House Update: Athena

[shaenon]

Now that the summer's almost over, I ought to post at least once more about the back yard. The big yard project, overseen by Andrew, has been trying to kill the lawn. It's solid crabgrass, and we want to destroy it and plant something else. Andrew has been dedicated in his battle against the crabgrass, but I sometimes worry that he's just

Comments

[miyaa99]

So...how long before you start bottling your own extra virgin olive oil? The microclimates of San Francisco area are tricky, but I didn't think you could grow olive trees there.

[_fluffy]

According to the badly-designed and hard-to-parse map over yonder, Berkeley is basically on the edge of olive tree friendliness, at least for the more robust species (zone 9) although I don't think it ever gets as cold as that map indicates. I don't think I've been to Berkeley in the winter but in SF proper it hardly ever gets down to 35F, much less the 20F that the map indicates. Last winter I saw frost on car windows one morning and that was completely atypical.

There's a few olive oil producers out in wine country, although it's typically a lot warmer there than in the bay proper.

[miyaa99]

That is true, but those maps really detail the coldest sustained temps that could possibly occur in a region. And like I said, the microclimates of San Francisco are very peculiar because of the topography.

I think in general, if you can grow palm trees, you can grow olive trees. I'm looking forward to the first bottle of Madblood's Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

[_fluffy]

That was my point, that the pessimistic Internet data said that Berkeley is on the edge of tolerability based on criteria which I don't believe to actually be true. i.e. yes Berkeley is fine for olive trees. :)

[sethrak]

That brick pile is going to turn into a very painful game of Jenga next time you have enough of a quake... ^_^;;

[devilindupriest]

Depending on condition those bricks may be worth a middling amount. Not huge, but some construction/renovation companies are often on the lookout for aged brick to try to match repairs. Not sure if anyone still buys them, or just offers to haul them off nowadays.

you know what bricks are good for?

[siriosa]

herb spirals! you get more sunlight per square foot, and more growing space. also: less bending over.
http://www.mitra.biz/joomla/index.php/writingssustainability/3049-herbspiral or http://tipnut.com/herb-spiral/

i've got one in the front yard, which is producing lots of zucchini, as well as basil & lavender, and one in the back, with tarragon, rosemary, oregano, thyme, and sage.

also, for killing lawn, nothing beats bicycle boxes/cardboard mulch. in fact, i just laid cardboard down and built my spirals right on top. no sunlight = crabgrass death.

Re: you know what bricks are good for?

[pixel39]

Newspaper works pretty well, too, but you have to weigh it down with something.

[nsingman]

The tomatoes look great! Connie put a cherry tomato plant in a patch in front of the house, and it gave us some fruit. Unfortunately, the large-sized tomato plant was a dud.