We’ve thawed out here at the EcoRanch: after the weekend snowstorm, much of the snow on the garden beds has melted, and the chicken coop seems to be holding plenty of heat. The sun shines on the yard again, keeping our imaginations vivid while prepping for the spring.
Kara, our intern and permaculture/vermiculture mastermind, and Ben, a WWOOFer that arrived on Sunday, are busy brainstorming plans for a permaculture design. Recent questions that have come up: how feasible are goats on this amount of land? Should most of the garden beds be situated lower in the yard to capture maximum sunlight and optimize the most level ground on the property? Is there a good way to capture the snow melt and funnel it away from the chicken coop, toward a garden area?
Busy ladies in the chicken house.
Recent progress includes more insulation on the chicken house, online updates and marketing headway, ongoing improvements on the existing garden beds and endless notes, phone calls and brainstorming sessions regarding the site plan. Our Golden continues to display her contentment by laying almost every day; tweaks to the cold frame have raised that bed’s temperature, and sprouts have emerged in the hoop house.
Flagstaff EcoRanch 
We’ve see the results of the “expanding” trees on our property, reducing the hours of sunlight to our vegetable gardens, My suggestion to your question about creating garden space in the sunnier lower yard with flat land . . . .do it! Find your SUNNIEST site. Oh – so much quicker results with earlier warming of your beds, faster ripening vegetables, and many more choices of fruits/vegetables that need at 6+ hrs a day of sun.
Thanks for the feedback. Hope you are having great results.
Hope to soon see some photos of that new intern-in-action. Thousands are wondering what she looks like.
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