Planting trees and habitat improvement.

[BrianL]

Originally Posted by BrianL
THis may end up being the slowest/longest DIY project in TBH history. We bought a little piece of land outside of town, and plan to build a home someday, but in the meantime I decided to start to improve the wildlife habitat. It is about 10 acres of overgrowth, 30 acres of cropland, 40 acres of pasture.



MOst of this area has been converted to farm or cropland so the amount of cover is very limited, and most of the cover I do have is right beside the house. I decided to start planting some hardwoods, and since I'm in my 40s, the only one that made sence to me was the sawtooth oak. I placed my order and stated planting this spring with the help of the wife. I had bigger goals than what we ended up with, but I did get about 800 trees planted. I choose to start the planting by making a 40 yard boarder around the crop field and pasture.



It was a very wet spring, then went straight to HOT and DRY, but we did get about 800 in the ground. Keeping weeds out has been an issue, and still working on the best way to handle it. I've sprayed, tilled, and last time used a box blade. So far the blade seems to work best. NOtice soybeans are up, this was just a few days ago.

Before bladeing the area



After blading




Watering has been another problem, but rigged up a barrel and waterpump to help. It is 55 gallon barrel, and takes about 600 gallons to water one time.



I'll try and keep the progress updated, but it will be a SLOW process! THe trees I planted in the pasture didn't fair too well. Most were either pulled up or stepped on by the cows and died. I'm going to have to rethink how I handle the cows. I'm either going to have to put up an inner electric fence or take them off. It is nice not to have to do any shreding, so I hate to take them off completly, but we'll see.

Please tell me what is your final goal for your project?

Increase cover and food sources. That field is about 35 acres, and debating on planting the whole field in sawtooth and pecan. It will be an on going project. Wish I had started 5 years ago when we first bought the place. Still want to build a pond for fishing and duck hunting, but that may be a few more years.

[BrianL]

Going to try this to help keep moisture in, and its free. Shredded paper

[Signcutter336]

Did the shredded paper work????

[G-Man]

Cool Project! I have always wanted my own little piece of land to work with/on. I have been doing mad research on my pipe dream and thought I'd share something I had found. Cool little read. Everything is some ones opinion but I found this info interesting. Good luck with everything and keep us posted!!

http://www.realtreenursery.com/Why-Food-Plots.html

[BrianL]

we have got a good amount of rain, so I haven't been down to check on it since I put it out. Should be able to go down tonight our tomorrow to see if it is still there. Noticed the girls in the office where shredding today, so should have a few more bags to put out this week.

[BrianL]

Cool Project! I have always wanted my own little piece of land to work with/on. I have been doing mad research on my pipe dream and thought I'd share something I had found. Cool little read. Everything is some ones opinion but I found this info interesting. Good luck with everything and keep us posted!!
http://www.realtreenursery.com/Why-Food-Plots.html

I'm embarrassed to say I never knew those were chestnuts I saw on the ground growing up. I always called them buckeyes. I may plant a few of those to see how every do.

[head]

I agree to a point, but the grass I had was taller than the trees. Bermuda is so Dang expensive. Going to try to figure out the ground cover thing. May try shredded paper and plastic. But your right about it drying out faster.

a friend that goes to church with me bales pine straw, just like hay, for landscapers up north and west as an alternative to mulch. may be worth looking into. I bet you could get a bunch of folks' pine straw for a little raking... lol

[G-Man]

I'm embarrassed to say I never knew those were chestnuts I saw on the ground growing up. I always called them buckeyes. I may plant a few of those to see how every do.

I'm not going to lie either, that's what I called them also. I had stumbled on that read by mistake. I thought it was cool about that they say that animals that eat them taste sweeter and less gamey.

[BrianL]

edit

[BrianL]

Well things are looking pretty good. We have had enough rain to keep everything green, and so far no additional watering has been need this year. The shredded paper has worked somewhat, but not sure if it is really worth the effort. Trees with and without look about the same.

I decided to plant summer plots that would also help with erosion control, and so far it has been effective. I planted milo between one role of trees, sunflowers between one, and sunflower/milo mix between the other.


Milo was the first thing I planted. After finding out that REAL seed is $179.00 per bag, I made a trip to the feed store for a sack of whole feed milo. Not sure if it will head out as well, but for $12 a sack I thought I would give it a try.



Neighbors cows got out and really enjoyed this strip. They walked through 100 acers of soybeans to eat on my little strip of milo.....


You can still tell where the wheat and oats were planted last fall on the left side. Dove and hogs have been hittting it hard till the last heavy rain.




Since milo feed seemed to at least come up, I decided to give sunflowers a try. Inspired by the WWA thread. I didn't even check what real sunflower seed cost, but a 40# bag of blackoil sunflower seed for birds is $22. After planting, June 1st, we had about 2-3 weeks of dry weather. Finally got a rain last Saturday, and look what popped out. They are 90 days to maturity, so looks like mid September.



Sunflower plot is about 15 feet wide and about 1000 yards long. You can see it on the left side of the top picture. Goes to the end, then turns back to the right along that far tree line.




I had a little of both left over, so I mixed them together and planted my thrid row yesterday afternoon. This is where I had wheat planted last year.

[3Tzn1J]

You got any recent sawtooth pics??? I bought 25 barefoot seedlings and put them all in pots till I could get up to plant them. So far, of the 8 that I planted in the ground only 1 has died the others are looking good.

[BrianL]

You got any recent sawtooth pics??? I bought 25 barefoot seedlings and put them all in pots till I could get up to plant them. So far, of the 8 that I planted in the ground only 1 has died the others are looking good.

I'll try and take some tonight. I have 4 rows heading north and south(top pic)
and had 4 running east and west(2nd pic). The trees going N and S are doing Great. Maybe lost 5-10 trees. The ones going east and west are having a hard time. Not nearly as much growth. Several have come back out from roots that I thought had died last year. The whole row next to the larger trees died. About 70% of the second row out made it. Row 3 and 4 are better, but still not the same growth as the others planted N and S.

[BrianL]

One pic

[BrianL]

Two

[BrianL]

The trees going east and west are much smaller