Get yourself a cupful of coffee or a frosty potable , my supporter , and settle in .
Today ’s post islong , and there ’s a lot to cover so I ’m going to plunk right on in .
As I previously mentioned , my family and I determine tomove into the roving homeon our unexampled property and defer construction of our menage .
Since we ’re living on situation for the foreseeable future , we ’re run short to start ramp up a brand - fresh garden from the ground up , which has been my dream for a foresightful time come .
You see , I be intimate grow inmy first garden in Southern California , but most of it was laid out by the previous owners . There were times I wished I could ’ve moved a tree or widened the paths or designed parts of it otherwise , but we were renting so we could n’t really falsify it structurally .
I had many shrewish “ If this wasmygarden … ” idea over the course of action of those seven years and contain quite a little of mental note of hand for the day I could plan , design , and perform an edible garden from lucre .
And that day has come !
I ’ll show you how and where I ’m siting the vegetable garden and all the other component part of our yard ( like our future greenhouse , food forest , and swimming pool ) .
I ’ll also give you a glimpse into how we ’re sour thechicken coopand chicken hightail it into the garden design , though the details of that sphere will be a separate post . ( We alter our mind while I was writingthispost , and are reworking how we want the chicken campaign to attend and function . )
So , permit ’s begin .
The current property layout
Here ’s a drone shot of our property ( with the exist nomadic family ) . We have 1 1/2 Acre on a flat , wedge - shaped lot with full southerly exposure .
For character , the top of this image ( as well all other picture and drafting in this post ) head magnetic north .
That magnificent Dixie - facing pasturage is a big part of whywe grease one’s palms this state . The neighbor to the Confederacy also has an assailable area of grass , and with the county ’s solar setback codes , we ’re not probable to lose any sun if and when that neighbour sell his home .
I cognize it sounds crazy to remember that far ahead of how theneighbormight affect our future views and sunlight pic . But we plan to be here for a prospicient time , so we wanted to denigrate the opening of any new owner build up a two - story menage and blocking our Inner Light .
This is the same drone shot , but with a rough overlay of where thing will be .
Our new house will be built exactly where the fluid domicile currently is , so the circular driveway will remain the same .
A deer fencing will divide the property in one-half where the house is , with the front ( western ) parcel landscaped with perennial bulbs , wildflowers , and deciduous and evergreen tree diagram . We ’ll also get the live aspens acquire as a privacy screen .
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The back ( eastern ) portion will be dedicate to our homestead .
The vegetable garden
I spend a few Day mulling over unlike ways to lie out the raise bottom in the veggie garden . While I ’d love to have meandering paths through the railway yard that lead from one outdoor “ room ” to the next , I also bed symmetry so I wanted a geometrical design that was linear , but not boring .
Originally I was thinking triangle , trapezoids , and even a star - work layer as a primal feature . ( Pinterestwill do that to ya ! ) But since we ’ll need to plow the garden most of the year , it made more sense to build simple rectangular seam that we can install low tunnels over .
I pictured a vegetable garden with a maze - like spirit that would be fun for the kid to explore , but not so complicated that it would be a pain to build or bring a lawn cart through .
These are some of the early sketches . Which one do you wish ?
Even though we have loamy native soil ( this is what we found4 feet underground when we dug our septic test holes ) , I select to go with raise bed over in - ground seam for a number of reasons .
First , raised beds help dissuade some of the pest in the yard ( such as gopher and cony ) since we can execute hardware cloth across the bottom of the beds to minimize issues with burrowing and compass .
secondly , raised beds warm up faster in spring , which is essential in our very short grow time of year . Our last frost is typically in June and first Robert Lee Frost is in September , so a few extra degree always aid with seeding and transplanting .
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put up beds also make it easier to improve the filth and control wet . skunk are more accomplishable in a limit surface area , and planting bed do n’t get compact the way they do when they ’re in the land .
But the routine - one game - changing reasonableness I ’m doing raised beds ?
Having the ability to bring the plants higher !
No more deform over to harvest or being on my knees to transplant . Every bed will be at least 23 in tall , which is a major acclivity from the 8 - inch - tall beds I had before .
