Garden Update

The garden after less than 2 months!

The garden 2 months ago.

tomato rows in May

 This is the garden as it appeared early this morning.  The squash plants and tomato plants are waist high and thriving.
The pepper plants may not be tall, but they are loaded with peppers!
I started harvesting zucchini and summer squash last week and so far have gotten 34.5 pounds; and there is much more that will be ready today, tomorrow, .....

tomato rows today

tomatoes  vining back and forth through fencing.

The lettuce is long gone.  The dill and Italian parsley have been doing great, the rosemary (the little plants at the left of this photo >  have been transplanted to the herb bed and have tripled in size!  Also the garden sage plant just above the rosemary in the photo.
The second raised bed is full of zucchini and summer squash, about a dozen plants, and they are all thriving.  The second "hooped" bed holds brussel sprouts and musk melon.

Photo on left is the tomato and pepper patch.
There are four tomato rows planted along cattle panels for support.  The green frame at the right front corner supports cucumbers, and those few green plants to the right of the shovel are green peppers.

Among all these are vagabond squash, pumpkin or watermelon plants which grew from the compost.


Photo to the right is the same view as above.
The 4 tomato rows, peppers, cucumbers and vagabond squash, etc.

The tomato plants are heavy with fruit and now I am just waiting on them to ripen.






The tomatoes weaving themselves in and out through the fencing.

This is the best tomato support  I have ever used!  The plants are well supported and it is easy to trim the plants and see the fruit.

The snap green beans are off to a slow start and I have had to restart have the seed (the wild rabbit ate half the seedlings).

I have sliced, blanched and frozen 11 pounds of zucchini and summer squash so far.  Today I will prepare another 10 pounds for dehydration, shred a couple of the very big zucchini for the freezer to use later in zucchini bread and other recipes.  We have also shared a few with the neighbors.  It's the least I can do since everyone has been very good about our new rooster's crowing.

Backyard Farm: Photos of the "Farm"

Eye level view of the new fencing for the garden and the goats.

The lower portions of the picket fencing and the goats pen are "lined" with chicken wire in order to keep chickens and wild critters out of the garden; and to keep chickens from wandering out of the goat pen.

There is a chicken wire "tunnel" which connects the chicken run with the goat pen and allows chickens to have full access to the goat pen as well as their own large run.

This view during fence installation shows more clearly the chicken run at the back of the garden.
The run is about 25' long x 8' deep and is beneath the trees and along the fenced property line.

The property behind is an early elementary school, grades K-5.  The children often bring their parents to visit the animals after school.
The teachers have also taken their young students to visit our turkeys at Thanksgiving.

I apologize for the dark areas at the tops of these photos, it's the camera strap peeking over the lens.

Another view during the installation; the yellow chicken house has two runs and the coop is divided inside by a chicken wire wall and door.
This is to keep young birds separate from the mature hens and their pecking order.

Cattle panels have been used for the goat pen; left-over panels are being used as support for the tomatoes. 

An old frame made from piping and wire, to form a mesh, is providing support for the cucumbers.

A view from "the street" looking in to the yard along the fence-line.

The goat pen was constructed from pressure treated 4x4's and 2x6's and 50" inch x 16 foot galvanized cattle panels.  The entire goat yard
measures about 30' x 20' with an ell about 8' x 12'.

We left the height of the 4x4's uncut in case we need to add additional height to the fence as the goats get bigger.

These goats are 4 months of age in this photo and are about half their adult size.

Inside the goat pen there is ample space for running and playing.  A teeter-totter, cable spool and child's slide keep them busy when they aren't playing tag with the chickens.
                       

 This overhead view was photographed through window screening and with electrical wiring in the way.  Please excuse the poor photo quality.

To the far left of the photo, along the neighbors fence, is our compost area consisting of 3 large bins made from rescued decking. 
At the upper left corner is the smaller of the two chicken runs.  We use this run for turkeys, ducks, and meat chicks before they are big enough for the chicken tractor and the larger fenced in pen.

 The larger chicken run, to the right of the coop, is situated along the neighbors chain-link fence and the back side of the garden.  It also meets with the back left corner of the goat pen where we added a chicken wire tunnel so the hens can easily roam from their run to the bigger goat pen.

Lots of worms, bugs and greens available for their foraging.


