Tag Archives: barn

Our Top 12 All-Time Photos From The Farm – Looking Back To Stay Motivated Through The Winter

by

3

The coating of winter snow

When is Spring coming?…We need the snow to melt away to get busy on our long list of spring projects.

The seed trays in the indoor seed stand are filled with our starter soil and are ready to be planted.  The new chicken coop framework is complete and lays stored in the garage, waiting to be built. The design for the window greenhouse is complete – with all of the old windows stacked in the barn waiting to be used.   Even our chicken brooder, built from old shipping crates – is set up again and ready to raise the little day-old chicks that will becoming soon.  

All we need is for the first signs of spring to FINALLY arrive!

With temperatures scheduled to finally hit the mid 40′s today…we are definitely getting close! So to keep us motivated and sane as we wait for the final bit of snow to melt away from the ground – we thought for today’s Sunday Farm Post we would select our all-time top 12 photos from the farm over the last year.

OUR ALL TIME TOP 12 FAVORITE PHOTOS:

fall skies at the farm

Fall skies at the farm. I love the dark clouds contrasting with the deep red of the drying sangria ornamental peppers. The best part of this photo…Mary and I each think we took it…so who knows who gets the credit!

the rose bush

This is one of our rose-bush blooms. It was gift from my oldest sister and has a special place in our upper pergola flower bed

One of our first recaimed projects -t he building of our barn doors from old barn flooring

This will always be a favorite simply because it was one of the first reclaimed projects we completed -  the building of our barn doors from old barn flooring

I have always wanted an old tractor for the farm..and last year - we were lucky enough to get one. We named it "Willie" after my dad.

I have always wanted an old tractor for the farm, and late last year, we were lucky enough to finally get one. We named it “Willie” after my dad.

Barn Wood Garden Signs1

This photo was taken right after we finished making the signs on our back porch – I love the fact that we were able to make them from left over old barn wood from my Dad’s barn

ffff

The barn pergola patio and planters in full bloom.  It is our favorite space to sit at the farm.

the gren pepper

This photo was snapped in the garden just after a rain.  It was taken by Nolan, the youngest in the family and an aspiring photographer.

the kids

The chicken coop photo.  This was taken by some friends of their 3 kids during our barn party last year.

george

Mary snapped this photo of George…yes – we know it’s a hen with a boys name…but George was so curious as a chick that it became her name

Poinsettia Ornamental Peppers

This photo captures why we love ornamental peppers so much. These are our Poinsettia Ornamental Peppers in full bloom at the upper pergola area.

The Garden In Full Swing. One of our favorites form our very first garden in 2011.

The Garden In Full Swing. This is a photo from our very first garden in 2011.

The Barn we built from two old barns

Our recycled barn…this photo was taken in late fall 2012.

Shared On Gnowfglins

Fall Embraces The Farm

by

10

Fall Skies At The Farm

The Poinsettia Peppers have finally lost their full color beauty with the hard freeze this past week.

Fall is in full swing and is changing the scenery at the farm.

Both the Sangria and Poinsettia Ornamental Pepper plants have finally succumbed to the hard freeze and frosts of mother nature in the past week.   We picked the largest of the pepper pods from each of the plants and saved them for next year’s seeds.  It’s an easy process that has worked well for us the past few years.  We let the peppers air dry for a few weeks after picking – and then cut  them open with a sharp knife to remove all of the seeds.  After that, it’s as easy as rolling them up in a paper towel, putting them in a zip lock bag - and storing them in a drawer until next January.  We grow all of our ornamental peppers from seed, and we have learned you have to start them early.  Last year, we started them in Mid-January and it worked out perfect – with nice large plants ready to hit the ground running the first of May.

The beginnings of a silo…the framework of the dome is finished!

The Silo framework pieces getting attached

The silo project has started!  After writing about it last week – I got even more excited about getting it up and started to put the building plan in action.  I have to admit that the most daunting part of building was figuring out how to create the round top that makes a silo a silo.  So, this past week was spent getting the top’s framework designed and built.  After playing around with some paper cutouts and cardboard samples for a few days,  and driving  Mary crazy trying to remember all of the fun math equations we had back in school – we had the design down on paper.

