We bought the plans online, and had a contractor friend of ours build it. Unfortunantly, the plans were not great, and there are some MAJOR changes I would now make to it before I built another one. Ebay now has a ton of cute small coops. It would be worth it to buy them premade (even with shipping). My mom bought a small wooden children's playhouse and converted it-- it is way cute, too! The coop is sitting on the concrete, though there is now about 12-16" of straw covering it. We had originally planned to put it on soil, but forgot that the neighbor on that side has a satanic dog that would terrorize our chickens! So it went on the other side of the house on the cement pad. This also prevents any predators from digging under the coop, so I guess its OK. We started off with only 2-3 chickens as well. But we started with bantams (minature chickens, about 1/4 the size) so they would do less destruction to our landscape and so my daughter could more easily hold them. We have been very happy with them, especially the Cochin breed, which are very calm and sweet. I would STRONGLY suggest you visit www.backyardchickens.com/forum and look around there for a while....there is so much fabulous info there. Over 22,000 members across the country and so much knowledge. I spent hours and hours on the site and learned so much before we even got the babies. Another great source of info was http://www.mypetchicken.com/ebook.aspx This really spells it all out! Have fun! My daughter has really enjoyed the last few years with our chickens! Here she is reading books to them in the doghouse :)

Oh, many possibilities for fun in the garden just by using your imagination & giving time to children. These are some things I've done with my kids & my great-niece & nephew. -Play hide & seek using a variety of animal figures easily carried about by children at a price you can afford to have them chipped. Even kids' meal toys work as minis. Leave them out spring-fall until needing to put away during frosty winter weather. -Allow some of the mini plastic toys to bathe in the birdbaths. Children can't resist playing in the water. -Play I spy describing what you see in the garden. -Clear paths for them to know where to walk. Encourage them to patrol the garden looking for ... a butterfly, a bird, a pink flower, a ripe tomato or strawberry, etc. without you right behind them. Then they come back to you where you're in the garden to get you to come see. That way you get garden work done & they burn off a bit of energy in the double backing to you. Helps you be less frustrated with having a child in the garden with you when there's work to be done. (Can also have them prepare the table for snack or lunch, pick flowers, set table, pick garnishes, etc. If you've taught them which flowers are edible, they will enjoy snipping those, too. Be sure to communicate which & how much are okay for cutting that day, so you're not devastated by a crew cut kid job. -Give a hint of something that you know is already in there, so it's easier for them to find. -Kid size garden tools & gloves. -Kid size chair or oversized chair so you can sit together on the same one. -Have chairs easy to move to shade if a hot day or have chairs in both locations sun & shade. -Bubbles - as a surprise you pull out of your basket or bag as a regular part of gardening together. There are spill proof bubbles as well, which are ideal for younger kids. -Let them paint structures with water & clean paintbrushes on a dry day. Craft sponge brushes or the cheap dollar store brushes work just fine and if they get too dirty to clean up you can toss them. The water makes it look darker & it dries soon enough not leaving a trace of their "painting". If you have some mild cleaner & a scrub brush nearby they might even clean the furniture for you at the same time. Be prepared to get a bit wet. -On hot days make fruit juice popsicles the night before or early in morning to take out during a break. -Take a beverage & snack out with you in a small cooler. -Planned breaks from working to sit, snack, or play games. -Have a back pack filled with teddy bear picnic items: book, mini tea set, tablecloth & napkins, & of course the bear. -Have a basket & kid craft scissor just for them to harvest herbs, salad greens, peas, or other easy to harvest things that they can also carry in the basket to the hose to wash. Then include their things in the meal preparation for the family later. Ask them for "their oregano" for the spaghetti, which they'll proudly offer. Compliment them on the aroma & be sure to compliment them when serving the family meal. Let them use herbs as garnish or help them make tea for everyone & serve it. -Plan ahead a bit for the gardening time to include work & play as kids won't want to work as long as you or stay on task nearly as well. Sometimes, by asking them what they'd like to do you might be surprised that turning compost with the large pitchfork is their desire, not playing checkers in the shade. Be prepared to finish what they start & can't. -Seems like anything mini is a delight to school age kids. Give them a mystery to solve or a job to do & they're on their way. Younger preschool children need a lot more direct supervision & assistance, but can still learn to enjoy the garden space if you have something just for them. They especially want to copy their older siblings. Small cups with a 1 qt or less bucket can keep them busy scooping & pouring as long as you refill the water a few times. Don't expect them to actually water anything. -Oh, & let them have an area of the garden to do what they wish. They may or may not want to grow what you intended for that space. They may just want to have the dirt to dig in or bury a rock or something even though that's not what you want to happen. Give them a choice between a few seeds to plant as well as a transplant, so they don't lose patience waiting for sprouting. Help them know where to walk as well because they might step on what was sown. Mulch may help mark the outside of the planting area. Let them decorate popsicle sticks are markers or on paper tags you slip into sealed baggies to bury partway in soil. -Sometimes a container garden placed near the other garden plants is all they need to be satisfied with having their own space. -For perennial vegetables & fruits it's nice to include them in the shopping, planting, labeling, & upkeep over the years especially if you let it be theirs. Use their name along with the plant and compliment them on the crop even if you're doing most of the work to make it successful. Our married daughter now has a strawberry patch at their home from plants she selected at 10 years old along with a bunch of other kitchen garden perennials. During her teen years she had lost interest in gardening, but now that she has her own "bit of earth" is hooked on gardening again drawing on childhood experiences in the garden with me & her grandfather. -They remember the little bits of gardening information you talk about while in the garden & will repeat it back to you or you'll hear them telling someone else about what you did together. They soon become the experts... Also if you use a bit of child-like imagination to call things it makes it more interesting to them. Spreading used coffee grounds is feeding the worms breakfast or smoothies. Looking for ripe tomatoes is hunting for jewels. Looking for zucchini big enough to grill slices for dinner can be hunting for man zucchini or burger zucchini. If you know you have a whopper cucumber or zucchini in there ask them to find the giant hiding in the garden & say you'll keep watch to make sure it's safe to pick... Then go help them because they're scratchy. Things like that help them have fun while working with you. It's good for me to keep in mind not to work my teen son too hard though he is a great laborer especially with structures, compost, hauling organic matter, etc, and enjoys taking photos of plants & insects in the garden, but has no interest in playing in it now. He respects the garden spaces I've taken over for plants and comes to tell me he's damaged something while mowing or playing ball with friends. He is also good with any younger visitors like cousins helping them be careful around my flowering plants or telling them what's okay to pick or not based on what I've told him in the past. Can you tell I'm enthusiastic about kids in the garden? Enjoy the garden with them most of all & pass it on to the next generation. Corrine

