Hey SuperForest! With the changes at Zero One, many of us had questions, one of which was about the SuperForest Summit – remember that? Anyway, SuperForester Zoe and SuperForester Matt got the topic going on the Forum, and SuperForester Matt has offered to host a new version of the Summit. Matt has been working hard making plans for Zero One Oklahoma, so if you’d like to meet up there, help out and learn more about permaculture, Matt’s your guy!
If you are able to attend, you should contact Matt at the coordinates at the end of this post. Without further ado, I give you SuperForester Matt!
Zero One Oklahoma Plan
Hello Superforest!
If you don’t already know me from my posts or the forum, my name is Matt Frederick. I have an amazing wife and two lovely daughters and we live in Oklahoma, USA. I am relatively new to Superforest and permaculture, but I have jumped in with both feet! And with that in mind, I present to you (drum roll please)…… ZERO ONE OKLAHOMA!!!!
It is a 3 bedroom and 2 bathroom house with a detached two car garage, chicken coop, work shed, fenced-off garden sitting on 2.5 acres in Guthrie, OK! And now, I would like to share with you my plan for this wonderful project.
Garden
First things first, the garden! The garden is roughly 20’ x 30’. I haven’t been able to go out and get an exact measurement yet, but we are estimating that we will be able to plant at least 10 – 30’ rows of food this season! It will be a lot of work weeding and getting the soil ready in time, but I am up to the task!
This year, we want to grow:
- Kale
- Spinach
- Lettuce
- Tomatoes
- Bell peppers
- Red potatoes
- Cucumber
- Watermelon
- Cantaloupe
- Cabbage
- Broccoli
- Apples
- Chili peppers
- A whole slew of herbs and spices
- Stevia
- Strawberries
- Blackberries
- Blueberries
- Celery
Those are just a few. I am sure we will modify the list once the time comes to go out and purchase the seeds! With some work, we will have this garden looking beautiful. We also, eventually, want to extend it to the back of the property and add an extra 50’ of garden. All that food… yum yum!
Chickens
We are also looking into getting some chickens at the end of March! Luckily for us, there is already a full chicken coop! We will have to do some work before it is suitable for the little guys. We are going to get the chickens as babies, so it will give us a couple of months to whip this into shape! We want to get around ten chickens and a rooster to start out. We might get more, we might get less; we will see!
Play Zone!
There is already a fabulous play house on the property. It needs to be fixed up a bit, but it is a wonderful start. I am also going to build a large sandbox next to it! There are also the beginning stages of an awesome tree house that we are going to complete! We need to build some rails around it. We also are going to put in a couple of swings and a climbing rope!
Greenhouse
There is a large dog kennel that we are going to turn in to a little experimental greenhouse for this year. Hopefully all will work out and we will have a decent yield from it. If all goes well, we will look in to building a proper, large greenhouse next to it. We will see!
Food Forest
There is plenty of room on the property to start planting some fruit trees. In time, we should have a number of food bearing trees and shrubs out here.
Goats
There are a number of goat farms out here and we are looking into acquiring maybe two dairy goats in the spring of 2012. There will be plenty of room to graze and there is already a shed that they could use to sleep and feed in. Once we put in some work on this, it will be an excellent place for the goats to sleep and eat. It is built to block the north winds from them.
Compost
We are going to make two underground compost piles. One right near the garden and one towards the back of the property,
The one next to the garden will be used for the garden. In that pile, I will pay close attention to what goes in and try to find the perfect balance of brown vs. green for the garden. It will be 6’ around and about 4’ deep is what I’m thinking. The compost pile at the back of the property will be for all other byproducts of us. This one will probably be 6’ around and 6’ deep. Both of them will have a sturdy, yet light fiberglass dome lid. These lids are from large parabolic dishes from my work which would have otherwise been taken to the dump.
Inside
The house is three bedrooms. We have two small children and they will have their own rooms, but they always want to sleep in bed with us anyways, so we will ALWAYS have room for any visitors. Our oldest daughter’s bedroom even has a loft. It would make the perfect little getaway sleeping area for any person, couple, or family that wants to stop by! We have two full bathrooms. One will be used for baths and the other for showers. We have a full kitchen with a large refrigerator with plenty of room. We also have a large living room with a bay window and large fireplace:
The bay window and fireplace are set up perfectly for lounging, looking out the window and enjoying the fire.
Utilities
We are completely independent besides electricity. We use a closed septic system and well water. We are looking into solar energy, but it is quite pricey. Little bit by little bit, we will get there.
Other Thoughts
We are building a large clothesline to hang clothes outside when weather permits. We are building a fire pit with a circular deck around it and a few hammocks circling that. We are building a flower bed in front. What are your thoughts? What am I missing? What would look awesome here? What would help us out?
My Message to SuperForesters:
Now, my family and I can do this ourselves, but we don’t want to. We don’t want to be in this alone. We want Superforest and friends of Superforest to be a part of this with us. This is not my house, this is OUR house. This is not my garden, it is OUR garden. This is not my project, it is OUR project. Come be a part of this with us. If you are like me and want to be a part of Zero One, please join me at Zero One Oklahoma! There will always be somebody here to welcome you.
Here is an aerial of the property:
Look how much room we have! There is some property right across the street that isn’t being used:
That red circle is our property. Look how much potential there is. And that is just skimming the surface. There is land like that everywhere. Right now it is going for $4,000.00/acre. Within seven years, we are looking to own a full ten acres. My mother always told me to never be afraid to ask for help. So, here I am asking for help. I can do this by myself, but where is the fun in that? If I did that, it would just be MY Superforest. I want this to be SUPERFOREST’S SUPERFOREST!
Feel free to contact me at any time:
Email: mattbfrederick[at]cox.net
Skype: mattbfrederick
Phone: 405-308-0680
Love love love love love,
Matt
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