"Homestead" Plans

I have been planning like crazy around here, trying to get something set up before the start of spring (which is here early I guess, with all this hot weather we've been having! Although I have a feeling we're in for it in February - it has been so warm everything has been blooming, including all the fruit trees, and a major freeze and drop in temperatures in February would be devastating.)

But things are finally starting to take shape. About a week ago, I was laying in bed, unable to sleep, and I came up with the whole plan for the backyard area (if only I could know what to do with the front!). Will it work? Who knows. The lighting of the lot is the main issue. The bed design will be on the side that gets the most sun, but it changes from season to season how many hours. But it's worth a try!

Here is the current overall plan:

To give you an idea, here's what the backyard looks like right now:

So basically the right hand side will contain the beds, and the fencing, with the arbor that will lead to the possible chicken coop behind the garage, will be back by all those trees. Why am I going to put up fencing, you ask? Well, a few reasons. . .

1. We have snakes. Not that putting up a fence will keep snakes out (I'm not that dumb). But behind our current fence is a wet weather creek. A few weeks ago my father in law killed a water moccasin snake right outside the door in the fence back there. Nasty venomous snake + curious 2 year old toddler = not good combination. By putting fencing, I can contain where said two-year-old goes, so that she does not go back there digging for snakes in the bushes. The plan is to put a bunch of crushed gravel on the ground back there (yea for no grass to water!) I have heard that snakes don't like that stuff because there's nowhere for them to hide, plus I imagine it sucks to crawl on it. We will be eventually putting it around the vegetable beds in the toddler-approved part of the yard as well. So anyways, I guess it's partly for my peace of mind.

2. It will block the sight of nosy, rule-following neighbors. They say "good fences make good neighbors" and that is probably very true when you are wanting to house chickens in a not so chicken-friendly area. I actually did look into the restrictions for my area, and the wording was recently changed from a more restrictive and specific rule, to a vague and debatable one (yea for me!) It states: "Homeowners may only keep customary household pets on the lot". What the hell does that mean? Well, I say that chickens are a customary pet to keep - it's not like I am keeping a zebra or something! Chickens have been domesticated for thousands of years, right? That sounds like a pretty customary human companion, does it not? I rest my case.  However, my neighbors may not interpret that rule the way I do. So, fencing to block out sight and noise for as long as possible, and then when they find out, as someone will eventually, taking a peek back there will reveal a beautiful Williams-Sonoma-esque chicken coop (as mentioned in this post) and perhaps they will be ok with it since I don't have stinky chickens pecking around a rusted out car up on cinder blocks 

That's the plan, anyways. . . This is what the real area where we may put chickens actually looks like right now:

As you can see it is a rather large area that is currently a scary snake pit (in my mind anyways). Be it chicken coop or something else, it is wasted space right now, so anything other than what it is would be great!

For the vegetable beds in the back, I came up with this plan:

Total sq. ft. (minus the little squares at the top which will contain citrus trees or blueberries) is 228 sq. ft. Not too shabby. I could hopefully get at least a few veggies and some herbs to grow back there (I hope!). I have broke this up into two stages - Stage 1 is the green, Stage 2 the pink.  I figure I will complete Stage 1 first, then see how that fares (and I will have to opportunity to remind myself what random places the sun shows up in the summer) and if all is good, I will complete Stage 2 later in the year (fall, perhaps). I would do it all at once, however with the sun coverage being as iffy as it is, and materials being expensive (I have decided to use cedar wood for the beds which is more pricey, but they look nice, rot slower, and offer some insect resistance) I figured it would be better to do this in pieces. If the Stage 1 area ends up getting not good sun during other parts of the year, I still have a pretty garden layout that I can plant other things in, like herbs, so it wouldn't be a total wash.

So anyways, stay tuned! Things are going to start happening very soon!