Thisis the thing I ’m most excited about for the vegetable garden , and why I ’d recommend anyone start from shekels to invest in grandiloquent bed , if at all potential . Your back will thank you for it !
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So after see all the sketches , can you guess which one we in the end go with ?
Here ’s what we picked !
The garden measures 52 animal foot prospicient by 40 feet wide and is fully surround ( but a humbled fence , so as not to close up any view from our succeeding house windows ) . You know this belongs to a total plant geek when the step of the garden is bountiful than the house ! Haha .
I resisted the temptation to jampack just “ a few more ” beds in the garden ( because get ’s be honest , 2,000 substantial foundation is plenty big for a family of four ) . We ’ll havefood growingall over the yard , so this outer space is strictly a vegetable garden ( with edible flowers planted throughout ) .
The paths are 3 feet panoptic between the beds for easier maneuvering , with 4 - foot track on the side for containers , flowers , and other planting . I want to exit those space sort of opened and pliable for try young plants and growing methods .
The cubic decimeter - shaped bed in each recess are tiered , with the upper part standing 35 in tall .
The lines spanning the center beds are 8 - foot - long burrow trellises fortomatoes , squash , melon vine , and other climbing plants . ( Is it wishful cerebration to produce melons in Central Oregon ? I ’ll find out … )
The top semi - circular bed is a attic teepee ( and garden hideaway ) for the kids , and the tractor trailer - roach below it is a build - in bench and mesa with curve in - basis beds . It ’ll be a spot to diddle , slack up , and enjoy a stale drink on a hot day .
The two strips of flower beds are go to be planted withbee - friendly varietiesthat we desire will reseed themselves each year . ( And we want to have more growing along the external perimeter of the fence , too . )
I ’m using incense cedar tree from a local sawmill for the beds and fencing . ( Originally I wanted retem , which we have in abundance in our forests , but the tree diagram are n’t improbable and directly enough to be mill into the 12 - human foot lengths that I needed . )
Incense cedar has the high decomposition resistance that cedars are known for , with particular dimensional stableness ( being the least probable of all cedars to shrink ) . It ’s also say to carry up well than the more common westerly red-faced cedarwood when exposed to weather , which is a bonus in our abrasive clime .
For the other materials I ’ll need , I ’m passing aroused to be working withGardener ’s Supply Companyto build out this garden .
Once I get my provision list together , I ’ll share what I ’m using from their product line . It ’s going to simplify this labor vastly ! Like , taking a month - farsighted business of building all those beds and turning it into two weeks tops . ( And that ’s only because our kids are too small to assist , but not quite with child enough to stay out of trouble . )
The chicken coop and chicken run
See those two rectangle to the left field of the veg garden ? The smaller one is our current chicken chicken coop , and the large one is the chicken run .
There ’s a full - sized door from the thousand into the volaille run , and another full - sized door from the volaille run into the garden .
This direction we can easy mix the chickens inside to “ clean up ” the raised bed at the end of the time of year . We can also let them out into the pasture to destitute - range when we ’re outside with them .
I ’m planning to ramp up a planter box next to the Gallus gallus foot race for pest - repelling herb like mint , rosemary , and lavender . We used to have this in Los Angeles , and twice a week I ’d pick a fistful of fresh herbs to throw in their nest boxes . ( It ’s kind of like aromatherapy for them . )
The two minute rectangle above the chicken run are a potting bench and a rinse post for vegetables .
I ’m not indisputable yet if we ’re going to trench in a pee line to an outdoor garden sink , because it ’s one more thing to winterize . ( But it might not be a big good deal since we ’ll have to winterize all of ourdrip irrigationanyway . ) At the very least , we ’ll have a garden hosiery hooked up to a faucet .
The greenhouse
northerly of the vegetable garden is our cisterna , which stores our irrigation piddle from the river .
We ’re go to build up a irregular glasshouse ( and garden shed ) around it this twelvemonth , using the put in water system in the concrete tank as radiant heat energy for overwintering our citrus trees and comely - weather plant .
This is how we heated our previous greenhouse ( on our rental dimension ) without power . We lined the north wall of the greenhouse with several 55 - gallon drum filled with water . The drums collected solar energy during the day and radiated the heat back out at nighttime .
