LEED Certification and More

It's been awhile but we got the good news recently that our home had received LEED gold certification. Yeaahhh!!! We are pleased and excited with the news. The actual certificate has not yet arrived but once it does, it will be suitably framed and prominently displayed. We continue to welcome visitors who are interested in viewing one of the few LEED certified homes in Utah. We welcome anyone interested in learning from our experience.

In the meantime, we have been busy with remaining projects. One of them has been the raised seed beds shown above. They are modeled after seedbeds at the Utah house. It was a lot of fun building them and they are now serving their purpose, with tomatoes, onions, beans and cucumbers. The ledges on the beds are intended to accomodate aging gardners who have lost some of the flexibility required for regular bending. We are not there yet, but they are nice to rest on while contemplating the next project. Believe me, there are more.

Behind the raised beds you can see the espalier trees. We have an apple that is primed to produce a crop of apples this year and a cherry tree that bloomed vigorously but has no fruit. Maybe next year. It has six different varieties grafted onto one main branch. Very exotic. We also have a peach on the far right that will be trained for espalier in the future.

The xeriscaping has been a real delight. Things died down during the winter but as spring made its appearance, the perrenials we put in the ground last summer and fall came to life. We are amazed at the colors, as are our neighbors. The next phase will be extending what you see around the entire perimeter. So... stay tuned.