(This account is part of a longer answer to an assignment question on my correspondence course so regular readers can gloss over the bits they already know.)
Our small farm is a lifestyle block on the outskirts of Auckland. It is surrounded by similarly sized properties and benefits from being close to several small communities.
The land is about 6 acres in size and is a mixture of park-like garden, patches of bush and a large paddock. The soil is clay and the land is steep in parts. There is a spring which flows across the paddock although it tends to run dry in summer. The block is bounded by two other lifestyle blocks, which were subdivided from our block, and a bush block.
At the point of purchase, there was a 7 bedroom house, dating back to 1968 with most original features intact. This house is now being extensively renovated. The land also boasts a workshop and an open-ended half-round barn, both serviced by telephone, power and water. There are no stockyards, stables or animal housing and no vegetable garden. There was only one fruit tree – grapefruit – when we purchased the property.
Our small farm was originally part of a larger 6 hectare block which was subdivided into three blocks after purchase by a developer. The farm was divided into paddocks. We have been told that a chicken farm occupied the property before the house was built in the late 1960s. The family who built the house in 1968 and lived in it until 2007 ran a small family business on the land. I presume that they also kept a few sheep on the land and probably chickens too.
When we first viewed the property in early 2009, it had been recently subdivided and the gardens had been landscaped. A large number of pine trees had been felled and some native species, mostly flax and nikau, planted. New post and rail fencing had been installed around the boundaries and between the paddock and the gardens. The paddock was occupied by the owner’s alpaca and some sheep which were being grazed by a local farmer.
After we purchased the land, we acquired some chicks and set up a chicken coop and run, as a base for our free-ranging chickens which we keep for eggs and (occasionally) meat. I would like to acquire some ducks as well but will need to build a duck pond first.
We have continued the grazing arrangement with the local farmer until such time as we are ready to acquire livestock – hopefully sheep, goats and pigs, over time. We have declined to host a horse as we are not sufficiently happy with the water supply to the paddock.
We have planted some fruit trees (one each of apple, peach, plum, lemon and lime) and are in the process of building two large raised beds for vegetables and herbs. We have established three compost heaps and a “weed tea system”. Otherwise, we have dedicated the time we have available to maintaining the garden – cutting the grass and controlling the weeds (mostly broad-leaved weeds and some convolvulus).
Before too long, I'll post a list of projects that we have lined up for the next few years. There's lots of work to do around the farm but lots of fun to be had too.
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