SpicyDisaster
Songster
Starting this thread to record the progress of turning a wheat field into a garden/chicken paradise. At least that is my goal... we shall see how it turns out. I grew up in the Seattle area but I've always dreamt about getting away from the people and living off the land. I've started and left behind two gardens in the last decade so I'm thankfully not starting from experience-scratch, just ground-scratch. This first post will cover the changes from when the house was first being built around Spring 2021 to present day (Jan-2022).
As you can see in the below photo, brand new construction being built in what was a wheat field until Spring 2021. Now it's just in the middle of the wheat fields (and one day lavender field, the next big project eep!). The area has been compacted for the construction of the house making digging in this soil difficult at best. Current plan is for the garden area to take up the rectangle of space from the end of the garage to the end of the house, roughly 3000 sq feet of ground. Starting with in-ground beds and irrigation that will get upgraded to raised beds as I get older. We built the garage with slanted roof to hopefully launch the West prevalent winds up and over the garden.
Here's what it looks like getting painted. I don't seem to have a good post-completion picture handy. The two windows closest to the garage are my office, I work from home so the plan is to be able to see the garden and the chickens from my office for full enjoyment. And yes, that is a garage door on the back of the garage. Our build suggested it as a way to get large things from inside the garage into the garden/yard without having to drive around the chicken run, especially if we put in fencing.
View from inside the office. Not the best photo as it was for laughing at Marbu getting blown off the coop roof rather than actual documentation purposes. Straight shot view into the coop door and the garden beds will be in-between. The girls were free-range at this point and loving the wheat that had been spilled by the harvester at the edge of the field yet HATING the wind. To help with the wind we built a straw wind-wall, starting at 3-high but then going up to 5-high. This thing has fallen over several times and been a general PITA. Temporary measure until we get the permanent chain-link run installed. The hardware cloth and wood structure is the brooder coop that the girls grew up in before we moved. We used scrap plywood from the house construction to fully enclose it but removed the panels when we moved to make it light enough to carry. They like it for extra shelter/shade and it gives us a good time-out coop if someone is being a bully or we need to keep track of a specific chicken but don't want to completely separate her.
Four hubby and I's fourth anniversary we decided fruit trees counted as "fruit" for the traditional gift and went to the nursery. Got ourselves 2 apples (honeycrisp and cosmic crisp), 2 cherries (bing and rainer), a walnut, 2 autumn blaze maples, and an ornamental pear. I was desperate for trees having grown up around them my entire life, being out in the open for a few months was harder on my psyche than I expected. Buffalu was also excited for the trees aka forbidden pot dirt to dig in.
I wasn't joking this dirt is super compacted and rough to dig in. So I enlisted my husband to dig all the tree holes while I planted them. Teamwork makes the dreamwork. Buffulu, Marbu, and Tigris were over inspecting our handiwork on the cherry first thing even before we got the stakes in the ground. We do a berm around the tree so that we can do a soak-watering once a month for the first two years. Straw was layered over top of the berm to help keep the chickens from digging the tree roots up. Tigris is the worst offender and is appeased with straw.
Unfortunately in November we lost two chickens to a coyote within a week of each other. This was our second and third loss, with one back in July. Not knowing when the permanent run would be built (waiting on materials) we put up a temporary wire fence to keep them contained. The girls do NOT appreciate captivity after having had the entire plot to roam. They even more so do not appreciate being unable to reach the fresh wheat grass sprouts in the field. Too bad so sad for them as the coyote was ballsy enough to come up within 15 yards of us and watch what we were doing while installing this fencing and then come back the next day to lay on the ground under a tree watching them inside the fencing. Ultimately we had to put construction fencing up and around the top of the bales to keep the girls in, they laughed at our straw bale wall attempt to keep them away from the luscious greens.
Once the fence was installed, it was a daily occurance to chase down Tigris and put her back in the run. She would just magic her way out and I wish I had a camera to figure it out as she was the only one. Even with one wing clipped she laughed and made her way to the compost bin. So double-clipped was the next attempt and she got out less... but still got out. I had to accept that she may just become coyote food out of sheer stubborness.
Fast forward to December and the materials finally came in to get our permanent run installed. It is 30' x 30' of 6' high chain link. I talked the hubby out of 8' tall fencing to save $$ though I partially regret that decision now. We shall see if a coyote ever gets into the run. While the poles were being installed for the run, the girls were let out to free range as we couldn't keep them cordoned off from the coop. Within three hours of being let out, I chased off the coyote trying to catch Buffulu and Nali. UGH. I've never loathed an animal as much as I do that coyote. Thankfully the run was finished just a few days later without incidience and the girls have been contained ever since. Even Tigris has yet to escape though I have a feeling that has to do with the snow more than her not being able to get out.
Below is a shot of the current temporary run setup that runs along the side of the garage over top of the garden space. In the spring, the temporary run will be changed to extend from the left-side of the run and be a pasture for the girls while we rototill all their fertilizer goodness into the garden bed area.