The goat yard measures approximately 30' left to right and 20' front to back.  There is also an additional section which adds another 8' x 12' to the back, left corner of their yard.  This is also the corner where the chickens can come and go.

At the front of the goat fence, about in the center, we have a hay bin made from left-over cattle panel.  The panel was measured and cut in a sort of + shape, and all four sides folded upward, and joined at the corner seams with zip-ties.  Longer  bits of the some of the wire were folded over to form hooks for hanging onto the fencing.

This is my favorite area!  It is where we grow my Kentucky Wonder green beans.  The frame is 8' wide x 16' long x 10' high (might be a bit higher)

There are 7 "joists" plus the two ends.  Twine used for baling hay is tied to the joists about 5" apart.  At the ground are 2"x2"x8" strips to which I tie the bottom end of the twice, about 5" apart.  By tying the lines so the wood strips float just above the ground the lines remain taut.
I plow a trench for each row and fill it with compost, burying the wood strips with the compost.  (The dark lines in the earth are these rows) 
At the bottom half of each end we added 2"x3" fencing (left-over) for additional vine support, such as for vining flowers like Morning Glory. 
Added bonus here, when nothing is being grown except flowers, it is a nice area for comfortable outdoor chairs; or, as we plan to try later this year, covered and wrapped with heavy plastic wrap, it can be used a a warm house to extend the growing season, or start seeds in the early spring.  It has full sun, all day, all year.
To the far left is the fenced area for meat birds.

This arch is the chicken tractor we use for the meat birds that are old enough to remain outdoors.  During the day, both ends remain open.  At night both ends go up, with the birds inside, for their protection.

Currently we have ducks living here.  Six Peking for meat, and 4 ducks of two other breeds for pets.  The area is enclosed with 2'x3' fencing, 48" tall. 

After the ducks have been processed, it will be time to move the meat chickens to the area; then turkeys.

Through the arbor at the rear of this area, is the front yard.  Next year, we plan to add an orchard and more garden there.  The orchard will have apples, peaches and pears all planted using the espalier method in order to get the most use from the limited space.

As you can see from these photos, we do not live out in the middle of nowhere.   Nor do we have a very large parcel of land.  What we do have is a carefully laid out site plan where we can get grow or raise most of our food.  We also earn a bit of money from the sale of our eggs which helps to pay for the feed and wood chips they will need in the winter.

Our goats will be ready for breeding around Thanksgiving.  I am searching for a suitable sire for their kids, which should be born in April.  At that time there will be plenty of fresh goats milk for drinking, for cheeses and for soap.  Much of which will be sold, including the kids.

From this garden I can, dehydrate, ferment, etc. enough food to last us until the next harvest.  

There is still much to accomplish such as collecting and storing water, converting our oil heat source to a sustainable wood heat system, building a green house and a root cellar.  In time we would also like to drill a well and be free of the water company.

We have looked into solar power for electricity but at this time the investment isn't doesn't make "cents" for the small amount of electric power we consume.

I hope this visual of the layout of our little homestead is helpful to you when you are planning your backyard farm.  Remember, this started with only 6 bags of potting soil!

Backyard Farm: Start Small, then Expand

To give a better perspective of what can be accomplished in a small space I have collected a series of images showing the evolution of our backyard into a "farm".  It is my desire that these photos will help you with your decision whether or not to convert your limited space and maybe provide a few ideas of what can be accomplished in a small area.

In the beginning.....

In the beginning our backyard was a weekly chore of mowing grass and/or raking leaves and walnuts (there were 5 walnut trees, three maple and a massive pine).  There was a small 12' x 12' patio area and nothing else.

My first garden.  Six bags of potting mix.

year 1- 2011 and 2012

 In "Year 1" of our garden we started small, very small.  The garden consisted of 5 or 6 large bags of potting soil.  Into each bag I planted two tomato plants, two summer squash plants,
 
 cucumbers, and cantaloups.  It wasn't a big garden, but there was plenty of tomatoes, cukes, summer squash and zucchini to share.



Year 2 - 2013:  The gardening bug bit me and I knew I needed more space to grow so we dug up a bit of dirt.

and also added a three of raised beds.  We also decided we needed chickens, both for their eggs and for their "fertilizer".

