Inner City Farmer

Here’s an example of how I am getting smarter in my old age. A year ago I was happy to drive across town and haul scavenged materials back to the homestead. One back injury later I have figured out that it’s better to allow others to do the heavy lifting.

Some of my ultimate goals for the farm are helping my fruit trees get big enough to actually bear fruit, turn my clay into usable soil, and controlling and trapping the flow of rainwater that hits my property, and to do all that I need lots and lots of mulch. While you can get it at the landfill for free, I recently discovered another way of acquiring it and all it took was a simple email. I asked the folks at Davey Tree Service if they wouldn’t mind dropping a load of wood chips in my driveway the next time they were in my neighborhood and the very next morning they did just that.

My neighbors probably think the huge pile of wood chips sitting in my driveway is an eyesore, but to me it’s beautiful, for it represents one more step along the path towards prosperity for the Inner City Farm.

So, yeah, I’ve been a little removed for the past month or so. Just surviving, really. The heat came early this summer and hit hard and won’t stop. Living in Texas, as far as I can tell, used to be all about counting the number of 100-degree days in July and August. This year, like last year, the 100-degree days started in early June, and all-time record highs continue to be set what feels like every other day. 105. 107. Oof. My trees and plants have all gone into shock. My garden is dead, save for a sweet potato vine that’s flourishing and some hardy basil that’s contributed to five or six batches of pesto (along with the pecans off my tree) and that I am now propagating, piece by piece, in cups of water scattered throughout the house. My relationship with the outdoors has been pretty much put on hold lately. All projects stopped. And then the other morning, when it was only 90 degrees outside, I made this fence thing at the very front of my front yard. It’s going to look much cooler, at least from the street, once I have attached the pieces of weathered cedar fencing I scavenged several months back. I intend it to function as more of a berm than anything, a little hill that keeps rainwater on my property instead of trickling off. Plus, in the process of digging the dirt to make these berms I will be creating little depressions where that water will hopefully end up. Here, I intend to plant hardy native plants that can survive on their own from one good soaking to the next. This was something I have been wanting to do ever since I saw Brad Lancaster speak. He transformed his tiny lot in Tuscon from a barren desert into a lush oasis simply by designing his landscape in such a way that every drop of rain that hit his property stayed on his property. Sinking water into your soil, our soil, may be the greatest investment you ever make, for there vegetation and the creatures that feed on it will flourish. Meanwhile, the City of Austin continues to chop down trees because, get this, they were getting old. As if trees don’t know how to die on their own.

All the talk on my neighborhood’s listserv right now has to do with traffic calming. No one likes cars whizzing by their house, but let’s face it: in our society cars have more rights than people. The logical way to put an end to this would be to call up the city and request they put a speed bump on your street. The problem is that the city of Austin has no budget for this right now, which means it’s up to us to make the change we want to see happen.

A great solution to this problem is to erect some sort of art installation in your front yard, something so visually arresting drivers will simply have to slow down to check it out. The rock wall and rock pathway I am making have done a pretty good job of making drivers hit the brakes, but I think I could do better. For example, my neighbor Jim (of JimHatesWork fame) has a giant lollipop in his front yard. Even though he lives on the busiest street in the ‘hood, drivers practically slam on their brakes as they pass by and you can almost hear their thoughts: what the hell is that?

If only Jim would take some of the treasures he has hidden in his back yard and stick them in the front, traffic wouldn’t be a problem at all. Check out some of these goodies. The Christmas Scene:

The Aquatic Bear Man:

The Outdoor Bathroom:

I am hoping to talk to someone who works for the City to determine what they can or cannot do to help with the all the cars that speed through our hood. If they can’t help, then I believe it’s time to start taking matters into our own hands. I am hoping to motivate some others to help me with a project very similar to what City Repair does in Portland, Oregon. Who could complain about citizens beautifying the neighborhood, fostering a better sense of community, alleviating crime, and calming traffic?

 
On Tuesday I headed to the landfill near the airport to take advantage of one of my favorite things: free mulch!

Luckily, I have a vehicle that I am not very attached to so shoveling several yards of mulch into the back didn’t present much of a problem for me.

I took a fairly large dent out of the pile, but, trust me, there’s plenty more still there.

I used half the mulch I brought home in the garden, and the other half I am using to fill in the rudimentary French drains I dug under my gutters where the rain overflows and collects next to the house. Having pools of water so close to the house causes all sorts of problems. I’m also hoping to plant a bush in the hole next to the trench I dug so it can soak up all that excess water.

Initially, the trench worked perfectly as all the rainwater from the roof flowed into the trench and away from the house.

But, alas, when it rains in Texas, it rains hard, and the trench quickly filled up and started overflowing, which means it’s back to digging for me.

With the Man Cave nearly complete, I’ve started focusing on the next round of projects, most of which involve scavenging free materials from around town. Last week I began building a back fence that will, hopefully, shield my urban oasis from the rantings and ravings of Linda, the drunken Cajun woman who lives directly behind me. All the materials I’m using on the Funky Fence, with the exception of five four by fours, I found in a construction dumpster one of my neighbors used while having an addition on their house built.

As much cedar siding as I scavenged last fall, I realized the other day that it wouldn’t be enough to finish the fence and so I got back in the habit of cruising the Free section on Craigslist. Yesterday I found a gold mine: free cedar fencing and the four by fours it was attached to. Yes, the wood was old, probably somewhere between 15 and 20 years, and, yes, some boards were hopelessly rotted, but generally it was in good shape and it was all free free free.

Even better, Deb, the woman in charge of demolishing it, helped load it into my van and even offered to haul a load of it to my house! That’s how committed she was to not seeing the stuff end up in the landfill. Incredible.

And here is the result of a mere hour’s labor. I now have more than enough wood to finish the Funky Fence, and perhaps there will be enough left over to embark upon another endeavor.