The below is a look out over what will be the garden beds. The blueberries will be put in the ground once we have irrigation lined up and the beds outlined on the ground. In the background you can see our compost bin with the orange construction netting we used to fruitlessly keep the chickens out of it. Underneath this snow is all bare soil just waiting to be worked with. I am so excited to get to build this out over the next few years!
As you can see in the below photo, brand new construction being built in what was a wheat field until Spring 2021. Now it's just in the middle of the wheat fields (and one day lavender field, the next big project eep!). The area has been compacted for the construction of the house making digging in this soil difficult at best. Current plan is for the garden area to take up the rectangle of space from the end of the garage to the end of the house, roughly 3000 sq feet of ground. Starting with in-ground beds and irrigation that will get upgraded to raised beds as I get older. We built the garage with slanted roof to hopefully launch the West prevalent winds up and over the garden.
Here's what it looks like getting painted. I don't seem to have a good post-completion picture handy. The two windows closest to the garage are my office, I work from home so the plan is to be able to see the garden and the chickens from my office for full enjoyment. And yes, that is a garage door on the back of the garage. Our build suggested it as a way to get large things from inside the garage into the garden/yard without having to drive around the chicken run, especially if we put in fencing.
View from inside the office. Not the best photo as it was for laughing at Marbu getting blown off the coop roof rather than actual documentation purposes. Straight shot view into the coop door and the garden beds will be in-between. The girls were free-range at this point and loving the wheat that had been spilled by the harvester at the edge of the field yet HATING the wind. To help with the wind we built a straw wind-wall, starting at 3-high but then going up to 5-high. This thing has fallen over several times and been a general PITA. Temporary measure until we get the permanent chain-link run installed. The hardware cloth and wood structure is the brooder coop that the girls grew up in before we moved. We used scrap plywood from the house construction to fully enclose it but removed the panels when we moved to make it light enough to carry. They like it for extra shelter/shade and it gives us a good time-out coop if someone is being a bully or we need to keep track of a specific chicken but don't want to completely separate her.
Four hubby and I's fourth anniversary we decided fruit trees counted as "fruit" for the traditional gift and went to the nursery. Got ourselves 2 apples (honeycrisp and cosmic crisp), 2 cherries (bing and rainer), a walnut, 2 autumn blaze maples, and an ornamental pear. I was desperate for trees having grown up around them my entire life, being out in the open for a few months was harder on my psyche than I expected. Buffalu was also excited for the trees aka forbidden pot dirt to dig in.
I wasn't joking this dirt is super compacted and rough to dig in. So I enlisted my husband to dig all the tree holes while I planted them. Teamwork makes the dreamwork. Buffulu, Marbu, and Tigris were over inspecting our handiwork on the cherry first thing even before we got the stakes in the ground. We do a berm around the tree so that we can do a soak-watering once a month for the first two years. Straw was layered over top of the berm to help keep the chickens from digging the tree roots up. Tigris is the worst offender and is appeased with straw.
Unfortunately in November we lost two chickens to a coyote within a week of each other. This was our second and third loss, with one back in July. Not knowing when the permanent run would be built (waiting on materials) we put up a temporary wire fence to keep them contained. The girls do NOT appreciate captivity after having had the entire plot to roam. They even more so do not appreciate being unable to reach the fresh wheat grass sprouts in the field. Too bad so sad for them as the coyote was ballsy enough to come up within 15 yards of us and watch what we were doing while installing this fencing and then come back the next day to lay on the ground under a tree watching them inside the fencing. Ultimately we had to put construction fencing up and around the top of the bales to keep the girls in, they laughed at our straw bale wall attempt to keep them away from the luscious greens.
Once the fence was installed, it was a daily occurance to chase down Tigris and put her back in the run. She would just magic her way out and I wish I had a camera to figure it out as she was the only one. Even with one wing clipped she laughed and made her way to the compost bin. So double-clipped was the next attempt and she got out less... but still got out. I had to accept that she may just become coyote food out of sheer stubborness.
Fast forward to December and the materials finally came in to get our permanent run installed. It is 30' x 30' of 6' high chain link. I talked the hubby out of 8' tall fencing to save $$ though I partially regret that decision now. We shall see if a coyote ever gets into the run. While the poles were being installed for the run, the girls were let out to free range as we couldn't keep them cordoned off from the coop. Within three hours of being let out, I chased off the coyote trying to catch Buffulu and Nali. UGH. I've never loathed an animal as much as I do that coyote. Thankfully the run was finished just a few days later without incidience and the girls have been contained ever since. Even Tigris has yet to escape though I have a feeling that has to do with the snow more than her not being able to get out.
Below is a shot of the current temporary run setup that runs along the side of the garage over top of the garden space. In the spring, the temporary run will be changed to extend from the left-side of the run and be a pasture for the girls while we rototill all their fertilizer goodness into the garden bed area.
The below is a look out over what will be the garden beds. The blueberries will be put in the ground once we have irrigation lined up and the beds outlined on the ground. In the background you can see our compost bin with the orange construction netting we used to fruitlessly keep the chickens out of it. Underneath this snow is all bare soil just waiting to be worked with. I am so excited to get to build this out over the next few years!
Following along...
