Thursday, November 12, 2015

American Farmhouse: How to Live on a Small Farmstead

At the front end of gardening in Georgia, newly graduated from SMU into Jimmy Carter's 21% interest rates and few jobs, I lived above a 3 car carriage house.  Built in the late teens of the last century, red brick, wood floors, high ceilings, 3 dormer windows, 2 bedrooms/1 bath, living room, kitchen/dining, and a huge deck in back, high on posts, overlooking 50 rolling, open/wooded acres, behind dense woods an east/west train track, unseen but not unheard, bordered the back property line, with 3 horses, my favorite, Dan, a dignified Tennessee Walker who reminded me of Cary Grant, if he were a horse in late life.
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After a year in the carriage house, Miss Louise died, and we moved into the Big House, a red brick/white trim Williamsburg, 5/4 and a door, circular drives at the front and back.  Elegant proportions & details, though not large, oak floors aged the color of north Georgia sourwood honey, and a garden evolved over decades into blooms everyday of the year spread amongst, azaleas, hydrangeas, camellias, roses, mahonia, gardenia, iris, lilac, lily of the valley, forsythia, daffodils, cherry trees, magnolias, viburnums, sweet shrub, red bud, and more.
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Almost 2 years later I built my starter home, tiny lot, less than a quarter acre, in a new cluster home subdivision.  
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There I learned to garden.  Added another degree, Horticulture, & more importantly, 2+ decades of travel across Europe studying historic landscapes.
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A few weeks ago, I moved from my starter home to the country, time lapse 33 years.
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Now, with Beloved, I'm in a white clapboard American Farmhouse, ca. 1900, wide chipping gray painted concrete steps, framed on one side with a plumbing pipe handrail, step on to a wide/deep front porch, and finally you're at the front door, original to the house, its brass bell, with a turn of the latch, still rings loud at 115 years old, 11' high beadboard ceilings, a central hall 9' x 50', heart of pine wood floors, 4.5 rolling acres, open/wooded, pond, historically sited with house close to the road and property line, century old pecan trees lining the street/sidewalk, leaving space for orchard, potager, pleasure garden, livestock, barn, sheds, drives, and views of the trailing Piedmont before it turns to Coastal plane, dotted with neighbor's dairy cattle.  Many views pure Thomas Cole, 1801-1848, founder of the Hudson River School painting style.
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A homestead garden.  Horticulture joined with agriculture.  A garden never meant for amusement, instead, stewardship.      
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It's not uncommon to reach 100f in summer, nor a cow to jump a fence into the garden, deer/fox/coyote ubiquitous, myriad ant species continually on the march, flying insects further evolved than their city counterparts, timber rattlers and happily king snakes too.  But I have gotten ahead of my story.  There are no pleasure gardens, potager, paths, barn, orchard, chicken coop, focal points on axis, potting shed.  Yet.  And the pond, rimmed with trees & an earthen damn threatening breach has not been touched in decades.  Exciting times.
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Cannot imagine a more perfect proscenium.  The play, ours to write, build, and live.
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Time, land, house, weather, the project list, day job, and division of labor between the sexes are dominate.  No pretending I have control over time, weather, or the rest of the list.  Lifestyle choices honed in the city aren't useful here.  This house, and property, have it right about life, I've moved into my beliefs.  Wendell Berry made this choice years ago.  Without awareness, choosing to live in this house and on this property was the action step of Joseph Campbell's, Follow your bliss, and Jung's, Our lives are about getting the outside to match the inside.
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By now, gravel drives, paths, parking courts, barn, wrap around porch at the back of the house, sheds moved, chicken coup built, interior painted, front porch stained, were all to have been completed and plantings ready to be resourced from growers.  Instead, it's a list, and the house/property are in charge.  During this, I'm realizing, is a rich life.  No more fighting city instincts, the choice is made, stay in the new chapters, let them grow.  Zero regrets moving here but surprised at the depths of change.
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1 acre homestead:

An acre of land, above.  Glad I know how to steward ornamental horticulture with agriculture, this homestead, above, does not and it's an expensive mistake.  Do you see the mistake/s?  There are no plantings maximizing pollinators through out the year.  Why does it matter?  Maximum pollinator habitat increases agricultural yields up to 80%.  In addition, no fencing to keep predators out, nor crops eaten by deer/rabbits, and where are the car & small tractor parked?  Finding the source for this pic, Mother Earth News, I discovered a better assessment of this garden, here.
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Cuppett Architecture:
Pic, above, via Tim Cuppett Architects, here.
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Knew from first visit to our property, gravel, lots of gravel.  Drives, lanes, paths, parking courts.   Gravel is easy to work, affordable, historically accurate.  Ironically, it's also the best choice for living with timber rattlers.    
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 Pic of Vita Sackville-West by Cecil Beaton at Sissinghurst.

