A Little Backyard Homestead Project

[sumi]

As some of you know by now we moved house this week and I finally have a space big enough for more than a few hens The house I'm renting now comes with a decent sized backyard that over the years have been left to neglect and my landlord is very happy to let me transform it into something better than this:



I am still working on straitening the house out and unpacking, in-between recovering from a badly timed mini bout of flu, so at the moment my project is in the planning stages still. But I decided today to take some pics and share my plans, before I get started, to keep track of this project (and have you all kick my butt when I slack off )

First on the list is removing the two piles of what turned out to be tree branches and the other rubbish. Then decide where exactly to put the chickens (at the moment I'm leaning towards part of the left hand side, as you go up the steps). On the other side, once I cleared the space, I'm going to do a vegetable garden. Closest to the shed I'm planning to put in some roses, just for eye candy I may also put in a small lawned area behind the roses, before you get to the chickens and garden. It doesn't look it in the pics, but it's a generous space that allows for quite a lot with some careful planning.

Since it's Ireland (more often than not wet), I'm going to make a path running between the chicken pen and the garden with stones. So from now on, when I go out, I will keep my eyes peeled for suitable stones for that part of the project…

The garden side of the plans are going to have to wait until spring, but before then I plan to clear the space of dead vegetation, rubbish, etc… Once that is done I can better plan the space and layout of everything. I'll probably shop for roses soonish though, as the garden centres and market traders sell them cheap over the cooler months. Another thought I am still undecided on, but may end up doing is putting on some fruit trees along the side, where the property border is. Probably apples. Apple trees are wonderful and grow so well here.

@Beekissed I'm thinking of clearing the bit right at the back for your pumpkins to run riot in.

So… A lot of thinking going on here at the moment! There are many possibilities for this space

 

[sumi]

Gardens mean canning. Hmmm. you will be too busy to get into any trouble for awhile Do you have any things available to help...tiller, mower, etc.? Sure hope so.

Now that we have seen the yard....how's the house? Larger than before? Sounds like you will be there for a while & that you are excited. Congrats!

Oh there is always time for trouble! No tiller or mower, just some hand tools and I need more... I think time and energy should take care of most of the work.

The house is lovely, not big, but bigger than I had before. Entrance hall, smallish but adequate lounge/sitting room with the kitchen leading off that. The kitchen is a good size, with an eating area off to the side and stairs leading up to the bedrooms (3 good sized) and bathroom. The house is well laid out to make use of the space and should be easy to heat over winter, with the wood burner in the lounge. There is storage heating available too, but I'm going to avoid using that as much as possible, as it's running on electricity and probably dang expensive.

 

[sumi]

I had a thought cross my mind this morning… The dead grass (as can be seen in the above pic of the wood) covers most of the backyard. There is a lot of it and I was thinking of just piling it right at the back, where I got started with a compost heap. But can make good bedding material for the chickens and I'm now also thinking of putting a thick layer of the stuff down in the chicken pen/run area when I camp that off for them. I should help keep the mud under control in there and over time with their scratching around in it and crapping on it, break down into something resembling decent compost….

 

[sumi]

My landlord dropped in yesterday. He cannot figure out a safe way to get the pen into the back here. The problem is the immediate surrounding properties are jungles and he doesn't want to cut back trees etc, to give us access, as that would take away my privacy in the back here, which is very nice… The pen itself is quite big and very heavy, which makes it awkward and difficult to move. I may just find an alternative housing solution for the hens soon, so I can get my shed back. Oh, he said there is an old shed in the back corner? We walked up there and had a look, but it's so overgrown, neither of us could find it LOL

I asked if he has a pair of secateurs I can borrow to cut back some of the plants along the fence line and he said he has two pairs and will drop them off today. He's very happy to see the progress I made out there so far and said I seem to "like a challenge!" I do I love it!

It's sunny today, so I'll see about getting pics… Here goes:

What I raked so far:

I need to go over there again with the rake some time, but for now I'm after getting all the dry grass and moss gone, then I can level the soil. Excuse the rubbish on the left, I'm still picking up and collecting it there for removal. (Thanks for burning trash in my backyard, neighbours! )

This is going to get cut back and raked up, today if the weather allows:

And somewhere in that corner there may be a shed….

You can see the start of the compost heap in the last pic (in the back corner) and just in front of that, the wood pile we pulled apart. There are still some sticks I need to pick up and move to the shed for burning later.

 

[sumi]

DS found and put up a sign at the steps leading out to the back. Very appropriate, don't you think? LOL

 

[sumi]

We're o.k. Hectic wind earlier and lots of rain, but our power stayed on, thank goodness. I hear some parts of the country got hit pretty bad… Especially along the coast, Cork, Kerry, Clare, etc. One of our neighbour's trees lost a branch while I was outside and gave me quite a fright! Thankfully that was about as exiting as things got I hear we may be in for more this evening, but for the last hour or so it's been quiet outside.

 

[sumi]

I bought three more roses yesterday, two yellow climbers and a purple bush I planted them out into this so long, to give their roots some space and so I can water them. I'm going to put them in the garden once this coming freeze passed, so the frost don't hurt the new leaves.

Here's the total haul

 

[sumi]

Thank you, @Beekissed I hope they will do well here. The soil is fantastic and I've seen roses grow and thrive everywhere here, even untended along roadsides. A splash of colour in the backyard, especially along that lovely old wall, would make a huge difference!

 

[NH Homesteader]

So he said that if he were putting in a walkway, the technically correct way to do it is to dig down, put down crushed stone with a layer of fabric over it. Then put down sand with your stones on top. He would use a compacter to... But he does this at work sometimes so you might not want/need to do all that at home!

 

[sumi]

The branches are going to get burned, but in the stove inside. Ashes can go back out there afterwards then.

And a lovely old stone wall! Right where I plan to put the roses too.