Cob Cottage on the Farm Tour

Folks,

We visited the 14th Annual Piedmont Farm Tour last year and it was a huge hit. So we went again this year. The Farm Tour is a fund raiser for the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association  

Anyway this is the first posting about one of the farms. The Pickards Mountain Eco-Institute I was taken in by the Cob Cottage. Cob is something I read all about months back when I was thinking about building a huge bottle wall in our garden. I had met this guy named Greg in Durham who just happened to be working on his sisters garden across the street from where were were working.

Anyway Greg and many others built this Cob Cottage and here is a tour.

The front entrance, ok the only entrance.

The view from these windows is very breath taking, what a place to wake up to in the morning. That pole you see behind the cottage is a small wind turbine.

For those of you who do not know what cob is it is mud and straw that is made into a clay like consistency and piled and shaped to build walls and other items.


The roof has a herb garden growing on it, is case you were wondering.

A view of the inside the cottage, lovely and so cozy.

It took 10 months to build this cottage with1-10 people helping when they could. Sure wish we had one of these, I've read they can last for a very long time, some cob built buildings in Europe are said to be 600 years old if I remembered that correctly.

 Above is a look at the entrance to the garden. Note the girl on the horse, they were giving rides to the kids, one of the girls was in Meg's class a few years ago. Right under the sign you can see the back of the solar panels. The Cob Cottage is slightly down the hill on the left out of sight.


Now time for our first peony in our garden.
 We have two plants that were planted last year and this is the only bloom.

This bloom is about 6 inches across!
This Swallowtail Columbine is from Helga's Garden at Four Leaf  Farm which is with in walking distance from here. She delivered us some tomato plants tonight!