We made the dome out of one sheet of 3/4″ thick  4′ x 8′ OBS board.  I used the jigsaw to cut out three-foot arc’s and then attached them all together with screws.  It actually came together really easy (must be Mary’s sharp math skills! :) )  This week, hopefully we can  put on the metal roof and trim strips - and finish it off by building the tower next week.   I would like to have it up by the end of the month and start filling it with all of the leaves from this year’s haul.

The garlic is up and through the ground…a little better than we would like this early!

The lettuce is one of the few crops left in the garden.

The garden is almost entirely at rest now – with 22 of the 26 rows fully engulfed in their cover crops.   The fall garlic and onion crops we planted a few weeks ago have actually grown a little too well.  You want to plant garlic in the fall to get it to sprout a little and get some bottom growth – but this year, with the late warm weather – it has really taken off a little more than we like.  We applied some straw mulch to it last week to help it weather through the winter better – but we will see how it turns out for next year’s crop.  Same goes for the fall planting of the onions.

The only “picking” crops we have left in the garden are the sugar snap peas and lettuce – and both are doing well.  The lettuce is just about to be harvested this week for a couple of good final fresh salads – and the sugar snap peas need about another week or two to get to maturity for picking.

The front entrance is ready for spring planting!

The weather was nice enough this past week to get the last of the stone retaining wall put in place at the front entrance.  Now  - it’s a waiting game until late winter / early spring when we can start to divide more of our ornamental grasses and perennials to fill the whole area in with landscaping.  I can’t wait to finally have it all come together!

Thanks For Featuring Us Gnowfglins!

Finally, we also want to send a big thank you out to Gnowfglins for featuring our farm on their Down Home Farm Tours this past week.   http://gnowfglins.com/2012/10/15/old-world-garden-farms/# They have a great website and blog full of all kinds of useful information on growing, canning and cooking – and we were honored to have them feature us.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Jim and Mary

Shared On Barn Hop, Savvy Southern Style, Rural Thursday

Silo Framework

A Big Week For The Blog!

by

18

Today marks an anniversary for our little blog –  our 100th post!  Since starting the blog about 8 months back on a cold day in February – we never imagined how far it would come in such a short time.  Our 100th post also coincides with two other milestones – our 1000th follower  to the blog and our 600th follower to Facebook.

The first few weeks of the blog we spent writing and filling in a few posts from the previous year to provide the background for our little farm’s story.  After that, we settled into our current format of posting 3x’s a week  (Sunday-Tuesday- Friday) about life at the “farm”.

Us at the farm during our first barn party

The past 8 months have been a blast for us.   I never imagined how fun this journey to carve out our little “farm” space would be – and documenting it with the blog has made it all the better.  Our blog has really helped us to stay focused and working toward our dreams – putting down in words and pictures our efforts to build the farm.  The blog is a great motivator on days when your tired and don’t feel like you’re accomplishing enough.  When those days hit – sometimes we will just reflect back and read some of the old posts and quickly see that we are slowly getting there.  It serves as a great re-energizer for us to keep at it.

We really are more committed than ever to a more simple approach to life and the farm, conserving the resources we consume, and being responsible for the food we eat.

We have tried to incorporate simplicity and responsibility into every facet of “The Farm” as we slowly work on our dream.  Our goals to be responsible for the majority of our own food – and to re-use existing materials and products as often as we can have helped us build the farm at a fraction of the cost.  At the same time – we want to show that it can be done in a way that can be pleasing to the eye – and without all of the stereotypes that come with “recycling and re=purposing”.

We have been able to get in some apple and cherry trees for our little orchard. The hard part is waiting the few years to finally eat something from them!

There are a lot of exciting challenges ahead for the farm.  More work and plantings to grow the garden, orchard and vineyard areas.   The building of a greenhouse from recycled windows.  The installation of a Sensory Garden.  And hopefully, at some point down the road, the process of designing and building our house to go on the property.

Simplifying the Old World Garden Blog:

Much like we do at the farm, we also thought this was a great time to simplify the blog.  It didn’t take long to realize all of our posts fit into the three categories that we love most.  The Farm, Food and our DIY building projects.

Moving forward – we are going to stay with the 3 post-a-week format – and simplify it into a day for each category.  In the coming weeks we will also organize all of our old posts into those 3 categories, with links on our side bar to make them easier to find.

