Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Our camp sits on a ridge top in the mountains of northern Pa. It's an old farmstead with established fields, and plenty of weeds to battle. The soil isn't rich, loamy bottomland. But I thought I'd share a "spray-and-throw" we tried.
On a large plot that has SOME established clover in it, we scratched the soil lightly with a spring-tooth harrow after spraying it a week earlier with glyphosate. The weeds and grass were just turning yellow and brown from the earlier spraying when we broadcast turnips, radishes, rape, kale, and 2 varieties of red clover over the plot. The existing clover didn't die , and the newly-seeded stuff came up nice and thick. Like others have said on here, the dying weeds and grass acted like a mulch of sorts. The deer have been hammering that plot lately. What was a brown, "wasteland"-looking field, became a thick, green cafeteria for the deer. The deer have it clipped off in most places to around 2" tall. It had gotten up to about 8" before the deer began to hit it.
The nice thing was, it took minimal tractor work - just scratching with the harrow. We didn't even cultipack it. Once the brassica components (turnips, radishes, rape) die off at the end of winter, we'll still have a nice, thick clover plot to tweak next year. This was our first real try at minimal soil disturbance planting. We'll be using this method again - especially for weed-infested plots past their prime.
On a large plot that has SOME established clover in it, we scratched the soil lightly with a spring-tooth harrow after spraying it a week earlier with glyphosate. The weeds and grass were just turning yellow and brown from the earlier spraying when we broadcast turnips, radishes, rape, kale, and 2 varieties of red clover over the plot. The existing clover didn't die , and the newly-seeded stuff came up nice and thick. Like others have said on here, the dying weeds and grass acted like a mulch of sorts. The deer have been hammering that plot lately. What was a brown, "wasteland"-looking field, became a thick, green cafeteria for the deer. The deer have it clipped off in most places to around 2" tall. It had gotten up to about 8" before the deer began to hit it.
The nice thing was, it took minimal tractor work - just scratching with the harrow. We didn't even cultipack it. Once the brassica components (turnips, radishes, rape) die off at the end of winter, we'll still have a nice, thick clover plot to tweak next year. This was our first real try at minimal soil disturbance planting. We'll be using this method again - especially for weed-infested plots past their prime.