Recent Posts
Montana Wildlife Gardener
Return To Blog Listing
We created a wildlife garden at our home in a small city lot in the center of Missoula, Montana. Our garden uses plants native to the Missoula valley, and receives no irrigation. Our front yard is a wild Misoula prairie, with over 70 species of plant
Recent Posts Tagged With 'recycled materials'
Greenhouse weatherization, and germination report
The greenhouse has been doing well, especially since we've had a relatively mild fall so far. It has been a lot of fun extending the gardening season- before the greenhouse we would have been long done vegetable gardening by now. Despite the relative...
Greenhouse Winterization, part 2
The transition to the winter greenhouse garden continues....We removed most of the cold intolerant plants, but kept a few Thai pepper plants that had some flowers and fruits on them, and they are still doing great. Frankly, I was happy to get rid of ...
Greenhouse Transition to Winter
With temperatures expected to be around 6° F in the next a few days (yikes!), it is time to transition the greenhouse from summer to winter. Right now, the greenhouse is over filled with Thai peppers, eggplants, basil and tomatoes - all plants that...
Greenwashing
I live in a green home. My home is not special, nor was it marketed as an example of “green” building. Like hundreds of houses in Missoula, it was built in the 1940's using durable materials (intended last 100+ years). Its construction contribute...
Greenhouse update
It's been a little over a month since I built this greenhouse and my wife is really enjoying it. Here are some pictures showing the changes and growth over the last month. The garden has really filled in around the greenhouse, and if you didn't know ...
Garden tool closet
Here are some pictures of the newest addition to our garden- a garden tool closet. It is smaller than a shed (about 2 x 3 1/2 feet), and occupies a tiny footprint, but has room to store a lot of garden tools.I like the name "closet" because it speak...
How to build an urbanite path
Paths are very important features in the landscape. Paths guide visitors but also guide the eye. As a result, they are very strong design elements that must be considered in landscape and garden planning.As with any path, the more uniform and straigh...
No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come: Greenhouse construction update No. 6:
That quote from Victor Hugo in the post title is a reference to succumbing to my wife's desire to move into the greenhouse before it is finished- I have held her back long enough. Although I'd just as soon keep building and fiddling with the greenhou...
Greenhouse construction update No. 5
It was a busy weekend. Since the last construction update, I completed the exterior and began finishing the sheetrock. On the exterior, I installed the roof, gutter, rain barrel, painted, and put up a trellis for an orange honeysuckle (Lonicera cil...
Greenhouse construction update No. 4
The greenhouse is starting to take shape. Here are a few pictures from today. There is still a lot left to do, but it is nice to see the progress. These are not the final colors (except the white window sashes)- since this is made from re-used materi...
Greenhouse Construction Update No. 3
Here are a couple of pictures of the greenhouse (the picture above is the south side and the picture below is the north side). I finished the framing today, and I went to Home Resource and got some plywood sheathing and 15lb roofing felt. It is amazi...
Greenhouse construction update
Building this greenhouse was actually the motivation for me to start this blog. Today, I am finally getting around to an update of the progress of its construction- mainly with some pictures.I have written a few posts about the greenhouse; a general ...
Build a brush pile for wildlife
Building a brush pile is a really fun project that will benefit many species of wildlife. Spring is a great time of the year to build a brush pile, since most of us will be pruning, trimming, cutting and otherwise preparing our yard for the growing s...
How to build a rain barrel; the prequel
The joys of March in Montana. It has been a few years since we have had a typical March- today it was 20, last week I connected my rain barrels, and the melting snow from yesterday's storms has left my barrels filled to capacity (and over-flowing). ...
Rain barrels
Feeling bold, yesterday I reconnected two of our eight rain barrels, a small rite of spring. Undeterred by the snowstorms of the last few days, I think spring is here and but just to be sure, I only reconnected the south facing ones. This time of the...
Avoid straight lines, a simple design tip
Here is an example of a simple design element having a pretty big impact. The photo on top shows the concrete walkway going straight from the house to the garage, bisecting the yard. The problem with a straight path is that your eye follows a straigh...
Greenhouse plans
Here are the plans for my greenhouse- still a little rough, but you should get the idea. With a couple more months of winter- the plans will inevitably evolve some more. a lot of this greenhouse was designed around the windows- these are all recycled...
Greenhouse
My newest garden project is a greenhouse. I have spent this winter researching and designing a small (6x10') greenhouse for our backyard. It is the greenhouse project that is largely responsible for this blog- to share ideas and get help from gardene...