Clothes to garden are an issue.  Choices are year round regardless of 101f, snakes win.  Boots.  Cowboy boots, pants, pockets, long sleeves all against snakes/insects, and the phone in case something does happen.  Taking a direct hit from a century old pecan tree branch falling has been a thought.  Muck shoes for the chicken coop, rubber boots for wet days, 2 pairs of everything, front/back doors are so far apart, there is no trudging between.
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 Pic from, I Love Your Style.  Shirt by Isabel Marant, trousers by TopShop, boots by Grenson.  

A client lent me Amanda Brooks, I Love Your Style, well before moving to the homestead.  Already enjoyed, now, much resonates differently.  My homestead chores differ from Beloved's, often leading to the obvious, I cook dinner, yet this took weeks to realize.  Cooking, grocery shopping, pantry resources are a foreign language.  Have hired an expert to teach me how to menu plan, pantry plan, grocery shop, and wildly unexpected, teaching me how to use the freezer as a tool.  Asked a friend for input too, so far, my cooking = shopping/pantry/freezer/refrigerator lessons are in the kindergarten class, which is grand improvement.            


Veranda: The Romance of Flowers:
Pic from Veranda magazine.

Furlow Gatewood stole my heart, at first sighting of his potted hydrangeas, above, lining a drive.  I will use Limelight hydrangea, they are tough for heat/sun, similar large pots (already resourced the vendor), and drip irrigation.  First in inspiration, alas, they will be one of the last items placed in the garden.  Do not want to adjust them once sited.  Hearing Beloved's, "You're damn right I won't move them...."
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Kitchen garden shed:
Pic, above, via here.

When I'm ready to put a new roof on our shed, I'll show the architect this shed, above.

The garden shed, ca. 1900, we're moving has a functional shape, not aesthetic, and was covered in aluminum at some point.  Once moved, the shed will anchor the new orchard at the front, and woodland and rolling Piedmont hills & lake view at the back, with chicken coop incorporated.  Getting the aesthetics correct, the shed will get a new roof line, matching one on the house, with awnings encircling the whole.
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The Rustic Modernist
Pic, above, via here.

Our front porch had been stained, long faded away.  Concrete steps are chipping grey paint.  When I saw this porch, above, I knew I had to go with the green.  Then, I discovered a similar shade of green was used by George Washington & Thomas Jefferson at their homes.  Remembering then, Monet chose an incredible green for his front porch.  I've been to all 3 homes, loved each.  Beloved is stuck on gray.
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Love the arbor and the path leading out into the woods behind the garden.:

Pic, above, from My Design Chic, you'll like the link, it's all about kitchen gardens.

My orchard/potager, will be gravel not lawn, and more orchard than potager.  Keeping maintenance low, yet fruit/vegetables/flowers, abundant.  Truly, I thought I would be planting it this month?  Instead, the only thing done has been burying one of my favorite chickens killed in a night time attack.  She was dug up, (armadillo?) 2 nites in a row, I buried her 2 more times.  Finally, Beloved, without being asked, took her in his Caterpillar to the back woodland and buried her deep.    
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TARA DILLARD: How to Layer Your Garden, Save Money & Create Less Work:



Pic, above, from my previous garden, espalier apples at the front curb.  

Looking out my front door, from the central hall, is a perfect view into my neighbor's front door.  I don't 'do' that type of view.  Not in my realm.  Not a large garden space, Espalier pear trees will be planted for my view.  Obviously a better view for Linda, my neighbor, too.
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TARA DILLARD: Outdoor Shower +
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  Beloved has requested an outdoor shower.  This one, above, is in a client's garden.
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TARA DILLARD: Planting in Drifts + Ultimate Status Symbol.  A new garden designed to look old.  Bulbs, winter, meadow.:

Pic, above, from a client's garden.
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Have decided to scare myself with daffodil bulbs.  When the garden is ready for siting daffodils, I'm placing a huge order with Brent & Becky's Bulbs.  Enough to feel it in the checkbook, and in the back while planting for days/days in late fall.  Why is this so extremely appealing?
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I know how to create a homestead garden but in this new layer, I must know, more finely, what to do.  Agriculture is weighted more greatly than ornamental horticulture here.  Jefferson in reverse, an old gardener but new farmer.
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Where to get the fine details?  It's humorous, needing to learn what is beyond books, knowledge residing, now, in people, kindred spirits.  
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Maine is well ahead of me, their Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, even in their name, is creating a culture of knowledge to be passed forward.  At the top of their website is this, "The history of every Nation is eventually written in the way in which it cares for its soil." - Franklin D. Roosevelt.  Signing the Soil Conservation and Soil Conservation Allotment Act.
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"MOFGA is the oldest organic agriculture organization in the country and is committed to developing a strong network of organic farmers. This network has helped them to attract and train the next generation of Maine farmers. Their Journeyperson program has 52-participants this year. Their apprenticeship program has roughly 175 beginner participants, each of whom is paired with a more seasoned farmer who can share their knowledge, experiences and best practices."
from, Martha Stewart's blog, her entire post about MOFGA, here.
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Eliot Coleman, Four Season Farm, has decades of organic experience with agriculture, livestock, & horticulture, "  

