Even though there’s snow on the ground and it’s been really cold here since the first of the month, I’ve been outside tramping around the yard and thinking about plans for next year’s garden. Actually plans have been in the works for the whole property for a couple years now, but I want to focus on the area back bordering the woods on the back half of the lot in the coming months.
The satellite image of my property from Google Earth. The white lines show the property boundaries. You can see that about 60% of it is woods. This is the wild zone that exists as is, we visit and observe but don't meddle with it.
First a little bit about the property itself. I’ve got 1.8 acres here, with about 60% of that as woods behind the house. All the properties out here back up to a large forested area that’s pretty much protected from development because it’s all part of a large wetland that drains eventually into Oriskany Creek. The good thing about it is there’s an abundance of wildlife in the area: turkeys, hawks, songbirds, geese, squirrels, rabbits, deer, and the occasional fox and ‘possum. The bad thing about living in a low-lying area are the mosquitos.
Some of the wildlife can be pests as well, although surprisingly, I have few problems with deer. I think that’s because of my dogs and plus the house sits in the middle of four houses that also have dogs. And, there are large farm fields about a mile down the road and I often see many deer grazing there at dusk. So I think they have other preferred forage in the area and the dogs all act as an additional deterrent.
Anyway, there are a couple goals I have for the coming year.
Here you can see the side of the shed where I'd like to put some rainbarrels and perhaps some compost bins, though I don't think there's enough height to put the barrels on top of the bins.
I’d like to install a series of rain barrels to collect rainwater off the shed. The shed is pretty large (as sheds go), about 160 square feet. The rule of thumb is that you can collect 600 gallons of water off 1000 SF of roof in a 1″ rainfall. So my shed can collect a little less than 100 gallons of water from a 1″ rain. I’d like to put in at least two and maybe three or four 55 gallon barrels.
I’ve had plans to develop the area between the woods and the semi-circular driveway as a “food forest” for awhile now. Food forests are a permaculture concept that seeks to mimic wild forest structure of canopy, understory, shrub layer, ground cover, etc. in the growing of food. Because food forests are planned 3-dimensionally rather than just two dimensions (square feet) they can produce – so I’ve read – a surprising amount of food. My plans include some fruit trees, fruit and nut shrubs, maybe some perennial veggies (although there aren’t many of those) and annual vegetable beds.
I’d also like to work in lots of herbs and flowers – “insectaries” as they’re known. I actually have a “bee tree” here: a huge sugar maple with a wild hive inside. Since honeybees are in serious trouble around the world, I’m happy to have them and I’d like to provide them with as much variety as possible.
Of course, in the establishment of my food forest I will be killing more lawn as well (yay!). I actually got started on this last summer, mulching a large area with cardboard appliance boxes covered with a thick layer of straw. The wild turkeys love straw, I think because it has a lot of pale colored spiders in it. (I’m not sure if they’re in the bales when I put the straw down or are attracted to it afterwards.) The turkeys scratched through the straw and of course, added some fertilizer to the mix. The weight of the snow will press it down and in the spring I will cover with compost and plant. Exactly what to plant will be the question. I already have put in two pears, some comfrey, chives, rhubarb and a purple salvia called ‘May Night’ that the bees just love.
The area along the woods labeled "Food Forest" in the satellite view of my property.
Looking a little to the right of the previous photo. I think the nearest of the three white spruce should be taken out.
Looking through to the open area directly behind the shed (out of sight, to the right).
Looking across the center to the left side of the swath that will become "food forest".
As you can see from the photos, it looks like a fairly large area but the maples in the woods have a pretty deep overhang, plus I already have some trees planted, like the spruce next to the shed. One of them needs to be taken down – it’s a scraggly looking thing (unlike the other two) although the hornets and wasps love it for its pitch in the early summer. (And they only like that one – not the two right next to it.) It’s also important to remember to leave enough room for the mature size of the stuff I want to put in. It’s so hard to visualize that a little stick of a tree will quickly shoot up over your head and in a few years can be 20′ or 30′ tall.
So, that’s a very general idea of what I’d like to do. On the one hand, I’m itching to get started – but it is good to take a break too. I keep reminding myself that spring will be here soon enough!
What are your ideas for your yard, deck, or patio next year? It’s not too soon to begin planning.
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