Living walls at a local mall

Now the DDS' are more likely to be found at an early bird Nursery plant sales than shopping for shoes at the mall, however, we were recently enticed to take a field trip to Guilford Mall in Surrey, B.C. to view the relatively new interior and exterior design that includes fantastic living walls.


Below you can see the outdoor living wall that covers a pedestrian overpass that connects the mall.  There are lots of hardy low profile plants here that illustrate how you can have a palette of plant colour even in the winter in our Pacific Northwest Climate.  We spotted lavender, Japanese forest grass, junipers and hydrangeas among many others -growing on the vertical.

 

 

 

Below you can see the walls inside the mall.  The height and abundance of the wall is quite impressive.  Lush tropicals seem to thrive inside the mall.  

It's exciting to see even the local mall is going "green".  There are lots of residential products out there for you to have your own living wall such as this one from Lee Valley.  I can see how this would be enticing, especially in a small space balcony where growing vertical could give you way more square footage of gardening space.  At present I still have some horizontal space left to fill, now if only I could buy some plants at the mall!

DIY concrete retaining wall and patio

For several years a half dug out area underneath our sundeck has been an eyesore dubbed the "pit of despair".  Our sundeck is about 6 feet above ground with a support beam bringing the head clearance even lower.  We I decided at the time of building our sundeck that it would be great to dig down to get full 8 foot height and also allow for a "walk out" from our downstairs area. Tired of telling kids to stay out of the pit and explaining the situation to visitors, near the end of the summer I jumped down in the hole and resumed the digging that I abandoned several years prior.  I had thought only a few more wheelbarrows would do the job not realizing...well a lot of things.



Below you can see the beginning of the dig out.  I was able to find spots to deposit the dirt in all my various beds and also utilise the extra soil to build a grass couch (the grass couch will be featured in a future post).

The footings were poured and rebar tied together before Christmas.  We've been working the last month to put together the forms to make a 27" concrete retaining wall. 

Below you can see Shannon and Dad putting navvyjack and cement into our heirloom mixer.

It was a bit of an intense process as we had to work quickly so the mix wouldn't harden and there was also a risk that the forms could pop apart making for disaster.  Prior to pouring the concrete I was instructed to rub old olive oil on the inside walls, I'm told this was so the concrete didn't stick to forms but I'm pretty sure this is not standard procedure.  We rented an industrial concrete vibrator, which apparently if you don't use enough can result in empty craters in the wall, use too much and all the aggregate will sink to the bottom compromising concrete strength.  Yes, I did have to call various rental companies and ask if the had any vibrators available for the weekend.

My father in law and HHs dump concrete into the forms below. 

We had to wait to the following weekend to pop of the forms and see how the concrete cured. We're very pleased how the walls turned, the forms popped off without sticking and experienced only one major first aid incident.  The walls are smooth as a toddler's bottom, with just the right amount of air holes and Shannon's HH is walking despite the nail puncture wound to the foot.

Below is the completed retaining wall.  You can see that corten steel is embedded within the retaining wall to create the kick plate for the steps.  Corten steel is often used in exterior architecture and develops a nice rusty patina over time, it will also withstand the constant eroding drip from being beneath the drip line of the upper deck.

Thank you to all our extended family for all your hard work and expertise - we could not have done it without you.

Now all that is left to do is lay the paving stone floor/patio, landscape the surrounding area and decorating the newest addition to our yard. We'll also have to come up with a new name for under the sundeck as it will be "pit of despair" no more!

Lauren's Sage and Rosemary Bread

Even in January there are still some hardy herbs to harvest. I was gifted a large rosemary from my friend's garden (thanks K!) and it continues to thrive throughout the winter.  My sage was just a small sprig when I planted it along a fence five years ago and also provides lots of flavour to those classic hardy winter meals like stews and soups. 

This bread is great with a comforting bowl of soup or fantastic on its own.  The loaf gets a nice crust when baked in a cast iron pot but is fine baked on a pan as well.

Lauren's Sage and Rosemary Bread Recipe

3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons yeast
about 2 cups of warm water
 2-3 tablespoons of finely chopped fresh rosemary plus a few sprigs to garnish
2-3 tablespoons of finely chopped sage plus a few leaves left whole to garnish


1.Add flour and salt to mixing bowl with bread hook attachment
2.Fill a  one cup measuring cup leaving enough room at the top to add honey and yeast.  Leave for a few minutes until yeast dissolves
3. Add wet ingredients, mix for one minute, add about half a cup more of warm water.  Dough should start to form into a smooth ball, if it appears too dry add more water.
4.  Add finally chopped herbs.
5.  Let dough rise for 45 minutes to 2 hours depending where you and your bread need to be that day.  Take the dough out of the bowl and knead it down into a ball, this should take just a minute, don't spend a lot of time kneading, you have better things to do.  If you have some aggression to get out beat on the dough vigorously and tell your family it is a necessary part of the process.  Make the dough into a roundish shape and let rise 30 minutes to one hour, again depending on how much time you have to get this bread done.  Preheat your oven to 450f.
6.  As gently as possible plop your ball or bread into a cast iron pot with lid (or any ovenproof pot with lid).  Gently press a few sprigs of rosemary and sage into the top of the loaf before placing on the lid and throwing in the oven.
7.  After 30 minutes remove the pot lid and let the bread bake for another 10 minutes until it is brown on top.  The bread is at its best one to two hours after it comes out of the oven.