"I know of no other person who can produce better results on the land with an economy of effort and means than Eliot. He has transformed gardening from a task, to a craft, and finally to what Stewart Brand would call 'local science'."
— Paul Hawken, best-selling author and entrepreneur "
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Martha Stewart has a lovely slide show about Four Season Farm, here.  
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Keynote lecturing last weekend I learned about a program in sustainable agriculture in Wisconsin.  More resources to glean and adapt.
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Years before knowing I would move into our homestead, I've been reading Thistle Cove Farm.  Now, I look forward to scrolling backwards and take a lot of notes, to apply at our small farm.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T

12 comments:

Dewena said...

There may not be many of these things yet but there will be and we will love reading about it each step of the way.

Christa said...

Nice post. I am on a track where I can relate to a lot of you post. In my youth, I read book upon book on organic farming and eco/off grid building from the early 80's all through the 90's. I dreamed of living with nature, after growing up as a barefooted wild-child living in a wild Hawaiian jungle in the 60's. But as a young adult, living in a busy European city...and living there for 25 years right smack downtown..I could only dream of what I was missing, the freedom of being and living in nature. Fast forward to this spring. I moved to the Pacific Northwest, bought a house on an island in the Puget Sound with 2 1/2 acres to live my dream. Well...now, I am not young anymore, aches and pains are starting to settle into my bones, which I never thought would happen to me, and now am struggling with all the work...and nature is not romantic, it is very impersonal...it does not care nor wait for you to gather your thoughts.. or your stamina, or your money, until you are ready to tackle something...it can be a cruel mistress. There is no slacking off, nature will always win. There is only one sure thing..we may kill our species by poisoning ourselves, but nature will always be here and will always have the last laugh in some mutated form or another. I guess I have to end this post on a positive note...LOL, I am just hoping to grow into it and to gain strength to tame/shape this patch of earth...and not to spend a fortune to do it. If I can do that, it will be rewarding but fleeting, once I am gone, like a Mandala of sand.

Jenny M said...

So interesting to read about your new property and all your thoughts and ideas for your projects. As soon as I saw the photo of the shed with the rusty roof, I thought how Australian that looks, and I am sure I have seen it in one of our local magazines.
All the best with your ideas & future projects for your new home. from Jenny in Melbourne, Australia

Rebecca said...

I am exhausted just READING of your energetic project! You have amazing plans. Beautiful--all of it!

magpi said...

As much as I enjoy your usual 'this is how it's done well' posts, this update moved me to comment.

We moved to 50 acres in the southern Appalachians two years ago. You're doing a great job summarizing the depth and breadth of the learning curves available! My best advice is don't be afraid to try things and then do them differently the next year. As an ex-architect, it can be difficult to remember things don't have to stay exactly as I planned them the first pass. Last year, we ran across a couple who are eight years ahead of us in the transition, and they said it took them six years to really get set up the way they eventually discovered they wanted to go, and of course they're still tweaking, because Nature does that, keeps changing the game.

She will change you, too...and then you'll want stuff in different places, different clothes (as you've discovered) - it's amazing, and extremely satisfying.

You are so right about the gravel - easy maintenance trumps all, and we are getting loads of decomposed granite to ring the house (and set my giant pots on) after the leaves are down.

Some homegrown foods help - I've discovered I now collect recipes and think of gardening with a whole new set of units of measurement:

A handful of homegrown blueberries is for topping cereal. A pancake batter's (or batch of muffins) worth of blueberries occurs sooner than a tart's occurs sooner than a pie's worth. Putting up jam requires going down the road to u-pick until our bushes are probably five years old. And the abandoned pear orchard produces in quantities that I can only really consider as wine.

There's a reverse measurement, too - 2 cucumber plants keeps us and our friends in fresh, refrigerator, and dill pickles all summer. Peppers are similarly dangerous.

Foodwise, try reaching into cuisines that are garden-based like you want your garden to be. For us this means Mediterranean (Catalan, Provence, Tuscan, Moroccan) and Indian, based on the herbs that have become garden staples. I love our pressure cooker (Instant Pot, great discount via Plant-Based Trucker's FB), and cooking basics for the freezer really helps with long sunlight days when we feel we should be outside!

