like wet conditions. Ditches 3 and 4 will almost always have water in them. Ditch 2 can be filled or drained as required by adjusting the height of the water with the mini- dam. The nursery plan, to the right, shows the range of moisture conditions for the variety of material to be planted.

nursery ~ 07NO07

The nursery was laid out and the ditches were dug (by hand) in October 2007.

snow

As mentioned on other pages, accumulation of snow in the yard is a significant factor. The nursery is likely to fill with snow each winter as wind causes drifting behind the garage and over two *edges* created by the west and north sides of the dike.

nursery ~ 08MR09

east & back yards; nursery ~ 08MR09

When the snow melts the water drains through the back yard into the east yard. The nursery drains a bit first, then fills again and drains when the west yard drains into it.

east & back yards; nursery ~ 08AP15

grading

digging up the yard ~ 06JL13

In the summer of 2006 the area behind the garage was almost completely dug up to locate and repair the water suction lineThis repair is discussed on the irrigation page. that goes underground from pond to dwelling unit. The earth was all subsequently filled back in but it was necessary to let it settle. Hence, work could not commence on this area until the following year.

However, an angled ditch was dug (and built up) through the nursery to make sure that it would drain; which it did. But there was an area by the northwest corner, inside the dike, that was too low; it did not drain into the east yard. In fact, in spring 2007, a large puddle from snow melt and spring rain remained there until early June. It seemed that earth would have to be added to this region.

nursery ~ 07MR25

The mound, to the left (where the low spot was), is highway mix gravel that was removed from the driveway in 2006; it was later spread on the paths that go down the sides of the dike through the west yard. The rows of earth, closer to the garage, are where the angled ditch was built up.

Once the area behind the garage dried out, later in the summer of 2007, it was cultivated and graded. A 1.85 m wide, raised path was created alongside the back of the garage. As the nursery was leveled, with a slight slope away from the path beside the garage toward the inside of the dike, it became evident that additional earth was not needed. But the nursery would still collect a lot of water in the spring. Hence, where nursery and dike meet, a drainage furrow was cut — with the blade on the tractor — that connects with another drainage furrow from the dwelling unit between back yard and nursery. A reservoir, where the two furrows meet, drains through a ditch across the back yard into the east yard. Snow melt and excess rain water running down the dike and away from the dwelling unit is drained to the east yard. The *reservoir* and ditch across the back yard were reworked in 2008. Changes are discussed on the back yard page.

nursery ~ 07SE16 | Watering in the freshly graded, loose soil.

Ditches were dug by hand in September and early October. Soil dug out from each ditch was piled in the middle of each row to raise the paths.

nursery ~ 07SE19

The photograph below shows the ditch for water coming from the west yard. The following spring, the ditch was moved back to the original position — one row to the left — shown in the photograph above.

nursery ~ 07NO07-01

additional grading

Soil that was removed from the back yard was added to the path alongside the back of the garage and to the paths inside the nursery.

keeping the weeds out

AS the photo at the top shows, in late 2010, we covered almost the entire nursery area with flax straw. The main ditch was lined with some leftover tar paper. Both of these ammendments helped to reduce the number of weeds that came up in 2011. We also expanded the area for the vegetable garden in 2011. It now occupies the entire eastern edge of the area.

still to do

Some work is still required on the nursery:

Small *bridges* have to be installed over the many ditches.

Some of the ditches require a bit dredging. The tar paper needs to be replaced with rubber pond liner and the other ditches need to be lined with it as well.

A fence is needed around three sides of the nursery to keep out rabbitsRabbits are primarily snowshoe hares. In early spring, when they are coming out of their winter burrows in the snow, they are hungry; a favourite food is the new branches of short shrubs. (which are abundant in this area).

The wide path behind the garage needs to be covered with flax straw.