Habitat out loud

[SD51555]

That's what I suspected that hardwood species would have long breakdown times. I have some siberian elm on the property that might be a good choice. It is a soft wood and generally breaks down readily.

I have read that wood will suck up much of the nitrogen in the bed, how do you balance out the nitrogen for crop growth?

I didn’t really observe any of that. My asparagus bed boomed last year immediately after building and planting. I’ve also not used fresh wood. Everything I’ve ever used has been dead at least two years, and I try to get the most rotten stuff I can move.

I think the reason I don’t get it is because I’m using large chunks, and 99% of that wood isn’t exposed to the soil. If I moxed fresh sawdust into the soil, it would probably lag much worse. Even so, I try to push the legumes the first year in the bed if I can. Legumes love high carbon.


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[SD51555]

Did you find lots of earthworms when you tore apart your hoog?

Not that one. It was horribly dry. The test hoog was mounded up as high as I could get it. It was hard to keep mulch on it, and just seemed to increase surface area to lose moisture. That’s why all my subsequent ones are flat and the wood chips are deep.


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[Jlane35]

What would rotten wood do for a food plot or garden just laid on the surface?

 

[Barndog56]

My beds always have a ton of worms because they're in the compost I add to the beds. If there aren't worms in any of your Hoog ingredients then I would buy a dozen nightcrawlers and throw them in.

 

[SD51555]

My beds always have a ton of worms because they're in the compost I add to the beds. If there aren't worms in any of your Hoog ingredients then I would buy a dozen nightcrawlers and throw them in.

There are good worms in the last two, and I suspect the one before that. We picked it up with pallet forks on a skid steer. I was shocked the soil never fell out the bottom. It did have five years of undisturbed root mass to hold it together. It’s the dirt under it that also had another 16” of wood below grade. It was just bone dry. How anything grew was a miracle.

The topsoil I used on my new ones is very black and very rich, and it gets even better with the rotted sawdust. I’m really glad the soil and fill wood was soaking wet this time. Last year, my asparagus bed was built with dry soil.


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[SD51555]

What would rotten wood do for a food plot or garden just laid on the surface?

I think it would do wonders in a clover plot. I’d love to be able to spread an inch of wood chips in my clover every year.


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[Telemark]

I have some fallen birch also, I will look into reclaiming some of that.

So I should remove the bark?

I would remove the bark if possible.

 

[SD51555]

I had to go out a pound my steel posts in again. I thought I punched them thru the frost but they heaved back out. Now I got them driven deep and the fences tightened up. Gonna be the biggest damn sentinel bushes in the forest.

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[SD51555]

I burned up almost two rolls of flagging tape this spring. Been on a mission to mark hard to find soft mast species on my place. Juneberry is native by me, but it's not overly prevalent, and seems to like to be short lived if it doesn't get some sunlight. I marked my brother's place and mine. Also been marking lots of gooseberry for transplant next spring.



This is my yard plot. It's just a tiny spot I keep to attract deer and turkeys in the morning while I'm drinking coffee or whatever while I ponder my day.



This one was constructed in 2020 after the stump pile was burned, cleaned up, and then the plot leveled and seeded. In 2023 I had finally lost it to quack grass (I never did a burndown, just seeded after earth work) and burdock and had to reset it. Now it's back to rye, alfalfa, chicory, plantain, etc so far. I put everything else in too.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

That's a nice juneberry. Hopefully the bears leave the shrub alone so you get to try some of the fruit.

 

[TreeDaddy]

I burned up almost two rolls of flagging tape this spring. Been on a mission to mark hard to find soft mast species on my place. Juneberry is native by me, but it's not overly prevalent, and seems to like to be short lived if it doesn't get some sunlight. I marked my brother's place and mine. Also been marking lots of gooseberry for transplant next spring.

View attachment 65051

This is my yard plot. It's just a tiny spot I keep to attract deer and turkeys in the morning while I'm drinking coffee or whatever while I ponder my day.

View attachment 65052

This one was constructed in 2020 after the stump pile was burned, cleaned up, and then the plot leveled and seeded. In 2023 I had finally lost it to quack grass (I never did a burndown, just seeded after earth work) and burdock and had to reset it. Now it's back to rye, alfalfa, chicory, plantain, etc so far. I put everything else in too.

View attachment 65053

I carry green tape to mark the callery pears and orange tape to mark the persimmons in preparation for top working with desirable species
bill

 

[SD51555]

I have been working on my plots for about 7 years. Every year I’m either expanding, leveling, liming, etc. I did a big cleanup last year on my southern plot complex. I had done the clearing In years prior. This job was to go get all that brush, logs, and stumps out of the perimeter and bury it. I had some fairly deep holes where I went down 8-10’ to have enough space to bury it all.

Did not scrape away the topsoil, I just dug and filled it back in. There’s lot of subsoil on the surface now. It’s fairly heavy clay, so once it was spread, I planted rye, YSC, chicory etc. Then I hit it with a 1-ton rate of gypsum and spread rotten swamp grass hay over it all. It’s come along very well for no air, no nutrients, and no biology at the start.

This is the main trench. Many logs and stumps under this one. Where you see rye, there is buried carbon for the next few decades.

You can see my donor bale in the background.

The YSC might be thin, but what’s there looks like it’s gonna run.

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[SD51555]

Abundance

The gooseberry crop is gonna be the best I’ve seen so far.

The elderberries are showing big potential.

Last winter’s clear cut is quickly getting swallowed up by regen.

Pond full.

The 2023 restart on the yard plot is booming.

ROD booming. This is the Koochwood bush. He was on site a few years back and we put a cage over this naturally placed ROD. Three years later, it’s so big, I had to pull the cage.

Norway spruce road screen. Booming.

Pond full.

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[SD51555]

I’ve started moving the cages to their next spot to keep protecting and rehabbing native ROD. This one got a cage this spring, and is already blooming.

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[SD51555]

Some have heard me rail against hairy vetch. This is why. It doesn’t play nice. It’s quadrupled its footprint in my YSC/Balansa plot. Soon it’ll collapse whatever it’s crawling all over. Not as much of a problem with some chems and tillage, but I don’t do either with few exceptions. I bought a quart of gly 3 years ago, and it’s still not used up if that’s any indicator.

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[SD51555]

I had it coming back in another plot, and I took the time yesterday to pull all of it by hand. The plot above is too far gone to be able to pull it all. Gonna have to try something else to contain it.


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[Ben.MN/WI]

Things are looking good. That pond looks awesome - have mud minnows found their way in there yet?

 

[SD51555]

Things are looking good. That pond looks awesome - have mud minnows found their way in there yet?

They are in there, yes.


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[SD51555]

Things are looking good. That pond looks awesome - have mud minnows found their way in there yet?

There are also dace minnows, crappie minnows, frogs, and scuds all confirmed in there.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

Is that pond connected to other water during flooding or was nature supplemented to give a jump start? I've never seen scuds before, but I know they're around and a favored fish food. They sound like a great addition to a pond.