 

We were able to get some free pallets, and built a hen house.  It's lucky the pallets were free, because the siding, nails and roofing were not.  Neither was the pressure treated 4"x4"x10" timbers upon which we set the house.

We also needed to buy fencing and posts to build a run with ample space for a dozen chickens (we had intended to buy only six chicks, but the farm store could only sell them in groups of 12).

After adding an old window we had and a coat of paint, and a few laying boxes, the hen house was ready.

Several 10' x 3/4" pvc pipes form the frames for supporting the plastic sheets which help to extend the growing season.

The garden had expanded to three raised beds and a dug out area about 16' x 16'. 

Year 3 - 2014:  Lots going on in our third year!

year 3

Matt is 6' tall/ the beans at this time were only half grown to their full height.

The garden continued to expand with the addition of two more raised beds, a 12' x 12' corn patch,  an 8' x 16' bean patch (for my Kentucky Wonder snap beans), and a dug out garden which has expanded to 20' x 30' (more or less).

20' x 30' garden, with raised beds behind, and corn patch behind the raised beds (behind the hoops)

In our third year we planted 32 tomaoto plants which produced 150 lbs of fruit.  The bean patch produced 36 jars of snap beans and 5+ pounds of dried beans for use as seed.  400 corn stalks produced an average of 2 ears per stalk; approximately 10 lbs each of yellow summer squash and zucchini; a half bushel of green bell peppers (for some reason the 5 plants didn't begin to produce until late August); also pumpkin, butternut and acorn squash.

In addition I tried planting onions and potatoes for the first time.  The onions didn't do very well, growing from onion sets only to ping pong ball size (I dried and saved them and replanted this year); the potatoes were just a couple of kitchen spuds which were beginning to sprout so instead of throwing them into the compost bin, I planted them.  They produced enough mid-ling sized spuds to add to a stew.

This was also the year we decided to try raising meat birds, chickens and turkeys.  We were able to raise and process 24 chickens and 2 turkeys (named Thanksgiving and Christmas).

Year 4 - 2015

This year we have made some big changes.   Goats, ducks and roosters.

 

This is in April, a view of the garden (r. front) chicken run (left)  new goat pen (new fence at center r to l)

view of the goat pen and garden from the hen house.

view of garden from hen house looking toward the house.

This is the view of the garden from the hen house looking toward the back of the house.
The garden is being fenced in order to keep critters out.

There is a chicken tractor (center right- hoops)
where we keep the Pekin ducklings. (meat)

The area in the lower right corner is the corn patch from last year.  This year:  winter squash.

We added two little goats to our farm.  These little sisters were born in January and will be ready to breed in November, increasing our livestock which we will sell, and they will produce milk for drinking, cheese, soap....

tomato rows, bell peppers, cucumbers

Last year I staked the tomato plants to 2" x 2" x 8' poles.  It worked fine, but meant I had to keep tying the growing plants to the stakes all season.

This year, since I have some cattle panels left over from the goat pen, I decided to try training the tomato plants to weave themselves in and out of the fencing, after all, tomato plants are vines to some degree.

I have also added crushed egg shells to each tomato plant hole.  The calcium is supposed produce sweeter fruit.

garden, chicken house and run

 On the right side of the photo is a green frame, made of pipe (salvaged) which has had wire woven up, down and across.  This is support for the cucumbers.
 Overview of the garden, chicken house and run, and goat pen.  (view if from a second floor window through window screen)

The bean patch is located out of view to the far lower left of the garden.

goat pen

Look carefully at the way the yard is set-up.
Every area fits neatly next to the next, and every inch is being used in the most efficient manner possible.

The total area is less than 1/4 acre.  Next year the plan is to expand into the front yard by adding an espaliered orchard with dwarf apple, peach and pear trees.

Our hope for the garden this year is to harvest another 150 pounds of tomatoes; at least a bushel of bell peppers; lettuce and herbs for the table; a bushel each of yellow summer squash and zucchini;
as many brussels sprouts as six plants can produce (first time growing these); at least 30 pounds of winter squash; green peas; rhubarb, strawberries, blueberries, 6 cabbages, onions and more......

There will also be an average one dozen eggs per day which we sell at $3 dz., 24 meat chickens, 2 turkeys for meat and two to sell; 10 pekin ducks for meat.

I do not use insect repellent in my garden.  As much as possible I manually remove bad bugs as I find them and feed them to the chickens who love them.

