Planning anyhting new for the homesteadin 2011

[Missy]

(After the cat incident earlier today, I think I need to focus on the more gentle outdoor animals)

Anyone thinking of adding to or chaning their homesteads this year? I have a few things I am going to do. I need to upend the duck "Pond" and rearrange that to make it more user friendly for my ducks and for us to maintain as well.

I plan on adding two new ducks, some new hens, and some quail. I have to reagrrange my quail pen too, its much too low to the ground where it is now, and not so easy to clean. I think if I can either replace it completely with something else or find another way to make it useful...

I think I have figured out a good plan for the fish and crayfish tank...so I am not worried about that.

And the gardens need some revamping too. I need to add some ammendments into the beds out front, so that hopefully my cooler crops wll suceed next year.

I am going to expand some that I did well this last year. My corn ws outta sight. I used bantam varieties (shorter varieties) and they did fantastic. My peppers too a while to "get going" so I think I might figure out somehting to push them along better. And my potatoes were...less than stellar. But I had a ton of them, they were just little is all, which isn't BAD, I mean if you go into the store and buy a bag of fingerlings, you pay quite a bit. But I was hoping for some big ones, for baked potatoes.

Looking forward to new things this year.

[madhen]

I want to do a better job with my garden this year. I built a new run for my chickens last year, so I may spend some time "furnishing" it for their enjoyment.

I replaced my water holding tank last year, as well, upgrading to a 2500 gallon. I would like to figure out how to turn the 1500 gallon tank into a rainwater collection tank. It is huge, so hard to set up on a level spot near a gutter.

Plan to put several fruit trees in and, if I can afford it, start either a hedge or put a solid fence between me and my idiot neighbor.

[Judi Dial]

Madhen, if you're putting in a hedge, how about hazelnuts? I got this idea from a permaculture book, but if you're doing a hedge anyway, you might as well get some food from it too?

You can buy them at raintree nursery, and other edible landscaping plants too.

IHTH!

Judi

[madhen]

Ooh, I LOVE Raintree!! I'll check it out!

[monkeywrangler71]

I am going to build a garden. Again. Hopefully I will actually grow something. There is a flat spot on the south side of the garage which I think would do well.

I'm also hoping to put in some apple trees, but not sure if they would be worth the effort here. It's not exactly agricultural land

We are supposed to be burning a blueberry field on my fathers woodlot in the spring, although we never got up yet to lay the straw. Maybe I should think about planting the fruit trees up there - better land and a lot more space. Not sure how we'd keep the deer out. Something to talk about though.

Yeah, and I also need one of those fence/hedges between me and my idiot neighbours .

[monkeywrangler71]

I'm intrigued by the hazelnut idea. Have you done it Judi, or just read it? Does anyone know how hardy they are? I'm in zone 5.

I want a small fence on the south side so it doesn't block the sun, but would like to put a nice thick hedge on the north side so I don't have to look at idiot's line of boulders and orange stakes.

[Judi Dial]

I haven't done it. Here's a link to the catalog item:
Raintree Nursery

It says:
We are offering a cross pollinating mixture of productive filbert varieties (Delta and Lewis) for those interested in planting productive nut bearing hedgerows, at an affordable price. These are on their own roots. Trees planted at 4 foot intervals should be allowed to sucker freely, which they will vigorously do, and an effective barrier 10 to 15 feet tall will be formed in several years. Filbert hedgerows have formed fence-like boundaries around fields in northern Europe for hundreds of years; giving shade, browse and forage for stock, shelter for a diversity of wildlife and protection from cold winds. The homeowner will also benefit from the privacy which a dense hedgerow affords throughout the growing season and the attractive winter bloom of male flowers. We offer 3 foot and up trees at a bargain price.
click for specific growing info Climate Zones: 5 to 9

I have nasty neighbors to the south!

Judi

[zakity]

Oooo... Hazelnuts as a hedge! What a great idea! And, yeah, they sucker hard time. We are always cutting the suckers off our hazelnut trees to keep them as "trees". We are in either a zone 8a or 8b and they grow here like weeds.

[madhen]

I will have to check out local nursery, but if they don't have them, I may have to go to Raintree. I have evergreens planted, but I wouldn't mind a solid hedge, and it sounds like they would only take a few years to fill in.