Plotting out the new garden
The time has come for
the most exciting part of our move --- our first perennial order! With
eleven years of experience to call upon, it'll be easier to choose the
plants that yield the most with the least expended effort this time
around. But how many of each will fit?
To start with, I used a tape
measurer to plot out the existing structures and shade trees in our
core homestead, beginning at one square for every ten feet. Of course,
once I'd drawn the rough map on the right, I realized I could have made
the scale twice as big. So I replotted a better base map on a new sheet
of graph paper (top image).
On our previous
homestead, we fenced the whole homestead with a complicated
mixture of systems
that worked...as long as we also had a dog to make the interior
moderately scary to deer. This time around, we haven't yet committed to
a canine companion. So we're planning a deer-proof
fence for the tastiest edibles, then will be putting the less
sensitive plants here and there around the remaining sunny areas.
The image above shows my plan for the less-deer-friendly plants so far.
What do you think --- will the nibblers make me regret putting
raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, asparagus, a peach, and a plum
outside the fence?
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Three years ago, I had to make the same decision about whether to plant fruit trees inside or outside of a fenced garden. I decided on outside and have regretted it ever since.
If you don't put a wire cage around the trees, the deer will eat the tips and leaves off of every branch they can reach. In the fall, the bucks will rub their antlers on the trunks.
If you decide on outside, plan on using a wire cage for 2-3 years (with the associated maintenance hassle) and trunk protection after that for several more years. I would also use standard size rather than dwarfs - otherwise you will need a wire cage forever.
Good luck and have fun with your new homestead.
Maps are eye candy.
For five minutes I kept trying to read this but I didn't read A WORD. I just was staring at the maps. Soaking them in. Not intellectually or even understanding them, just like admiring works of art or meditative scenery (which they are.)
Wow. Wow. Wow.
I just can't get my eyes off of your beautiful maps.
I do plan to read it in a jiffy though. Just thought I'd shoot a compliment.
Hopefully not too unintellectual.
Maybe you will end up falling in love with transforming new pieces of land, and start doing that in profession 4 in a decade?
PS I love deterring deer with un-nibble-ables.
What I see is an absence of a GARAGE in that drawing. Come on, that little plastic Rubbermaid shed you keep the generator in is NOT going to keep all your tools out of the weather long term.
It will be really nice to have a place you can keep the car out of the snow, rain etc. I know Mark has his itch to "tinker" and you will have garden tools, lawn mower, chain saw etc that needs a dry and secure home!