A version with raisons or organic garlic is really nice with the herbs.  A bit of grated cheese can be added though I'll line the pot with parchment as the cheese can stick the loaf to the pot without it.

Perhaps a little warm carbohydrate comfort in loaf form can help us all get through the drudgery of winter.  Let me know how your bread turns out.

craving spring!

Christmas is over, the New Year's resolutions have been made, the sun is out and I'm craving digging in the dirt. I obsess over where I want to move plants around in my garden but the ground is frozen so I will have to wait a little longer.  For now I'm getting my spring/gardening fix indoors.

Tulips caught my eye at the store the other day and came home with me:

I also bought some miniature daffodils (narcissus tete a tete) at the grocery store and planted them in a couple glass containers along with a few huckleberry branches.

And I finally resurrected my hanging terrariums that had dead plants in them and a layer of dust on the outside of the glass. I planted them with air plants and moss.

I borrowed a cow from my daughter although she claims that cows don't belong in there!

Outdoor Christmas Tree

We are enjoying a snow day today!

My daughter and I started a new tradition of decorating a tree in our front yard.  The big bobbles show up the best.

And a few cute pics of my little man in his new sled:

DIY Maple Slab Coffee Table

We try and keep our posts on DDS focused on  yard and garden topics.  Though you might say a DIY coffee table does not fall into the general scheme I will attempt to justify my DIY coffee table post as follows: 1.  Technically the Maple Slab came from a yard (my parent's actually) and it is indeed organic. 2.  The ground is frozen making time spent digging in the yard more challenging right now!

Though a natural coffee table is not everybody's style I am very pleased at how it all turned out.

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Several year's ago Dad had to take down a large Maple Tree in his back yard that was diseased and beginning to rot.  I requested a hunk of wood be saved  to be reborn as some form of furniture.  Dad chainsawed me two eight inch slabs from the base of the trunk where the tree "v"d into two.  The slabs then sat in my garage getting in the way for several years, drying and curing while I procrastinated from starting to work on them.  Finally last year I started to literally chip away at the project, first planing off the deep rough chainsaw cuts with a power planer. I then used an orbital grinder, starting with an 80 grit sand paper and working up to a fine 240 grit.  Finally, I gave it a coat of Beeswax polish (Clapham's Beeswax Salad Bowl Finish).  The legs were pre-cut and threaded galvanized pipe from a big box store that I just screwed together with half inch fittings in the plumbing aisle and then spray painted black.  My HH helped me with the tricky part of attaching the legs to a very unlevelled underside which involved much shimming  (this is adding little wedge pieces to level out the leg where it is to be attached).  Overall this project cost less than $30 for the galvanized pipe legs and spray paint.  Shannon loaned me the beeswax which is about $16, though I had to promise not to use too much. 

 

 One winter project off the list!

-L.

all i want for Christmas...

Lauren's wish list:

Gardeners wash basket: A functional harvest basket that looks good

Light weight hedge trimmer: An excellent bush wacker for my box woods

Outdoor chairs from ikea: Shannon and I might be fighting over these.  Unfortunately they are sold out of these very mod yet comfortable composite chairs until March of 2014.

The pit of despair, under the deck project to be complete!

Shannon's wish list:

Wall garden planter from Lee Valley: I've wanted to put a wall planter on my west exterior wall that is below my cedar pergola to bring interest to the big expanse of stucco and for the fun of growing vertically.  I know there are lots of diy options out there but I like the watering system with this one and that it doesn't allow the roots to grow through and cause problems with the stucco. 

 



Rapid Reel hose reel: I fist spotted this hose reel in the background of a picture on a blog I frequent: Chezerbey.  I'm tired of my plastic hose real that I'm always fighting with that is located near my front door, this would provide a much better looking and hopefully smooth reeling option for years to come. 

Floating row cover from West Coast Seeds:I've wanted to try a row cover to protect my cabbage from cabbage pests.  Last year I spent too much time pulling and squishing green guys off my cabbage.

Book: All the Dirt: This book looks like a good read and will hopefully provide some useful information.