Cow Bay Residence
This client is purchasing a plot of vacant land to build a new home. The land had been new woodland with some meadow species, but the plot was graded with some compacted fill into the Cow Bay salt marsh. They want privacy from their neighbours, to restore the land, and be as self-sufficient as possible. They are mainly vegetarian and eat a lot of eggs and fruit.
Goals:
* Priorities: Grow fruit, be self-sufficient
* $5’000 trees 2’000 soil, excavation 10k?
* Preserve view of the water from the ensuite
* Moderately aesthetic and intentional
* Eggs and honey if possible.
* Must accommodate blueberries, apples, tomatoes, squash, sweet potatoes
Before the house is built the land needs to be covered immediately with straw or hay, and I recommended a seed mix of very early successional plants to begin to repair the ground, so that undesired first responders can be held in check.
Rudbechia hirta, red and white clover, lupins, perennial arugula, Plantago major, Barbarea vulgaris, goldenrods.
Key to the design
A and B The Street front
A Short native willow Accommodates road runoff, creates biomass and bird habitat, stays below power lines and grows fast. Golden needles daylily and sunchokes provide emergency crops. I like to eat sunchokes sliced thinly with salt and oil in tinfoil, then baked at 300f for *24 hours*, until richly caramelized. Like a clam bake.
B past the power lines, taller:
Sumac, Dogwood, buffaloberry, Comptionia peregrina Sweet fern,
Myrica pensylvannica sweet bay, Aronia melanocarpa, Hazelnut, Amorpha fruticosa if you want to live dangerously (I think they can be seedy)
fast growing plants in front and on sides for privacy. These are planted as soon as possible, and should grow quickly and provide biomass. I recommend buying a chipper. Behind this just closer to the house is a chance for an orchard. Several large nut trees(chestnut, walnut, or pine nuts which very slow growing) or 6 or so apple trees. A couple trees should be sufficient for a family, more if you are pressing cider or can accommodate a root cellar. Or more hazelnuts
Trees are protected from deer with stakes and chicken wire.
Additional privacy is provided in wintertime by evergreen shrubs: Mahonia aquifolium, Upright Hicks yew, Pieris japonica, and Gaultheria salal
C
The front perennial beds showcase flowers for pollinator support and curb appeal, and deer resistant herbs and vegetables.
Chives, Thyme, Garden sage, Rudbeckia hirta brown eyed susans, Echiacea purpurea purple coneflower, Camassia lichtensteinii, Monarda fistulosa, Monarda didyma, bee balm, Asclepias tuberosus edible milkweed, walking onions, lemonbalm
C-a
These perennial edibles are protecded with a deer fence, as is compost and small animals. Also a spot for a greenhouse if desired, and if possible something that would mow your grassy road like ducks.
Perennial vegetables: Perennial arugula, sea kale, French sorrel, Salad burnet, Good King Henry, nettles, asparagus, rhubarb, herbs lavender, calendula, russian comfrey, pulmonaria
D The Woodlot
Maintain and enhance privacy on sides. The woodlot area probably has choice species in it already: Viburnums, oaks, red maple and spruce. One goal of the woodlot is to reduce space you would need to mow and may need to be mulched on the edges to look neat.
I think the woodlot should be thinned, and that valuable native species can be introduced. The book Restoring the Acadian forest by Jamie Simpson is of value here. Balsam fir can be removed except for one or two of the best and oldest specimens if you want. They tend to create even-aged stands on land that has been cleared and establish easily on degraded land. Broken, crowded, diseased trees can be removed as can clumps of even-aged trees. Be cautious of removing too much or exposing too much ground to sunlight or degraded conditions can continue. Leaving woody brush can help. The book Weeds of the Woods by Glen Blouin is a nice list of native and useful understory shrubs.
Understory plants can include native and useful species like
Shade Guild:
Sweet cicely, Ostrich fiddlehead ferns, trout lily, claytonia lily, mayapple, Asarum canadense wild ginger, solomon seal, hostas, Canada columbine
French Drain
There is going to be rain runoff and snow melt from the driveway, the roofs of all structures, and a patio, if you build a patio. There are several options for accommodating this runoff such as Into a cistern, Rain tanks, your septic, Rain gardens, or a french drain leading to swales and then the stream or grass driveway/pasture. You might need a culvert for under the grass road.
That is something to consider while you have your earth mover there: Do you want them to dig french drains, even just as overflow for possible rain tanks? Where are the outflows of your gutters going to go, and can their direction be optimized?
E Terrace system
With an earth mover, the terrace becomes intervals of sloped land planted to trees or shrubs, a swale, more garden space if desired (if you don’t need more, then more shrubs can be planted), then an earth embankment (berm) which retains water from the swale. Overflow goes over a level sill to the North West which discharges to the stream. the overflow should be wide and shallow and planted to a mat-forming ground cover (Coreopsis, thyme, white clover or something else).
This is where main tree crops can go:
Cane fruit(raspberries and blackberries and their relatives), Bush cherry, Haskap, grape, espallier fruit: apple, pear, cherry, almond, White and red currant, Blueberry
The width and depth of swales depends on the infiltration rate of your soil and our changing rates of precipitation. My gut feeling is 1m wide and half as deep.
F Paths
Woodchips or mulch. Try chipdrop.com, but here we have had better luck approaching tree trimming companies directly. Mulch will be $30 a yard and $80 delivery and turns into $300-400 every 4 years or so.
G Pond
The difference between a swale and a pond is that swales should drain to the water table. The faster they drain, the better they are working and the better shape your soil is in. By contrast the pond has clay, pool liner, or some other impermeable barrier to retain the water at the surface. There are water crops to create yield, habitat and interest.
Cranberry, skirret, Apios, swamp milkweed, Acorus calamus, Asparagus, Marsh marigold, bakeapple, sweet flag, watercress, Typha latifolia cattails, Maximilians sunflower, Sea lavender
Additional shrubs can reduce mowing demand near the shore, and these include Salt tolerant
Canada holly, Myrica pensylvanica sweet bay, Comptonia peregrina, Bar Harbor juniper
H Main Swale
This accommodates water from the roofs of the structures, any water from the driveway that escapes the previous drain, and directs it away from overcharging the septic and instead irrigating the food system and feeding the stream.
Stores to try include
Local Oceanview gardens, Atlantic Gardens, Blomidon Nursery, Baldwins nursery (for native plants), Blackbird Hollow Farm, Haomoa Selections, and we have seeds and stock of some things mainly perennial vegetables and nut trees in year 1 for $20.00
Petes Frootiqe has sunchokes sometimes. Halifax Seed has Camassia in the fall.
Abroad
Green Barn nursery, Grimo Nuts, Richters Herbs, Etsy.com