Mavis Mail – Sara From Washington Sends in Pics of Her 3+ Acres, No HOA Property

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has sent in their photographs and stories. I hope by sharing other peoples pictures and stories here on One Hundred Dollars a Month we can all have a rock star garden this summer. Keep them coming!

~Mavis

After living in an overly HOA policed neighborhood for almost eight years my husband and I decided we needed out, we needed freedom! So we put our house for sale and moved to a home on almost 3 1/2 acres, no HOA, and neighbors that are far enough away that they could care less what we do on our property. Instead of waking up to our neighbors, we now wake up to Mt. Si, so much better.

First order of business was to get chickens. No way would this have been allowed in our previous neighborhood, but with no restriction I could do what I wanted!! Insert purple chicken coop. Definitely not for everyone, but it’s definitely for me. I spray painted cinder blocks {given to me for free!} different shades of purple to place around the coop for aesthetics as well as extra security from predators {notice the picture of the bear on my back deck}. The coop sits on about 18 inches of dirt, it was needed to create level ground for the coop to sit. Around the coop I dug down about a foot and filled the trench with rocks {more security}, then surrounded all that with garden wall blocks.

I created a little U shaped garden next to the coop to grow vegetables for my family and the chickens, they also love taking their dust baths there. Due to the hawks I have strung bird netting over the garden with 8 foot bamboo poles, this will have to due until we put up something a little more sturdy. A woman in the grocery store said she puts fake owls around her coop to also help with the hawks, so I added one as well.

This house came with the cutest greenhouse that I’m putting to good use. My citrus trees have been growing like crazy, obviously they love the heat. I’m also growing tomatoes, herbs and all my seedlings in there.

I swear my blood pressure as decreased in the two months we’ve been here, it’s a totally different world from living in, as you like to call it, high maintenance suburbia. There’s no way I could go back to that, EVER!!

Happy Gardening,
Sara, aka The Real Housewife of Suburbia

If you would like to have your garden, chicken coop or something you’ve made featured on One Hundred Dollars a Month, here’s what I’m looking for:

• Your Garden Pictures and Tips – I’d especially like to see your garden set ups, growing areas, and know if you are starting seeds indoors this year. If so,  show me some picture of how you are going about it.
• Your Chicken and Chicken Related Stories – Coops, Chicks, Hen’s, Roosters, Eggs, you name it. If it clucks, send us some pictures to share with the world.
• Cool Arts & Crafts – Made from your very own hands with detailed {and well photographed} pictures and instructions.
• Your pictures and stories about your pets. The more pictures and details the better.
• Garage Sale, Thrift Store and Dumpster Diving pictures and the stories behind the treasures you found including how much you paid for them.

If I feature your pictures and the stories behind them on One Hundred Dollars a Month, I will send you a $20.00 gift card to the greatest store in the world: Amazon.com.

Go  HERE for the official rules.