I will be moving into my grampa's property in about a year. It is an old house that sits on about 14 acres that is 90% old growth trees. In central Ohio Amish country.
There is a small patch that they used for a garden at least 40 years ago, probably untouched since then. The immediate bordering areas are commercially farmed.
I'm wondering what advice you could lend on what to do with the land. I want to finally start an in ground garden. My questions are:
I should probably just use the previous garden patch. Will the soil be depleted of anything? What should I add? Will the neighboring farms chemicals have seeped into my side?
There was recently a bad windstorm and knocked down a lot of trees. Should I attempt to call a logging company to sell the wood or will they just go in, take what they want, and leave?
Finally, what could you recommend for turning woodland into vegetable garden land? Would the soil be super rich or way off to grow vegetables? Any other things I can plant in the woods? I know morel and big fat round mushrooms grow out there.
I good approach would be to frequent any little local diners and befriend some local old timers. I bet there’s a spot they gather for breakfast here and there…They will be thrilled to have someone new who wants to learn how the locals have done it for generations. They will gladly give advice on the local conditions and what they have done successfully in the past. The locals justifiably will shun and keep their distance from an outsider who doesn’t want to embrace local lore and tradition- someone who just wants to build or develop…They will openly and warmly embrace and encourage someone that respects them and their way of life.
Good luck brother. That area is one of the only good things Ohio has going for it… the rest is a shithole, hence why I moved away as soon as I could after high school and never looked back.
Under no circumstances are you to call in any company to haul off those trees. They don't care about your land and will thrash the shit out of it to get their trucks up there. Once the ground is gouged and the trees knocked down, etc., it will NEVER recover and will only get worse as time passes.
Leave the fell trees.
Here's what you need to do.
1. Clear out the patch that was garden. Any soil, so long as it is not poisoned, can be amended. Clear it like you're going to turn it into a garden. Do this near the end of the summer.
2. Do a comprehensive soil test. You're going to need to spend on this with a professional company who will require you to send off a sample of the dirt. Do NOT rely on a "do it yourself" kit. Unless you're dropping noticeable cash on it from a company that would have to send it off anyway, you're going to get something from China or old stock and cannot rely on those not having gone out of date.
3. While you're waiting for the results of that, go clear out the undergrowth of the wooded areas. All of it. The reason you do this is that it will clear out undesirable pests who will eat your garden, carry disease, damage growth you want. Simultaneously, this will open it up for animals you DO want. Larger animals like dear, bear, wolves/coyotes which are manageable and have positive effects on the land.
4. Once you have your results back, THEN you can start amending it. Not with fertilizer but with real methods that will permanently change the soil chemistry. Chemicals will just wash out and you'll have to do it again the next (or same) season.
5. Once you have the first year's garden ready to plant, you're only going to eat off of it half of the season. You're only going to plant things that can grow without being cared for or special planting. This means things that go to seed and don't need a large patch of them. Tomatoes, not corn. Green beans, not lettuce. Peppers, not carrots. The things you harvest after your "eat" part of the season will be spread all over your land. You will do this for several reasons: they'll continue to grow and spread and you can benefit without planting more, creatures will eat THAT instead of your garden, you will never run a shortage of those foods again. So take my garden as an example... after several years, I now get tomatoes that pop up everywhere. I actually have to weed them out if I want something else there. Another example is where I threw some half rotten peaches the first year I lived here. I just hadn't gotten to them in time and tossed them out the back. Five years later, I have 7 peach trees and have given away at least 600 peaches to neighbors this year. While picking those, I've culled about another 100 or so pits/seeds that I just threw back out into the land. If even half of those grow, I'll have so many that I could open a fruit stand.
As for general advise on deficiencies of the garden patch, it's almost certainly low on nitrogen and potassium. Depending on the trees around it, it probably also has a really low pH (easily amendable with ashes from a fire).
Thanks for your thoughtful reply. What are the 'real methods' you mention in your item #4?
I'm not keen on inviting a tree removal service. However, there are a lot of big ones blocking access to certain areas. There is no shortage of firewood already there. The money would be useful and lastly I don't have any 'heavy' equipment. I don't know the first thing about trees. They just fell maybe 2 months ago... How long do I have to leave them sit there before they rot or become useless?
