Brian is surveying the land
making notes
Zane is helping his daddy take measurements
We want to make some to scale drawings of the yard so we can get an idea where to place all the plants we are getting soon.
We also started a gardening notebook to keep notes and ideas.
just a few of the thousands of Asian lady beetles that overwintered in the pole barn. They camped out in the house too - all winter long! These damn things better earn their keep and keep every damn aphid in check.
This is the view from south of the house looking north into the backyard. The house in on the right. The entire south facing slope outside of the fence will be turned into garden area.
up close pic of the slope. Plan is to put some zone 6 fruit trees, fruit bushes, strawberries,
daylilies, and phlox.
same slope, view from inside fence. Along this fence, we will plant grape vines. In the future, we might add hardy kiwi and other vines.
Inside the fence of backyard looking north. this area will include the big sandbox for the kids. We are thinking 8x12 feet for the sandbox - I am sure that will keep the kids busy. :) Further towards the north fence, we will plant a few evergreens for more wind break, then 4-6 dwarf fruit trees. There is an old grape vine in the upper left part of the pic that we will attempt to relocate.
Existing fruit area in the backyard. Much of this needs pruned and cut out. There are 2-3 sad, diseased peach trees that are not getting enough sunlight due to being too close to the cedar trees. We have considered removing 1 or all of the cedar trees close to this area. We might just leave them and extend the garden space in the opposite direction. We can plant shade tolerant plants in the understory of the cedar trees.....we will see how things grow..... There is also a pear tree in there, a couple of mulberries, a
hedge apple, some sad looking raspberry twigs. We plan to put a couple of
goumi,
pawpaw, lipstick strawberries, wintergreen,
high bush cranberry. On the far side to the left of the pic between the trees and fence, we will plant raspberries and
thornless blackberries.
looking from house to pole barn. the fence is all the way at the far side of the pole barn. This area will be fenced off on the near side of the pole barn to create a chicken run and an annual garden. There are 2 old apple trees on the right that we will prune and see how it recovers. We have a ton of seeds ordered for an annual garden that I will post about later.
Closest to the pole barn will be 1 of 2 chicken runs we will create. This will give us easy access to fertilizer, close to the garden. Once the garden gets established/plants become more hardy, the chickens can go eat bugs in the garden.
This is the annual garden area from the other side of the pole barn, looking towards house. We will use the fence for trellising of vegetables.
These are the big, rotten, hollow trees that were cut last fall. This area needs cleaned up. Brian has got his chainsaw chain sharpened and will be cutting LOTS of trees/logs in the coming weeks. We plan on putting our clothesline here and maybe a little patio area to the right, near the house. The hollow stump will stay for awhile as the boys like to climb in there. I would also like to relocate the hollow log elsewhere in the yard so the kids can continue to play in it.
this is the back of the garage. After all these branches are cleared away, we want our 2
nd chicken run attached to the back of the garage. Having 2 runs will easily allow us to keep broiler chickens away from the egg laying hens. Not sure if this is much of an issue, but it will be nice to have the 2 areas regardless....
another view of the back of garage - where the 2nd chicken run will be placed. We will use the garage and existing fencing for 2 sides of the run.
front of root cellar - it needs a new door. the cellar needs cleaned out. We want to put this in working order once again. I like the leaning grape vine in front of it.
south facing root cellar mound. The root cellar mound has been officially named cherry hill. there is the one large sour cherry tree. We planted 2 more dwarf cherry trees and will be adding a
nanking cherry bush. I planted the few cloves of garlic last fall that I saved from the previous house and have seen a couple of them sprouting up. I hope they make it! We will fill this area with herbs and such to ensure no mowing is needed.
north side of mound - I have 4
hostas planted here and will be planting some more shade tolerant plants.
Looking from the house
looking from the road towards the pond (taken last week when the pond still had ice)
This is the electric pole area shown from 2 angles. It becomes VERY weedy and is a pain in the ass to mow since it is sloped towards the driveway and has old tree stumps around. We put landscape fabric down and covered it with mulch already. I have 2 forsythia twigs planted here. Brian just added some of his Egyptian walking onions to the area also.
This is the driveway that will one day lead to our new home. It will pass by the pole barn, the cattle shed, curve to the left past the grain bin, and the house will sit where the turkey shed is now. The turkey shed needs torn down. We would like to have someone else come and remove/properly dispose of the asbestos siding and leave the rest of the wooden frame for us to take down. There is still a lot of good wood in there we can use elsewhere on the property.
On either side of the entrance of the drive, we plan on planting phlox. It is very sloped there and we want to remove the need to mow there.
front of the little, old, humble farm house. It already has landscaping timber bordering the perimeter of the house. We plan on filling these areas in with plants. Last fall, I planted a hardy mum on each side of the stairs - hope they come back.
The area to the right will be extended out and a lilac bush planted on each side of the window. I got the old fashioned, strong scented purple lilacs. Other groundcover/low growing plants will be added too.
North side of house. I want to fill this area in with
hostas, bleeding hearts, and other shade loving perennials. The area between the house and garage is very muddy - need to get some stepping stones placed and moss growing.
Side of house. Left side there are 3 hazelnut bushes planted. In the corner, there are 3 forsythia plants.
Very far left - there are some daffodil plants poking through. There might also be some tulips popping up. I will have to wait and see what blooms. Around the large plants, we want to plants some ground covers - not sure what type yet.
Pond.....we want to get some water loving plants planted along/near the bank. We have heard too many stories about the old man who lived here getting too close to the pond while mowing and ending up in the pond with his tractor. It is pretty darn steep along the edge. We want to replace the weeds that grow up the slope with something more useful. We have
Kinnikinnick, zone 6 trees, elderberries, and
spicebush to start. We have considered cattails, but don't want to deal with their invasive nature right now. We have enough to keep us busy to consider managing the cattails. Between the pond and road, near the mouth of the pond, we want to install a rain garden to catch some of the runoff from the field across the street. No telling what they are using on their fields that run off into our pond.
front of pole barn. we are going to do ground covers on each side of the big white doors.
The left side of the pole barn entrance gets very weedy. We are going to put a small semi circular garden with a fruit tree, a couple of bushes, and phlox.
View is back by the cattle shed looking towards the house. This is the flattest part of the property. We plan on cutting down the black walnut tree and using this area as a play field for the kids/family/party events. We envision all kinds of yard games happening back here. We want to keep this area open for that use.
This open field is located what will be behind our new home. On the other side of the building is the northwest end of the pond. The building in the far part of the picture is the long turkey shed that is in disarray that we will eventually have torn down. We will be planting this area with some trees, not sure of specific plans right now......we walk back here to go down to the creek.
Ok, that is all for now. I have another post I want to write for all the plants we have ordered for this year. We went a little overboard! Super excited spring is coming!
