Project "The Gap"

John-W-WI

Administrator
As part of my habitat plan (developed with a consultant, don't hold it against me) I needed to give the deer a comfortable spot to cross a wide open field. In hopes of keeping the big boys on their feet during daylight hours. I tried egyptian wheat, but we had almost no rain all summer, so it didn't do much. So I decided to plant a fairly serious screen of sorts. It's double rows, approximately 400 feet long. In the coming weeks I'll also hope to plant a double row 1500' screen. Wish me luck!

This screen consists of 2 rows of hybrids. One hybrid willow, the other hybrid poplar. Planted on 6' centers, rows staggered.

We also planted a row of Arrow Wood on the outside of each run of fabric, and a row of Ninebark on the inside of each run of fabric. Ninebark is relatively shade tolerante, hopefully the hybrids don't come on too strong and the Ninebark can get established.

(please forgive the shameless product placement in a couple of the pictures, I took the pictures for my website but wanted to share them here as well).

Here is last years EW getting tilled down:
Project 'The Gap' 1.JPG

Project 'The Gap' 2.JPG

Project 'The Gap' 3.JPG

The 1st row of 6' wide fabric going down:
Project 'The Gap' 4.JPG

Now there are 2 rows down:
Project 'The Gap' 5.JPG

Rooting hormone on the shrubs:
Project 'The Gap' 5a.JPG

Project 'The Gap' 5b.JPG

The young guys with strong backs planting:
Project 'The Gap' 6.JPG

First a hole is made to insert the cutting:
Project 'The Gap' 7.JPG

Then the cutting is placed:
Project 'The Gap' 8.JPG
 
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We firm the soil around the planted cutting with a 3 pound maul (he's not hitting the cutting, just the soil around it):
Project 'The Gap' 9.JPG

A planted hybrid:
Project 'The Gap' 10.JPG

A shrub planted along the edge:
Project 'The Gap' 11.JPG

One row of the finished screen:
Project 'The Gap' 12.JPG

By bow season (with reasonable rains) this will be a fairly serious visual screen. After year 2 (and a couple more tricks) I hope mature deer will walk between the rows during daylight.

I can't wait to see how it does!

-John
 
Looks awesome John, keep us posted with the progress for sure.
 
Holy $*^t, you could build a wall with all those rocks.

Looks good, I'm curious how it makes out with browse pressure.
Sorry to the MN guys but that would turn into a chow line at my place.
 
John-I have a much shorter distance where I would like to create a crossing lane on a 3 acre field. My problem is that we plant this field to corn. My neighbor puts dairy pit manure on it, and plants it. He needs room for big equipment.

I have pretty much just made trails through the corn or year old corn with a bit of success and have concentrated on making specific entry and exit points one each side of the 3 acre field by cutting trails/planting clover trails.

I am open to other suggestions. NWSG and Egyptian wheat have been discussed. I still need to leave room for my neighbor to spaya the corn for me with his equipment and I do not want to make it too hard for him.
 
Looks good John. Did something similar but with evergreens. I think you will have faster results
 
You could seed some dutch white clover right down the center of the 2 rows and have a clean, low growing, long lasting ground cover in your lane to walk down also.
 
Now i know why THIS forum is this GOOD!
 
Guys that is a great idea (loading up the excess rocks in the field on the weed mat). Simple and keeps the mat from buckling and wind whipped.
 
Wiscwhip - I think you put the icing on John's cake with the white Dutch clover in the middle! I can picture a biggy sneaking thru there right after first light and munching clover all the way across the field. Filling his gut while scent-checking the wind out of sight in good cover. John, you may get bids for the seats in the treestands on either end of the " walk to the freezer! " Good layout.
 
Yeah that area in the distance where the "Gap" is leading into, nice! Very nice!
 
I am doing the same thing John. Mines 500 feet long 2 rows 4 foot on center 4 foot wide. I need the rain to quit so the water lever drops and I can finish!! I used all Hybrid Willow. Last years grew 14ft tall in one growing season..2014B2.jpg
 
Dave - nice looking as well. Water is your friend, unless you have too much :)

Thanks for the idea Wiscwhip - clover down the middle would be a GREAT idea. That has been added to the list to get done... I know spring planted clover isn't ideal, but its a small enough area relatively speaking I can baby it a bit to keep the weeds under control.

-John
 
Nice job John. Did all of those rocks come from the tilled up field?

Yep, in previous years I have rock picked that field several times. All of the rocks are in piles on the edge. We just grabbed them from the piles because they are handy. Not necessary, but good insurance!

John
 
Dave - nice looking as well. Water is your friend, unless you have too much :)

Thanks for the idea Wiscwhip - clover down the middle would be a GREAT idea. That has been added to the list to get done... I know spring planted clover isn't ideal, but its a small enough area relatively speaking I can baby it a bit to keep the weeds under control.

-John
Yup, easy to mow to keep the broadleafs down and not sure what herbicides you can use around those trees and shrubs, but I wouldn't think cleth would bother them if you needed to spray the grasses in the clover strip. One pass with the mower or sprayer and done! It wouldn't even be that hard to water that strip of clover with a tank sprayer and a 4 wheeler if lack of rain got that bad.
 
Dave - nice looking as well. Water is your friend, unless you have too much :)

Thanks for the idea Wiscwhip - clover down the middle would be a GREAT idea. That has been added to the list to get done... I know spring planted clover isn't ideal, but its a small enough area relatively speaking I can baby it a bit to keep the weeds under control.

-John
Just another thought on what to plant down the middle John. If it would be me I would plant some type of switch grass that would grow to a height of 3 to 4 feet. Then in late summer I would cut a 2 foot wide trail to encourage the deer to use it. If you plant clover they may just feed in it until after dark before they do any movement.
 
That will be awesome when it is done! I am having a hard time convincing my brother that we should do that to a seasonal swamp area that he can make occasionally make hay off of in August when it is a dry summer. I want to do hybrid willows and then black spruce to grow in long term.

Also, those are just baby rocks ;). When we would plow and disc a field we used the roller to push them back under.
 
Gotta agree with everyone sentiments really neat thing ya got going there.
 
An update on "The Gap".

We planted 12 rows of corn down each side:
2014 - The gap - update 1 2.JPG

2014 - The gap - update 1 5.JPG
 
(these are a week or two old)

The Hybrid Poplar are coming along:

2014 - The gap - update 1 9.JPG
Where did those leaves go? Maybe Bill is right, maybe I planted a chow line?

2014 - The gap - update 1 16.JPG
The Hybrid Willows aren't doing bad either:

2014 - The gap - update 1 24.JPG

I didn't get around to planting anything in the middle. I really like the idea of some taller grass to fill things in.

With the corn down each side, that should make it feel more secure to the big boys than it may have otherwise.

The ground blind on the south end of this strip is going to be a great spot this fall. I'm glad my hunting buddy doesn't like ground blinds :)

-John
 
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