What you'll have to do to amend the soil will depend on what it needs and what type of soil it is. Ideally, you want a loamy soil... think of dirt and sand mixed. Kind of like that. A higher clay content will mean that if you try to squeeze it into a ball in your fist, it'll want to stay like that. Clay isn't the best for drainage. As long as there isn't too much clay, that should be relatively fine.
There are a couple of gardening techniques you can look into. You can till the soil (I wouldn't recommend that unless you need to work stuff into it). You can just dig or poke holes for seedlings or seeds. You can layer lots of hay on it. I forget what the technique is called but you just put loads and loads of hay on top of the previous layer. Eventually, it will start to decompose into dirt but you can also plant in the hay. If weeds start popping up, just put down more hay. You can mulch it though I'd stay away from pine mulch and go more for hardwoods if you can get it. Those are natural pest repellents. You definitely want to encourage worms and you can do that with good ground cover like mulch and/or hay.
Something you might consider is to take some of that wood and burn it, collect the charcoal and till that into the ground. The charcoal will increase the surface area of the soil and hold nutrients better than most anything else you can do to it.
Also, probably the first best thing you can do is just use your eyes. What is the soil color? Is it a dark, deep brown? (that's good). Or is it red, light brown, maybe even grayish? (that's bad). What kind of trees are around? Pine and walnut trees make the soil acidic as a way to fight off competition so if those are around your plot, you might want to fell those and at least check the soil pH. If you don't want to test with a science kit, plant some Hydrangea because their flower color will tell you the soil pH. https://newswire.caes.uga.edu/story/4542/blue-pink-or-lavender.html
If you don't want to run off a soil sample, you can take a whole season and do it more naturally: get a few tomato plants, snow peas, green peppers, and cucumber and plant them. If the soil pH is a bit too low, the snow peas will die off and everything else will live just fine. Tomato plants are finicky so they'll be like a canary for you. Aside from that, watch the coloring and shape of the leaves on what you plant for your first test run. Look for spots of color, curled or wrinkled leaves, differences in color between the veins in the leaves and the rest of the leaf, how the tomato vines grow and how quickly. There are websites that will have photos and drawings of what your leaves look like and that tells you what's wrong with the soil
Tilling the soil breaks it up and makes it easier to work but it disrupts or destroys the soil ecology. So weigh that out and see if you want to do that and eventually have to care for the soil more or if you're willing to just let it be a little more compact and dig around a bit when you plant. I haven't tilled my garden in something like 4 years and it does just fine in that department. Most of the time, you just need a trowel and screwdriver to plant.
If you're looking for weed control, honestly the way to go is hay or mulch (again). You'll need no less than 3 inches to stop weed growth.
Fallen trees can take some years to decompose. It's better for the soil and erosion control but if you want to clear them out, probably the best, cheapest route you can take is just a simple riding mower with a trailer and a chainsaw. Go out there, cut them up, load the piece up into the trailer and take them where you want them. Depending on the part of the country you're in, you'll not want to stack that wood near your house. Wood, especially cool and damp, will draw brown recluse and black widows, not to mention termites, snakes, and scorpions (especially if it's pine). Probably the worst time to go out and do that would be right about now because snake eggs tend to hatch later in the year. If it were me, I'd wait until late October, run out there, see what's where and needs to be pulled and start looking at what trees should be tagged for cutting before they fall. Any live wood you cull will need to season at least a year if you intend to sell it. It's tough to burn wet wood so this is the time to plan ahead.
I would start and learn using the existing garden patch before you cut the old growth. It won’t grow back any time soon and big trees make nice privacy screens and wind breaks. You don’t know know what you will know in a year or two of trying your hand at the gardening.
You can take the garden soil in for testing and they will tell you what you need to do to amend it.
I suspect you will be spending most of yourr time in the first few years fixing up the house so a smaller garden is all you will be able to manage anyway.
Some parting advice before you change something, try to understand why it was do e that way first. Your grandpa had a lot of experience living in that place, you could learn a lot of his lessons by just seeing how things are laid out.
I have 10 acres in Maine. I would suggest that you do nothing for the first year except work on the house. Systems, structure, roof, etc. You will be working every waking hour updating a grandparents house. From the bathroom fan to the water heater, you've got some stuff to ponder...
For myself, after studying where the sunrises/sets for a year I knew where to put the garden.
