I have a bunch of other short blog posts to make, but I just noticed that Google has updated the satellite view of our property, so I thought I'd do a little slide show of how things have changed.
First, here's a reminder of the plan for the empty acre. (The remaining 1/4 acre has our house, and I have plans to leverage the microclimates caused by the heat-trap nature of our house and the shady north side, but those designs are more fluid.)
The basic plan:
The way I'll hope it looks. :)
Satellite from 2016. Nothing but weedy grass that had chemicals and biocides regularly applied to it by the previous owner--grass that was habitually mown and the clippings removed off-site. (Ie, organic material removed over and over.) Spectacularly dead dirt and compacted clay underneath.
Satellite from around 2018. I didn't know what I was going to do yet, but a permaculture designer was helping me put in a zig-zag ditch that I later abandoned in favor of straight rows for annual beds over the septic reserve field.
Satellite from late fall in 2020. I think the nearby forest fires were out by this time, and the annual grasses had died and mostly been trampled by me. Only a few of my major trees were planted--a couple walnuts, some chestnut, a few berry bushes. 12 apple seedlings grew from 40 seeds I had planted.
It looks much different now, but I don't mind waiting until 2022 to see a good photo. :) The most recent changes are the 72 bare-root native trees I planted (noble fir, Oregon ash, big leaf maple, Garry oak, chestnut, beaked hazelnut, countless berry shrubs, Indian plum) and small plug plants. Also, I have yet to do this, but this year I'll be altering the structure of the annual beds... again.
Ooof, this is Google's current image. I think it's from August 2022. Everything died, and unlike previous years, there were still brown dead spots into winter. (Usually, the rains of fall restored greenery everywhere by the first cold snap, but not last year.)
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