TUESDAY:   DIY DAY.   Each Tuesday’s post will feature something to do with one of our DIY projects – from building, landscaping or  re-purposing something we found.

FRIDAY :   FOOD DAY.   Each Friday’s post will focus on recipes, canning, and food from the garden.

SUNDAY:   FARM DAY   Sunday’s posts will be all about the farm – with updates on the garden, the chickens, plantings and everything in-between.

The Farm is starting to take shape…but there is still so much to do!

Our blog, farm and our lives are really are about having fun and staying simple.   Thank you to everyone who has followed along, and thank you as well for all of the great comments – we love reading them all.  We hope this blog helps spread the word that living a more simple life really is enjoyable.  We hope you continue to like Old World Garden Farms and stay with us on our journey as we grow!

-Jim and Mary

Shared on Six Sisters and Homestead Barn Hop

Trestle Table II – Expanding The Farm A Little Quicker

by

27

Your not seeing double…this is table # 2 :) :)

One of the upgrades from table 1 – the 10′ benches that go down each side

No – you are not seeing double – and no this isn’t a repeat post.  By now, most of you who follow know that our dream of a completely self sufficient farm is helped along by our little pergola business that we do in our spare time.

So after posting about the old barn wood trestle table we built in time for the barn party – we had an offer to purchase the table that was in short - too good to pass up.  It was a way to bring a little more income to the farm and purchase the orchard trees and what we have wanted since day one – an old farm truck to use around the place. (what’s a farm without an ol’ farm truck??) So we did what any respectable Americans with a little entrepreneurial spirit do – we sold it and went about building another for our barn.  We still have a large stash of old barn rafters left from the barns we tore down, so wood wasnt a problem – just finding the time to build it…again!

A Sad Day…Table 1 loaded on the new “old” farm truck.

I won’t lie – it was actually tougher than I thought loading it up on our new “old” farm truck and delivering it to its new home.  And the first time I walked in the barn and saw the bare space where the table once stood – it was a really empty feeling.  However – as with all things – the second time you do something it really is easier.  You learn some tricks and can change some things you want to include the 2nd time around.  And we did just that.  We widened and lengthened the table – this one is a little over 12′ long and is now 46″ wide – which will allow for plenty more room for plates and dishes right down the middle.  We also opted to darken the top stain to more match the barn sign and look “older”.  We also added the 10′ benches and stained them to match.

Our Old World Garden Vintage Logo we designed..what do you think?

The result…We can now walk in our barn and smile again that our table is back! This actually has led us to think long and hard about expanding the old wood working to maybe a little Etsy shop and just design and build things we can with old barn and pallet wood in our spare time.  It’s not like we build pergolas in the winter.  We have had some requests for the pallet canning cabinets and a smaller table – so what the heck – maybe it’s a  way to build that farm even quicker.  We even came up with a name and a logo : “The Old World Garden Vintage Collection”.   Feel free to drop us your thoughts in the comment section below – we’d love to hear what you think of it.

In the mean time…no matter what…this table is staying put – my promise to Mary :) :)

Shared on Clever Chicks Blog Hop, The Barn Hop,  Frugally Sustainable, Transformation Thursdays , Savvy Southern Style Wow Us Wednesday, The Shabby Nest

Making A Unique Address Sign From An Old Window

by

14

Barn window sign with landscaping still in progress.

Barn window sign with landscaping still in progress.

The small hill and entrance to the property as it stood in Oct 2010.

We taped off the old window frame and then used double sided tape to attach cthe cut out numbers – we printed off the numbers on simple copy paper.

Next step was to attach the finished window sign to two old oak posts from the barn – we just used simple rafter brackets.

The “new” address sign at the front entrance. For now – we planted some grasses – later on we will add more stone and landscaping.

Our little farm is actually easy to miss as you drive by the main road.  Nestled down in a small valley – and surrounded by some other barns, a couple houses and open land – it’s pretty easy to drive right by the little hill of a driveway entrance that welcomes you in.  Not to mention – all that marked it was a 3″ x 8″ high home made address marker that fell over more than it stood :) .