Thanks for the encouragement! I have to finish digging for the expanded dahlia bed and get them in before I can even begin on this project so I may be another week (especially since we have rain forecasted for the next few days) This year, for the center island, I am planning on a group of extra tall bamboo teepees with beans and nasturtium vines growing up them, surrounded by ornamental kales and cabbages. I am sure that I will be placing something sculptural (non-vegetable) in there at some point, but I'll have to wait and see what I come up with. This is definitely going to be a long term on-going project! I will try to document the whole thing as it happens and post in this forum when it starts shaping up.

The bed I'm calling the perimeter is the 2' raised bed that is going to work to "enclose" the potager. While I will have some herbs and flowers, it will have a lot of veggies too! Then there are those odd yard bits not in the potager. These are going to be decorative, and maybe productive. Where the flowers are planted at the curving sidewalk which is directly outside the potager, I have a few herbs in there, sweet cicely and lemon balm, and some garlic chives that are struggling, that will come back (although may also transplant those eventually, I want to give that area an English country garden look eventually, a mix of herbs and flowers, perennials mainly. I want an archway across the main sidewalk with climbing roses that will demarcate entering the potager. It all sounds good typing it out, It looks incredible in my minds eye - but the time it take to get it done is pretty dampening. Another weekend where I could conceivably work on the potager - but heatwave/thunderstorms all weekend. it is moderate with gentle rain right now, so I just did a bit out there, weeding etc but the humidity is 90% and we come in all muddy. me and garden pup that is. I guess I really want to be retired by now, lol and devote daily hours to this and other gardening, but I likely have a minimum of 15 and maybe 20 years in the workforce. So, bit by bit! Going to try for another picture, as I at least planted that bit of the perimeter bed in the photo.