During the summer or deep freeze winter the trucks can bring equipment without damaging the ground. I'd have the storm blown trees cut up and chipped. They can dump the chips somewhere for you to use around the yard.
TAKE YOUR TIME. IT'S NOT A RACE. REAL ESTATE IS FOREVER
These woodlands can provide everything you’d ever need.
Set up feeders for deer. Set up tree stands, keep in mind the wind direction. Does the land have a water source? If it does, and your wooded acres are surrounded by farms, you probably have a sizable population of deer bedding down in your woods. Set up hog traps and bait them with fermented corn. Learn the edible mushrooms in your woods. Start an herb garden but fence it in. You’ll never have to go to the grocery store again if you don’t want to.
Get a few chest freezers. If you have the money buy a small walk in freezer so that you can hang and age game. Learn how to preserve the meat without a freezer.
If you are going to clear some of the land, leave the hardwood. There are some hardwoods that deer love. But, if I were you, I’d just bow hunt the perimeter of the land that’s already cleared. Bow hunt the neighboring farm perimeter but make sure you have permission.. don’t be a nigger.
To add on this, the fence needs to be over six feet tall, seven or eight feet will work, and needs to be tightly attached to the ground as they will try to push under it. Deer are four legged niggers, and they will do everything they can to eat what you plant, even if it tastes terrible to them or is flat out poisonous.
Yes, there are a good amount of deer. There is a small "crick" that runs towards one corner of the property but is not inside. I will definitely need to do some exploring. I've only seen 5% of the woods. Holy shit Mel Gibson!
Log prices are really good right now. Dedicated 4-5 acres of land to clearing and selling the wood.
If possible, cut the trees closest to your house so that when the machinery is there you can also do some landscaping at the same time.
1. You can either straight sell the logs or
2. if you contact a mill you can do a trade and they will mill you up 50% of the lumber and keep the other 50%.
Due your diligence if you do hire a company to log your place. Most of them will try and rip you off and under pay you.
Logging itself is not expensive you can hire a guy to cut and scale the timber for you and then hire a separate company to bring the equipment to pick up the logs (that’s the expensive part).
If you have the money I would recommend trading the logs to a mill so they can cut you up lumber but you will eat the cost of the equipment to log your place. If you do a straight sell you will break even on the cost and maybe make 10k$ depending on the quality of the wood
I should probably just use the previous garden patch. Will the soil be depleted of anything?
It shouldn't, nitrogen levels, as well as other nutrients replenish if given enough time. 40 years is more than enough. I still recommend fertilizing. Compost, used bedding straw from animals, and manure from goats or rabbits are the easiest fertilizers for you to obtain by yourself. Other manures work, they just have to be composted. Otherwise, you'll have to buy fertilizer.
Will the neighboring farms chemicals have seeped into my side?
Depends on where the garden plot is located. If you can, it may be good to ask your neighbors what pesticides and herbicides they are using.
There was recently a bad windstorm and knocked down a lot of trees. Should I attempt to call a logging company to sell the wood or will they just go in, take what they want, and leave?
How it typically works is that you pay them to clear the trees you want cleared, and you get reimbursed partially, fully, or even turn a profit by selling the trees to the nearest lumber mill. Your expenses or profits depend on current local lumber prices, the cost of fuel to transport lumber, and the wages of the loggers. Loggers will also typically haul the wood to the mill.
Finally, what could you recommend for turning woodland into vegetable garden land? Would the soil be super rich or way off to grow vegetables?
Way off, the trees consume a large portion of the soils nutrients, and pine trees will make the soil slightly acidic. If you intend to plant where you've cut down trees, you will need to heavily fertilize, and probably neutralize the soil. Both are relatively easy to do.
Any other things I can plant in the woods?
Any plants that like shade will do, you may have to grow them in planting boxes, or make a raised bed. Plants that grow in the shade will always grow slower than their sun loving counterparts, and so will be less efficient in terms of plant yield to gardening space. Edible ferns are the most obvious plants that you can grow in the shade. There are a few herbs, leafy greens, and root edible plants that you can grow in the shade as well. A simple internet search will yield a good selection.
My advice for your soil is to use the previous spot if the area gets the most sunlight. I use kitchen compost and it's the best fertilizer around. As far as the commercial farm chemicals I can only suggest you get a professional soil test.