So a few weeks back – after someone coming to pick up a pergola drove by a few times before finding us – we decided we had to finally mark the entrance a little better.  Of course we always want to try to keep with the recycle theme – so Mary came up with the idea to use one of the old windows we had sitting around  out of Dad’s barn.

It turned out to be a relatively easy project.  Mary simply brushed off and roughly sanded the old wooden frame – and then added a few coats of exterior black paint.  She left all of the details of the window – the little swinging lock at the top – and the thin little lift handle at the bottom.

After that – she laid out and printed off some 8″ letters on our printer and cut them out – attached double sided tape and centered them on the window.  After taping off the painted wooden frame and a couple of coats later of window frosting – and whalaaaa…instant unique address sign!   To make the numbers stand out even more – she then outlined the numbers with a thin coat of black paint.

To finish it off – we sunk in two of the old oak posts left over from the barn on either side -and then attached with brackets.  I love pulling into the driveway in the early morning as the rising sun comes up behind the sign and lights up the numbers for all to see.  For now – we planted a few of the leftover grasses we had in the holding area – and then early next spring – we will finish off with rock and landscaping to create an inviting entrance for visitors to the farm.

- Jim and Mary

If you would like to receive our weekly DIY and Gardening Posts – be sure to sign up to follow our blog via email, Twitter or Facebook in the right column.

 

The Farm and Garden In Pictures – August Edition

by

6

Just like that – July is in the books and here we are already in August. That means it’s time for our monthly picture taking walk around the garden and farm. We still have had consistent temperatures in the 90′s – but we are getting a few more timely rains to help green things up a little. The garden is in full pick mode. Onions, Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Carrots and Peppers of all kinds are being picked daily now – and almost every night something is being canned.  So without any further delay – here is the Farm and Garden in Pictures – August verison :

This  post Shared on Little House In The Suburbs DIY,  Shared on Simple Lives Thursday

Big Bertha Green Pepper just waiting to be plucked from the plant

Here is the morning’s take out of the garden – Needless to say – canning season is here!

The Ornamental Poinsettia Pepper plants planted at the upper pergola are FINALLY starting to turn. The peppers should start to become a beautiful mix of red, yellow and greens. The plants have really held up well to the hotter, dryer conditions.

The view from above the garden…The Tomatoes and Peppers are really taking off – we are picking over a bushel a day now.

A colorful bowl…The Mini Bell Peppers have proven to be a great addition to the garden. Beautiful colors and super sweet to eat. The orange peppers in the picture are our Tequila Sunrise – they pack the heat!

Continuing on with the recycle and re-use theme – here is our new address sign – made from one of the old barn windows.

Our Rosebush is really coming into it’s own…a farm warming gift from my sister last year – it has grown from 6″ high to this!

The Hot Banana Peppers just continue to produce – really one of the best overall performers in the garden

We have started to dig the Yukon Gold Potatoes…

Two “to do” projects on our list we got to cross off last month were the barn trestle table and the Farmers Market sign. We printed and cut out huge stencils to paint the lettering on the old barn door to use as a sign.

The Barn Patio – quickly becoming one of our favorite places to relax

The Cajun Belle’s after a light evening rain – still our favorite edible pepper.

Serrano Peppers turning red on the vine….we use these to make a hot pepper grind.

The Sangria ornamental peppers are now showing their full array of colors – from purple to orange to red

The Mariachi Peppers – You can pick them yellow or orange. A really good tasting, mildly hot pepper – great in salsa’s or just to eat.

One of the other accomplishments for July was getting the outdoor kitchen finished. Here is a view of the finished kitchen from the upper pergola.

The compost bins – the backbone of the garden. On the left – ready to go finished compost. On the right – Our active pile we add to daily.

Speaking of Compost – here is a great picture to show it’s power. If you notice the tomato plant in the upper middle right of the photo – it is the same as all the others in the row – except that it was planted directly in a spilled pile of compost from last year!  It is over a foot taller than all of the other plants.

Fresh from the garden – tomatoes, onion and green peppers cooking down in a large stock pot for a batch of salsa.

This Post Featured On The Barn Hop
Tip Junkie handmade projects

A Barn Raising In Photos – How to Build A Barn When You Haven’t a Clue How to Do So.

by

16

Our recycled barn as it looks today.

