Small Town Habitat Project.....

[buckvelvet]

Well here is a back log to date of what I've done.
http://www.qdma.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58178

Don't get mad at the link above please its just the pages of reports up and until this point. :(

Well guys, I am making progress on the site for the orchard, I have probably 1 more good day of cutting and hauling to have it all cleared so I can plant.

Slowly but surely I am getting there, sure is satisfying to see the progress, and of coarse my wood pile growing at a crazy rate at my house. :)

 

[buckvelvet]

Well yesterday my back told me it had enough of the wood hauling for a day, so I worked up the courage to do the first phase of planting.

I planted 4 American Plums from my local conversation district at $4 for 5 of them (the other one went amongst some Hardy Apricots in my yard at home). Feels good to see these planted and tubed. This location is just west of the Eagle plot in the natural depression. Yes there is some junk in the area as I've mentioned previously I'm reclaiming this 'old dump from the 80s and making it into something I can be proud of instead of looking at the decay around it.

The view here is from the west ridge looking back east to the shack we installed late last summer.

The tubes are from Dudley at native nursery, got to say they snap up together pretty easy. :)

 

[buckvelvet]

After completing my first planting of the year I decided to open my box of Beaked Hazelnut from Wallace Woodstock Nursery in Neillsville, WI. I have American Hazelnuts coming later to join these from Coldstream but they aren't ready yet.

This is the spot I cleared of Autum Olive a few weeks ago. I had 5 beaked hazelnuts to plant and here they are in their final resting place. Sure is satisfying seeing all of this stuff start to come together. :)

You can see in the picture below this is from outside the shack looking west and out across the eagle plot, to the AM Plums and the Hazelnuts on the ridge.

Its all coming together.

 

[huthut]

Thanks for documenting the progress and sharing with everyone. Also thanks for moving the updates to this new forum

My back I sore just looking at all the tree trunks cut to carrying size. I need to get a thread going on my 3.5 clearing.

 

[Bill]

I'm curious to see how much first year growth the AM plum put on in tree tubes. I've got some that did very little the first 2 years but started to take off last summer. No tubes and drought.

 

[buckvelvet]

Luckily these are all within 400 yards of my house so I can drive through the woods to water them so they should put on some mega growth.

Yeah my back was sore alright, I started cutting and hauling at 9 am Saturday, quit at 5:30 pm, my goodness!

 

[phil@thesidehill]

I am also reclaiming a "junkyard" on my property...from when my grandfather owned the property. He grew up in the depression and is a tinkerer/inventor....so he can never actually throw away anything that might possible serve another purpose. when he is "done" with something he just hauled it across the road to his "sidehill" lot and left until he needed again....or never.

 

[buckvelvet]

It's an eye sore for sure with the junk but I make due with what I have to work around it.

 

[phil@thesidehill]

It's an eye sore for sure with the junk but I make due with what I have to work around it.

I'm in the same mode. I clean up what i can when i can. it seems as though every year when I break dirt...more junk shows up. I often joke that i'm growing junk plots! best of luck and looking forward to seeing more of your work!

 

[buckvelvet]

Well folks I set my alarm for 6:30 am and hit the woods. I planted this order in the ground this morning, I have 2 kiefer pears and some native nursery crabs that are showing up today that I'll put in soon as I get the rest of the wood picked up. I tubed the Oikos trees as well and gave them some good 'ol H2O and then it rained. Lol, well double portion is ok too I guess.

I forgot my phone on the charger when I went in the woods, I'm gonna water the hazelnuts and plums tonight so I'll snap a photo or 2 of the trees I planted this morning, Yee haw!

In the order there was an extra Wild Apple ECOS so I got a freebie, yee haw, the wild life will be eating good in a few years.

 

[buckvelvet]

Thursday night I planted my 2 kiefer pears back in the orchard as well, making progress. Here are a few pics I snapped Friday morning. I hope to have the rest of the wood hauling/clean up completed by 5/10 so heres for hard work!