For the trees I'd suggest you cut them up and haul them out yourself if you can. If not then I'd look at different companies and see what other people say about them. I don't have much experience with that.
Clear cutting is good if you need maximum sunlight, I have some partial shade plants I grow for medicines and drugs, so they live near the trees on my property. I want to build a shroom shack next summer, I need more than what naturally grows around here. I'm learning what's good and what isn't still though. Need to be extra safe with the baby.
Many wildflower seed oils have various effects on our bodies. Some even hold properties that have volatile chemical reactions when mixed with common household cleaners.
Something that others have not mentioned. Learn the land and the natural wild edible plants. 14 acres probably contains a lot of food sources occurring naturally. Some amazing mushrooms grown on decaying trees. I just grabbed 3lbs of chicken of the woods mushroom two days ago on a hike.
Learn where the berry bushes are, the fruit trees, the patches of wild herbs and leafy greens.
[ - ] taoV 1 point 2.7 yearsSep 5, 2022 16:41:21 ago (+1/-0)
If you want to really get complicated and time consuming you could try growing a food forest in part of the land. Supposedly those are nice for boogaloos because they don't look like a food patch, due to not having a linear design. Also do what totes_magotes said or find a forester to help manage your tress sustainably.
[ - ] letsgetit 1 point 2.7 yearsSep 5, 2022 16:02:18 ago (+1/-0)
If you have the energy and time, setup a bed each year and let one or two lie fallow for a full year. Helps nutrients return to the soil. Raised beds unless your soil is good. Kentucky has good soil but not sure about central OH.
Spread different types of clover seeds around the garden beds to bring nitrogen back to the soil. Pollinator flowering plants in the vicinity are excellent bringing those bees and small insects for tomatoes, peppers, etc.
Know your hardiness zone and what does and doesn't do well in the zone.
You can send samples to labs that will test your soil for minerals to see what you need and have abundance of. I think its anywhere from $35-75 for a test.
Those trees will need to be cleaned up for homeowners insurance purposes. Someone will probably want the free fire wood so that will be easy to take care of
Create a plantation and get yourself some niggers and a few beaners! Make little huts for them to live in but provide food and shelter for their every day work. make them sign a paper. then film it and upload and show that slavery works. all of us have to have Massa before our name that we will be using.
plant soybeans. Get a couple of chickens and a duck or two. Let the birds wander the beans to keep insects down, harvest the eggs. When the beans mature get a feeder hog ( 40-60lbs range) turn the hog loose in the beans and he will eat and root. It will tear the soil up pretty good, I am assuming the garden is around an acre. Once the pig has done it's job slaughter it and dress it. Put it in the freezer. The next year you can plant what you want, just rotate your crops and plant soybeans every 5 to seven years to replenish the nitrogen.
[ + ] Steelerfish
[ - ] Steelerfish 10 points 2.7 yearsSep 5, 2022 11:27:49 ago (+11/-1)
Good luck brother. That area is one of the only good things Ohio has going for it… the rest is a shithole, hence why I moved away as soon as I could after high school and never looked back.
[ + ] websiteuser
[ - ] websiteuser [op] 0 points 2.7 yearsSep 6, 2022 21:40:15 ago (+0/-0)
Yeah it's a good area. Nothing out there.
[ + ] totes_magotes
[ - ] totes_magotes 9 points 2.7 yearsSep 5, 2022 14:35:18 ago (+9/-0)
Leave the fell trees.
Here's what you need to do.
1. Clear out the patch that was garden. Any soil, so long as it is not poisoned, can be amended. Clear it like you're going to turn it into a garden. Do this near the end of the summer.
2. Do a comprehensive soil test. You're going to need to spend on this with a professional company who will require you to send off a sample of the dirt. Do NOT rely on a "do it yourself" kit. Unless you're dropping noticeable cash on it from a company that would have to send it off anyway, you're going to get something from China or old stock and cannot rely on those not having gone out of date.
3. While you're waiting for the results of that, go clear out the undergrowth of the wooded areas. All of it. The reason you do this is that it will clear out undesirable pests who will eat your garden, carry disease, damage growth you want. Simultaneously, this will open it up for animals you DO want. Larger animals like dear, bear, wolves/coyotes which are manageable and have positive effects on the land.
4. Once you have your results back, THEN you can start amending it. Not with fertilizer but with real methods that will permanently change the soil chemistry. Chemicals will just wash out and you'll have to do it again the next (or same) season.
