{"id":1285,"date":"2011-06-10T22:00:21","date_gmt":"2011-06-11T02:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/?p=1285"},"modified":"2011-06-09T16:55:40","modified_gmt":"2011-06-09T20:55:40","slug":"green-homes-sustainable-gardenin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/green-homes-sustainable-gardenin\/","title":{"rendered":"Green Homes Tour: Sustainable Gardening and Low-Impact House"},"content":{"rendered":"

Garden Philosophy \u2013 <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Create a small, beautiful and bountiful, local eco-system using as little input from outside as possible.\u00a0 This includes feeding the soil, watering and our choice of plants.\u00a0\u00a0 We have a large flowerbed and grow about $500 of vegetables and fruits ourselves, many of them perennial, using our own compost, one bottle of fish emulsion and one bottle of spinosad.\u00a0 Take the walk around the garden with the map to check it out.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
This home uses less than 1\/3 of the estimated typical electrical use of a Needham home.(*Average use of 9,600 kilowatt hours\/year for Needham residents is an estimate based on the average usage in Wellesley, which is 11,400 kilowatt hours\/year.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Components \u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

1)\u00a0 Neighborhood Farm plot<\/strong> (H) \u2013 800 sf of the garden is maintained by the Neighborhood Farm of Needham to produce local food and flowers, sold at Dedham and Roslindale Farmer\u2019s markets, and for which we receive an exchange of food (not included in the $500 we grow ourselves).<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0 Needham Community Farm greenhouse<\/strong> (L) \u2013 the geodesic dome is where we\u2019re growing seedlings this year for the Pine Street (formerly Nike) location.\u00a0 Our own seedlings grow in pots made of newspaper.<\/p>\n

3) Perennial flowerbeds<\/strong> with local plants needing no extra watering (XX).<\/p>\n

4) Perennial crops<\/strong>: apple trees (A), rhubarb (B), strawberries (C), asparagus (E), purslane (I), blueberries (J), jerusalem artichokes (K), fiddleheads (N), raspberries (P), currants (T), blackberries (V), sour cherries (W), crab apples for pectin (X), highbush cranberries (Y), elderberries (Z), winecap mushrooms (MM).<\/p>\n

5) Perennial\/self-seeding herbs<\/strong>: peppermint (M), oregano (Q), sage (R), lavender (S), cilantro, dill, chives (U).<\/p>\n

6) Annual vegetables: <\/strong>in four beds around the garden (F).\u00a0 To maintain soil tilth and nutrients, we use crop rotation, annual compost additions from three compost heaps (O), and a little fish emulsion.\u00a0 For stakes, we use pruned branches; to protect against cutworms, rings from yoghurt containers.<\/p>\n

7) <\/strong>Bees \u2013<\/strong> to help save the bees, crop pollination, and perhaps one day, to harvest our own honey.<\/p>\n

8 ) <\/strong>Compost<\/strong> \u2013 foodscraps, old paper, and our and our neighbors\u2019 leaves, in three locations (O).\u00a0 One bin is next to the blackberries so the compost moisture draining into the soil will feed them.<\/p>\n

9) <\/strong>Mushrooms <\/strong>\u2013 winecaps in the flowerbed and among vegetables (MM), mushroom logs with shiitake, oyster and chicken of the woods (MN) \u2013 put in last fall, the logs have yet to fruit (!).<\/p>\n

Low-impact house philosophy \u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

Live a comfortable modern life, mindful of the resources we use, and taking advantage of simple and cost-effective opportunities to save energy.<\/p>\n

Components \u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Small is beautiful <\/strong>\u2013 we have stayed within the original walls of our historical home, 1300 sq ft plus attic and basement, renovating to beautify rather than enlarge spaces, and find our family (4) fits comfortably.<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Heating with passive solar energy <\/strong>\u2013 the large windows facing south into the garden provide lots of warmth in the second half of winter.\u00a0 Other ways we save on gas heating is with a programmable thermostat, high-efficiency furnace, and a high efficiency wood stove (in which we burn local wood).<\/p>\n

3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Staying cool with breezes and outdoor spaces<\/strong> \u2013 it gets hot in summer without air conditioning, but we find our bodies gradually adjust and we like the months of fresh air.\u00a0 To make this work, we cross-ventilate the house by opening windows at night, use fans (we love ceiling fans), have protective glazing on west-facing windows, have big trees to shade part of the house.\u00a0 In the evening and morning we eat outside where it is cooler, and we sleep outside in a tent on the hottest nights in the dog days of summer.<\/p>\n

4)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Simple electricity savings<\/strong> \u2013 I\u2019m told that we use comparatively little electricity ($60\/month), but we don\u2019t feel we\u2019re missing out on anything.\u00a0 We do use compact fluorescent lights and turn them off when we\u2019re not in the room, have all energy star appliances \u2013 refrigerator, dishwasher, washing machine, three computers –, and hang our clothes on a clothesline to dry.\u00a0 I guess small steps add up.<\/p>\n


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Garden Philosophy \u2013 Create a small, beautiful and bountiful, local eco-system using as little input from outside as possible.\u00a0 This includes feeding the soil, watering and our choice of plants.\u00a0\u00a0 We have a large flowerbed and grow about $500 of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[77],"class_list":["post-1285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-at-home","tag-green-homes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}