Lori, I was dreaming about your new barn yesterday, wishing it was mine. And I had an idea.
That lean to side,is that in the fenced area? Maybe you could put a rain gutter on it with a down spout that leads to a trough. You would have a free source of water for you animals.
My old German neighbor does this on all his outbuildings. Uses the water for his plants.
I never thought of that....we talked about putting gutters on it and then using rain barrels cause the garden is just to the right behind the barn and the whole side is lined with our fruit trees/bushes so it would be close to where we would need it.
We have a friend that says the company he works for has some wonderful topsoil/aged compost mix and he will deliver it to us! He is the same one that delivered the mulch. We still have mulch leftover. I have 4 more trees to mulch around and I am thinking of doing another small flower bed somewhere but I don't know yet.
Right now we are trying to decide what trees to plant at the end of the pasture so that the goats will have some shade. We are thinking about some maples but hubby also likes redbuds. He wants to stick with something 30-40 ft or less cause you will see it from the road. We have 2 dogwoods that are currently inside the goat pasture that will need to be moved somewhere and we were thinking of putting them along one side of the fence but they are only 15ft at maturity and I would like something bigger to help block some of the wind.
He does not want leland cypress or any type of evergreen. Any ideas? We are in zone 7 in VA
Oh, and we are looking into almond trees. I have heard mixed reactions to the Hall's Hardy almond trees so I am looking into the All-in-one Almond tree. Anyone have these?
Yeah, he was looking in the Burgess catalog at sugar maples but we have a local nursery that I could probably get significantly older more mature trees from and that way I get to inspect the trees myself instead of just getting whatever they send.
I joined their newsletter this morning and they sent me back a coupon for $10 off a purchase of $50 or more!!!
Plant a few different trees...for those that need to be pollinated planat two. I am a big fan of fruit trees myself. Apples, pears, plums, and maples are good too! Maples are so plentiful here that we don't have to plant those though
Well, I already have 3 different kinds of apple trees, 2 different kinds of pear, 2 different kinds of cherry, 2 or 3 varieties of blueberries, 3 thornless blackberry bushes and 3 wild ones we dug up from the back of the property.
I wanted to do the all-in-one almond trees but I don't know if I want to order them or try to find somewhere local so I can actually pick my trees. I'll pay more but end up with bigger trees that I can hand pick. That's what we did with our fruit trees and last year our pink lady tree had 6 apples on it!
We really wanted to stay with something native to Va so trying to dig up a maple or poplar from the woods out back is an option too but we need to do it soon before they start to bud. We tried last year but the timing wasn't right and the 2 we did died.
I actually have 2 maples marked with clothespins in the back but they are huge trees at maturity.
For the goat pasture, I'd plant something that they can eat the fallen leaves from. On the outside of the fence, something you can trim and toss the trimmings to them. I'd be reluctant to put fruit trees where the fruit would drop into the pasture.
Maples are a good choice, not red maples, but sugar maples would serve a purpose later, and the goats love the leaves. Poplar grows very fast the the leaves are very popular with goats. Birch is another tasty one.
Yeah, I was thinking about that. Our fruit trees are about 15 feet from the fence line so we should be okay with that one.
I'm kind of leaning towards sugar maples myself....they are pretty. We like the shape. He also thought about planting some shrubs but I think it will look dumb to plant shrubs in the middle of a pasture. There are 6 acres or so of pasture in front of us with nothing in it so you have wide open and then a line of shrubs???
I might sneak out of the house today and go to the nursery and see what they have. I do have that coupon and 2 children that love a field trip!