Our recycled barn as it looks today.

100% nuts! Looking back – that’s what we were! The idea came with a simple pencil drawing over the winter of 2010-2011. It was what we hoped would someday become the barn to our little farm. I’m not even sure how it really started, but the dream grew from that little drawing. Our hope was to be able to build the barn using some reclaimed lumber from an old barn. What it became was a project of tearing down two barns and building a new one from it.

It started as a wishful drawing in the fall of 2010.

As we get ready to host our first ever barn party this weekend – we took a second to look back in photos at our once in a lifetime project.

I will be the first to tell anyone we are not barn builders. We did a lot of things completely backwards : i.e. – who puts up walls before a roof, and even more – who starts hanging signs in the barn for decoration without a roof! But we built things when we could and when we found materials. So it didn’t always follow traditional building plans. We re-used and recycled everything we could find a use for – like the old roof barn to become our new barn’s lower siding. But we had a vision – and we stayed the course with a lot of help from friends and family – and a lot of advice from a lot of people.

Late 2010 – A big pile of overgrown brush waits to be cleared.

And now that it’s finished – We can reveal some of the scarier moments along the way. Like that the reason we waited so long for the roof was I was completely unsure how to build it. But we figured it out :) We can also now say we had no idea how we would tear down the Cardington barn or dad’s by ourselves and haul it back – but we did it. And we can now say – that we really had no idea how we would ever be able to make our barn doors from the old floor boards – but we somehow figured it out. And we had a blast along the way. Yes – there were injuries and losses – the smashing of many of Mary and I’s fingers – the knocking myself out when a board snapped me in the head – or Mary running over and destroying her cellphone with a 25′ rollback truck. But they were all worth it! So here it is without the pain – the barn raising in photos:

Shared On Southern Savvy Style Wow Us Wednesdays and All Star Block Party, Funky Junk

October 2010. It took us an entire weekend – but the brush is cleared and mowed off.

Early in April of 2011 – we marked out the barn with some string and stakes.

June 2011.  Leveling the land. Our neighbor Dave came in with his bulldozer and leveled off space for the barn pad. He has some serious grading skills and is amazing to watch work.

July 2011 – We tear down the Cardington Barn piece by piece and haul back to the farm. Sore – Sore – Sore nights!!!

Late July 2011 – Next up  came the digging of the poles. I have to say a bobcat and an auger bit are much easier on the body than digging by hand!

First of August 2011. Mary and I set the 6x6x16′ poles one by by one over the course of one weekend – Neither of us could move for another week! :)

2nd week of August 2011. Taking a break from our pole setting – we tear down Dad’s barn with the help of Family and Friends. It should be noted this went much smoother and easier on the muscles with the added help of extra hands taking it apart!

Mid August  2011.  So not the normal way to build a barn – but we started to put up the lower walls with the roof from dad’s barn. We wanted to make sure it fit and looked good.

Mid August 2011.  So who needs a roof when you can put up walls. We had the boards so next went the rough sawn pine. We milled down the old board from dad’s barn to use as the batten strips. We also brought out the doors from the house and leaned them up where they would eventually be hung.

1st of September 2011.  Still waiting for the roof – we decided to go ahead and hang the “fresh egg sign” we had made from the old floorboards from the Cardington Barn.  Its neat looking back and seeing how much deeper blue the sky becomes in the fall

2nd week of September 2011.  We cut all of the rafters in a few days – the hardest part was making the first one.  This is where the pergola building skills payed off !!  At least we were used to making a lot of precise cuts!

1st of October 2011.  Finally – with some HUGE help from my brother Bob and two brother-in-laws Brian and Rob and a nephew Ryan – we put up all of the rafters on a beautiful fall day. Family can save you!

Late October 2011.  We began the process of putting up the roof.  Mary and I would put up a panel or two each trip – then we had some late help to finish it off from a good friend Nate and my brother-in-law Brian again.

December 2011.  With the roof on – and over the course of the winter months – we installed the loft and began to close in the upper sides.

Late February, 2012 –   We installed the barn doors that had been leaning there “pretending” to be hung. It was a great feeling to finally close the doors with a roll.

March / April 2012 – Finally, something we know how to do :)  We began to mount the barn pergola in early spring.