Also, only natural fertilizer is used such as compost I from my compost bins, or when necessary, I will buy organic compost when I don't have enough of my own.  I also feed the garden a regular feeding of chicken poo tea.  This is by far, the best fertilizer I have every used.

Backyard Farm: the Layout - Things to Consider

Before we go any further with the discussion about your chickens we should talk about making the best use of small area of land you have available for your farm.

Let's use a small lot size of one-half acre, (more or less).  The most important step is studying your property.

THINGS TO CONSIDER:

-Take notice of where the morning sunlight reaches your yard and track it's path throughout the day.  To get a really good view of your property use Google maps.  Enter your address, and select Satellite View.  Zoom in until all your yard fills the map screen, take a screen shot.   You'll be amazed how different your yard looks from directly above and it is a big help with your planning.

                                                                          west
                                                     south                                      north
                                                                           east

-Which areas are in sunlight all day, which are completely or partially shaded at some time during the day. 

-Is there a damp or wet area?  Or, is it all very dry.

-What trees do you have, if any?  Some varieties, such as Black Walnut, are not suitable near gardens since they inhibit the growth of many plants.  Others, such as pine trees increases the soil acidity.

       * In this yard image there are a few mature black walnut trees which cast long shadows as well   as hampering vegetation growth nearby.   Once these two tress along the southern property line were removed the yard/garden was flooded with sunlight all day.
 
-Is the land flat, sloping, steep or a combination?  Is the house centered on the lot, or is more to the front, back or nearer to one of the side property lines?  Is there an area which will be somewhat out of view of the road and neighbors, or will your farmyard be out in front for all to see?

-What do you want to see when you look out your back door or window?

      *The kitchen in this house is at the back and looks out to the entire garden and chicken areas.

-Do you want the hen house nearer the house or garage, or nearer back or side fence?  Beneath a tree is a good place so the house won't get over-heated during the summer.

    *The little yellow square at the upper-left corner of this property is the hen house which has a run on the southern and north facing sides.

-How large an area are you willing to give over to the chickens for their house and run?

    *This corner of the property provides space for the 8'x10' hen-house and two runs: approximately 8' x12' and 8' x 20'.  It provides ample space for up to 25 chickens. (the chickens also have free range of the entire back yard)

-For the garden you will need a place for composting your garden soil.   It should be situated near the garden and hen house.  (When cleaning out the hen house we shovel the used wood chips and chicken droppings into its own section of the compost bin... ours bin has three sections and is built from old decking).  Most of the books, magazines and other literature I have read suggest very small square footage per chicken.  We prefer, and find our hens are happiest, a larger area... as large as we can spare.  Inside the house they huddle together on their roosts regardless of how much space we provide.

-Do you want other animals such as goats?  They will need their own shed and play-yard.   Once again I have read that each goat requires very little space, as little as 4' x 6'.  We are not comfortable with that and are planning a play yard of 20' x 20' at minimum for 2 or 3 goats.  More about goats later.
    *We do not have goats, yet.  But we hope to have at least two this summer.  They will have housing and play area at the open space at the north-west corner area of the yard.

-How much garden do you want or need?  Do you wish to grow a large variety of veggies and flowers; or fewer varieties but many plants for larger harvests of each?  What is the condition of the soil?
   *Look closely and you will see three white rectangles, 4 brown square, and a blue area.  Those were the raised beds and garden area at the time the satellite made this image.  Since then there is one more raised bed, and the 4 squares were combined and expanded into a 20' x 25' planting area.  Beneath the blue tarp is another raised bed.  In addition, another planting area has been created in the area to the south where the two walnut trees had been (the trees are visible in the image)

We grow a few of our favorite and most used vegetables, but we grow enough of each to feed us all year.

-Will you be planting in raised beds, pots, or directly in tilled soil?  We use all these methods.

-Do you have access to salvaged building materials or will you need to purchase your supplies?

Is your head spinning yet?  Don't worry, it is much easier than it seems at the moment.  Now is the time to make these observations in order to be ready to get started with the actual work once the snow has melted.
Still to come:   Building raised beds and trellises, prepping a garden bed, buying seeds, starting seeds indoors, and more....

Suggested reading: 
       These books are among my favorites; but there are many, many more selections on-line.