Site Prep Continues

First, some tools of the trade.  I started prepping the dirt with a disc harrow that I already had.

Disc Harrow - Good for breaking up soil

The problem with the disc harrow is that I was having trouble getting it to chop up the grass and turn it into the soil.  So, I got a tiller attachment.

Tiller Attachment

Tiller is doing a very good job at turning over the soil and grass and leaving not much behind but dirt.  Unfortunately, I had a really bad day last weekend and tore up the drive shaft.  The shaft pulled off the tiller and kept spinning because it was attached to the PTO on the tractor.  The clutch, which is big and heavy, flopped around until the shaft separated, but in the process tore up the shaft.  I swapped out the tiller for the disc to keep working and then managed to knock a front tire off the rim and cut it up.  So, I got the tire replaced and am waiting on a new shaft.  In the meantime I continue to disc up the dirt.

Now, I also received the cultipacker I ordered.  It came in on Friday and I picked it up at the freight company.  Here it is.

Cultipacker

I think I mentioned this in an earlier post, but this is a salvaged cultipacker, re-manufactured by an Amish guy in Lancaster, PA. 

Now for updated photos.  

A lot of the dirt is looking pretty good - very little grass left and fluffy dirt.  

Its pretty easy to see what areas need more work and which areas are fine.  This area is pretty good.  I need to go over a few areas with the tiller once I get the drive shaft back.

Then, there is one more area that I have not worked on yet.  This photo shows what the land looked like before I started.

To the left you see the area to be busted up and on the right is an area of grass that will remain.  The tall grass is Virginia bluestem grass - the early succession grass that has moved in.  

So, here is a panoramic view of the meadow area from the street. You can see the grass path that winds through the meadow. 

Eye Candy

For those of you who can appreciate a well prepared soil bed, I offer the following images of my progress:

 I have not cut the area I am working for meadow planting all season.  The result is encouraging in that we have some volunteer plants.  I don't know what they are, but it seems if you just give nature a chance it will find its balance. 

Dirt work

Well, its November and we are getting ready to plant seed in the meadow.  Marc Pastorek is very busy drying seed in preparation for the active planting season.  In the meantime, I concluded that the disc harrow was just not breaking the existing sod well enough to expose the soil for seeding.  After searching far and wide for a rental or loaner, I finally purchased a 70" tiller attachment for the tractor.  This past weekend, I ran the tiller over the two larger areas of the meadow project and the result was very good.  The soil is now exposed and the existing grass is mostly uprooted.  I followed with the disc harrow for good measure and got a little deeper turn to the soil. 

Today, I finally lit the burn pile that has been accumulating for the past couple years.  It was a little windy and a little dry, but the pile was well isolated.  I found that my brulee torch did a very nice job of lighting off the diesel, which can be a bugger to light.  The pile burned fast and hot and is now smoldering and should be ashes by morning.

I have a lot more work to do before the whole plot is ready to plant, but a light schedule this week.  So, I hope to get things ready by the weekend.  Next up, I will be ordering a cultipacker.  Again, I searched far and wide for a loaner to no avail. It seems that people in the south don't use cultipackers.  A cultipacker is a piece of agricultural equipment that crushes dirt clods, removes air pockets, and presses down small stones, forming a smooth, firm seedbed. Where seed has been broadcast, the roller gently firms the soil around the seeds, ensuring shallow seed placement and excellent seed-to-soil contact.

I found a good source in Pennsylvania that handles a lot of used agricultural equipment.  It turns out that they buy old, broken cultipackers and have an Amish guy who rebuilds them into smaller units.  I can get a 6 1/2 foot Little Joe at a good price and have it shipped down on motor freight.  By the time I get all of this equipment, I guess I could go into the meadow preparation business. 

Preparations

I spent some time this weekend working on preparing for planting this fall.  I cut the areas that are going to remain grass and ran the disc harrow over the major areas that are going to get planted.  There are four major areas that had a low enough tree density to turn the soil.  the largest area I had turned a bit a couple weeks ago.  I hit that area again today for a second pass and got the other areas on a first pass.  The grass is pretty long, making it hard to break through to the soil.  But, the disc is killing the grass at the surface and will prompt seed growth in the soil.  The goal is two fold.  First, the seed that I plant in November needs to get to the soil in order to germinate.  Second, the main competition for the new grasses and other plants will be the existing seed load in the soil.  By killing the top grass and exposing the soil, the seed bank is forced to sprout and this leaves less seed of undesirable grasses in the soil later.

