We have now had the entire growing season for the wild flowers by the green house to flourish and get big. And sure enough they did, almost as tall as the green house its self in some spots. Next year I plan on cutting them back more, but I want to give the perennials the best chance of survival this winter so I am keeping them tall for now.
I wonder how much these plants growing up high affects the green house. It still gets very hot inside as the roof is still exposed.
To the side you cannot even see inside the green house.
The front looks very pretty, with rows of wild flowers coming up the sides. I really like how that came out.
With so many flowers there are constantly insects visiting them.
The reason I got so many wild flowers established by the green house was to help with stopping erosion. The pad that was built for the green house had to be leveled out. So one side is a little higher than the other. So by adding wild flowers all around I hope it locks in the soil.
The back of the green house is growing back in well, I had to get back there to run some wires for the water misters so it got a little trampled down.
Even though I disturbed the wild flowers behind the building, it still grows outwards and has taken over the battery enclosures once again. I may need to extend my solar panel wires so I can get it a little further away.
Closeups of the wild flowers:
The shed:
Before I had the large 5000 square foot workshop I had this shed. It stored everything we did not want to keep in the houses. We still store stuff in there, and good to have for stuff I do not want to keep in the workshop.
Just like with the foundation of the green house the shed needed some care to stop erosion as well. So many wild flowers are grown around there.
There was a space next to the shed, where a previous building once stood.. Many decades ago. I cleared the debris and smoothed out the area. The native grasses quickly took over the area.
I did not till up the area, so the grasses quickly moved in.
The back of the shed has filled in nicely as well.
Since this building is not see through like the green house the plants have not grown as vigorously.
Still all and all it completely filled in the foundation areas that were prone to erosion so glad that worked.
The areas next to the wild flowers is all grass, closest to the house is native and further away is our mix of clover, orchard grass, rye and oats.
Looking back inside the green house I have a few plants that were kept from the seed trays we started. Some tomato plants, peppers and some kale. We will try to keep them going this winter but its not a top priority. They will need to come back inside when its too cold. Not sure when exactly though.
Even if the green house was not fully productive this year, the plants grown all around have done their job. Next year I will give them a good cutting back, but for this year I will just let them thrive. Soon their growing season will be over and should die back to the ground. Some of them are annuals and probably will not return. But I hope some do and excited to see what comes back in abundance next year.