My Custom Homestead-Day 5

The next step in my homestead planning to map out my homestead.  I decided to take a stab at drawing our property, and borrowed my almost-three-year-old's crayons to colour it in (we are desperately in need of more craft items in this house!).  I basically mapped it out as is, with a couple of additional future hopes, such as two raised garden beds/planters in the front yard (if there's a spot far enough ahead of the house for it to get enough sunlight), and a chicken coop and pen (behind the shed).

This is not drawn to scale!

In the little round planter on the deck, I grew herbs last year--tarragon, rosemary, chives, oregano, and thyme--yes, I squished them in there.  In the rectangular built-in planter at the end of the deck, I used to grow tomatoes, horrifyingly without any crop rotation, for the last three years.  Poor little planter and its depleted soil.  So this year I think I'll put spinach in it as soon as I can, then after that harvest, grow some sort of squash, which can then trail all over the deck as much as it likes.

We have shockingly little in the way of edible landscaping on this property, although I have planted a couple of little serviceberry (Amelanchier spp.) for the birds but also for us.  So far I haven't gotten any berries from them however!

I got carried away with colouring before I thought to put in the compost pile I'd like to add (in the top right-hand corner of the image) and extra planters with lots and lots of basil (at the "top" of the steps on the right-hand side of the house).  Also, I should have put in a little compass rose so you could get an idea of how this is situated.  Basically, the top of the image, or the back of the backyard, faces just east of south.  So the backyard would be the sunny, perfect area for planting, were it not for all the trees and shrubs.  I do love my backyard birds though, so the trees are staying where they are.

So to sum it up:

• I can grow vegetables on our deck, and that is all.  This year I hope for herbs, spinach, and some sort of squash
• I think I could potentially add something in planters on the pavement that goes, unfortunately, right up to our foundation--wouldn't always be sunny, but would be very warm and relatively sunny
• Some day maybe I will get a tiny crop of serviceberries from our little trees, if the birds don't eat them first
• I am hoping to put a compost pile in the southern corner of our lot, hidden in the shrubs
• I would like to put a chicken coop and pen behind the shed where it won't be seen from the street but will be easily accessed, especially in winter
• Those funny red squares are a little paving stone walkway into the backyard
• Our property has way too many trees (I never thought I would think that way!)