5. Once you have the first year's garden ready to plant, you're only going to eat off of it half of the season. You're only going to plant things that can grow without being cared for or special planting. This means things that go to seed and don't need a large patch of them. Tomatoes, not corn. Green beans, not lettuce. Peppers, not carrots. The things you harvest after your "eat" part of the season will be spread all over your land. You will do this for several reasons: they'll continue to grow and spread and you can benefit without planting more, creatures will eat THAT instead of your garden, you will never run a shortage of those foods again. So take my garden as an example... after several years, I now get tomatoes that pop up everywhere. I actually have to weed them out if I want something else there. Another example is where I threw some half rotten peaches the first year I lived here. I just hadn't gotten to them in time and tossed them out the back. Five years later, I have 7 peach trees and have given away at least 600 peaches to neighbors this year. While picking those, I've culled about another 100 or so pits/seeds that I just threw back out into the land. If even half of those grow, I'll have so many that I could open a fruit stand.
As for general advise on deficiencies of the garden patch, it's almost certainly low on nitrogen and potassium. Depending on the trees around it, it probably also has a really low pH (easily amendable with ashes from a fire).
[ + ] Jiggggg
[ - ] Jiggggg 1 point 2.7 yearsSep 5, 2022 15:25:52 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] websiteuser
[ - ] websiteuser [op] 0 points 2.7 yearsSep 6, 2022 21:36:24 ago (+0/-0)
I'm not keen on inviting a tree removal service. However, there are a lot of big ones blocking access to certain areas. There is no shortage of firewood already there. The money would be useful and lastly I don't have any 'heavy' equipment. I don't know the first thing about trees. They just fell maybe 2 months ago... How long do I have to leave them sit there before they rot or become useless?
Thanks again for your expertise.
[ + ] totes_magotes
[ - ] totes_magotes 0 points 2.7 yearsSep 6, 2022 23:39:37 ago (+0/-0)*
There are a couple of gardening techniques you can look into. You can till the soil (I wouldn't recommend that unless you need to work stuff into it). You can just dig or poke holes for seedlings or seeds. You can layer lots of hay on it. I forget what the technique is called but you just put loads and loads of hay on top of the previous layer. Eventually, it will start to decompose into dirt but you can also plant in the hay. If weeds start popping up, just put down more hay. You can mulch it though I'd stay away from pine mulch and go more for hardwoods if you can get it. Those are natural pest repellents. You definitely want to encourage worms and you can do that with good ground cover like mulch and/or hay.
Something you might consider is to take some of that wood and burn it, collect the charcoal and till that into the ground. The charcoal will increase the surface area of the soil and hold nutrients better than most anything else you can do to it.
Also, probably the first best thing you can do is just use your eyes. What is the soil color? Is it a dark, deep brown? (that's good). Or is it red, light brown, maybe even grayish? (that's bad). What kind of trees are around? Pine and walnut trees make the soil acidic as a way to fight off competition so if those are around your plot, you might want to fell those and at least check the soil pH. If you don't want to test with a science kit, plant some Hydrangea because their flower color will tell you the soil pH. https://newswire.caes.uga.edu/story/4542/blue-pink-or-lavender.html
If you don't want to run off a soil sample, you can take a whole season and do it more naturally: get a few tomato plants, snow peas, green peppers, and cucumber and plant them. If the soil pH is a bit too low, the snow peas will die off and everything else will live just fine. Tomato plants are finicky so they'll be like a canary for you. Aside from that, watch the coloring and shape of the leaves on what you plant for your first test run. Look for spots of color, curled or wrinkled leaves, differences in color between the veins in the leaves and the rest of the leaf, how the tomato vines grow and how quickly. There are websites that will have photos and drawings of what your leaves look like and that tells you what's wrong with the soil
Tilling the soil breaks it up and makes it easier to work but it disrupts or destroys the soil ecology. So weigh that out and see if you want to do that and eventually have to care for the soil more or if you're willing to just let it be a little more compact and dig around a bit when you plant. I haven't tilled my garden in something like 4 years and it does just fine in that department. Most of the time, you just need a trowel and screwdriver to plant.
If you're looking for weed control, honestly the way to go is hay or mulch (again). You'll need no less than 3 inches to stop weed growth.
