front yard plans

The first thing that I want is a hedge rather than a fence. Mostly with citrus and nut trees - maybe some pomegranates, but otherwise, mostly non-fruiting ones that people might be tempted to steal.

I have four citrus in the front garden bed - a lemon, two multi-citrus, and a mandarin. None of them are doing very well at all - I haven't gotten a fruit out of any of them, and they're pretty much the same size as they were when I planted them, and it's been two years. So I think it's safe to say that they're not liking that bed. The fruit salad stonefruit tree on the other hand is growing GREAT GUNS, while the persimmon is doing nicely, also, and the dual stonefruit trees are holding up. But the new apricot doesn't seem to like the bed so much:

I'm more than a bit worried about that. It's got good leaves, but no new shoots happening.

I also have an avocado in a pot, grown from seed about 7 years ago, so it should be right about ready to start producing. I just need to get it in the ground, because it has seriously outgrown the pot. And my mother just gave me two apple trees for my birthday.

To say that I have an abundance of trees is something of an understatement, I believe.

current plan:
1. plant the apple trees right up against the lattice fence between the front garden bed and the side lawn, and espalier them to form a hedge
2. plant the avocado where the camellia used to be
3. extract the citrus and plant them along the fence, letting them dig deep and grow out

Also on the books for this year is getting chickens - for eggs, for pest control, and also for mulching and manures. I have the geodesic dome hubs, I just need to buy the struts and set up the chook dome. The only question is size; I want a slightly smaller dome for the backyard, and I'm thinking that I might set it up so that the triangular hutch in which the chickens come opens out into the dome, so they can go out there during the day, do their thing, and come back inside into the warmth in the evening and lay their eggs. At least to start with.

Many plans, most of which wouldn't have been possible if I hadn't been made redundant earlier this year (with warning late last year). It's made me appreciate not only cash flows, but garden time, too!

While homesteading isn't something that I'd do unless it was dire, I would like to develop a self-sufficiency in fruit and vegies and eggs, through chickens and a garden that is both productive and pleasurable. At some point (nuclear war, abrupt end of the petroleum society, dire social breakdown) I may decide to start a Linda Woodrow circular permaculture garden in the front yard, but I feel that's a few years away right now...

In the meantime, we tinker on!

Autumn 2016

So I pretty much skipped all of summer there...

So far I have two pumpkins that have set, another two that are up in the air. Also struggling to set fruit is the passionfruit vine which has flowers galore but nary a passionfruit to show for it. I think I need to trim it down pretty savagely come winter.

I have several tomatoes setting fruit - whether they actually ripen nicely is another matter - there was a brief fruit fly infestation in the garden and I haven't seen any decent tomatoes since January, although there are some growing on the vine now. The 3rd planting of corn looks good, but whether it manages to pollinate is another matter. The 2nd planting wasn't very thoroughly pollinated and the cobs look like gappy teeth. The 1st planting I lost entirely to mildew and insufficient growth, alas - I think it needed better soil and mulching.

This is part of the learning cycle of gardening for me - working out what goes where and how to make things grow - at least somewhat by trial and error.

What's doing really well? Eggplant. I have three plants producing, and while they're not going great guns, they're doing pretty solidly. Oh, and the basil. The basil is going NUTS. Everywhere, NUTS.

And I finally have a harvest of fruit; my fuyu (sweet) persimmon tree has branches laden with fruit, and has kept them for the last three months as the fruit fly came and went... It's pretty delicious, actually!

The biggest problem right now is that I'm running out of space to plant things. It's actually rather annoying; I've got loads of root vegetables that I'd like to grow through the winter, and the current crop sets are beans and peas (and some brassicas, which will soon need to be planted out). It's going to get crowded...

A look at the garden in March 2017 (compare with September 2016):

I'm seriously thinking about those chickens again, too - to keep the grass in check.