Late April 2012.  Barn pergola finished up and stained – on to the landscaping!

May 2012.  In between spring rains – we also began work on the back landscaping wall – first up – installing all of the drain tile to carry water away from the hill behind the barn.

Continuing on with the back wall project – we installed boulders to create a break in the hill and to allow for landscaping all around barn

Barn back wall finished up – all of the transplants just need to a year or two now to fill in

Late Mary 2012.  It was nice to finally have the gutters installed – it allowed us to finally get the water holding tanks set up and working.

Late May 2012 – one of our biggest accomplishments – getting the rainwater collection system installed. It has allowed us to water all year through a hot summer with 100% reclaimed rain water. So far to date – we have used over 1000 gallons of rainwater in the garden.

June 2012.  Next up – using all of the reclaimed brick to make the patio – this didn’t really take too long – we had it finished up within a couple of days.

Barn Patio finished up!

 

The Barn Doors We Made From Barn Floors

 

The Barn As It Stands in September 2012

The Farm and Garden In Pictures – July’s Edition

by

34

It is amazing how quickly the time rolls by – it seems like we were just taking photographs for May – and here we are in July!  In spite of high temperatures, little rain and some bad storms – the garden and farm are faring well.  We have begun to pick our green peppers, jalapeno, banana and mini belle peppers – as well as a few tomatoes from the “Big Mama” plant.  We should hopefully be in prime picking within three weeks for our Roma’s.  June was a busy month – we planted the new grape seedlings into the vineyard area – and finished up a lot of work on the barn and patio.  Here is the Farm and Garden in pictures for July:

The Banana Peppers are coming on strong – Hot Pepper Mustard is just around the corner!

The Marquette Grapes arrived from the nursery just in time for the first big heat wave! So far so good – they are growing on their stakes. When they grow a bit bigger – we will switch them from the small individual stakes to the trellis lines next spring.

The Barn Pergola was finally completed in June! It will hopefully be a great place to relax in the coming months after long days in the garden.

The Tomatoes are filling out their stake-a cages – we have a lot of green fruit on the vine…ketchup, salsa and sauce should be right around the corner!

Close up of the Roma Tomatoes on the vine

We planted two clematis on the upper pergola – we hope they will grow to fill in the top grid with shade in the coming years

The deer found our purple green beans right before harvest…I hope they enjoyed…

Our newest ornamental pepper we are trying – the poinsettia. They have tons of blooms and little green peppers – now they just need to turn to their vibrant yellow and orange color.

Our favorite ornamental pepper – the Sangria. We put them in a mass planting bed and they are taking off – hundreds of little purple peppers that will turn crimson red in the fall.

Close up of the Sangria Blooms and Peppers

The Four Amigos…four of our hens looking for bugs in the yard. The girls have layed steady through the heat so far –  about 8 eggs a day on average from the 9 hens.

The beautiful bloom of a spanish onion in the garden

Zucchini have been holding their own in the intense heat…this is one of the better plants

The Revolution Green Bell Peppers have been producing strong – here are a few on the vine right after a hard rain has splattered them with dirt.

We started work on the framing of the outdoor kitchen structure – we have built most of the shell in the barn to stay out of the hot sun as much as we can

Zinnias in bloom in one of the potted planters

With Dad’s old flagpole in place- the farm starts to take shape. It’s hard to believe just four stakes were in place a year ago to mark where the barn would go.

The front bench got a fresh coat of black paint to match the barn. The bench was a freebie that was discarded by a local business changing it’s decor.

Last but least – we had a few “extra” residents in the barn this past month…Momma bird found a nice place under our loft to raise some little ones.

Our garden signs we made form reclaimed barn flooring.

Barn Landscaping Project Finished On A Dime – Before and After Photos

by

18

Finally – It is finished!

