Originally we had planned on building a chicken coop and begin raising chickens this spring. In January, we built our brooder. In February, we decided that we were being over-ambitious. So, the raising of chicks will begin next spring in 2020 if all goes well until then. This spring we are concentrating on getting the landscaping, vegetable garden and pasture done.
In landscaping, the front of the house will have a gently curved gravel walkway to our front door from the gravel driveway. Looking at the front door, between the walkway and the garage will be a mulched bed with perhaps a dwarf tree like a dwarf japanese maple , a boulder or two, a couple of boxwood bushes or golden globes and lined with flowers and hosta. To the left, will be a couple of shrubs in a mulch bed to frame the bedroom window, maybe Burning Bushes since Tom likes them very much. Framing the garage door, I was thinking we could put something like pencil point juniper since they are narrow and won’t grow tall. On the side of the house facing the road, we are in definite need of a windbreak. We are going to move the enclosure Tom built and stretch it out, so that instead of a square it is a rectangle along the entire length of the side of the house. We will still have the boat and tractor inside the enclosure as well as the little lawn tractor. On the outside of it, we will plant a row of fast growing tall upright connifers, perhaps Emerald green arborvitae. So hopefully, within a few years we will have a windbreak 12 to 15 feet high and eventually 20 to 30 feet. The backyard will be kept fairly plain this year, perhaps just planting grass and a mulch border around the edge of the house. Eventually, it will change to a flower garden and places for dogs to play.
The garden of course will be across the driveway directly in front of the house. We already purchased 330 feet of deer fencing. As soon as the thaw begins, Tom is eager to begin putting that fencing up. We expect to have at least a 100 x 50 ft rectangle to work with. This is about 5 times as large as our biggest “community” garden plot. We have about two dozen different types of vegetables being planned. Some of these are old favorites such as snap peas, green beans, red potatoes, beets, yellow onions, bush zucchini, cucumber, carrots, sweet peppers and 4 varieties of tomatoes. We are wanting to add snow peas, yellow and russet potatoes, garlic, spinach, soup beans, sweet corn, broccoli and brussel sprouts. I am adding herbs also this year – basil and oregano. We are looking forward to getting back to gardening again.
The rest of our property (~ 14 acres) is going to be pasture for now. In order for that to happen (and NOT just those horrible weeds like we had last year) we have to plant pasture grass and legumes. We have asked several people their advice and we believe our best option this year is broadcast seeding so that we can do it ourselves. If things go well, we might even be able to sell some of it as hay when it matures. At worst, it will take a few years for the pasture to mature. In the future, we will reclaim some of that acreage back for chickens, barn, greenhouse, orchard, pond and woods. But for right now, it is better than weeds or mud!