All are invited to the solar home/Green building tour on Saturday, October 5. Visit the home of Trudy and Michael Mayhew and the headquarters of Heliotropic Technologies at 60 Campbell Street in Boothbay Harbor.

The Mayhew house has been designed with energy efficiency and environmental concerns in mind; thus no surprise that the limited domestic landscape shares these design constraints. The gardens are designed on permaculture principles with a large emphasis on edibles. But Trudy also loves flowers ... The Mayhews' home and home of Heliotropic Technologies in Boothbay Harbor will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. October 5.

The first notable aspect of the Heliotropic Technologies’ Galactic Headquarters is the cool place and that its landscaped areas are primarily large raised flower and vegetable beds, along with perennial crops like rhubarb, blueberries, raspberries and dwarf fruit trees along the southern border. But the elephant in the yard is the elevated ocean view, providing south western afternoon sunset views across the bay..

The northern border includes a wooded lot with trails, more raised gardens and a rain collection system, and seats to provide a shady resting space. Closer to the house, a trellis-covered breakfast and lunch area, among garden filled with native pollinator plants, nestles between the gardens and the house. Among the grass, stone carpets the ground. This is a neat, relatively small cultivated space held in the embrace of an ocean-side, small mountain. To the east of the house is the summit of Mount Pisgah, a magical place.

Mayhew began his career as a solar design guy. Out of college, he sold process control, but on the side he was thinking solar power. His first solar projects in the area was the design of an attached greenhouse to grow oysters in 1981. But throughout this period, he was inspired to save the environment, and hopefully his neighborhood.

The house now is net-zero electric (with 1.850 W of PVs) and requires a cord of round wood and less than a ton of “Dura-Briques.” Thus, less than $400/yr for heating expense for this 2,900 square foot home. The best part is that this is a fun place to live.