It is finished! Last night the last pile of rock was leveled out for the outdoor kitchen – the last rocks put into place on the hill – the final bags of mulch laid down – and the last few plants transplanted into the landscaping.   The retaining wall and barn landscaping are finally finished!  It has been a long continuous 3 month project – starting way back on the 28th of February when we began to transplant grasses into the hillside. The best part of all, other than a lot of labor – we were able to do it all with mostly reclaimed materials and little cash. Now – it’s all about maintaining and hopefully watch them grow into what we hope will become a beautiful back wall.  The plants are doing well so far – out of the 140 or so transplants – we had 135 survive.  The grasses should get to about 50% of their final size this year – and then next year should be full go. All that’s left now is to build the outdoor kitchen with the reclaimed barn materials and seed a little grass around the edges. What we really want is to sit back for one evening – fire up the grill – and finally…FINALLY enjoy a grilled meal on the patio!  We put some full before and after pictures at the end of the post to show the 3 month transformation.

The Final Totals:

135 transplants of grasses, daylillies and landscape plants that we started, divided or propagated from existing plants   TOTAL COST : $0

24 ton of boulder rock – 25 ton of limestone screenings – another 18 tons of #8 gravel for a topcoat – TOTAL COST: We were able to purchase it all for the cost of selling a few pergolas and selling off some extra barn wood from our reclaimed stash.

1275 bricks for the patio – gained for free from the flooring of the old barn we reclaimed.  TOTAL COST: $0

Patio Edging – this was the killer – TOTAL COST $125 – but such a must to keep the patio square. Really hurts when you have more in the edging you don’t ever see – than in the actual patio!

Drainage Tile – $125 – That includes the rental of the trencher and tile. Again – more labor than anything – but something we had to install so that the wall and barn stay put for a long time!

Mulch – 75 bags – TOTAL COST:  $75.00 – All purchased at .99/bag by buying damaged bags from a mulch distributor.  A little extra effort to get and lay down – but so worth the savings!

About 200 hours of labor – TOTAL COST – countless sore muscles, sore backs, two smashed fingers – a bruised shoulder and poison Ivy for Mary – but otherwise – $0

The massive bottle of Ibuprofen we went through – $13.50  :)

So here are some before and after pics:

The back hill on Feb 28th – putting in the grass transplants

The Hill with all rocks in place as of June 21st

The Front Patio Area – Feb 28th

The Barn Patio Area – June 21st. Still some minor things to attach to the pergola tops.

The back side of the barn – Feb. 28th

Back barn area – June 21st


Here are 1 year old transplants from last years project on the stand alone pergola – we hope our back wall plants can grow the same!

The Barn Pergola Patio Begins

by

3

Finally! Something that we are going to see. After the last few weeks of digging ditches and drains and a whole lot of work that only gets buried – we  began to lay the brick for the barn pergola patio.

Piles of reclaimed brick are a pretty common site around the farm – it will be nice to finally see them put to use.

All of the brick for the project is reclaimed from sites all over Ohio.  A large portion came from the brick floor to my dad’s old barn and the Cardington, Ohio barn we tore down late last summer.  Still more from old brick patios in Columbus and Zanesville, Ohio.  The end result is a large stash of brick that we hope to blend into a really unique pergola patio floor.

We tested several patterns to get the right fit and look with the reclaimed brick

When we first built the barn late last year – we had put down a good 3 to 5 inch base of limestone screenings.  It’s basically the limestone dust that is left over when quarries separate the various sizes of rocks through screens.  It’s a really inexpensive product (about $5.00 / ton ) – and is great to use for a base material of patios and walkways.  It fills and levels easily, and once it’s down and gets wet – it locks down and turns into a concrete-like base.  That really helped give us a head start on the patio. We simply added a few more inches of the screenings to level it and then tamped it down to give us a perfect working surface.

End of Day 1. About one-third of the patio is down. I’m sure work today will go much slower with sore knees and backs! :)

So with a little string – a level – and a whole lot of reclaimed bricks – we began to build it.  One thing is for sure, when your working with reclaimed brick from all over – nothing will ever fit “perfectly”.  We had to experiment for a while with the pattern to decide on the look we wanted.  We finally decided to use a soldier course around the perimeter using dad’s old brick – and then fill in the main patio area with the red fired brick.

We worked last evening for about 3 hours -and made pretty good progress -about 1/3 of the main patio area is down.  Hopefully, by the end of the weekend -we can fill in between with mason sand – set down a couple of tables and chairs…and relax!  Oh wait – that’s right – we still have to brick the whole barn!  Oh well, all in time…..

Looking down from the garden at the progress on the patio.