You know that rare feeling, when everything comes together to make you feel complete, to feel absolutely content with life, and you would be happy to...
So we are starting with just about nothing on our half acre dream; directly behind the house are some larger, mature juniper trees and another tree I'm not sure of yet, and then just to the south east of our house is the giant 'bean tree', that is the kids play area. Against the east side of our house are some Rose of Sharon bushes, and near the driveway are a few shrubs. We have one small tree, I'm not sure of the species, in our front yard, and that's it.
The hedges in the front yard
Juniper and other trees in the backyard (there is one more you can't see)
The 'bean tree' where the kids play, and you can see the Rose of Sharon against the house.
The other tree and bush in the backyard.
The little tree out front, all by it's lonesome.
The small tree is gonna go. I have no idea why anyone would place that tree there like that, but I have other plans for that area that I think would be more appropriate. The Rose of Sharon bushes I'm keeping for now, and the other trees I'm keeping as well, as well as the hedges...perhaps.
So that gives me...about...75% of the landscape open to gardening. This makes me happy in soooooo many ways and I'll tell you why; first, it means I've got plenty of room to put in trees, bushes, veggie garden, herb garden, and all the flower beds I could hope for. We sit on half an acre after all! Tim and I are both excited about the space we have and how flexible our lot is. The water level is high, our land has been worked a lot already and the soil is already PERFECT, a sandy loam that's easy for plants to grow in and us to work with, and on top of all that it is flat with only a fence on one side. Second, I love growing my own food, eating it fresh from the garden, storing it, and watching my kids enjoy it as well. I remember gardening ever since I was young, watching pear, apple, and cherry blossoms come and go, and then the little fruit growing until we would climb the trees and pick it all for eating and canning. There's something special about growing your own food. Third, we live in an area that is plagued by droughts often, and there are a lot of perennial flowers and plants that I can replace the lawn with in order to satisfy the need to use less water, my desire to see more flowers and garden in general, and to decrease the amount of time my husband has to use to mow the lawn. Lawns can be nice, and we're keeping some for kids to play in, but honestly they are the most boring, water and time wasters I have ever seen. I don't know why people bother with them so much. Get some perennial plants, bushes, and trees. In the long term they are cheaper, use less water/care for themselves better, and will always make your home more inviting as long as you give them a trimming twice a year, if that.
My plan is to implement a cottage style garden, full of flowers that will attract birds, butterflies, bees, and of course people. I want herbs drying in my shed, grapes on trellises/fence , a wall of fruit trees, and hidden spots to explore throughout our yard. This year though, our first year hear at our house, Tim and I are focused on getting a few basic necessities put in place to help provide food and begin to shape our yard better. So, the first things going in this year are the fruit trees, the berry patch in front of the grapes, the grape vines, our chicken coop and run, and of course our veggie garden. We have planned it and other parts of our yard out for this year, though plans do change on occasion and this map of our yard will probably be updated once in a while.
I don't have all the garden beds planned yet, and I'm thinking of moving the Green House to a different spot, but this gives a pretty good idea of how we're planning on starting. As much as I'd love the raised garden beds they would cost too much to do this year, so I have adjusted, at least for this year, and the farmer we're backed up to has very kindly offered to help till our ground for our vegetable garden with his tractor. Our neighbors really are amazing and kind! They bring us extra foods and we all chat a bit here and there. It feels like a comfy community that I'm happy to fit right into. I've mentioned them before in my other post about neighborhood gleaning. We'll be starting our own seeds this year again, a lot more than I'm used to doing, so who knows if we've got enough room for all of them, but I'm going to try still! Almost all of our seeds this year are from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and many of them are rare varieties. I want to try seed saving at the end of the crops as well, just to see if I can do it properly, therefore the need for heirloom seeds was a must. I have never tried Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, so I'll let you all know how it goes!
At this point we also have to put the big tree on hold and the fence since it will be a couple grand to put in. Wood is way expensive right now guys! We're lucky to have completed our chicken coop and bought the wood to finish the chicken run! Right now is not the time to be building with wood, but if we don't get things done now it will take us longer to get the other goals we have for this property done as well. I keep telling myself to be patient, that dreams happen a little at a time, but honestly, I can't wait to see how far we can take our little cottage farmhouse!
We found a wonderful local plant nursery, J & J Nursery that is going to get to know me well, and have bought seven of our fruit trees from them already. Two Bartlett pears, a gala apple, a granny smith apple, a reliance peach, a early elberta peach, and a heavenly white nectarine, all of which are waiting in the garage until this last cold snap is over except for the nectarine. All of them are semi-dwarf and will not reach above 20ft, though I might trim them to stay a little smaller than that, just so we don't expand too much towards the farmer's field. We originally wanted to try an espalier orchard, but found that the trees would have to be very young and might not produce much fruit for the first three years, which we want a lot of fruit as soon as possible to eat and fill our pantry, plus share with others. So larger trees it is!
Heavenly White Nectarine. Hopefully the cold snap doesn't kill the buds.
A few of the new trees from J & J Nursery
Perrin and I picking out trees in the bitter cold, just behind the greenhouses at J & J Nursery
There are two grape vines in pots from last year, though I'm not sure they made it considering the fact that when they had just started going dormant our puppy, Zoey, decided to chew them down to just a few inches above their soil, so we'll see if they bounce back or not. I still have to buy two more anyways.
The berry patch is...somewhat planned out? I know we want blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and maybe a few other varieties, (we'll collect blackberries in Oregon each year instead of planting them at home), but I haven't mapped out exactly where we'll put them. I have to get on that pretty soon here because next month I'll need to go buy them! Thus far Quinn and I have at least bought a couple large half whiskey barrels for strawberries. We were lucky to find them at Lowes and I might go back for a couple more. They should give plenty of room for a lot of strawberries!
These whiskey barrels are perfect for our strawberries and that farmhouse look!
We had all of our veggie garden planned out in raised beds, but that plan has changed because of the need to grow everything straight into the ground. Luckily our soil is good and we shouldn't have to add much garden soil or compost to it. Our veggie garden will most likely be in regular rows now, and I'll add photos of them in the future as we prep and plant and watch it all grow. Our irrigation lines aren't going in this year, but we have a few sprinklers to take care of watering. Now if I can just remember to turn on the water in the mornings for the plants. Seriously, I have the memory of a goldfish!
One last project I'm looking forward to is when my mother, Elly, gets here and helps me figure out my herb garden and drying hooks in the shed. I love herbs, they give so much! They are not only good for cooking, sometimes cleaning, sometimes medicinal, but they usually make beautiful flowers and have excellent aroma. They are a MUST for any garden, whether for style, smell, birds and bugs, eating, beauty, pest control, etc. I might keep them together, or I might have an honest cottage garden and mix my herbs into various perennial beds. We'll have to wait and see!
As we continue with our projects I'll try to update our maps, plans, and information on how we do things, but please remember, this blog is for me to connect with family and friends, and have an outlet for my writing, photos, experiences, and dreams, so I might not be on top of everything as much as some might wish. If you MUST have an update feel free to drop a comment or message and I can let you know what we're up to. It won't bother me at all!
Anyways, what are your plans for spring? Do you have a garden coming along or other big plans? Let me know!
Love you guys!
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