Our first year and a half in our home was spent making the indoor livable. It was full of dirty, smelly, chocolate brown carpet, moldy layers of linoleum, grease and grime. We updated the floors, the kitchen, and the bathroom and looked out the windows longingly at our dirt patch for a yard.
We knew we couldn’t afford to do all of the major renovations inside and afford or keep up with a major garden project so we planted some sunflower seeds, a handful of larger perennials and overseeded with clover in the front but otherwise left the yard untouched.
This year, interior projects will take the backseat – sure we may change a light fixture here and there or do some painting but major renovations are basically complete! 2022 is our year for outdoor projects.
Below is our dream list of things to get done outside this growing season.
LANDSCAPING
Front Yard
- Continue planting blueberry hedge
- 2 years ago I bought 2 tophat blueberry bushes from Park Seed to grow in pots on the front step. Last year I decided to plant them along the driveway in a bed we had cleared over the summer. In order to finish the border I need 8 more. I may try to propagate them in the spring.
- Install lavender hedge
- The blueberry hedge garden bed continues around the corner along the sidewalk at the front of the house. Here I will plant the lavender hedge. It will act as a barrier shrub to keep neighbors and their pets on the sidewalk and will produce enough lavender to stock our apothecary and spice cabinet.
- Plant asparagus divider
- Asparagus takes years to establish. I will be planting these in the front pollinator bed off to the side so they don’t just look messy. I also read that I can grow cosmos in between and disguise the fronds as they die back! The cosmos will self-seed each year too so win win!
- Keep adding to pollinator garden
- We currently have our base perennials in the front pollinator bed, some hydrangea and smoke bush. There are also 2 rose bushes which I am not a huge fan of but are established and flowering. I have a hard time killing something thriving but I will likely pull them out! I envision peonies, cone flower, rudbeckia, perennial herbs like chives or sage, plantain, bergamot. It will also include a border or cabbages for storage and fermentation.
LANDSCAPING
The Backyard
- Clover & Winter Rye Grass Lawn – The clover is slow growing, drought tolerant, nitrogen fixing and flowering for the pollinators. The Winter Rye grass greens up beautifully in the cooler weather extending our green for as long as we can.
- Install vegetable garden
- This is MY (kati) personal priority. Because of the U shape of our backyard, the southside sits virtually untouched. This is where we kept the chickens and ducks the first year and they did a great job of knocking down the weeds and fertilizing.
It is a 15’x40’ space (~600 sq ft) and I have spent hours and hours working and reworking to maximize our growing spacethe without sacrificing any practicality for walking or tools. After trying different layouts, shapes and size of the beds we have settled on 5- 2x 40’ long, skinny rows that yield us just about 400 square feet of growing space.
- This is MY (kati) personal priority. Because of the U shape of our backyard, the southside sits virtually untouched. This is where we kept the chickens and ducks the first year and they did a great job of knocking down the weeds and fertilizing.
- Install espalier orchard
- I have wanted an orchard for the longest time. The idea of perennial food is exciting to me, not to mention the fact that I can leave food for the next owners if we ever decide to move! We will be making a Belgian fence with 8 fruit trees. 2 of each – nectarines, apples, cherries, and pears! (Read our “2022 varieties” article here to learn all about what varieties we grow!) This will act as a divider between the neighbors and a pretty backdrop to the future flower rows.
- Install flower fields
- I’ll admit – this one is inspired entirely by IG flower farmers. I think that there is nothing more beautiful than their rows and rows of cut flowers. Eventually I would love to sell bouquets and excess produce so this is great practice for now!
- Pumpkin patch
- I bought a lot of pumpkin seeds this year, mostly traditional edible pumpkins (Sugar Pie, Jarrahdale, long island cheese etc) which will be planted within the vegetable garden but I also ordered some for decor including a giant variety and a carver. This section next to the chicken coop will be dedicated to one of each. I am not worried about chicken dust contaminating my food and I get to use the space to the best of its ability.
- Install divider Herb Garden
- We live in a suburb of Denver, on less than a ¼ acre. Our neighbors are close and you can’t be on our patio without being a part of their party and visa versa. I haven’t fully decided what I want to do. I have bounced back and forth between two options. I am leaning towards option 2.
- 1. An evergreen type shrub like arborvitae.
- 2. A 30 x 2’ garden bed with a cattle panel trellis In the beds we would grow all of our herbs, enough to use fresh as needed, dry for the spice cabinet, and process into other sauces like pesto and chimichurri. Up the trellis would be a combination of honeysuckle, spring and fall clematis and grapes Though it wouldn’t be a solid privacy fence year round it would be pollinator heaven.
- We live in a suburb of Denver, on less than a ¼ acre. Our neighbors are close and you can’t be on our patio without being a part of their party and visa versa. I haven’t fully decided what I want to do. I have bounced back and forth between two options. I am leaning towards option 2.
Which would you choose?
HOUSING AND NEW
LIVESTOCK
- Build permanent duck enclosure and pond
- A permanent duck house or enclosure has been both a long time coming and a pain in the neck to figure out. Ducks are waterfowl and therefore require water to rinse their eyes and noses and swallow their food. The problem is that they make a huge mess and everything stays wet. This is not as big of a deal in the summer – things dry fast overnight and the grasses love the moisture. In the winter is often means a slippery, icey mess that they get stuck to and is super hard to clean.
Id love to install some kind of pond that I can attach a hose to an drain. In the winter we can slip a tank de icer under a rock to they don’t get tangled.
- A permanent duck house or enclosure has been both a long time coming and a pain in the neck to figure out. Ducks are waterfowl and therefore require water to rinse their eyes and noses and swallow their food. The problem is that they make a huge mess and everything stays wet. This is not as big of a deal in the summer – things dry fast overnight and the grasses love the moisture. In the winter is often means a slippery, icey mess that they get stuck to and is super hard to clean.
- Raise new flock of chicks!
- We had a string of deaths in our flock since moving. A few predators, 1 case offly strike, and our flock was dwindling. In order to make the most of that live animal shipping fee, we would need to order a brand new flock. Luckily our old neighbors moved to some acreage and agreed to let our last 3 girls live out their days with their new flock. They are now happily scratching and pecking on untouched land full of seeds and bugs. Its chicken nirvana. Sine we love to raise our chicks during the fall that meant we would be a chicken free family through the spring and summer. We find that fall raised chicks are very cold hardy birds who start to lay as soon as possible in the spring! While I wish we could have more colored egg layers, we really have to prioritize maximum laying potential. That being said, our second priority is personality. In our last flock we had Austra Whites. They were docile, active foragers, and dutiful layers of a large creamy white egg.. We also had wyandottes – they laid consistently and were natural fair leaders of the flock but were also often broody. We are going to replace the wyandottes with Barred Plymouth Rocks. This heritage breed lays a large brown egg and lots of them. We eat fresh and preserve what we need and sell the rest.
- Build apiary bases x2
- We still have the door frame from our old crawlspace hatch laying around. It was made from 4×4 posts so we will cut these down and make a raised bench for our bee hives (coming in 2023!) I love when it works out to be free or nearly free!
Cheers to 2022!
Now for the hard part – actually getting the work going! Here we go!
We love to see and hear about your adventures on your property, big or small! Please leave a comment or tag me on Instagram with @TheFryFarmette and #TheFryFarmette so we can cheer you on!
