We haven't done much outside other than clean it up and neaten, because there is little point to do much else. Our land is a corner plot, with both neighbors sloping into ours. This means that as the snow melts come spring, we have a swamp. To make matters worse, there is clay soil in places, so the water doesn't soak in, it just sits on the surface. Then, when the winter comes around after the autumn, the waterlogged land ripples as it freezes and thaws.
What we have to do is to dig down and scrape away soil, dig ditches around the property, put in drainage pipes to shift the water toward the road, put in some French drains (hidden drainage) alongside the drive, and then fill it all up with gravel, then finish it off so it is usable, and put bricks down on the driveway.
As you can imagine....
It is going to be very "cheap".
And this is without doing anything above ground to make it a garden. We need a retaining wall, stairs, paths, garden beds, plants... a terrace.
Tomorrow, we are having someone come to look and give advice and a quote on what we can do about it. I expect that we aren't going to be able to afford it, but perhaps we are able to either get some ideas, or get some pieces of it done. Even if we could stop the water from making a swamp, our lives would be easier and the garden more usable, then next year we could do a bit more.
I think that if the markets were to turn significantly green, I would likely spend a bit on getting at least some of the garden done. The summer isn't that long here, but it is silly to have a yard that is unusable seven months of the year, and barely usable the other five. Since at this point we are planning on being here much longer, we should start making it more suitable for our needs.
I made some plans about a year ago in Sketchup, but my license has expired, and I don't want to pay for it. So, I will have to find another free program I can use to do the same thing. I am sure there are plenty, but if I can't find something tonight, I will do it by hand, so the person gets an idea of what I mean. It can be hard to explain to some people, like my wife for example, aren't able to visualize in their head. I used to think this is a bit strange, but now I have extreme issues with it, and can barely visualize simple things, let alone anything complicated.
If anyone has a program suggestion, drop me a name.
I am yet to really use crypto for anything off of a blockchain, but I think that putting it into the house isn't a bad idea. Eventually, I would like to knockout the mortgage, but having something that adds value to the house, as well as is visible and usable for us as a family, would be a decent way to spend some. But as said, the markets would have to be a bit greener than they are now, for me to spend anything significant.
April before the halving might be good for alts, but I suspect there will be a bit of a dip after, because so many think that it will rocket up. However, six months from the halving might be a good time, which puts us toward the end of the year. That doesn't help for the garden this summer, but it might be useful for the following one, if I can grow the balls to sell something.
Maybe I can grow some in the garden.
Time to plan.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Dig a pond?
:D :D
I don't think I need to dig, just throw some fish in.
The thing with visualisation is even when good at it two people may not visualise the same thing so having an existing one is not the worst idea.
You know I’m going to say Blender 😆 but that might also be a bit heavy for what you want to do. Though there’s probably a few of us on here that could help with that if you needed (you know where to find me).
Still waiting for the right amount and the right time? 🙃
Can also sympathise with you on the swamp, we basically live on what was one swamp land and everything is clay. Makes digging holes for fruit trees among other things “fun and interesting” 🤣 (100% sarcasm)
A bit heavy I am pretty sure - though it might be fun to learn a program. It has been ages since I have even tried.
"one day" :D
What kinds of fruit trees do you have?
Avocado, mulberry, peach, nectarine (can't tell those two apart x_x), orange, lime (I think it's still alive? x_x), lemon, pear, mango.
And this other thing which I can't remember the name of but apparently it's unkillable (except by dogs that dig out the base because it's planted in bone meal that smells yummy) and most of it is edible.
That's what I remember off the top of my head XD
I think putting it into your house is a solid idea. Do you have any Universities near you that have agriculture or landscaping majors? Sometimes you can get college students to do stuff less expensive because they want the experience.
Landscaping is such a minor thing in Finland in general. Not even sure if there is a course :D
Ah, okay. That's a bummer.
