Michelle Zee

Yes, the hugelkultur beds have become the groundhog hotel and the compost and chicken coop are where the rats hang...the cat and chickens get the young rats and the dog gets the groundhogs. We are left dealing with the adult rats.

I messaged you :)

At least you're honest. I know for myself and other women friends, the theme of men being involved from a place of wanting to be involved but in reality they want to be romantic, is repetitive, annoying, and destructive to actual community.

Yeah Daan, it doesn't look that big yet so it should be able to be dug up.

Yes! Same here. Would be down to talk. Also a single mother and also looking for what's next...doing homesteading at my city house right now.

Looks like an elm. Nice work! It's always exciting to see patches of concrete become gardens.

I love this thread!

So far, the deer tackled the new peach tree pretty hard. She's making a comeback but it's a race for time before the deer hit again. They also ate the developing strawberries including all the flowers.

Dog killed one summer squash so far...

Chickens got into the newly planted butterfly bush and delphinium. Covered both of those and hoping they'll revive.

oooh, I like that gabion! Yes, I do have a need for that though there are a few designs that could work. The area right behind the rubble pile is in need of a retaining wall though. I could even see adding a bit of soil and putting some succulents in there.

Thanks for all the ideas! The most sense seems to be reusing it as a building material - to make new concrete (like that!), the slipform walls sound good too!

I've considered rubblekultur and using as a bed by covering with soil and planting high drainage lovers in there. The issue is that it is like 10' from the house and prime space for a shed (existing foundation), and like I mentioned, the rats love it (as do snakes which is great but too close). This is in the city and the rodents are an ongoing issue (we've got lots of cats around, hawks, and the small snakes too).

I'm thinking it makes sense to use this to build a shed / sauna of some sort and maybe retaining walls too. Now I just need to find people who do that kind of work haha.