The plan?
Wow, how do I put that into one simple blog post? Let’s break it down into three parts – short term, mid range and long term plans. And, while we also have goals for the house, shed and garage/shop that I’ll mention now and then, I think we should start with the outdoor spaces since – for me – that’s what this permaculture homestead is all about.
So here’s the short term plan:
Establish a deer (and other varmint) protected main garden bed in Zone 1
Establish fruit trees and bushes in Zones 1 and 2
Establish perennial food sources in Zones 1 and 2
Build or buy a chicken coop for Zone 2
Build or buy a greenhouse for Zone 2
The goal here is to establish the above within the first year (let’s say by spring of 2017) using as little money as possible and by using whatever resources might be available on the property. On just half an acre there’s obviously not a ton of resources but perhaps there are more than you might think.
For instance, I’m going to be establishing a number of raised beds and/or hugelkultur mounds. It’s impossible to dig down more than two inches without hitting rock and what little soil I can find is pure clay. To build the raised beds I’m starting by using tree limbs. We had several trees cut down when we first bought the property and one of those trees was a gigantic Silver Maple. It was a huge tree that shaded out most of our tiny front yard. It was really ugly (think Whomping Willow from Harry Potter) and – worst of all – stinkbugs just love to feed on it (more on the local stinkbug infestation in a later post). The only advantage the tree offered was its many long and fairly straight 4 to 6 inch diameter and 10 to 12 foot long branches that we will put to use in building raised beds and terraces.
The other resource that we seem to have lots and lots of is rock. Oh yeah, those babies might make planting almost impossible in anything other than a raised bed but those same rocks will eventually (long term goal) be used to replace the tree branches in the raised beds and terraces before they decompose.
Now you may have noticed that I don’t have any goals listed beyond Zones 1 and 2 when permaculture generally uses five zones. That’s because, on half an acre of rock with limited sun exposure, everything will be touched almost daily (see the recent post about permaculture zones). From tomato plants along the rock wall right outside our back door to the chicken coop just up the hill about twelve feet from the back property line, there won’t be an inch of this little half acre that isn’t visited on a daily basis. This will be one very INTENSIVE homestead.
So that’s the overall plan. I’ll share a rough drawing in my next post of what goes where. Of course, I’m basing that drawing on where I think the sun will be from May to September. Our homestead is very narrow and there are a lot of trees on our neighbor’s property that partially shades our tiny bit of land. I think it’s going to be a real challenge trying to stack as many trees, bushes, vegetables, flowers and herbs as possible into those few spaces that get enough sun. Stay with me!