My house sits on what was the bank of a creek bed before they put the highway in a couple blocks over and cut if off. The houses that sit behind me are higher up than I am and their backyards slant straight down. I was shocked to say the least after the first winter came and there was so much water back there you could have put in a skating rink. I got all their run off. There use to be tiny frogs that lived back there and slugs as long as a foot. You'd get up in the morning and go out on the back porch and find slimy slugs on the steps making their way back to where ever they came from. My neighbor, an elderly man who has since passed away, I convinced him we needed to build a berm along the back of the property line. We spent years putting up we'll take your leaves signs in the fall and kept at it until we had quite a berm that held back the water from flowing down into our yards. I still compost all my leaves and other fallen debris back there. I had to do the same thing with the house that sits next to me though we set level next to each other, his backyard was above mine and slanted down toward mine. Which meant I had to get it above his yard first and continue to build above his yard to block flow down into mine. I've been here thirty plus years and it was only maybe four, five years ago a huge tree fell down back there and the logs off it were so big it did the job of finishing off that project pretty much. It actually ended up adding some fun for the grand kids because we stacked them up into a step formation and at the top we took a vinyl top and attached it to trees into a tent like formation so they had a secret hideout back there. Along the back line of the property trees also came in handy once accelerating the formation of the berm. An older lady lived behind me but she stayed in Florida for the most part. Her backyard was full of trees. When she passed away a guy bought the house and was going to use it for a rental. One day he shows up with these fancy logging type clothes, boots and a chainsaw and he has at it taking down the trees. He gets to this one particular tree and it fell across the power line leading to his house. He went to start cutting it at the bottom and we yelled at him he didn't want to do that. We told him you want to cut it as close to the top of the line you can get so what rest above the line the line will go back up and it will fling it off and the other half will drop to the ground. He didn't listen of course, he cut the bottom that put more weight on the line and snapped the line which ended up pulling it out of his electrical box enough to cause the house to catch fire. You could sort of just look at him and see he was out of his grade when it came to being a forester. But we got tons of wood from him and he was more than happy to give it to us. Anyway, I can sympathize with your endeavor having been through myself taking on a lot of water from other properties. It's been a long endeavor but it was well worth it and it was free. That magic word free, not much in this world that's still free.
Sounds like a long-term project for sure! I am glad that we don't get slugs (that I know about) though. The previous owners were "making homes for snails" in the garden, but we have since been able to clear out most of the crap that was housing them. There were heaps, and heaps.
There are a few stories around here of people trying to do their own logging, and it not ending up so great. One had a tree fall on his house. Just because there is plenty of forest, doesn't mean everyone is a lumberjack :)
"Tens of thousands" was the verbal estimate :D
I was thinking after you mentioned retaining wall, cider block may be the cheapest route and it's something you can do yourself to save money. You could do a lot of creative things like plant vining plants out of the top of the blocks, herbs, flowers, put in some bird feeder poles if you are into attracting and feeding birds. Just some food for thought to maybe cut out some of those tens of thousands. It's also something you can say this year this is what part I will accomplish. Good luck whatever you do!
Tinkercad or librecad are free.
The first is online, the second has to be downloaded and installed. You can also use blender also opensource and very good, but it has so many options it can be ovehelming
I had a look at tinkercab - might be usable, thanks!
I will check Blender too, but it might be overkill.
Blender may be too much as I told you. It is intended for 3D modeling and film creation as you can animate and render whatever you create into a film. But of course, you can use it only for 2D drawing. The good thing is there are many free online tutorials for Blender.
I am starting to create a simple 3D drawing of the stable in Portugal to play with before we start renovation in the summer. For the garden will be more than enough. I have not explored but there will probably be some Tinkercad tutorials out there.
It looks like you got the short end of the stick on the plot placement. The drain is a good plan, but I wonder if you can collect the water and reuse it instead. Just get a pump and you can use it to water your plants.
No need to reuse water in Finland, it rains enough in the summer. However, we might get a water tank later.
Sorry to bother you again but did you find out what art site your colleague's sister is using to sell her works?
She has been on holiday, but I will reach out :)
thank you.
I have dropped a message to them, so they will get back when they do :)
You are doing quite a lot of work on that plot to make it usable, I love your plan to make a garden off it. Just like you mentioned that it would be very "cheap", you would need some tidy sum to have it done your way.
I wish you luck as we all await the 'greens'.
How big is your land?
about 1200m2
I hope the swampy area is not at the entrance of your home and just make sure you do whatever the person advises tomorrow so it will stop. Does it cause mosquito in the house?