Hello,
I'm looking forward to what Paul (and others suggest). I recently moved to a 1.38-acre lot bordered by woods and conservation land on two sides. And a large fenced neighbor with a pool who is only here 10 days a year on the other side. My nearby neighbor has an orchard/farm and some equipment but I don't know her much yet. She has very tall fences around her yard and gardens. We also have a nursery, and garden center on the other side of that neighbor. I'm in zone 6 (it just got changed to 7a but my area is not there yet as they used the average low temps of the islands nearby too which stay warmer due to the water. Avg wind is 11-18 mph and the lot is pretty flat - 2' topo change over the whole thing. Winds generally come from the N in the winter and the S in the summer. Oak trees, lots of lovely oat trees and some scrube and red pine. Pea stone driveway, small town of about 8,000 people year-round. I don't have much experience with permaculture, I have a 9-5 joby job that I enjoy and two young boys (5 and 7) who I also enjoy. The current place was very manicured with ornamentals and a huge lawn. They said they did not use pre-emergent but did targeted spray. There are wet mossy areas, but no real puddles. The garage gutter drains go under the driveway and empty into the side lot.
At my past home, I had a 60 x 30' veg garden, 20x20 vegetables and berries, and an herb garden. Weed took over my time as I don't do well with direct sun but the plants do. I directed water from gutters, only planted edible and/or native. I had lots of problems with rats in my compost (then moving to eat the car seat snacks from my car) I've heard there is quite a bit of deer, coyote and bird pressure. The former owners had a large veggie garden out back. There is also a koi pond with no fish. It's lovely here and I want to make it more of a home (stead).
I'd like to grow more greens in winter. I do lettuce and sprouts inside now. I do not like mowing the lawn but ready to leave trimmings on it and leave it higher. It is nice to have space for kids and dog and me to play.
So we are working with about 500 ft lot that is 150 ft or less across, not much stone, sandy soil. Last Frost - April 22, First Oct 24 - 184 days, altitude 100'
Goals:
Take advantage of water collected from roofs
Hugelkulture - where, can use fallen trees, how thick layer of soil
Involve kids - they are very excited about adding nitrogen
start growing more food - where to put some fruit trees in for the future
What to add to side yard where we come into the house most often and I look at when I'm working at home, besides clothes drying line
Fence for foodies - not sure I can plant enough for the deer
establish more permanent compost bins but keep at least my dog out of them - now just a big pile of leaves and grass clippings that I bury kitchen scraps under
where to "contain" brambles
anything edible to grow in a small pond - kids want to get fish too
if have time, talk about heater/stove in kitchen where former owners had a cooking woodstove and now is blank
What else would be helpful to know? I have 1 hour or less a day to put into this and I'm angry about our current conventional food system.
