The Farm

The design of the landscape and garden will be integrated with the design of the house to blur the boundaries between inside and outside, using large windows and wide bi-fold doors to open up large expanses of the walls. The landscaping is also important in making the home a carbon neutral home by producing oxygen to offset the greenhouse gases produced by the small amount of natural gas that will be used in the kitchen and for backing up the solar hot water system when necessary. The hardscape areas and driveway are also designed to reduce storm water runoff by slowing the flow rate, and redirecting it to landscaped areas and rain harvesting cisterns.

A key element of Rhonda and Nigel’s green home is the sustainable organic farm. The farm intended to be relatively self sufficient, growing the majority of the fruits and vegetables for the Farrars. A fruit stand at the corner of the property is planned in order to offer surplus garden produce to neighborhood families, reducing the need to drive to the supermarket and purchase distantly grown food.

The farm will include a wide variety of fruit trees, fruiting vines and berries. There will also be a vegetable garden, herb garden, and even a tea garden. Unusual and heritage varieties of fruits and vegetables will be chosen so that the varieties of foods that are grown include those that are not commonly found in supermarkets. Some of the plantings that are planned are:

The fruit trees will be planted to create a beautiful approach to the home through an orchard lining the driveway and hillside area.  The landscape design will attractively group plants by water requirements to optimize the irrigation requirements and will terrace the slopes to reduce water use while helping to maximize the planting area.

You can’t have a farm without water and San Diego is a desert. The Farrars plan to drill a well on the site and hope to find enough water to supply all the needs of the farm. They will drill the bore hole for the Ground Source loop for the geothermal heating and cooling system at the same time as the well. If there is no water, at least the drill hole will be put to good use for the geothermal system. The intent is to minimize the use of city water by using well water, gray water, and harvested rain water.