Making a New Garden: Finding Land

Big changes are afoot. As my husband and I enter a new phase of life together we determined that our priorities are to live life to its fullest potential. That means no regrets for our decisions nor longing for what we should have done. What we both want above all else is peace - peace of mind, peace and quiet at home and abroad. We want to enjoy each other and our lives together in a meaningful and connected way. We want to breathe fresh air. Therefore, this is the first chapter in our story where we move on from Chickadee Gardens in the heart of Portland, Oregon, to a new adventure. We love our Portland home and garden but growth often requires sacrifice.

For over a year we have been actively searching for a few acres to either build a tiny house or remodel a small, existing farmhouse. After a long search, we were mentally exhausted and ready to take a break from looking. Then in September we found this:

Two acres in Saint Helens, Oregon, about a 40-minute drive from Portland. Cool house, too. We closed on it last week. I've been waiting for it to be official before bringing photos of our new home to the world. So as we have keys in hand I now gladly share these images. Some were taken in September, the rest this past weekend when we took possession and began the arduous task of moving our belongings 33 miles west by north.

The house is an amazing bonus. Sure, it's not a tiny house nor a small farmhouse, but we couldn't ask for anything better. It is fairly new and, as you can see, full of character. It's smaller than our old home which is fine by me (less housework), built by an artist some 14 years ago, it has since been lovingly taken care of by a woman who is now ready to move on to another phase of her own life so she passed it on to us. Well, she sold it to us. At any rate, it really requires no upgrading so we can move right in, and I can focus on the garden.

There is a bit of existing garden here, but mostly it is open grassy fields on the western half and large trees and hedgerows on the eastern half. We have grand plans for our new property -- we foresee a large vegetable garden and a even larger ornamental garden that is visually connected to the surrounding landscape. We also want to leave some areas wild.

We foresee chickens, bees, and hopefully lots of wildlife. As with the current Chickadee Gardens, this new garden will also be for the critters -- the insects, the birds, chickadees (and certainly squirrels and rabbits), and for us and our friends and family.

The adventures ahead of us are plenty. This is our forever home where we plan to live out our lives. I want to take special care to garden sustain-ably and to consider every move before simply digging in. I want to plan thoughtfully to make decisions now so that it gets easier as time goes on rather than making mistakes at the outset costing us time and money.

The driveway up to the property, appropriately littered with autumn leaves.

The eastern half of the property, which was completely covered in tall grass the last few times we saw it. Now mowed by the former owner, we can see what we've bought. It's an area with several trees surrounding its borders and grassy open areas. This is where the greenhouse will eventually live as well as the vegetable garden. The colorful building is my new garden shed. I think it might end up painted like Casa Azul at our Portland home.

We are so lucky that there are at least two large oak trees on the property. I do love them so. We will have an arborist visit to examine all of our trees to determine which ones need to go, as there are a few that are obviously dead or dying and are a hazard to the house if they should fall. Let us hope the oaks are okay.

A labyrinth made by the last owner. It's 50 feet across. I love it, yes, it was certainly a spiritual exercise for the last owner, something I deeply respect. But I will reuse the rocks in other places in the garden and think of her and this special place every time I see them. I do want to honor the richness of the meaning here, perhaps I can do something in my own way somewhere else on the property. It will all develop organically over time.

The previous owner built this vegetable garden right off of the back deck. It has a deer fence around it so this is where my new plants will live until we have our grand deer fence built around the perimeter of the property and I can start getting them into the ground.

David and our new best friend Ron, the fence guy, doing a walkabout around the property this weekend. We like him a lot for he is willing to clear some brush and build us a fence on the whole property. Hooray!

Some of the beauty in this place is in the many trees, I look forward to learning what they are, for I am not so fluent in tree talk.

Looking west to our gate and driveway. The white fence is the neighbor's fence.

The northern border looking east. There are several rows of Douglas firs, some of which are dead and have to be removed. We also need to clear space for the new fence.

Even though this berm is on the north side of the property, it gets a good amount of sun. I look forward to designing and planting here, so close to the house. I have many ideas already, but surely they will flow in and out of me until the right one takes hold.

Some of the leaf litter. I am so excited to see this. I plan to leave it in place to compost on-site. I am considering sheet-mulching the entire western half in time, for the more I learn about permaculture the more it makes sense.

Looking south from the eastern wild lands. The building in the distance is the southern neighbor's.

I met a few of the neighbors this weekend. This happy lot came right over to say hello. I look forward to getting to know them (and hopefully giving them the occasional hand-full of treats).

I put this in because I consider it an auspicious sign. Our cat Hobbes' nickname is Bigbee for a big bumble bee kitty or also a big brother. I also have a wooden kitty a friend gave me nicknamed Bigbee. This piece of equipment is in our new neighbor's yard and I just couldn't resist a photo.

A look back at our new home, photo from September.

Same view taken this week.

We are so grateful to be able to take this immense step in our lives together and to have such an amazing place in this world to call home. I plan to document every stage of development with the new garden here on the Chickadee Gardens blog, so I invite you to come along with us on our adventures and learn and grow with us.We look forward to bringing our slow changes to you as often as we can in this series. We are both very excited.

David's note: The inside is just as interesting as the grounds. Perhaps we will feature it one week soon. I am very pleased not to go through a remodeling project. A couple of new gutters here and some nail-hole patching on the inside walls is about as much "fixing up" as we shall have to do. David is very happy. Meantime, we plod on moving into our new home and new life. Haha, as to the Bengals, well, we have some ideas how they can enjoy the property, too, but, like the home interior, those ideas and outcomes will be shared here at a later date.

That's about it for this week's Chickadee Gardens blog. More to come. We promise. Until next time, happy gardening!