The Fence

We have a fenced in back yard now! It has only taken 18 years to get our yard fenced in, but better late then never, I guess? Now our dog Maxie can run free, we don't have to worry about strangers wandering up or stray dogs killing our chickens again.

Our dog before Maxie, our Chow was a Shepherd mix and she was attacked two different years by a neighbors set of pit bulls. We actually took the neighbor to small claims court both times to pay for Bandit's medical fees. With the fence up, we will not have to worry about Maxie being attacked. Also last year 13 of my chickens were killed by a stray dog who wandered on our property while they were out free ranging, so now I do not have to worry about that happening.

The day after the fence was up we let Maxie our dog run free for a few hours and then we put her in the garage and "released the cluckins". They loved it! The first day they stayed pretty close to the chicken run and coop. Now when I let them out they are all over. So far none of them have tried to fly over the 5 foot fence and seem to not be interested in anything outside of the fence.

We still need to fix this side of the yard and chicken run as you can see. We plan to seed it and grow bushes all around the chicken run.

One of the problems with free ranging besides the chickens trying to eat my garden is dust bathing. This area of the yard has the best grass.  Here is the Black Australorp taking her bath in the hole she has made in the grass.

 They love this spot for some reason and they are making a lot of craters in the ground in this area.

They also love to dig under the new mulch and into the compost that we put under the rose bushes to dust bathe and cool down. So after they are done free ranging I put back the compost and mulch that they disturb. The holes in the grass though need more repair then that. We'll have to figure out a way to move them where we want them to dust bathe. Life with chickens, always a challenge!

Dirt, Compost, Mulch all that good stuff!

Am I weird that going to Compost Central in Charlotte is exciting to me? They sell wood or nugget mulch for $10 a truck load, which is an awesome price considering how much just a small bag costs. They also have compost available for a little over $20 a truck load. You drive up, pay and go to the side and they dump a large scoop in and off you go. When my husband wanted a pickup truck, I was very supportive of him getting one. He may be regretting that now. Although, I do think he is happy about it since the yard looks so good now!

We also pick up gardening soil from a place called Markham Landscaping. It costs around $36 a truck load, but it is more like half a truckload. The soil I like to get from there is called Gardener's Choice and it is a combination of soil, compost and manure and you can sure tell the manure is in there. We ended up getting 4 loads of wood mulch, a load of compost and 2 loads of Gardener's Choice this past week. We got a nice workout for our arms with all the shoveling and wheel barrel moving. We added compost around a lot of our flower gardens and then added mulch. We fixed up the front, side, back, etc. Plus we've gotten a great start on my vegetable garden.

I recommend the Gardener's Choice for anyone in or around Charlotte, it is great garden soil. This is our first year using it exclusively and the vegetables so far are doing great.

Here are some pictures of our progress:

We made garden boxes out of untreated wood. We have 3 now and they are all 4' by 8'. We also cut 16' cattle panels in half and looped them over the top. The cattle panels along with bird netting will keep the squirrels, birds and chickens out of my vegetables. I planted squash and zucchini plants and seeds in one box. A variety of cucumber and bean seeds in another and a variety of tomato, pepper and tomatillo seeds in the 3rd box. This is a big shrink down from my gardens from years before, I used to have around 14 boxes. We had to redo everything due to the construction. It is so nice now to be at the point where we can rebuild.

I had planned on only using heirloom seeds this year, but since we had to demolish our garden, I broke down and bought a few plants from Lowes. Here is a large tomato plant and a grape tomato plant. I planted basil along side them to help deter bugs, plus fresh basil tastes great!

I planted a cherry tomato plant in my herb garden. The grape tomato plant and the cherry one are already starting to flower. The soil must be really good for them to be so short and already flowering. My plan this year is to trim the plants a lot so they'll be short and bushy and hopefully full of tomatoes. The tomato seeds I bought should be ready by the time these are done giving us tomatoes. That is the plan anyway.

I added some strawberry plants to the side of the house too. I had some really tasty strawberries last year in the old garden. I am hoping to get another box for these plants since I really do not want them to remain on the side of the house. Strawberries need a more permanent location since they come back year after year.

Here is my herb garden surrounding our patio. We've seen a few mosquitoes so we have our screened canopy put up now. The garden has citronella plants, rosemary, lavender, thyme, basil, sweet mint, spearmint, gardenias, marigolds and more. A lot of the plants are to keep bugs away and also I have some for their flowers.

This is the wall we broke down and then put back up with castle blocks. We finally ended up using all the castle blocks we had to move from the front and side yard.

So the garden is in full swing now and the yard is looking great. I am so glad I agreed to buy a pickup truck when my husband wanted one. We have put it to good use hauling dirt, compost, mulch, trees, bushes, plants, wood and more.

I have a lot of before and after pictures of our whole yard that I will post soon. It has been over 3 years from start to finish with the city and all the construction surrounding our house. We have felt like we've been on this never ending episode of the Yard Crashers.

It's been awhile since I posted and we've done so much, hopefully I can find the time to show you all the progress.