Together with some foam insulation and a hot compost pot inside the nursery , we were able to keep the blank space above freeze on the coldest winter nights ( which sometimes got down to 10 ° F ) . We actually get more sunlight on our current belongings , so this method should work even well .
We ’re toying with the idea of build a walapini ( an underground greenhouse ) . We ’re intrigue with this style and how it uses thermal plenty from the ground to wake the anatomical structure and steady the temperature at heart . ( It ’s alike to the wayEarthshipswork . )
The back of the property
Along the northerly fencing , we ’re thinking raspberries . Lots of them . And maybe other berry ? ( Though blueberries will go in planter around the deck . )
All that empty space east of the cistern / greenhouse is going to stay a pasture for now ( which we ’ll ejaculate with clovers and wild flower ) .
What is n’t shown in the lottery is our 40 - infantry cargo container , which presently sit in the northeasterly recess of the slew .
It ’s being used for storage at the moment , but once we move in to the new firm , we ’d care to reposition it on the lot ( maybe in a way that block off the northeastern niche so we can veil our junk yard ) and turn it into something nerveless .
Will has all sorting of rarefied ideas for it , so if he settle to make it his human beings cave , it means I get the bare bonus room above our garage ! Hehe .
The food forest
East of the vegetable garden where I drew in all those trees — that ’s our future intellectual nourishment forest ( also known as a timberland garden ) . We ’ll have a mix of fruit trees , flowers , herbs , andground coversin this space .
It ’s more of a variation on a permaculture intellectual nourishment woods , as we wo n’t have all seven layers ( canopy layer , low-toned tree diagram level , bush layer , herbaceous layer , rhizosphere , soil control surface , and vertical layer ) but we ’ll plant multiple layers to create our own miniskirt ecosystem .
This part of the yard will take some time to develop as we try out with what works in our climate , but I ’m look forrard to realize how it evolve while we live here .
The swimming pond
We ’re leave open outer space in the southeast corner of the yard for a swim pond . This project will be several years out , but if we come through the construction of our house without tearing our hair out , we might pop out on it sooner .
Swimming ponds are also make love as natural pools , and they ’re chemical - barren pools that rely on plant life to permeate out harmful microorganism .
Half the pool is a dedicated swim zone , and half the pond is a regeneration zone — that is , the zone filled with aquatic plant that bump off bacteria and algae .
Think of it like have your own swim hole in the backyard . We still have a lot to cypher out , so our pond might not be quite as large as I ’ve drawn it . ( One can woolgather , right ? )
The entertaining areas
To the left wing of the pond is simply a nice grassy expanse for kids to persist barefoot on . We ca n’t do much here since it ’s our septic leach field , and we have to be aware of any tree roots that might damage the leaching lines .
The deck will open to this niggling lawn so I opine we ’ll reseed it or consist down fresh sod after our house is built . ( Just depends on how beat up the live grass get in the unconscious process . )
I drew in a footpath head from the deck to the vegetable garden ( mayhap made from pine logarithm rounds , since we have to trim back down a few true pine trees ) .
On the Frederick North side of the path I ’m planting an herb coil ( the form that face like a seashell ) so we have fresh herbaceous plant close to the kitchen .
On the south side of the way is a fervidness pit . We ’re not exactly sure where it ’ll be establish yet , but we know we require it somewhere in between the deck of cards and the pond .
What’s next
There you have it — our garden plans , as complete as they can maybe be for the sentence being .
Do you have any suggestions to add ? Are there things you would ’ve done otherwise in your own garden , in hindsight ?
I ’m certain some things will change once we have an actual house to visualize in the place , but we feel pretty good about these initial concepts .
So , what ’s next ?
properly now , we ’re empty the weeds from the yard so we can cut down our overgrown grass . The previous sheds have been torn down , but we still need to dismantle the roofing and take it to the garbage dump .
Once we have a nice , clean slating to work with , we ’ll bond off the area with stakes and string ; mark the exact locations of all the raised beds , fence posts , and poulet political campaign ; and begin construction .
Lumber is on order ! And hopefully the weather will start acquire cooler by the fourth dimension it ’s all fork out . persist tune up .
