welcome to the organic green doctor blog

i am a family physician who was diagnosed with
early mild cognitive impairment(mci) amnestic type on december 21, 2010
this is a precursor to alzheimers disease
because of this diagnosis i have opted to stop practicing medicine
this blog will be about my journey with this disease
please feel free to follow me along this path
i will continue blogging on organic gardening, green living,
solar power, rainwater collection, and healthy living
i will blog on these plus other things noted to be interesting

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

goin green

GOIN GREEN

since green is in the name of my blog its obvious im for everything
thats green
im always looking for ways to do green stuff

i started working on habitat houses and it didnt take long
for my green to come out in their projects

ive recovered rocks and cement to use in landscaping in the
houses that are being built
then any excess rocks and cement i bring back here to the countryn
to use in my landscape projects

ive also recycled lumber landscape timbers and plywood to use
in projects
all this use to go to the landfill

then i started watching and helping with the landscaping
it was painful to be involved with that part
my feeling was that the habitat does such a quality job of building
the houses 
stuff just has to be done right or it gets redone
heck ive worked with contractors who said yall build these houses
better than we do

then when its done the landscape is quickly done to finish the job
the same quality wasnt being done with the landscape

as i told someone do the landscape like they were doing was like 
building a house without putting insulation in it

the homeowner who is already on a limited income
has to water their whole lot and its grass
fertilize it and upkeep it
in the summer half of their water bill is from irrigating the yard
and water is getting more expensive around here
and will continue to do so as there is more water shortages acoming

so i suggested xeriscaping
you know what happens right when you make a suggestion 
it becomes your project

so my goal was eg in the front yard was to eliminate as much grass 
as possible working with a limited budget
real limited budget

here are some pictures of the front of the house before it was landscaped
remember before it would have been all covered with grass sod
or seeded grass
which the owner would have had to water like crazy in our hot dry 
summers here in central texas
on the left side of the yard an old dead trash tree the arizona ash was
removed
the tree trunk was left in place
the ground was covered with packed hard soil that probably wouldnt grow
anything
we built an area of mulch that we obtained from a local landscape facility 
real cheap
they bag it and we all buy it at nurseries around here and at lowes and home depot
but when you buy it in bulk it cost about 1/4 as much
we added 4-5 inches of mulch
around the stump we planted in front of it a rosemary that will cover up 
the stump from the street side 
the stump will eventually rotten and actually increase the nutrition of the soil

on the other side of the stump a flame acanthus was planted which will 
provide a red flower that bees and butterflies and humming birds love
and it will grow to a 4ft x 8 ft size

that old stump wont be seen from the street at all

then we contoured the mulched band in curves around to the edge of 
the house edged with rocks obtained from the building site and from 
a relatives donation 

then along the driveway small 1 inch stone was placed between the 
mulched bed and the driveway and was extended along the driveway 
down the side of the house as the side of the house was completely 
shaded and no grass would grow

scattered large boulders were also added to this rock to help with the 
rustic appearnce of this area
then on the right side of the house we started win a area that looked like this

the stump in the picture was a sycamore that was severely damaged by 
the digging of the sewer and water line 
it had begun to lean some and had to removed
thanks they left another stump

this side of the front yard was about 1000 square feet
so we landscaped away 60% of this side and only laid
sod on 40% of the area

in front of this stump we planted another rosemary and added
a spineless cactus on the house side of the stump
both will eventually grow up and cover this stump so it wont be
noticeable at all

heres the final project
good landscape soil was brought in and the sod was laid on top of it
4 inches of the mulch was brought in and was used to cover the ground
on the right side and it was edged with that same rock
the tree on the right is a cedar elm whose roots were partially damaged
with the sewer line placement but i think we were able to resuscitate it with 
good revitalizer compost seaweed and keeping it watered
it is now growing its spring leaves and will eventually shade most of this 
side of the yard

xeric plants are planted along the fence to the right
knock out rose turks cap salvia greggii and 4 oclocks

a strip of rock was landscaped between the driveway and the mulched area
and the sodded area

all of the landscape materials except for the sod was donated by 
two landscape supply places-austin landscape supplies and austin wood recycling

so this home owner a single mom with two chidren will only have to water
and maintain a strip of grass about 400 square feet in her front yard
as 75% of the yard was xerically landscaped
the plants planted were from this free booklet gowing green
which can be obtained at most local nurseries
and even if they arent watered any when they get established 
they will survive

now thats goin green

we could use donations for landscaping
either plants or money
we need monterey oaks or red oaks or live oaks or cedar elms
we need xeric shrubs like salvia greggii dwarf youpon holly turks cap etc
so if you have extras pot them for me and ill pick them up

you can also contact habit for humanity and donate funds for landscaping
thanks again to austin landscape supplies and to austin wood recycling for 
their donation of supplies

the organicgreen doctor

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like habitat should just hire you as a landscaping consultant on their projects for the Austin area.

    ReplyDelete