I live in a suburban area, I have just over 1/4 acre & I have 8 standard size hens, no roosters. I picked breeds based on their beauty, ability to lay even in cold weather, cold hardiness, no white eggs, friendly & not flighty. I originally wanted 6 birds of 6 breeds but I now have 8. I ordered 25 from MM hacthery in March of 2006 & adopted the rest out to other local chicken pet people. I thought one was a rooster, but she was my DH's favorite-so I kept another one like her in case we had to give her away. I also had a sick chick that I thought would die, so I kept another of her breed but she turned out fine. So now I have 1 barred rock-mine is not really friendly like most are but she's pretty & a great layer 1 black australorp-she is an ok layer, the leader of my flock, beautiful & a total lap chicken 1 silver laced wyandotte-she is a good layer, very pretty & friendly 1 redstar(sex-link)-a prolific layer of big brown eggs, pretty & friendly 2 buff orpingtons-one lays regularly, the other that was sick doesn't lay at all yet. They are super friendly & loveable & so elegant looking 2 Easter egger mutts-one lays bluish eggs, the other sage green. They are by far the most flighty and skittish, but are so unique with their muffs & beards & great markings. They are quite docile when being handled by me. The blue/green eggs are a must have for us. My flock has a small coop & run, but they free range my fenced backyard everyday. They eat tons of bugs & more grass, flowers, plants than you can imagine. There is something about the same/similar breeds sticking together and I can see why some people don't like to have a small flock comprised of so many breeds. Have you considered predators in your area? will your tractor be secure enough? Good luck, deciding to keep chickens has been very rewarding & more fun than I imagined.

Laurie - these designs are so different that there is no way to choose - for me. I want you to continue making both kinds AND to add two more options - not painting the great face on the mushroom cap and painting the other great face on the stem. You are able to paint the face so well that - again, for me - it puts this top design into a unique category. I rarely like painted faces on things but I would love this one. Another thing I like about your designs is the subtle-ness. People could glance at the mushrooms many times before they noticed the faces... especially if the painted face was turned a litle to one side. I like that discovery aspect in gardens. My vote is - make them all!! Laura

You have good wind blocks under that deck so that will help, Tammy. I get my burlap at Home Depot or Lowes usually but I think most garden centers carry it. You may have to ask them for it though. I literally beg, borrow and steal bags of leaves from all my neighbors in the fall! We have 5 big trees and I still need extra. I go out early on trash day and drag the bags over from my neighbor's lawns. Two of my neighbors now just bag their leaves and put them on my lawn instead of theirs, lol! But if leaves aren't available you can also use bagged bark mulch. It's way more expensive though. If you go that route make sure you bag it back up next spring to reuse. You could also use straw or hay. One of them has seeds, and I don't remember which, so you may get more weeds in the spring but they do work well as insulation. You want to wait until they are completely dormant before you put them in storage. And the ideal is to keep them completely dormant until you are past any freezing temps at night in the spring. The worst thing is for them to go through repeated freeze and thaws during the winter and especially the spring. The most roses I ever lost, 37, was during the big Easter freeze in April of 2007. I had just taken all the pots out of winter storage and they were all leafing out when the temps fell drastically for a weekend. Thankfully, Alan came up with a plan for the pots. He wheeled his tractor out of the shed and we put as many pots as we could in and he set up a couple of lamps with 100 watt bulbs in them for added warmth. I only lost 3 or 4 potted roses that we couldn't fit in the shed. All the rest of my losses were roses planted in the ground even though I had NOT yet taken off their winter protection! I don't recommend the cones for a couple of reasons. First, you have to really cut the rose back severely in the fall to get them on and I don't prune in the fall. You are going to get winter die back no matter what. If you cut them to 12 inches in October by April you'll be cutting them to 6 or less. Second, unless you cut the tops off for air circulation (which sort of destroys their integrity) they create the perfect breeding ground for fungus to grow. Particularly in the spring when conditions are very damp, the sun is getting higher up and days are longer and the temps are warming up. I understand that you disagree with me about raising up the pots, Michaelg. But I will stand by my opinion. It's not to protect them from freezing. I want them to freeze and STAY dormant until the temps will stay consistently above freezing. The freeze and thaw yo-yoing is deadly. It's for moisture retention. Desiccation kills them quickly too. That's why I water during the winter. They're asleep, not dead, and still require some water. How many of you have a glass of water on the table beside your bed because you get thirsty during the night? When I didn't put them up off the cement the pots would be bone dry with nice damp rings in the cement under them. And I lost roses. I do not raise them up where they are on the dirt. The dirt retains it's own moisture and does not pull water from the pots so it isn't a problem. BTW, I do winter my tree rose inside the shed, with the tractor, every year and have had no problems with the gasoline fumes affecting the rose.

Sorry, it's hard to grasp what it is you're asking. Are you asking if a design with an island is better than the one with a peninsula, or vice versa? It would be better to see your layout to better advise. An island set up is not recommended in a narrow space like in the 1st pic. Hard to tell, but it looks like the walkway behind that island is tight & it's a main throughway from the back door. You would never be able to pass by anyone who was sitting at the island.