Of all the sustainable features or techniques we incorporated into our house, the hardest one for people to understand is our Ground Source heat pump, often referred to as a Geothermal HVAC system . YouTube has some videos that explain it better than I can.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Edible Forest Gardens
The two-volume book Edible Forest Gardens by Dave Jacke with Eric Toensmeier explains the approach we're going to use for growing food at the Glenn Retreat. Our food 'garden' will be seamlessly incorporated into the woodland landscape.
One of the fruit trees we're planing to try is the Paw Paw tree. The fruit tastes like a combination of banana, pineapple and mango.
One of the fruit trees we're planing to try is the Paw Paw tree. The fruit tastes like a combination of banana, pineapple and mango.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
How to manage a wet site
It was obvious from the start that our site had a high water table and clay soil. The challenge was how to manage the ground water and rain water on site. Our solution was to build a series of retention beds to harvest the water and use it to irrigate the vegetation.
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CROSS SECTION of RAIN GARDEN
this is pretty close to how our rain gardens are built
Walking down the ramp, out the front door - it's great not having any steps
Construction of water retention area along west property line. This photo also shows the southern side of house which was designed to maximize passive solar opportunities.
Many neighbors find blue racers nesting
Final inspection day was pretty dreary outside, and petty exciting inside