Fallen trees can take some years to decompose. It's better for the soil and erosion control but if you want to clear them out, probably the best, cheapest route you can take is just a simple riding mower with a trailer and a chainsaw. Go out there, cut them up, load the piece up into the trailer and take them where you want them. Depending on the part of the country you're in, you'll not want to stack that wood near your house. Wood, especially cool and damp, will draw brown recluse and black widows, not to mention termites, snakes, and scorpions (especially if it's pine). Probably the worst time to go out and do that would be right about now because snake eggs tend to hatch later in the year. If it were me, I'd wait until late October, run out there, see what's where and needs to be pulled and start looking at what trees should be tagged for cutting before they fall. Any live wood you cull will need to season at least a year if you intend to sell it. It's tough to burn wet wood so this is the time to plan ahead.
[ + ] FluffyBunnySlippers
[ - ] FluffyBunnySlippers 6 points 2.7 yearsSep 5, 2022 12:16:41 ago (+6/-0)
You can take the garden soil in for testing and they will tell you what you need to do to amend it.
I suspect you will be spending most of yourr time in the first few years fixing up the house so a smaller garden is all you will be able to manage anyway.
Some parting advice before you change something, try to understand why it was do e that way first. Your grandpa had a lot of experience living in that place, you could learn a lot of his lessons by just seeing how things are laid out.
[ + ] Hariboto
[ - ] Hariboto 4 points 2.7 yearsSep 5, 2022 15:04:53 ago (+4/-0)
[ + ] websiteuser
[ - ] websiteuser [op] 0 points 2.7 yearsSep 6, 2022 21:42:43 ago (+0/-0)
Bitch please
[ + ] Deleted
[ - ] deleted 4 points 2.7 yearsSep 5, 2022 13:01:36 ago (+4/-0)
[ + ] Panic
[ - ] Panic 1 point 2.7 yearsSep 5, 2022 21:31:26 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] StealthNinjaTaliban
[ - ] StealthNinjaTaliban 3 points 2.7 yearsSep 5, 2022 19:02:51 ago (+3/-0)
For myself, after studying where the sunrises/sets for a year I knew where to put the garden.
During the summer or deep freeze winter the trucks can bring equipment without damaging the ground. I'd have the storm blown trees cut up and chipped. They can dump the chips somewhere for you to use around the yard.
TAKE YOUR TIME. IT'S NOT A RACE. REAL ESTATE IS FOREVER
[ + ] Warden
[ - ] Warden 3 points 2.7 yearsSep 5, 2022 14:14:24 ago (+3/-0)
[ + ] MelGibson
[ - ] MelGibson 3 points 2.7 yearsSep 5, 2022 12:59:18 ago (+3/-0)
Set up feeders for deer. Set up tree stands, keep in mind the wind direction. Does the land have a water source? If it does, and your wooded acres are surrounded by farms, you probably have a sizable population of deer bedding down in your woods. Set up hog traps and bait them with fermented corn. Learn the edible mushrooms in your woods. Start an herb garden but fence it in. You’ll never have to go to the grocery store again if you don’t want to.
Get a few chest freezers. If you have the money buy a small walk in freezer so that you can hang and age game. Learn how to preserve the meat without a freezer.
If you are going to clear some of the land, leave the hardwood. There are some hardwoods that deer love. But, if I were you, I’d just bow hunt the perimeter of the land that’s already cleared. Bow hunt the neighboring farm perimeter but make sure you have permission.. don’t be a nigger.
[ + ] s23erdctfvyg
[ - ] s23erdctfvyg 2 points 2.7 yearsSep 5, 2022 13:23:53 ago (+2/-0)
Deer are four legged niggers, and they will do everything they can to eat what you plant, even if it tastes terrible to them or is flat out poisonous.
[ + ] MelGibson
[ - ] MelGibson 2 points 2.7 yearsSep 5, 2022 14:08:34 ago (+2/-0)
[ + ] websiteuser
[ - ] websiteuser [op] 0 points 2.7 yearsSep 6, 2022 21:47:35 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] Native
[ - ] Native 2 points 2.7 yearsSep 5, 2022 13:41:33 ago (+2/-0)
If possible, cut the trees closest to your house so that when the machinery is there you can also do some landscaping at the same time.
1. You can either straight sell the logs or
2. if you contact a mill you can do a trade and they will mill you up 50% of the lumber and keep the other 50%.