 

[scott44]

Looking good! Lots of hard work there my back hurts just looking at all that firewood. I also ordered some American hazelnuts from Coldstream and got them planted this weekend.

 

[buckvelvet]

How'd they look Scott? I'll be picking mine up there next week.

 

[buckvelvet]

Well ladies and gents I went turkey hunting yesterday AM and then hit the orchard site for some tree cutting and hauling.

My middle daughter really wanted to go back in the woods with me, so I told her after I cut a load I'd come get her and she could help me plant and water some trees.

We planted my native nursery order today of 8 Wild Crabapple hybrids.

http://www.nativnurseries.com/p-101-wild-crab-apple.aspx

Then as I was walking with her down a steep bank to water the plum trees I heard some rustling in some grass on the side of the hill about 15 yards was a blue racer.

No joke this thing was about as wide as 12 oz coke can and was about 5-6 foot long. They are known for being aggressive and will chase you. I picked up my daughter as fast as I could and walked (slightly quicker than before ;) out of the way).......Yikes!

I sure had fun though planting with my daughter today and I think she enjoyed it too.

 

[buckvelvet]

It's raining like cats and dogs out side, buckets are falling from the sky, the roads can't drain fast enough so there is literally lakes across the highway! The last 4 days have been thunderstorms here and today is especially wet. My new seedlings are on very sandy ground so standing water is not an issue.

With it being 70 yesterday and 65 today I suspect my trees are growing quite nicely, hurray!

 

[buckvelvet]

Well I picked up my order from Cold Stream Nurseries Saturday and hit the ground running.

I ended up planting all 4 of the Sweet Crabs and I got about 12 AM Hazelnuts in the ground and ran out of room. I gave the rest to my father in law and he planted them to screen off his neighbors and well he loves to eat hazelnuts, bonus!

This is a pic of the eagle plot, it sure has filled in nicely this spring there the ground is a real thick matte of clover and chicory with some rye sprinkled in but the real hero is the incredible growth of the clover in this spot.

I never expected with this sandy/rocky ground to have a growth this good in spring #1 of the food plots but man oh man I'm impressed. I'll do a closeup of it next time I get out there (which will be soon). :)

 

[buckvelvet]

Well I took some better pictures this time of the food plots as they stand this spring. Hopefully these do it a bit more justice on the explosion of clover on this little spot.

First here is the 2track plot, this is a real small section but the growth is great for the WR this spring, hopefully a fawn may call this home when it gets taller for a while.

Obviously as you can see these giant oaks and maples around throw a ton of leaves in the fall and believe it or not I did rake this early last October, sheesh!

Here are 2 closeups of the eagle this is the (to my amazement) the better of the 2, clover is just unreal, this ground was so rocky in spots you could have filled holes in a driveway and in other spots its so sandy I buried the rototiller.

Do deer like this area, well lets investigate to see if there are signs of the deer in this small little area.

Here is the view (standing in the eagle plot) looking west up into the the hazelnuts that hopefully will be throwing nuts all over the place in 5-7 years. This is just 1 spot where they like to climb in and out.

Further proof you say? Well lets see if we can find a track for the real hard core non believers and not 5 yards from this trail pic we have a solid sign right amongst the clover.

Sure makes ya feel good when you put all this work in and the critters that your planting it for are putting it to good use. If I ate clovers or if I was a leprechaun I'd hang out here too! :)

 

[buckvelvet]

Well I can't go out back and not give ya'll an update on the orchard status.

Here's an update on the growth of some of the trees I've got out there.

Nativie Nursery "Wild" Crab Apple:

Oikos - Leconte Pear

Oikos - Ecos Crabapple

Local Conservation Disctrict - AM Plumb.

Ahh progress, so sweet to the soul!

 

[scott44]

How'd they look Scott? I'll be picking mine up there next week.

BV- Sorry I didn't see the post, mine looked like yours did. Your property is looking good!

 

[phil@thesidehill]

Looking good man! Keep the updates coming!