We've expanded from our starter chickens, too. Pigs are fantastic for dealing with brambles, snakes, poison ivy, etc, and will love you for all your mistakes and forgotten moldy orphans in the kitchen. Except the hot peppers!

Thistle Cove Farm said...

Mouth dropped open and tears in my eyes; Tara, you humble me with your inclusion, thank you from my heart. As I read this post, I was thinking, should I just print it all off and read at leisure? but then, no! for then I'll miss the photos, the feel, the quiet beauty that only comes across on the page (can't believe I'm saying that about a computer page! lol)
So much I want to say...
-adore reading your history, life and garden
-agree about stewardship vs ownership. I've turned down offers on my farm because the lawyer didn't understand stewardship.
-everyone needs a Beloved, so glad to read of yours
-green porch floor, certainly, gray is...gray.
-timber rattlers? we have them as well but in the mountains...thank YOU GOD! Are you saying rattlers don't like gravel? If so, my next place will have lots of gravel surrounding the house and barns.
-yes to bees and beehives!
-yes to a plan, makes everything so much easier. Dave and I did everything off the cuff and it turned out well but not as well as if we'd had a written plan.
-how wonderful you have mobile phone service; that's a huge blessing.
-getting ready to buy my second pair of LLBean pull on boots; use them for running to the barn, stables, gardening and my work boots for tractor work.
-gasp! those hydrangeas...THOSE HYDRANGEAS!!!
-plant rosemary, for a lot of excellent reasons.
-I've always wanted an outdoor shower but it's too cold in Appalachia; my next place though.
-I've been to Brent & Becky's; they are neighbors of friends of mine...lovely people although they don't know me from Adam's cat.
-Oh yes, Eliot Coleman, a favorite of mine from decades ago. Good man, good info
Tara, might you consider listing your speaking schedule? Distance permitting, I would enjoy hearing your speak and meeting you.
XOS, thank you for your signature, go thou and do likewise is what I've done and thank you for this wonderful post and, truly, thank you for letting me know I've been helpful.
God bless you, yours and the work of your hands and heart.

Lori Buff said...

I envy your new home but not the work you've got ahead. It's a good thing you're an expert and know how to do it right and for a reasonable price.

Delloraine said...

Had the blessing to raise my children this way in the Texas Hill Country( no hydrangas) for the last 20 years. You are right about the clothing and racks and hangers at both doors. I hope your learning curve is vertical. Enjoy the challenges and sunsets to come. Best to you on your new adventure.

Anonymous said...

Oh your chicken!! How heartbreaking!

Do you know how to make your coop predator proof??? Mine is! I let them run around all day; but they put themselves in in the afternoon; and nothing can get into their coop!!!

Dewena said...

Just had to come back and say how much I loved reading Sandra's comment to you, above. Both of you ladies are amazing and you both remind me of each other. I'm one lucky lady to follow your busy lives on your blogs.

Anonymous said...

I have to say I adore all you ladies comments! Tara is our hero!!! She created the most amazing garden we have ever seen! (Tara...can you draw an "aerial veiw of it?" There is no way to believe that there was someone, anyone, next door!

Tara's spirit and knowledge....and taste!! YIKES!!! She made me proud! (I had no idea that I was providing pollinator habitat! I sure saw a bunch of bees and butterflies....hummingbirds and birds of all kinds!)

It was an accident! I just followed my instincts! It is amazing how many people have come to see my "garden" (which is a wild habitat!) who have been moved to go home to dressy places with manicured gardens.....and mess them up and plant gardens which involve wildlife!! Astonishing!

Thank you, Tara.....for leading us!

You will be coming to California!!!


Anonymous said...

PS! We don't have many snakes in Montecito; but the king and gopher snakes are welcome! It is totally true that snakes (and burglars) HATE gravel! Why? It warns birds, small animals and inhabitants of houses of its arrival! Snakes and burglars just go to the next house!! I LOVE gravel! It also lets water go into the ground!!

In Pasadena, 30 years ago; we bought the most beautiful house.....(I saw it as a child and dreamed of living there! And I did!!)
It had an enormous double driveway; and also two courtyards.....horrible asphalt! And acres of it!!!!

I researched! (now this was 1985) Cobblestone: $100,000.00; NOPE!!! Gravel: 10,000!! I was such a hero to my husband!

And it was gorgeous.....and the only one in town....now they are everywhere in Pasadena! Great for the plants....great for nature, and so pretty!!!

Remember; snakes and burglars don't like them!!! And they are beautiful!


All good!!!!