Due your diligence if you do hire a company to log your place. Most of them will try and rip you off and under pay you.
Logging itself is not expensive you can hire a guy to cut and scale the timber for you and then hire a separate company to bring the equipment to pick up the logs (that’s the expensive part).
If you have the money I would recommend trading the logs to a mill so they can cut you up lumber but you will eat the cost of the equipment to log your place. If you do a straight sell you will break even on the cost and maybe make 10k$ depending on the quality of the wood
[ + ] s23erdctfvyg
[ - ] s23erdctfvyg 2 points 2.7 yearsSep 5, 2022 13:18:06 ago (+2/-0)
40 years is more than enough. I still recommend fertilizing. Compost, used bedding straw from animals, and manure from goats or rabbits are the easiest fertilizers for you to obtain by yourself. Other manures work, they just have to be composted.
Otherwise, you'll have to buy fertilizer.
Edible ferns are the most obvious plants that you can grow in the shade. There are a few herbs, leafy greens, and root edible plants that you can grow in the shade as well. A simple internet search will yield a good selection.
[ + ] websiteuser
[ - ] websiteuser [op] 1 point 2.7 yearsSep 6, 2022 21:54:18 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] Her0n
[ - ] Her0n 2 points 2.7 yearsSep 5, 2022 11:26:28 ago (+2/-0)
My advice for your soil is to use the previous spot if the area gets the most sunlight. I use kitchen compost and it's the best fertilizer around. As far as the commercial farm chemicals I can only suggest you get a professional soil test.
For the trees I'd suggest you cut them up and haul them out yourself if you can. If not then I'd look at different companies and see what other people say about them. I don't have much experience with that.
Clear cutting is good if you need maximum sunlight, I have some partial shade plants I grow for medicines and drugs, so they live near the trees on my property. I want to build a shroom shack next summer, I need more than what naturally grows around here. I'm learning what's good and what isn't still though. Need to be extra safe with the baby.
Many wildflower seed oils have various effects on our bodies. Some even hold properties that have volatile chemical reactions when mixed with common household cleaners.
[ + ] Yargiyankooli
[ - ] Yargiyankooli 1 point 2.7 yearsSep 6, 2022 00:37:01 ago (+1/-0)
Learn where the berry bushes are, the fruit trees, the patches of wild herbs and leafy greens.
[ + ] Unreasonable
[ - ] Unreasonable 1 point 2.7 yearsSep 5, 2022 19:30:37 ago (+1/-0)
Just moved to some partially cleared partially forested land myself. But here its rocky so I’m going to get the top soil from the forest.
[ + ] bosunmoon
[ - ] bosunmoon 1 point 2.7 yearsSep 5, 2022 17:22:30 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] taoV
[ - ] taoV 1 point 2.7 yearsSep 5, 2022 16:41:21 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] letsgetit
[ - ] letsgetit 1 point 2.7 yearsSep 5, 2022 16:02:18 ago (+1/-0)
Spread different types of clover seeds around the garden beds to bring nitrogen back to the soil. Pollinator flowering plants in the vicinity are excellent bringing those bees and small insects for tomatoes, peppers, etc.
Know your hardiness zone and what does and doesn't do well in the zone.
You can send samples to labs that will test your soil for minerals to see what you need and have abundance of. I think its anywhere from $35-75 for a test.
[ + ] HeyJames
[ - ] HeyJames 0 points 2.7 yearsSep 5, 2022 14:36:42 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] PostWallHelena
[ - ] PostWallHelena 0 points 2.7 yearsSep 5, 2022 14:33:50 ago (+0/-0)
Walipini.
[ + ] HonkyMcNiggerSpic
[ - ] HonkyMcNiggerSpic 0 points 2.7 yearsSep 5, 2022 13:04:31 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] websiteuser
[ - ] websiteuser [op] 0 points 2.7 yearsSep 6, 2022 21:59:13 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] Laputois
[ - ] Laputois 0 points 2.7 yearsSep 5, 2022 12:11:52 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] s23erdctfvyg
[ - ] s23erdctfvyg 1 point 2.7 yearsSep 5, 2022 13:20:23 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] Laputois
[ - ] Laputois 1 point 2.7 yearsSep 5, 2022 13:42:04 ago (+1/-0)