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- Oct 12, 2020
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So, after some herbicide drift onto our orchard a year or two ago, I was a little grumpy with the farmer around our property. Following my journey this year toward more plant based food, particularly spray-free, as well as regenerative agriculture, we decided to take back some of our property that was being farmed conventionally for decades. My shorter term goal is to primarily use cover crops to create compost and mulch as we slowly plant out the area.
On Monday the surveyor was out to mark the corners of the property. My son and I went out to then mark the property lines with flags and do some other stuff. Two weeks prior I had seen that the farmer had spread anhydrous ammonia (nitrogen fertilizer) on the property after I'd told him not to bother with any inputs...of course, I'm pretty certain he thought we owned less land than we do. In the end, I estimate it is about 1.2 hectares (3 acres) that we are going to be working with. There are days I feel I've bitten off more than I can chew.
Here's the property marked off. The first image is looking north - it's about 475' in that direction...it's a bit tough to make out the flags.
Now looking west.
We put the t-posts in to mark the corners after the surveyor had marked with lathe. We also used the bigger tractor to go corner to corner of the area so I could put in a post marking the approximate middle of this area.
With the broadcast spreader behind the lawn tractor, going west, I have laid down native tall grass prairie seed - a 50/50 mix of grasses and flowers, which is sold as a butterfly mix. When these perennials establish, they will ultimately create a barrier for any spray drift. Heading north, I laid down black sunflower seed - this is an annual, but will ultimately feed birds and will be a barrier for next year.
Longer term, the goal is to use permaculture design principles to create primarily food production. I intend to use a lot of fruit trees, as well as some nuts. I also hope to grow some Swiss stone pine which can provide us with pine nuts. We may put in some hardy sugar maples which would allow us to tap for syrup. Interspersed among the trees and shrubs will be gardening beds for annual vegetable production. We don't have a lot of perennial vegetables that will survive our winters, although Jerusalem artichoke is one that does so I intend to put in some of that.
Work from Sunday included beginning the creation of a raised bed...this is "compost" that I purchased 10 yards of, but it seems to be partially rotted manure more than finished compost. That is disappointing. Two weeks after delivery, the pile is still hot.
Here is the first area laying down the prairie seed mix. With taller perennial plants, we will not only create habitat, but a natural winter snow fence which will help deal with some drifting and capture snow on our property.
The seed vendor, Prairie Originals, suggested mixing the seed with damp sawdust so things would stick together and the light seed wouldn't blow off. Unfortunately there was no guidance on proportions and I used too much sawdust and water for the spreader to be fully effective...this was Sunday, so we did better on Monday.
So far, so good. Of course, we don't know what the winter and spring will hold. If all goes well, in three or four years we will have a nice patch of native tall grass prairie plants. Between the purchase of the spreader for this project, the seed, and the surveyor, this is beginning to turn into a somewhat costly project, although that was expected. We are supposed to get our first snow this week if the prognosticators are worth their salt, so it was important for me to get this much done. I will get some snow fence up as well to capture some moisture, but that is less critical from a timing perspective. We did start a second bed with the "compost", but we will see if weather and timing allows us to get that done this year.
In the longer run, I could see a structure in the middle of the area (there's a Canadian manufacturer of geodesic greenhouses that would be nice) and have trees radiating out from the centre in a spiral pattern (sort of like seeds on a head of sunflower) with beds tucked in here and there in between. We shall see if that vision comes to pass.
On Monday the surveyor was out to mark the corners of the property. My son and I went out to then mark the property lines with flags and do some other stuff. Two weeks prior I had seen that the farmer had spread anhydrous ammonia (nitrogen fertilizer) on the property after I'd told him not to bother with any inputs...of course, I'm pretty certain he thought we owned less land than we do. In the end, I estimate it is about 1.2 hectares (3 acres) that we are going to be working with. There are days I feel I've bitten off more than I can chew.
Here's the property marked off. The first image is looking north - it's about 475' in that direction...it's a bit tough to make out the flags.
Now looking west.
We put the t-posts in to mark the corners after the surveyor had marked with lathe. We also used the bigger tractor to go corner to corner of the area so I could put in a post marking the approximate middle of this area.
With the broadcast spreader behind the lawn tractor, going west, I have laid down native tall grass prairie seed - a 50/50 mix of grasses and flowers, which is sold as a butterfly mix. When these perennials establish, they will ultimately create a barrier for any spray drift. Heading north, I laid down black sunflower seed - this is an annual, but will ultimately feed birds and will be a barrier for next year.
Longer term, the goal is to use permaculture design principles to create primarily food production. I intend to use a lot of fruit trees, as well as some nuts. I also hope to grow some Swiss stone pine which can provide us with pine nuts. We may put in some hardy sugar maples which would allow us to tap for syrup. Interspersed among the trees and shrubs will be gardening beds for annual vegetable production. We don't have a lot of perennial vegetables that will survive our winters, although Jerusalem artichoke is one that does so I intend to put in some of that.
Work from Sunday included beginning the creation of a raised bed...this is "compost" that I purchased 10 yards of, but it seems to be partially rotted manure more than finished compost. That is disappointing. Two weeks after delivery, the pile is still hot.
Here is the first area laying down the prairie seed mix. With taller perennial plants, we will not only create habitat, but a natural winter snow fence which will help deal with some drifting and capture snow on our property.
The seed vendor, Prairie Originals, suggested mixing the seed with damp sawdust so things would stick together and the light seed wouldn't blow off. Unfortunately there was no guidance on proportions and I used too much sawdust and water for the spreader to be fully effective...this was Sunday, so we did better on Monday.
So far, so good. Of course, we don't know what the winter and spring will hold. If all goes well, in three or four years we will have a nice patch of native tall grass prairie plants. Between the purchase of the spreader for this project, the seed, and the surveyor, this is beginning to turn into a somewhat costly project, although that was expected. We are supposed to get our first snow this week if the prognosticators are worth their salt, so it was important for me to get this much done. I will get some snow fence up as well to capture some moisture, but that is less critical from a timing perspective. We did start a second bed with the "compost", but we will see if weather and timing allows us to get that done this year.
In the longer run, I could see a structure in the middle of the area (there's a Canadian manufacturer of geodesic greenhouses that would be nice) and have trees radiating out from the centre in a spiral pattern (sort of like seeds on a head of sunflower) with beds tucked in here and there in between. We shall see if that vision comes to pass.