Planning, Planning, and More Planning

 Getting ready for our new place is exciting, but we'll be taking it easy and doing "stuff" slowly because I want everything done "properly" and not rushed. Once we've closed, and it is really ours, the first project will be fencing the front. I've found some lovely black railings and an arched double gate

that opens to 12 feet wide that Mark can do the honours and make open electronically.  We want to set them in brickwork kind of like this example above. The one here has made my life so much easier, and has proved convenient for the rest of the family as well, when it's raining or cold and they don't want to be out in it.

I plan on bringing the fence around and partway up the "drive" (dirt track!) and then having the gate there, about 20 feet in from the road so's folks aren't on the road waiting for the gate to open.

Once the fence is done, and Spring arrives, we will plant roses behind the fence and behind them, a few feet and parallel to the spaces between the rose bushes, a row of gardenias (these will eventually grow to be like a hedge). Then, a few feet behind those, a row of privacy trees.  I haven't decided on which ones I like the most yet, or which have the least problems. I hate seeing a row of privacy trees where 2 or 3 are yellowed and dying, and it seems some varieties are more prone to do that, than others.

Coming in from the gate, to the right, I'm going to have a mini orchard and today placed an order for 5 fruit trees, to be delivered in early Spring. All are multiple varieties on one root - 4-on-1 plum/pluot, 2-on-1 cherry, 4-on-1 pear, 4-on-1 apple and 4-on-1 fruit salad.  The pear and apple are considered "constant harvest" as the varieties blossom and fruit at different times for a longer harvesting periods. 

Then, we will be moving our grapevines from here and will have a couple of rows of grapevines running from the driveway in the direction of the creek. I may have to buy a few more in Spring to complete the rows.

We'll be moving a lot of plants from here to there throughout Spring. Gardenias and roses mainly, but also some young trees we'd planted this past year, and I'm continuing to start gardenias from cuttings off our 2 original bushes so that we can have them along many of the fencelines around the property.

We'll have 2, possibly 3 beehives this year, and they will be at the top end of the property, close to where Mark is going to dig out some of the swamp, when we have an excess of dry weather, to form a natural pond. We really need it dry and cracking in order for him to be able to do that, and we want to put a solar pump and fountain in the middle of it, before he then "breaks though" to the creek to allow the water from there to flood in. At the same time, we'll be putting in various aquatic plants that naturally clean all the different minerals and pollutants from the water, so that, over time it will be beneficial to the rest of the swamp as well. And all naturally!

The bees will definitely have an abundant supply of food and water sources.

I'd been talking about getting milkweed so as to help Monarch butterflies ... and lo and behold, there are a smattering of them throughout the property, and yesterday I even saw a couple fluttering around each other, like they were playing. It was nice to see.

We're also going to add to the morning glories that are there as we were blessed to see a hummingbird on one over the weekend.

It's really a paradise there.