Troubles Trees
5 year old buck +
14 years ago I started with the 8 Acres that my house sits on, 2 1/2 years ago I was fortunate enough to buy the 30 acres next door. All the land around me gets pounded during Deer season, even during bow season they do "slow drives" so to say this area gets pressured is an understatement. My land looks just like everything else for almost a 10 mile radius, forests have been cleaned of all money trees like Oaks and the forest floor is barren from overcrowded woods that desperately need thinning. There isn't much for cover anywhere and as you can see, there are a ton of crop fields around my land so putting in food plots for me is fruitless considering the tools I lack in doing so. I have made a lot of mistakes along the way, I had no mentor and I had even less means (money) to get where I wanted to go, so everything I have done was done the hard work way. Fail, Learn and try again, rinse and repeat until stuff works.
So I basically started with a clean slate, more than half my property was a sheep farm and the rest is immature maples and poplar so dense that light never hits the ground. In the beginning I was collecting acorns and transplanting trees and rooting dogwood from fresh clippings. I dabbled in grafting, originally with the intent to graft pear scions to wild apple trees around my tree stands, that only frustrated me because everything I tried seemed to fail. I was able to get wild apple scions to take to other wild apples with nearly 100% success so I know it wasn't my grafting, it was simply compatibility issues I knew nothing about. I was told the general rule to grafting is "seed to seed and pit to pit", and it is... just not like I thought. Not just any pear will take to any apple, its more specific than that, so it was a learning experience and I embrace those.
After this years orders go in the ground I will have planted just over 900 (not including my dogwood sticks in a cup and acorns planted) trees, shrubs and berry bushes all focused on Deer and Turkey with some rabbit, grouse and my honeybees in mind. Cover, bedding and food to feed my food have been the goals. Cover doesn't grow fast, but hinge cutting makes instant cover and bedding so I bought a chainsaw and went to work.
My plantings were focused on food sources unique to my area, Persimmons, Chestnuts, Pears, Mullberrys, NineBark, Allegheny Chinquapins etc. Unfortunately most of my land pictures are on my old phone but I dug up what I could to post something here.
Alot of crop fields provide a buffet of Corn, Wheat, Clover and Soy Beans to contend with.
Thats my house at the top of the picture. The white border is broken up because it was sold to me in parcels but all at the same time.
The view from my bedroom window. This picture was in late spring, I can only say that because just behind that doe is what I was told was American Bamboo but I think the right identification is knotweed. It grows nearly 10 feet tall and DOES NOT DIE!!! Looking for advice there, anyway It is only 4-5 feet tall in this picture so I know the time of year lol
My first years plantings here only include what I bought, most of it through our Department of Environmental Conservation seedling sale, some states call the same entity the DNR. I did splurge a little for the Chinese Chestnut, Persimmon and Dwarf Korean Chestnut.
2019 plantings, I did buy a few White Oaks from Lowes (of all places) because they are 8' tall and give me hope that I will someday hunt over acorns. The crude lines are my 4 wheeler trails so I could keep the map in perspective to plantings.
There is much that isn't included in these crude maps but I think you get the point, I planted over 200 things (before acquiring the 30) on the 8 acres my house sits on and so many things I "found" seeds locally to start in cups and stick in the ground that aren't marked here.
So I basically started with a clean slate, more than half my property was a sheep farm and the rest is immature maples and poplar so dense that light never hits the ground. In the beginning I was collecting acorns and transplanting trees and rooting dogwood from fresh clippings. I dabbled in grafting, originally with the intent to graft pear scions to wild apple trees around my tree stands, that only frustrated me because everything I tried seemed to fail. I was able to get wild apple scions to take to other wild apples with nearly 100% success so I know it wasn't my grafting, it was simply compatibility issues I knew nothing about. I was told the general rule to grafting is "seed to seed and pit to pit", and it is... just not like I thought. Not just any pear will take to any apple, its more specific than that, so it was a learning experience and I embrace those.
After this years orders go in the ground I will have planted just over 900 (not including my dogwood sticks in a cup and acorns planted) trees, shrubs and berry bushes all focused on Deer and Turkey with some rabbit, grouse and my honeybees in mind. Cover, bedding and food to feed my food have been the goals. Cover doesn't grow fast, but hinge cutting makes instant cover and bedding so I bought a chainsaw and went to work.
My plantings were focused on food sources unique to my area, Persimmons, Chestnuts, Pears, Mullberrys, NineBark, Allegheny Chinquapins etc. Unfortunately most of my land pictures are on my old phone but I dug up what I could to post something here.
Alot of crop fields provide a buffet of Corn, Wheat, Clover and Soy Beans to contend with.
Thats my house at the top of the picture. The white border is broken up because it was sold to me in parcels but all at the same time.
The view from my bedroom window. This picture was in late spring, I can only say that because just behind that doe is what I was told was American Bamboo but I think the right identification is knotweed. It grows nearly 10 feet tall and DOES NOT DIE!!! Looking for advice there, anyway It is only 4-5 feet tall in this picture so I know the time of year lol
My first years plantings here only include what I bought, most of it through our Department of Environmental Conservation seedling sale, some states call the same entity the DNR. I did splurge a little for the Chinese Chestnut, Persimmon and Dwarf Korean Chestnut.
2019 plantings, I did buy a few White Oaks from Lowes (of all places) because they are 8' tall and give me hope that I will someday hunt over acorns. The crude lines are my 4 wheeler trails so I could keep the map in perspective to plantings.
There is much that isn't included in these crude maps but I think you get the point, I planted over 200 things (before acquiring the 30) on the 8 acres my house sits on and so many things I "found" seeds locally to start in cups and stick in the ground that aren't marked here.