I should explain before anything else that I have two rules for my yard, that make design more challenging but incredibly satisfying. Every I plant has to either be:
1) Native to central Illinois
2) Used in food production
That means no hostas, ornamental grasses, the linden tree I would adore owning, or any number of other plants that are perfectly charming. I'm generally not great at living my ethics in terms of meat selection, recycling, or sustainability - all parts of my life I hope to improve gradually over time. The yard is one area where I've developed enough passion and expertise to just put my foot down now and make a difference.
Here's a drawing of the yard as it is today, after our first six months here:
This is all to scale, due to getting some lovely pictures when we bought the house. The green is all the trees that were here when we arrived. On the left there's a maple tree, a mulberry tree, and the larger patch on top is a clump of what we believe are native plum trees. Darwin just adores these plums, he goes around like a cow with his nose to the ground snarfing them all up. The mulberry isn't native, but it's such an established tree (and the birds love it), that I'll probably keep it. The righthand side green at the top is a mess, just a horrible tangle of dead trees and a few that I don't want. We were hoping to get it all removed this year, but it will have to wait for the spring, financially.
I've already discussed our fruit trees (red and orange dots), blackberry bushes (purple dots), and prairie patches (yellow spray). I also planted a single juniper bush (green dot at bottom of garage) that's close to where Darwin likes to sleep outside. At my parents house he loves to burrow under the bushes, so I've started a juniper growing to eventually form a cave for him, which I'll be tying up along the chain-link fence in the spring. Turns out, unfortunately, that I must be sensitive to juniper, because after I planted it my arms developed a nasty rash. Not enough of a deterrent for me to get rid of the bush, but I'll have to wear long sleeves and gloves in the future when working with it.
That's what we're dealing with right now, and the blank spaces are mostly just normal grass or weed patches at the moment. Not desirable when you consider my two yard rules, but acceptable for now.
Next, I worked out where I hope the yard will be at the end of 2013 a year from now.
The big changes here are the addition of the "farming" plots. The big grey area is where the dead trees will be removed, and we'll be surrounding it with chicken wire to plant things like tomatoes, broccoli, corn, beans, squash, peppers, onions, garlic, and potatoes (as the list currently stands). The brown patch along the garage is going to be my medicinal herbs and tea garden, and I've already prepped the area with soil and mulch for the spring.
It's questionable whether I'll get to the blue line along the edge of our property, but my hope it to plant native shade plants along that area, which is just a strip of dirt right now. I'd wanted to plant blueberry bushes, but it just doesn't get enough sun with the angle of the house and a giant maple tree in our neighbor's yard. So shade plants it is!
Then, I have perhaps ridiculously ambitious plans for the end of 2014, that are largely dependent on our being able to harvest a considerable amount of seeds during the previous season. But to me, by dreaming big ahead of time, we have the potential to accomplish a lot of this.
I would love to have a lush garden that becomes a haven for us, Darwin, and local wildlife. I want to massively expand the prairie and shade plants, to include much of the front of the house. Add more space for farming, once we know more about how to manage food production on that scale. Maybe plant additional fruit trees. I'd also like to add official pathways from place to place, and that's the black lines, most likely stepping stones as opposed to strict sidewalks.
And then I want to do some things just for ourselves: the grey sprayed areas are places of "human development." That could mean patios, benches nestled in amongst the plants, or art work. I've told Nick all along that I want our artistic sides to be reflected in our outdoor spaces, and that we shouldn't be afraid to be creative. I want to put up art, statues, sheltered reading nooks. Really, just take the Homesteading/Survivalism page from facebook and transform our yard.
Like I said, ambitious for a three year plan. It's more realistically going to take 4-5, especially where prairie and shade plants need to become established. In the meantime, we're hopeful that the fruit trees and bushes make it through the winter, as well as the prairie plants we're using as the foundation for our native sections. We have a good start, and I'm excited to see how it develops over the next few years!
