lovely garden beds with crushed rock paths (for the chickens)
I really want a Food Forest, a la Permaculture with trees, bushes, and low-lying plants all mixed in so that they work together for pest management, etc. I especially want to refer to my Chicken Gardens book for all the (chicken-friendly) plant suggestions.
I want to be sure to capture all rain water into rain barrels to use for irrigation (Instructions here).
What could be prettier than a rustic herringbone brick path?
edible plants in Hugelkultur beds:
elderberry
blueberry bushes (several different varieties)
pear tree
apple tree
a great post on Hugelkultur Beds
- Hugelkultur bed ready to plant
cut flower garden
lots of hydrangeas (tips here), peonies, lilac trees
I don’t know if roses are too fussy for me, but these are soooo lovely!
Hopefully I can train the clematis to do this!
Is it even possible to have a working farm AND to have it be BEAUTIFUL????
animals
chickens – Step-by-step instructions for butchering chickens here.
Oh, wow! Climbing roses on the chicken coop. I want this!!!!
Here is an article on helping keep the chickens healthy using herbs and charcoal from the wood stove.
bees – Resources for natural beekeeping in a Warre hive here, here and here
I want to buy the hive and supplies from here for about $600 (three sets of hood and gloves, etc.)
I am so excited! There is a Montgomery County beekeepers Association and they offer a beekeeping class every February! I can hardly wait!
Warre hive =)
fish (in an aquaponics system)
We will have some aquaponics
lots of info on aquaponics here and here
more aquaponics
And if we could possibly move to another house in Mystic with a bit more land, then I would LOVE to add a few pigs and Dexter cattle (article here) – in a permaculture, Joel Salatin-style farm with no inputs and no waste outputs.
of course, no proper homestead is complete without a root cellar – to store potatoes, pumpkins and other squash, carrots, garlic, onion, and lots of lactoferments
Did you know you can store onions for 8 months in pantyhose? Tie a knot between onions and you can then clip the knot as you need an onion.
I’d love to build a small addition between the garage and the house (expanding the existing mudroom) to give a space for laundry and also a usable mudroom space as well as a sewing area that is open to the deck via French doors.
something kinda like this
As long as we’re dreaming, I’d also love to replace the slider in the pig room and the picture window in the dining room with two sets of French Doors all leading out to the deck/pergola.
I can’t wait to get some permaculture training.I found a New England permaculture site!!!
I also want to check out http://sowingsolutions.org/, which is in Massachusetts, I think.
While I would like to rely more on passive solar than PV, but this looks pretty! Not sure if it’s financially worth it, but we’ve talked about photovoltaic solar shingles on our saltbox, kind of like this:
Check out my pinterest page for more ideas to turn our quarter acre in Mystic into a full-fledged homestead.
Pingback: House Dreams « The Pantry Book
Pingback: My dream home on a Permaculture Homestead | The Pantry Book