I purchased a home last year and would like to begin to utilize my property. I live on 1.2 acres in a rural subdivision. I will be off work on parental leave from April to December of this year and would like to begin utilizing the land I own to a greater extent. I believe the two largest items will be a garden and a chicken coop.
We have a family of 5, myself, my spouse and our 3 children, ages 0, 2 and 4. I am also taking into consideration the educational value and the time I will be able to spend with my children on these endeavours.
I have checked with local bylaws and I am permitted to have up to 4 hens in a coop that cannot exceed 3M x 3M x 4.5M in height. It must be in the back yard at least 3M from the side property line and 1.2M from the rear. This will not be a problem to accommodate and my current vision would be to construct the structure of the coop on a base of either 4 or 6 skids. 4 skids would give me 2.5M x 2M and 6 skids I could enlarge it to 2.5M x 3M. I suspect 4 Skids should be large enough for 4 hens. The bylaw only speaks of the coop size and does not mention the size of the outdoor area the hens would be allowed to "graze?" in.
The garden I was thinking of making like 20' x 32' or even larger. This would break down into 4 16x10 plots. The soil is very sandy so I was thinking I could dig out two sections 4 feet down and replace that soil with a good 4 or 5 way mix and leave the other two as the sandy soil and then plant according to preferred soil type and also manage plant rotations between the plots as needed for optimal growth.
I have also purchased 120 White Cedar Seedlings, 10 White Oak & 10 White Spruce, I was considering planting these along the east edge of the property as I have a neighbor who is a nuisance. with my luck I will plant them all and the neighbor will move in 2-3 years...
Also I would like to have a pumpkin patch which could be including as part of the garden or possibly separate. I just think it would be great to be able to put 25+ pumpkins out at the end of the driveway with a free sign come that time of year. I tried to save pumpkins seeds from this past year however the seem to of turned black and moldy in the bag so my drying attempt failed I guess. (ziploc bag that I did not zip up)
I also have access to a vacant farm property about 1 hour away that belonged to my grandfather and is now my mothers. It has been abandoned the past 3 years. All the pipes froze and the place needs to be gutted. He raised and sold Boer goats and had a pick your own blueberry field. The blueberry plants are still there, the grass was 5 feet high around them and there are some larger bitch trees growing throughout the area. trunk diameter likely 4-6 inches. I looked into landscaping companies that might want to purchase them as there are quite a few that are in clumps of 2 or 3 but the information I got was birch is one of the hardest varieties to transplant and there are enough places that are growing them for exactly that reason and they trim them and manicure them for visual appeal that I was wasting my time and just cut them down.
So I plan to try and recover the blueberry plants, probably 250 or so plants between all the rows. There was irrigation run but it does not seem to be in very good condition. So between gutting the house and getting at least a working bathroom and making it sanitary and the blueberries that is another whole project.
I also work with hunting dogs and do some dog training so I plan to build a pigeon coop on the premises and raise some homing pigeons, I would like to build a smaller holding pen at my home that way I can bring 2 or 3 birds from the farm and use them to work with my dogs at home and once I release them they will return to the coop at the farm.
other than that I promised my 4 year old she could have a bunny this summer. so I'll will likely try to retrofit and older dog house I have for that and the biggest problem there will be making sure the dog and the rabbit are never outside together...
So Yea, I am hoping I will be able to gain valuable knowledge from these forums that will help me to learn to achieve some of my goals
William Tripp
I imagine I will end up breaking these down more specifically for each subforum.
Vegetable Garden
Soil Prep
Hens
Pumpkin Patch
Blueberry Field
Tree Seedlings
Homing Pigeons
Hunting Dogs
Bunny
We have a family of 5, myself, my spouse and our 3 children, ages 0, 2 and 4. I am also taking into consideration the educational value and the time I will be able to spend with my children on these endeavours.
I have checked with local bylaws and I am permitted to have up to 4 hens in a coop that cannot exceed 3M x 3M x 4.5M in height. It must be in the back yard at least 3M from the side property line and 1.2M from the rear. This will not be a problem to accommodate and my current vision would be to construct the structure of the coop on a base of either 4 or 6 skids. 4 skids would give me 2.5M x 2M and 6 skids I could enlarge it to 2.5M x 3M. I suspect 4 Skids should be large enough for 4 hens. The bylaw only speaks of the coop size and does not mention the size of the outdoor area the hens would be allowed to "graze?" in.
The garden I was thinking of making like 20' x 32' or even larger. This would break down into 4 16x10 plots. The soil is very sandy so I was thinking I could dig out two sections 4 feet down and replace that soil with a good 4 or 5 way mix and leave the other two as the sandy soil and then plant according to preferred soil type and also manage plant rotations between the plots as needed for optimal growth.
I have also purchased 120 White Cedar Seedlings, 10 White Oak & 10 White Spruce, I was considering planting these along the east edge of the property as I have a neighbor who is a nuisance. with my luck I will plant them all and the neighbor will move in 2-3 years...
Also I would like to have a pumpkin patch which could be including as part of the garden or possibly separate. I just think it would be great to be able to put 25+ pumpkins out at the end of the driveway with a free sign come that time of year. I tried to save pumpkins seeds from this past year however the seem to of turned black and moldy in the bag so my drying attempt failed I guess. (ziploc bag that I did not zip up)
I also have access to a vacant farm property about 1 hour away that belonged to my grandfather and is now my mothers. It has been abandoned the past 3 years. All the pipes froze and the place needs to be gutted. He raised and sold Boer goats and had a pick your own blueberry field. The blueberry plants are still there, the grass was 5 feet high around them and there are some larger bitch trees growing throughout the area. trunk diameter likely 4-6 inches. I looked into landscaping companies that might want to purchase them as there are quite a few that are in clumps of 2 or 3 but the information I got was birch is one of the hardest varieties to transplant and there are enough places that are growing them for exactly that reason and they trim them and manicure them for visual appeal that I was wasting my time and just cut them down.
So I plan to try and recover the blueberry plants, probably 250 or so plants between all the rows. There was irrigation run but it does not seem to be in very good condition. So between gutting the house and getting at least a working bathroom and making it sanitary and the blueberries that is another whole project.
I also work with hunting dogs and do some dog training so I plan to build a pigeon coop on the premises and raise some homing pigeons, I would like to build a smaller holding pen at my home that way I can bring 2 or 3 birds from the farm and use them to work with my dogs at home and once I release them they will return to the coop at the farm.
other than that I promised my 4 year old she could have a bunny this summer. so I'll will likely try to retrofit and older dog house I have for that and the biggest problem there will be making sure the dog and the rabbit are never outside together...
So Yea, I am hoping I will be able to gain valuable knowledge from these forums that will help me to learn to achieve some of my goals
William Tripp
I imagine I will end up breaking these down more specifically for each subforum.
Vegetable Garden
Soil Prep
Hens
Pumpkin Patch
Blueberry Field
Tree Seedlings
Homing Pigeons
Hunting Dogs
Bunny
Welcome to the forums 
