Here are some more of my ideas and plans for my farm. Please
let me know if I'm missing something and doing something dumb.
I'll be planting some things into the understory of the
oak/pine/hickory forest of the hollow, but that will all be no-till,
no-clearing, so I won't be disturbing what's there at all.
The flat part of the land is a bit more troublesome. There are about
25 acres of flat land. About 8 or 10 are young hardwood forest. I
might take a tree from there now-and-then, but for the most part it
will stay as-is.
Then there is a section of mixed pine/cedar/oak woods. I plan on
leaving the bigger trees, but clearing out much of the smaller stuff
and using it for pasture. I doubt if I get to it much this year.
Then there is a 5 or 10 acre section that was pasture 40 years or so
ago. This is where the garden will be. It's a scattered mix of pines
and cedar trees that are too small for lumber, but I plan on using
what I can for log furniture and such. I've cleared an area of
about 30' by 50' and another that's about 20' by 40'. The garden
trench I mentioned in the 20 x 40 area and between the trench and the
resulting dirt pile, it's full. I took soil samples from the larger
clearing and had them tested. My biggest problem was the pH was 4.4,
So I spread lime last summer.
The soil structure is pretty bad and it turns to cement if dug, so
I left the stumps in the cleared areas and never plan on any plowing.
Since I want to use the trunks, and it's easier to limb standing trees
when the usable part is rarely more than 6 or 8 high, I limbed a bunch
of pines and cedars, but so far left them standing. That covers about
an acre, but I'm going to do a few more acres like that over this winter.
Letting the knots heal over at least some will make the log furniture
look better, so I'm going to let the trunks and tops' stand until as
long as they can. This opened the area up enough to grow things
between the trees.
OK, that's the background so far. Here's the plan:
I've mentioned the trench that will be a raised bed for this summer.
With the addition of Gene's chicken manure, that's under control.
The open part I limed and any place else that is open enough I want to
grow stuff that may or may not supply some food to me or my animals, but
the main thing I need to grow this summer is compost. All of the area
is now in thin-ish warm season grass, so I should be able to plant into
it without worrying about competition with weeds.
Masanobu Fukuoka's natural farming' uses pelletted seeds cast directly
on the surface. I'm going to try that, but I also want to try scratching
the seeds in some by a variety of means. I'm very open to suggestions
for other ways to no-till plant in poor soil.
Now, here's some of the things I want to plant:
1) Sunflowers. They are native to the area, have a deep tap root that
will open the soil when it rots out. I can use seeds for feed for
rabbits, chickens and myself. The stems contain a fiber that can be
spun for cloth or rope and will add a slow-rotting source of humus
to the compost.
2) Ladino and Dutch White clovers. I should have listed these first
since they will be mixed with all of the other seeds. These types
grow low enough and can take shade well enough that they should do
OK mixed with taller crops as long as the other crops aren't planted
too densely. Of course they are here to fix Nitrogen. They will
also provide food for the same list as above.
3) Millet and Sorghum. I haven't picked varieties yet, but both of these
grains do well in poor soil and are drought resistant. They can
provide some food, but also a lot of organic matter.
4) Buckwheat. I've seen it mentioned in a number of places for breaking
up clay soils. Buckwheat and Millet together make a complete protein
when used together as food. Since it's shorter than any of the above,
I'm not sure if it should be mixed with the clover or not.
5) Typhon. This is a cross between a forage turnip and Chinese cabbage.
The yield per acre is supposed to be very high. It's usable as a
high nutrition feed for man and beast alike.
6) Alfalfa. Just another legume to supplement the clover's N fixing.
In the areas where I'll be putting crops next year, I'd like to use
one of the annual high N-fixing verities and use a perennial type
in the areas that will either be pasture, or that I won't get to for
a couple years.
7) A grass and legume mix that can take cutting. There are a lot of
mixes that will work for this. These will be planted in sacrificial'
areas and the hay will be used as mulch in other areas. I want
something I can cut repeatedly throughout the growing season.
I'll also be adding some corn and vegetables to the mix, but not with
any great expectations.
In the areas where I've cleared enough of the pines and cedars I'll also
be planting fruit and nut trees as well as some fast=growing trees for
wood. The seedlings will be interplanted in the above compost crops.
The trees on my list include pecans, black walnuts (I have some wild ones)
filberts, apples, pears, chestnuts, Kentucky coffee trees, and some others
I can't think of now.
Kentucky coffee trees are a legumous tree that produces a nice dappled
shade. Their kin, the locus trees, would do just about the same job.
==>paul
