I just got some seed catalogues in the mail! Cosy inside while surrounded by snow up to my knees outside, I’ve been reading glorious descriptions Chantenay Red Carrots and Tall Telephone Peas and Aunt Ruby’s German Green Heirloom Tomatoes. With all this land now, I’m dreaming of fresh vegetables and canned jams and chickens running around everywhere.
They’re destined to remain dreams for now. While I’ve never really been one to test the waters before jumping in with both feet, because I spend so much time in Toronto, my plans for the land this year are mostly just figuring out how everything works, and getting things set up.
This upcoming spring and summer and into the fall, I’ve got an ambitious list of projects for the land, some that I’m hoping will be an easy one day job, and some that I know will take much, much longer.
- There’s an electric pump that was set up by the owner before the owners before us, housed in a shed just before the dock, and I’d like to get it up and running again – it pumps water directly from the lake, and can be used to water gardens with a long hose, so I won’t have to dip into our well water, or create a system of collecting rainwater (although I might do something about the rainwater off our roof in any case). The previous showed us where the pump is, but weren’t quite sure if it was still running since they hadn’t used it themselves.
In the backyard, just on the way to the dock, is the shed that houses stuff for the lake along with the fairly large electric pump. - I’d like to set up a compost for household and garden waste, but one that won’t attract bears or other animals. The house is surrounded by a pretty densely wooded area, excepting the lake, and there is abundant wildlife. I was hoping to do this in the fall when we first moved in, especially so the compost would have time to get going over the winter, but time got away from me.
- I am indeed still dreaming of chickens – but it’s not to be at least for a little while. However, I’d like to earmark where the coop and run is going to be, especially because I’m hoping to eventually have the chickens operate a bit more free-range, assisting in eating weeds throughout the garden, fertilizing and aerating as they wander around. This is going to require much more planning and research, but before I start planting anything, I’d like to know where the chickens are going to be.
- In addition to the land immediately surrounding the house, which is nicely manicured lawn, there’s a substantial amount of land that’s had the trees cut, but is still mostly covered with dead and rotting logs, brush, and plants.
It’s going to be a beast to clear all of that, but I think that’s where most of the planting will be going, so it’s got to be done. I would hate to have to hire someone, but just looking at pictures of rototillers you can get from Home Depot have me envisioning years of going at it. Likely I’ll just clear what I can year by year, as the garden of vegetables (in addition to clearing for the fruit trees) this year is probably going to cap out at around 1o x 10.
A shot of the house, along with some of the land that needs to be cleared. You can just see the green grass lawn in the distance closer to the house, but I’m standing in the middle of all the brush that needs to be cleared out. It looks very doom and gloom here, which I guess is sort of appropriate for looking ahead to clearing the land. - This year, I’m going to be planting some perennials, fruit trees, blueberry bushes, asparagus plants: things that will not bear fruit for at least the next few years so will benefit from a head start, but will also (hopefully) bear some bumbling from me as I figure out how they’ll grow best as I’m back and forth from the city.
- Build a wood shed. I’m not sure if we’re going to have to hire a carpenter, as it’s quite a large undertaking that needs to be done relatively early in the year, so the wood we collect has time to season and dry before the winter comes. The house has a wood stove and a furnace fan system that can be used to circulate hot air from the stove throughout the house, so it can be heated entirely just through wood. It’s great because it means we have extremely low hydro costs, but it also means we’ll need a lot to get us through these Canadian winters.
No shed, just a tarp. Part of the wood pile looks already looks a bit wet from a late fall rain, but it turns out is also not the most effective way to keep wood dry in two feet of snow. - We’re going to be collecting, splitting and stacking wood from the land. We have around 100 acres of mostly wooded land, and the previous owners had a more than sufficient supply of wood from just the land itself, so we’re hoping to do the same.
We got a little Japanese Daihatsu Hijet for riding down the main trails to collect freshly fallen trees, and also to help maintain the trails, but it’s going to take a fair amount of manual labour to chop and split the wood.
So that’s it for the now (I think). All of this is still churning around and likely to change as we actually dive into it.
It’s delightful to think ahead to all of this, and all of the other wonderful things we have in store for us in this year ahead, especially as the snow surrounds us and I don’t actually have do any of the work (yet).
making wild rice 