I posted a number pf pictures to a new page, titled Progress Photos.  The areas in preparation are kind of dead looking.  Not that much to see.  But, I do have a picture of the new tractor.  I think she needs a name.  I am open to suggestion.

I have good notes on the failure of the Long Leaf pine to regenerate after being logged out, but need to sit down and write it properly.  The short answer is pigs, or what we call today, feral hogs.  Go figure.

Initial Layout

This Sunday, I met with Marc and walked the layout of the design.  In order to get a better idea of how the layout will work, I cut the grass in the areas that will remain grass - the walking path around the yard and the circles out in the field.  It not easy to see the design in photos, but I uploaded a few to the Before Photos page.  It looks like a lot of grass and some trees.  But, if you look carefully, you can see some paths and maybe the circles. 

Silviculture

That's the word of the day. 

Silviculture is the practice of controlling the establishment, growth, composition, health, and quality of forests to meet diverse needs and values. The name comes from the Latin silvi- (forest) + culture (as in growing). The study of forests and woods is termed silvology.

I just received a new book entitled, The Longleaf Pine Ecosystem: Ecology, Silviculture,  and Restoration.  Here is the Amazon link.  This appears to be a comprehensive treatment of the subject by leading academics and field biologists.  Its my new textbook for this project.

Pine Flatwoods

I learned a new term yesterday - Pine Flatwoods.  That's what I am trying to do with this project.  Well, more or less.  Flatwoods, also called Pineywoods, Pine Savannas, and Longleaf Pine-Wiregrass Ecosystem, refers to the ecosytem that once dominated the Southeastern coastal plain of north America.  Flatwoods are maintained by fire and are dominated by Longleaf Pine and Slash Pine in the canopy and, depending on the amount of water present, ranging from Saw Palmetto to grasslands.  Here in the Florida Parishes of Louisiana, the savanna emphasises grasses and wildflowers over Saw Palmetto.

A typical Pine Flatwood with grasses. 

The Nature Conservancy has a nice article on the history of the ecosystem in the East Gulf Coastal Plain, from which I am quoting below.  I added a link to the main page to the article.

"When Samuel Lockett traveled by mule-drawn carriage around the Florida Parishes in 1871 documenting the natural conditions of the region and commenting upon its development potential, he fell in love with the beauty of the region.
In the central and eastern Florida Parishes (essentially equivalent to the range of the EGCP Ecoregion in LA) longleaf pine woodlands in the hilly uplands and longleaf pine savannas in the flatwoods were by far the most common habitats in the region. Describing much of Washington, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, St. Helena and Livingston parishes as unbroken expenses of longleaf pine, Lockett wrote of "the most beautiful, limpid streams imaginable... The transparency can scarcely be realized from a mere description," he noted."

Marc Pastorek has updated his plan for the site.  Here is the new concept:

The green areas are islands of loblolly pines and natural diversity of fruiting trees and shrubs with wood edge wildflowers like monarda and mountain mint, etc.  The yellow is meadow and scattered long leaf with an occasional grouping of pond cypress(maybe one or two small groupings of maybe eight or so, total).

The Project Begins

I have just started this blog and have a lot of work to do to get it up and running.  I am working on the Project Overview page, which will be necessary to understand what's going on here.  But, its a start.  So, here we go.  

Marc Pastorek and I met at the Nature Conservancy land at Lake Ramsey this week and I got a look at the kind of land scape we are working toward.  Marc provided a general, conceptual plan for the landscape.  I have not cut the grass on the plot in a couple months.  The grass varies from a few inches to a couple of feet in height.  Marc and I agree that a good way to start would be for me to cut the grass in the areas that we want to keep in grass and leave the wild areas to be developed with native grasses and other plants.  I will then disk those areas a couple of times between now and November to deplete the seed load in the ground and to loosen the soil.  So, I did some initial cutting today on the perimeter of the lot and the area behind the house. I took delivery of a new tractor this week so it was fun to run my new toy in any case.  I will post a picture of the lot later.

Version 2 of the landscape conceptual plan